Tracking Sites: no one seems to get it right
Part 2 of my series about media tracking and the sites I've used - this section in particular is about websites focused on video games! For some context on how I'm judging this stuff, here's a quick hitlist:
- I use these sites for tracking my taste & consumption, less so my collection.
- A site like this excels when it has a strong community, intention in its UI & UX and is clearly passionate about the medium it is about.
- I don't own subs to any of these websites, so I'm ignoring those (but I might still complain if something locked behind it and shouldn't be)
- These are just my opinions - if a feature or website's approach sounds exciting to you that I disliked, give it a shot!
Games
Backloggery - 👍
This one has been around for a while, but it's just not my cup of tea. To start, I believe it is the best version of the "game collection excel sheet" approach people may be looking for with websites like these. It also struggles with some of the same issues Last.fm has however - I feel disconnected from the community as a whole when using it and it just looks antiquated. One big reason for this also gets into why I like or hate other sites in this section: you can only rely so much on manual text boxes. Personally, I'm not going to remember how much time I put into a game down to the minute played (not unless the service lets me see that info), nor will I always track my achievements myself. A collection site doesn't need this sort of automation, but it needs to be designed in a way that I don't feel like if I'm missing information, I'm not getting the most out of the site.
Backloggd - 👍
I initially despised Backloggd, solely for the amount of info surfaced at you in its log menu. "I'm just keeping track of finishing a game, I don't care about all this info." Over time however, I think it just strikes this middle ground of tracking both a casual playthrough or a focused 100% run really well. It also does an amazing job at the one thing so many sites get wrong - the main page highlights not just your friends' activity but also bits of the community's activity and conversations. I still have some slight issues with it - the Library section is nice, but makes filling out all the info for a game tiresome - it gets so much right that I can't help but give it high marks.
GG - 👎
I initially loved GG, as I felt like it got so much right. It's still visually my favorite of this group as it let the game's art shine & showed just the info you needed. In keeping the info asked for playing a game so light, I also felt much more focused about adding info often and playing stuff immediately. However, over time the site started to feel less minimal and more lacking. Its game pages rely a lot on community contribution so it's easy to find pages missing info and visuals. Having to hunt through tons of reviews on a game's page just to find mine is miserable and, plainly, it just feels like you have to really push to find a community to chat with and view their thoughts, rather than the site displaying it to you cleanly. I wish I still liked it as much as I did in those early days, but it just feels so small and less featured compared to Backloggd or Backloggery.
Infinite Backlog - 👎
In many ways, Infinite Backlog struggles from the opposite of GG.app's issues - it is incredibly robust and rich in features, but that makes using the site feel too much like homework sometimes. Its main page social feed is great. I like seeing everyone post their thoughts and current moments in the games they're playing, it feels lively and also encourages me to match that same eagerness and activity. However, once you get to updating a game's status, you're hit with a glut of text boxes, sliders and options that feels entirely too much for just tracking my gameplay sessions. Is the expectation for me to fill in all the info as much as possible to be exhaustive? This also touches a bit on my issues with the review system. Judging games by a rigid "visual/audio/story/gameplay" method simply feels dumb to me in this day and age, especially when tied to a word count minimum on reviews. Infinite Backlog gets so much right, but then immediately puts me off from using it in the ways that matter to me the most.
Keep Track of My Games - 👎
This one's gonna be quick - KToMG is a site that works but has little going on beyond that. It's helpful in that it can handle all the info you want to throw at it, but it has little to no life in its presentation for me. It's meant to double for both game collection and gameplay tracking, but its tool set feels way more tailored to the former. I love how eager the development and revisions on the site are and would love it to succeed - it's just not for me in its current state though, for either use case.
There goes another set of thoughts put forth! If you want to see some of the other categories, you can find links to the other posts below!
Part 1: Preface & Music Tracking
Part 3: Anime/Movies/TV Tracking
Part 4: Quick Fire & Final Thoughts