If making new friends as an adult had a Facebook status, mine would be “it’s complicated.” Add into the mix that I’m a geeky mom who describes herself as a “hermitty little bridge troll,” and you probably have an idea of what making mom friends on the playground is like for me. (Spoiler: It’s horrible. I hate it.)
Enter Lise Keeney, stage left. Lise has built a new app for making friends (or finding dates) that helps all of us little goblins. At Goblins, you build a profile around gaming so you can connect with other equally geeky, blanket burritoes like yourself.
As GeekMomK on the app, I created my profile by going through the definitely fun and far more insightful than “what’s your ideal day out” questions.
Yes, this is something entirely new for those of us who just want to get to know other people by starting with a common interest – gaming.
To get the inside scoop and delve into the history of Goblins, I interviewed Lise. Just like the rest of us, she’s a brilliant, kind, funny little Goblin just out there in the world looking to find her people.
Even though it started as an idea for a dating app, it’s also an excellent way to meet new people through gaming. Where did the idea start and how have you seen it really come to life in your personal life?
After my dad passed away, I didn’t have the spoons required to attend in-person Meetups or use dating apps but I was lonely and still wanted to socialize online. That made me wonder, with so many of us looking for connections online, why isn’t it easier for us to find each other? That’s what gave me the idea of creating a profile about myself (and who I was looking for) and let people pick from my availability to schedule a time to hang out in World of Warcraft (or another game) while voice chatting.
Why did you choose Goblins?
I was brainstorming with a friend and said something like “I’m building this because I want to just meet and have conversations with people without leaving my house or having to look cute. I just want to date like a goblin!”. As most neurospicy people know, “goblin mode” or “goblin” means unapologetically showing up as your most authentic self so the name stuck.
How does the Goblin profile process help you find “your people” – especially when shared interests and beliefs are so important to our interpersonal relationships?
Social media and dating apps have become advertisements for our most polished, perfect selves. But the majority of us are looking to connect with people who accept and embrace our messy, imperfect selves (you know, the normal versions of ourselves). Imagine if instead of everyone having profiles that say we “love to laugh and hike”, we wrote profiles about our most authentic, weird, unapologetic selves. Whether that’s sharing about insane Lego collections or personal missions to eat at every fast-casual restaurant chain, or that you talk to your cat when you’re home alone– it’s then way easier (and fun) to find your people.
While many of us Goblins are chronically online, we also know that the internet is rife with trolls. How does Goblins give people a safe space online so that they can protect their peace? (note: if there’s not really anything, we can absolutely delete this question but I do think it’s relevant especially given the *waves in world burning*)
I’ve been delighted that our early community really *gets* what we’re building. We won’t yuck anyone’s yum but we firmly believe in human rights, love is love, and that Goblins is a place that allows people to be themselves without judgement. Because of this, we’ve been delighted to see incredible humour, wit, and candor across Goblin profiles– I included some quotes below because they’re genuinely incredible. I’m excited for the colorful, weird, and unapologetically authentic community we’re building.
You’ve been in semi-stealth for a while – what has the feedback from the community been like so far?
Really, really awesome, it’s been great to see Goblins are already connecting through the platform. Our Discord community also actively shares feedback, feature requests, organizes game nights, tournaments, swap photos of pets/cooking/art, and memes.
What is your biggest hope and dream for Goblins?
That’s an easy one. Whether to expand your friend group or to find a romantic connection, we want people to be able to log on to Goblins and find their people who share their same kind of weird, nerdy, quirky, etc.
What is the near and more distant plan for Goblins at the moment?
Our short-term goal is to expand our community and help us prioritize our features roadmap to make Goblins better.
We’ve done a lot with a little so I can only imagine that the sky’ll be the limit once we have more resources. So, my goal is to have my team (and myself) be able to work on this tremendous platform while also paying our bills.
