Is that true? Has logging in to the world's most popular massively multiplayer online game replaced a few rounds on the links as the way to make the right business connections in a tech-driven culture?
The particular Guild discussed by the brunchers above was started by Joi Ito, who became a WoW fan after embarking on the game to do some research on social networks.
Joi, the money-and-idea guy behind internet companies PSINet, Digital Garage, Infoseek Japan, and social software like Moveable Type, Technorati, and Socialtext, has quite a few hangers-on who hit him up for advice, money, or access to his Rolodex.
Since June, when he first posted on his blog that he was dipping into the popular MMO, he has become the Guildmaster of "We Know", a rather cryptically named group which is something of a joke. I thought it referred to the fact that about half of the guild is made up of people whom Joi knows in real life. Joi and co-founder Eric Haller, a friend in real life, along with a friend they'd never met save in the game, started recruiting others to the group mostly to have people to play with.
"What's funny is that it's really hard for me to make friends on Warcraft," the uber-connected Joi wrote in a blog post soon after starting the game. "I'm begging people to let me join their group and casting nice spells on people trying to earn their friendship." His begging days are over now.
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