An Introduction to Bioware's New Social Networking SIte - For Dragon Age and Beyond

In the age of Facebook and Twitter, it seems nearly everyone is hopping on the social media bandwagon. With the success of their company blog and long-running community forums, Edmonton-based Bioware has taken things a step further, offering players and builders a way to interact more efficiently.

Granted, this is nothing new for them. With Neverwinter Nights the company released a builder's section allowing many of the same functions, but the Bioware Social Network has brought things into a more modern slant.

First, let's discuss the features:

Public Profile: While certainly not as detailed as Facebook or Myspace, your profile is a virtual hub of information. If you are a module or addon creator, this spells nothing but good news, allowing community members to find you and your work easily. If you just enjoy sharing random information about your gaming habits, then that's good, too.

Projects: This is the main reason such a site exists. A tutorial on the project system itself will have to wait for another day, but here you can create a new project and post it for community members to see. A project can be anything from a spreadsheet to a full-blown module, and the project interface allows you to recruit and converse with team members, post working demos for community review, and participate in active discussion with your target audience.

Forums: If you have yet to visit the Bioware official forums, you really should. They have subforums for all of their games including Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. In general, the official forums will always be more frequented and if you have a question about how to get past a certain area in your game, your best bet is to turn there. However, the Bioware Social Network Forums has turned into a tight-knit community that discusses everything from obscure characters to toolset quirks.

Groups: Have a hankering for an obscure group like the fifty you belong to on Facebook? Yep, you can get that here, too. There are groups for everything from specific demographics to character shrines, but the most pertinent if you are a builder will be your own group. Here you can share files between team members directly from toolset to toolset rather than having to use an outside server.

Albums: What would a social networking site be without someplace to post those pictures you really don't want your grandma seeing, eh? Well, alright. So these aren't those pictures. The most common use for this feature is in-game or working screenshots from modules, but it can also be used to display fan art of those things you wouldn't want your grandma seeing but post anyway.

Blogs: At present, this is one of the most commonly-used features of the site. While the interface is a bit clunky, it essentially works like any other blog. You post your witty ramblings and the world comments with irrelevant one-liners. This is a tool for game reviews, tips, and walkthroughs as well as project updates and even fan fiction. Yes, the kind you don't want your grandma knowing about. She's a sweet lady, and you would only do her harm.

Polls: Because everyone has an opinion, and it's much easier to solicit it when they have something to click. Polls can be created for anything, but their common use is to query about general story or gameplay features. I anticipate a Hot or Not subpoll any day now.

To sign up, you need a Bioware account. They used to require confirmed purchase of one of their games by entering the game key but they have since removed that caveat, allowing you to dip your toe into the murky waters of specialized social networking for free.

Once you have an account you can log in at their site and access all of the features listed above. In truth, much of this will probably fall to the modding community after the initial interest has waned. Builders for Dragon Age: Origins can currently make the most use of this site alongside other free tools such as Google's array of handy services as well as IRC, Ventrilo,

So whether you are eagerly plugging away at Dragon Age or counting the days until Mass Effect 2, Bioware's new social networking site may have some of the features you've been seeking. Either that, or you can use it as yet another excuse to be on the internet at work.