Posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 by Roy Pessis
Gaming and social networks are both hugely time consuming when it comes to the web. doof.com takes both of these concepts and puts them together. doof is a new social playground in which everyone can play casual flash based games while socializing with friends and sharing their thoughts and experiences.
Everyone at doof has their own profile, avatar, guestbook, blog, photo-album, instant messenger, statistics and a friends list. Stand out from the crowd by customizing your doof world and expressing yourself for the whole community to see.
doof gives you the familiar desktop experience with a beautiful Flash based UI. The design is very intuitive and there are a lot of designing options to choose from. As you can see above i chose the relaxing view of the ocean. You can upload any picture you want or just select one from the default gallery. Themes are also available to select. You can also share your creation with the world using the ‘Publish doofSpace’ feature.
Games – Time to get addicted
Everyone loves games, and doof surely has plenty of that (44 as of this moment). The games are categorized by the typical game genres. Classics such as Asteroids and Space Invaders, puzzles, action, sports, shooting, racing and much more. Some of them are really quite addictive (Try not to kill yourself while base jumping on “Elite Base Jumper”).
While browsing the games you will come across a few familiar faces. You can find makeovers of populars like Bejeweled, Same, Zuma and Pong. My personal favorites are: Golden Arrow, Gem Swap, Hammer Throw and Cascade.
The thing that makes doof such a great experience for me is the game window. You get much more then just playing the game. On this window you can view a few basic stats about yourself, see a progress curve of your gaming, how you position compare on the global ranking and medals that you have won. This fact really makes you want to soak in the skills and grab all the medals.
As well as just playing a quick game you can join a tournament. Tournaments cost you doof credits. You receive 10 credits when you sign up, these credits can be earned by winning or by buying more credits with PayPal or Credit Card transaction. On tournament modes you bet your hard earned credits based on the skills you have against another opponent in the same game. The winner is the opponent with most of the points.
doof credits have high addicting potential. As of now, you can only buy gifts for your friends (beer, blow-up dolls, diamond rings) but as doof develops expect to see many more features to use with the credits you earn.
Socializing
Except for the basic ‘wall writing’ we are all familiar from with from our favorite social network, doof enables you as well to IM with your friends, send them mail, share doofSpaces, send gifts and even integrate your Facebook photo albums.
A nice touch which i found to be quite lovely is the news tracker. Choose your news provider and see the headlines scroll at the bottom of the screen.
doof surely looks to be a great promise in the world of social gaming. If you are a flash game enthusiast head on over and sign up. Keep in mind that doof is still in it’s early stages and even at this stage they’re definitely worthy of your time. Enjoy. (If you win a few credits, send over a beer 😉 ).
