A LinkedIn For Gamers? Duxter Tries To Build A Broad Gaming Social Network, Opens Public Beta

In the same way that LinkedIn has become the home of your professional identity, and Facebook the home of your social identity, founder and CEO Adam Lieb wants to turn his startup Duxter into the center of your gaming identity.

There are plenty of other gaming social networks, but Lieb argued that they’re too focused on specific aspects of the gaming experience. Raptr, for example, is mostly where you go to share your gameplay stats and achievements. Duxter should include that kind of tracking, he said, but instead of going deep on any one feature, it should support a broad range of social interactions. Ultimately, Lieb is aiming to create the platform for all of your gaming-related and social activity related needs — that’s where the Facebook and LinkedIn comparisons come in.

When someone signs up for Duxter, they link their accounts from other gaming services, including Xbox Live, Playstation, World of Warcraft, Steam, and YouTube. Then they can follow updates from other users, games, and general pages. They can also send messages, participate in the forums, browse videos watched by other users, play games, and earn rewards.

duxter screenshot

As an on-and-off gamer, I signed up for Duxter myself, and I have to admit, I struggled a bit to find any interesting content — though that may be related to the fact that I’ve mostly been in “off” mode for the past few years (I haven’t had much luck on other gaming networks, either). Plus, the site just opened to the public.

One of the big distinctions between Duxter and other sites, Lieb said, is that it’s “more about the lifestyle than the gameplay.” That means the discussion will move outside of gaming to include other topics that gamers are passionate about, such as the new trailer for The Hobbit or Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm.

It sounds like the company’s business model is focused on advertising, but not in a traditional sense. The about page says, “We aren’t about putting static banners all over the place and hoping for accidental-clicks. Duxter focuses on connecting gamers to the games and brands they love, or have not yet heard about. ”

Moving forward, Lieb said he wants to make sure that a wide variety of gaming communities are represented on the site. He also wants to expand beyond desktop browsers by launching mobile and console versions.

Duxter raised a seed round of a little more than $500,000, Lieb said.