This morning, by sheer chance, a portal dropped me into “Adoogen - Connecting Game Lovers Everywhere“. A few minutes of scanning the whole site told me what I needed to know — this is exactly the kind of game community site I’d been hoping for.
I’ve never had any love for BBS or grab-bag community sites, and I’ve been a Douban user since 2007. And over time, Douban has only gotten better at holding onto me — because the thing in this world that best understands my appetite for what to listen to, read, and watch isn’t a person. It’s Douban.
The story of Douban’s beginnings Do you often find yourself staring blankly at the endless wall of covers in a bookstore? Or staggering out of a music shop, dizzy from the sheer variety? Now that broadband downloads and online shopping have arrived, even in the smallest town your options grow by hundreds and thousands every day. Surely some of them are things you’d love — but odds are you’ll pass most of them by without ever noticing. The media floods us with blockbusters meant for everyone, yet has little to offer the things meant for just a few. And one man’s meat is another man’s poison: no matter how fair and diligent the TV entertainment editors and newspaper book critics may be, their recommendations can’t possibly work equally well for everyone.
The people who started Douban realized that for most people, the most effective help in choosing comes from friends, relatives, and colleagues. A casual recommendation or two doesn’t just convey their own genuine feelings — it also carries a judgment about your taste and the filtering that goes with it. They won’t recommend a baby-care bible to a bachelor, and they won’t bring Naked Killer home to Mom. Unfortunately, all your friends and family put together have still only heard and seen so much. And the people whose tastes most resemble yours are often total strangers.
If you could know the tastes of tens of thousands of people without having to meet them one by one, and quickly pick out the ones who are most kindred spirits, the magic of word of mouth would be magnified a hundredfold — and everyone involved would get at least some benefit from it. Douban was born out of that wish. Douban isn’t aimed at any particular group; it tries to hold every flavor. Tall or short, fat or thin, highbrow or lowbrow, Douban helps you find kindred spirits through the things you love, and then, through them, find even more good things.
The pity is that while Douban lets you share, discuss, and keep track of TV shows, movies, books, music, and blogs, it has never offered any way to talk about games. Through my Douban profile, my friends can find out what movies I like to watch, what music I like to listen to, and what books I like to read — but it’s hard for them to learn what games I like to play. In this age of ever-advancing information technology, there are more and more “homebodies,” and ACG is one big family. I can log the anime and manga I watch through Douban, but after I play a game, nobody knows about it. What a tragedy.
Douban users have created plenty of game-related groups, and quite a few people even add games to Douban as movies so they can collect and share them. The classic example is World of Warcraft, whose Cast list boldly reads “You”!
I really wished Douban would offer a dedicated games section, and I’m sure plenty of other people want the same thing. Earlier, when “My Bookshelf” showed up among Hainei’s “apps” and “Movies” appeared among Xiaonei’s “apps”, I wrote to them and asked for a “My Games” feature, suggesting they open up game-related discussion — but my little wish never came true. Maybe the core users of both sites just don’t care about that feature? Or maybe it was just a naive, silly idea on my part? Either way, at the time I was ready to build it myself, but I never found the right collaborator, and there was no investment behind it. Day after day, the naive idea turned into a story; month after month, the silly story turned into a beautiful dream sealed away in my memory.
But today, the dream came true. This morning, by sheer chance, a portal dropped me into “Adoogen - Connecting Game Lovers Everywhere“. A few minutes of scanning the whole site told me — this is exactly the game community site I’d been hoping for. It has every core feature I wanted. It was love at first sight, and I only wish I’d found it sooner.
Adoogen is a home built specifically for video game fans, and serving the millions of gamers just like me is its lifelong mission.
On Adoogen you can:
- Log your gaming journey
- Find gaming buddies who share your interests
- Trade experiences and takeaways from the games you play
- Share the joy that games bring you
Friends who play games, come on over — I’m waiting for you here: http://www.adoogen.com/gamer/mousebomb/