Raptr: The Ultimate Gamers’ Social Network?

When I discovered Xfire in late 2004, it felt like I had stumbled on a pot of gold. It was a chat client like no other, because it had a major focus on the PC gamer, and as a result, it quickly became a tool that millions of gamers kept in their virtual toolboxes. A social network before the term ‘social network’ was even recognized, Xfire did a lot right, and for the longest time had no fear of real competition.

As the years passed, however, I personally began to feel like the service was going downhill, with no real innovation going on and little added to the site to keep me intrigued. It got to a point where I stopped using the service on a regular basis, and after checking in from time to time over the course of a couple of years, I just gave up.

Afterward, I looked around for some alternatives, but in the end came up empty-handed. After a while, I just stopped looking, and that was that. So, it was with absolute surprise when I discovered Raptr the other night, because here it was… a proper Xfire alternative, and believe it or not, one founded by the co-founder of Xfire, Dennis “Thresh” Fong.

Similar to Xfire, Raptr is both a chat client and social network, but rather than devote its sole focus to the PC gamer, it also targets console gamers as well. In fact, it goes a step beyond what I thought was possible, and can be tied to your various console (PSN, Xbox Live, Wii) and PC gaming (Steam, WoW) services to suck down a bucket-load of information in order to build you a Raptr profile.

Clicking the image above will bring you straight to my personal Raptr profile, so that you can see what I’m talking about. Even though I just began using the service, it already knows which games I own, which achievements I’ve unlocked, how many hours I’ve played certain games, and a whole lot more. Going further, as a member you gain the ability to “love” certain games, write reviews about them, and of course, keep in touch with your friends, and discover some new ones.

So far, I’m digging the service, and plan to continue using it to see if it’ll become one I don’t want to live without. Are any of our faithful readers members of Raptr?