Napster Founder to Launch Rupture Network for Gamers

Inspired by a newfound love for online gaming, Napster founder Shawn Fanning is planning to launch Rupture, a virtual social community for online gamers:

During the past year and a half, he’s become a big fan of World of Warcraft, joining a guild and climbing up the ranks of players. The more he played, though, the more he became frustrated with how hard it is to communicate with other players, organize game playing together and learn about other gamers’ identities, online and offline.

Using an add on or a software download, Rupture taps into the game to automatically pull together character names, profiles, and resources, and publish them on a personalized site. Rupture will also pull together stats to create individual and guild rankings and provide a place for guilds to organize their playing. As Rupture tracks each member’s playing over time, these personalized profiles evolve. And players will be able to chat in groups or with other individuals and download other addons and game demos.

Business Week