Q&A With GameCrush PlayDates And Co-founder Eric Strasser

PC WORLD - Aug 12 - GameCrush is an online service that offers to connect paying customers with bona fide gamer girls, known simply as PlayDates. GameCrush is essentially an online dating service that substitutes gaming for dating. The private beta launched in March. The service involves voice chat as well as live video streaming. Here is the interview with co-founder Eric Strasser and two of the PlayDates, Gina "SuperVillain" (SV) and Katie "Joybutton" (JB)

Q: How did you come up with the concept of GameCrush?
Eric: GameCrush was conceived two years ago. We saw the transition of people’s relationships online and the interactions people were having on Facebook. And we saw that the gaming community was far behind in social networking. We also felt that there was a big segment of the gaming community that was completely ignored, which was the female gamer.

Q: How many people are registered so far?
Eric: We have ~5000 registered PlayDates and over 2000 players.

Q: So how does one become a PlayDate?
SV: I read a gaming blog and saw Gamecrush.com; basically as a community of girls playing games. I thought it was the best thing for me, because it’s very rare for me to run into another female gamer in the real world who actually knows what she’s talking about.

Q: What is the female-to-male PlayDate ratio?
JB: Predominantly females.

Q: Do you have any horror stories you can tell us about your time at GameCrush?
SV: I have not had any bad experiences. People who play on GameCrush are a lot more respectful compared to the people you’d see on other live gaming platforms.

Q: How does GameCrush protect PlayDates from getting verbally abused?
SV: I can end a session any time I want. I can also flag a person.
Eric: Before the game starts they can see respectful rating of the player.

Q: So what are some of the changes coming up with the upcoming GameCrush public beta?
Eric: There is so much. I can’t go into details just yet. I just want to say it is really going to be cutting edge and we’re pretty excited about it.
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