Hi, my name is Robin Alter. I am the CEO of SwapGaming.com and Swapdom.org and I live in San Francisco, USA. My father and brother are professors of computer science so I have played games since I was a kid. I have been working with games professionally since 1990 and over the last 15 years, I have built gaming businesses and products across the US, Europe and India. So I am often considered a gaming veteran due to experiences (not age). I am passionate about designing fun, surprising, social environments. Most recently, I helped conceive and launch SwapGaming for E sports players to trade game items. My company’s fundamental belief is that most shopping can be free in a world that produces much stuff and now it is possible, with so many people connected and interacting over the Internet.
SwapGaming emerged out of a revolutionary swapping technology that was developed 3 years ago by two Greek mathematicians to optimize trading in any market. About six months ago, we learned how much time is wasted by players on forums and social media trying to get trades. Also, my friend’s son was cheated out of an expensive Dota 2 item! There is a lot of bad behavior out there and lot of unethical, obnoxious people who are undermining E sports and taking advantage of less experienced players. So I really wanted to help fix these problems and we had a powerful technology to do it.
We pivoted the entire Swapdom company into gaming and launched SwapGaming.com. At first we started by integrating with Steam and enabling Dota 2 players to trade. This is going smoothly and it proved that gamers valued and appreciated our system. Soon we will support many more games like CS:GO and TF2.
How does it work? With SwapGaming, players only click on items they want (e.g. from the Dota 2 catalog) and click on items they are willing to trade (from their backpack) and our system automatically searches for trades for every player. Players don’t negotiate or even message each other. There are even Search and Recommendation Engines to advise players on what to offer to close trades faster. We think we have developed a super powerful system which will benefit gamers and help the E sports community.
We have gotten feedback from thousands of users already and we are open for more creative ideas on features. We have even started working with other gaming companies around the world to build this type of trading system into games that make trading faster, easier and safer for everyone.
The E sports industry is expanding rapidly, from the Wild-west of America of 200 years ago to a more professional market. This change will only happen fully, when players are safe from toxic behavior and supported by professional, reliable organizations. New tools and ways to interacting will need to be invented in order to meet the unique needs of E sports gamers, fans and sponsors.
SwapGaming can contribute in our own, modest way and will evolve together with the E sports community. We will continue to collaborate with players to create a special, safe haven for swapping. We hope you enjoy our service!
