MMO Networking Site Guildcafe Gets IDG Investment

MMO-focused social networking site GuildCafe has announced that it has raised an unspecified amount of investments from venture capital group IDG Ventures, which it will use to "create additional functionality, enhance the user experience and expand the company's management team." As previously reported, site founder Jon Radoff, an industry veteran who co-founded ISP Nova Lin before co-designing award winning MMORPG Legends of Future Past, has said the site represents an important evolutionary step forward in online gaming as a whole, as it emphasizes the already-important community aspect that drives the market. "Unlike other social media sites," explains the company, "members of GuildCafe interact with one another through their gaming personas: wizards, starfighter pilots, heroes and other fantastic characters," where they can form guilds throughout a number of MMO titles. Guildcafe says its team is already expanding, with the July 1st hiring of Sanya Weathers, who previously worked to direct online communities at Electronic Arts Mythic. Its board of directors will now also be joined by IDG Ventures' Jon Karlen, who said of the site, "In contrast to older communities that treat gamers as consumers of editorial content, GuildCafe is enabling new forms of interaction, driven by players and the groups they belong to. Through its early lead, management experience and deep understanding of players, we believe GuildCafe is in a unique position to redefine the gaming media market."