Blacksburg, Va., Feb. 12, 2015 – Four Seniors studying Computer Science begin development on a Social Networking app that aims to “bring gamers together.”
With video games on the rise, the size of online communities based around them are increasing dramatically each day. Today we have so many different avenues for people to play such as mobile gaming, PC gaming through Steam and League of Legends, and console games for the Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U. We also have many more people playing these games. For instance, League of Legends has a playerbase of 27 million people. In addition, mobile gaming has taken the world by storm, with over 152 million people in North America and 742 million people in the Asian/Pacific area playing mobile games. With these statistics in mind, it is safe to say that gaming is now a more socially acceptable hobby.
Gaming communities are made up of people of all ages, all over the world. But despite the increase in popularity, some still associate gamers with certain personality quirks like being anti-social or “nerdy.” Therefore, it is not the most common talking point among strangers.
J5 Team member Iyaz Shaikh, hopes that the team can work around that stereotype.
“People tend not to talk about gaming because of the stigma associated with it. We want to give people an easy way to meet other gamers with similar interests without having to feel weird about asking if they game.”
The team seeks to blend the social aspect of online games with local day-to-day relationships. With the internet being so readily available to everyone, interacting online has become a popular way to meet new people. J5 wants to harness this power to help gamers connect to each other.
Team member Lucas Eckert sees the potential to bring the friendships from the internet to your door; so you are not only playing games with new people, but meeting up and having dinner with them too.
“Usually gamers meet solely over the internet but they are still developing real friendships. The nature of a team based game lends itself to be the perfect ice breaker: Members of the team have a topic of discussion, a common goal and are doing something together they enjoy.”
With this in mind, J5 is developing a new application that will make it easier than ever for local gamers to find each other and play. The Gaming Social Network is new mobile application that will find other people in your area that are interested in the same games.
Team member Daniel Rusz believes “This is a great way for gamers to be social”.
Users will be able to make new friends in their area with the same interests, leading to a better gaming and social experience for everyone.
Team member Parham Ghazanfari stated “All of the J5 members are gamers and we want to make an application that even we would use.”
J5 have currently formed a group of highly interested, motivated computer science students to begin development. The team has shared ideas and researched what features the application will need to entice their audience and motivate new people to use it. The next step in the process will be constructing the design plan for the layout of the specific features in the application.
When this application is complete, people will find it easier than ever before to find friends in their area to game with.
J5 – “Let’s Play Together”
Contact person: Lucas Eckert <lucase93@vt.edu>
Related Articles: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/league-of-legends-now-boasts-27-million-daily-players/1100-6417374/
http://www.statista.com/statistics/297874/number-mobile-gamers-region/
