 "Photo: Brad Hargreaves")
Brad Hargreaves wanted to do something different last summer. The avenues of consulting or investment banking he usually pursued were not sparking his interest.
Hargreaves, a full-time student at Yale University, wanted to create something that combined social networking with gaming.
"I have always been interested in starting new things, so starting GoCrossCampus.com was the perfect opportunity," Hargreaves says.
Hargreaves' new idea led to the creation of the online gaming and networking Web site, which, in one year, has gained more than 200,000 followers and drawn press from newspapers such as The New York Times.
Hargreaves founded GCC last October after he saw the Yale University College Council hold a game called Old Campus Risk, which used landmarks from around the university that students had to capture in a risk-style game.
The site allows students from across the country to compete with one another in a variety of online games, some including real landmarks from their universities. Players can compete with students from other schools or against their friends or roommates, and participants can communicate with other players during the game.
Seeing the game gave Hargreaves the idea to incorporate the game style into an online format, which eventually became the first and signature game of GCC.
"It was a huge phenomenon," Hargreaves says. "Over the summer of 2007, I worked with four friends on building the site, modifying the game play and scaling it for many campuses at once."
According to chief marketing officer Matthew Brimer, the concept of GCC came together once Hargreaves and Brimer joined forces after meeting through the Yale Entrepreneurial Society. Eventually they added Sean Mehra as chief operating officer and Jeffrey Reitman as chief technological officer.
"Brad and Matt got together and started GCC, and then they looked for people who could handle certain tasks, which led to me and Sean joining up," Reitman says. "Sean and I had known each other since high school, and once we joined up with Brad and Matt, it was clear we all had the same goals in mind."
Brimer says one of his main reasons for starting GCC stemmed from a desire to increase social networking between students of different universities. Although players can sign up individually and compete in different games with people from all over the country, the main focus of GCC is to work closely with campuses and corporations to create larger games with a high percentage of campus-wide involvement.
"We usually work with student organizations and departments to bring the games to schools," Brimer says. "Usually once we get things all set up, we can get anywhere from 20 to 60 percent of students involved."
Recently, GCC partnered with Harvey Mudd College and saw a high involvement percentage.
"There are 749 people in the whole school," Reitman says. "Once we launched the game we had 324 of them participating."
Brimer says playing games is not the only reason GCC was started. As the founders are quick to point out, social networking makes up a large part of the site's appeal.
"We really wanted something that was not only promoting social interaction, but actually provided a reason to interact," Brimer says. "GCC can be very social and interactive since it takes place in a group format."
Reitman, who is in charge of the technological development of GCC, says one of his main goals was to create something that people of all skill levels can enjoy.
"We wanted to make something advanced users could latch on to, but also something that casual users could become involved with also," he says. "The games on the site are built for all different personas and it allows people of all different personality and skill types to interact."
Although no games have been held on the university campus yet, Brimer says all it takes is a few interested students to get the ball rolling.
"Usually if we get one or two e-mails from interested students, we'll contact them and start to set things up," he says.
Senior Genevieve Baptiste says having a game here could promote a better awareness of the campus itself.
"I think one thing it would do is allow for us as students to learn more about our own campus," Baptiste says. "I also think it's good for allowing people to get to know each other."
The future holds many new things for GCC. Both Brimer and Reitman say continued expansion of the site is key.
"We just want to keep the platform growing, and keep adding more games to the site," Brimer says. "Also, we're very excited about the launch of our international games."
Some newer games have recently been released on the site, including GoCrossPolicticalBash08, which allows students to play as either Democratic presidential candidate, and compete against one another to "win" the Democratic primary.
Hargreaves says although everyone knew they were working with a solid idea, the immediate success of the site has surprised him.
"I would be lying if I said I was not surprised," he says. "I knew we had something interesting but it is always great to see it do even better then expected."
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