Jon Radoff
| Jon Radoff | |
|---|---|
 Photograph of Jon Radoff c. 2008 | |
| Born |
September 17, 1972 United States |
| Occupation | CEO, Disruptor Beam, Inc. |
Jon Radoff (born September 17, 1972) is an American entrepreneur, author and game designer. His work has focused on online communities, Internet media and computer games.
Radoff dropped out to found NovaLink, an early internet service provider.[1] In 1991, while at NovaLink, he created Legends of Future Past, one of the first commercial MMORPGs.[1]
In 1997, he founded Eprise Corporation, a creator of Web content management software.[2][3] Eprise went public on the NASDAQ stock market in 2000[4] and was acquired by Divine Inc. in 2001.[5]
On September 21, 2006, Radoff founded GamerDNA, a social media company that developing social gaming communities and an videogame advertising network.[6] GamerDNA is now part of Live Gamer.
As of March 2010, Radoff was working on a new social game company called Disruptor Beam that would be focused on building games for Facebook.[7][8] In February 2013, the company released Game of Thrones Ascent.[9]
Writing
Radoff wrote Game On: Energize your Business with Social Games, which was published by Wiley in 2011. The book discusses social games, which Radoff views as a 5,000 year-old phenomena, and how games can be applied to businesses to make them more engaging and profitable. Radoff is generally critical of the gamification trend, and explains to businesses that they must incorporate story and immersion into their businesses if they really want to take advantage of the unique engagement offered by games.
Early career
Radoff lived in Northborough, Massachusetts and was a 1991 graduate of Algonquin Regional High School. During his high school years, he developed Space Empire Elite, a bulletin board system strategy game for Atari ST BBS systems.[10] [11] Later authors who maintained or contributed to SEE include Jurgen van den Handel, Steven P. Reed, Carlis Darby, David Pence, Doc Wynne, David Jones, and Dick Pederson. [12] Also while in high school, Radoff purchased the rights to port the Atari ST BBS software StarLink, which supported FidoNet, to the Commodore Amiga; Radoff named the ported software Paragon BBS. After a brief time studying at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Radoff dropped out to form his first company.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Online Company SparkForge Formed, Coins 'MSOGs', GamaSutra, September 22, 2006
- ↑ Ed Scannell, InfoWorld, February 11, 2000, "Eprise CTO guides businesses through Web maze," http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/02/14/000214hnctospot.html
- ↑ Jan Stafford, VARBusiness, May 23, 2000, "Eprise CTO Jon Radoff: Content Rules," http://qa.varbusiness.com/article/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=EWVN4KK5M2VEKQSNDLUCKHA?articleId=18809992
- ↑ Eprise Expected To Rocket On Offering, Forbes, March 22, 2000
- ↑ http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=77801 Divine closes acquisition of Eprise Corporation, Divine Inc. press release, December 5, 2001
- ↑ GamerDNA company website
- ↑ Rodney Brown, Mass High Tech, Radoff surfaces at Facebook game maker Disruptor Beam
- ↑ Scott Kirsner, Boston.com, Vidgame couple build new venture around 'social gaming' trend
- ↑ John Gaudiosi (22 February 2012). "Jon Radoff Explains How Game Of Thrones Ascent Opens Westeros To Facebook Fans". Forbes. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
- ↑ Jason McMaster (20 March 2007). "Making Games Viral for Fun and Profit". GigaGamez. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ "Jon Radoff bio". Gamasutra. Retrieved 19 October 2012.
- ↑ Dick Pederson. "Space Empire Elite v11.34 documentation". Retrieved 19 October 2012.