This is a thought I had while working on an upcoming post. Is there a Goodreads for Games?
(If you don’t know what Goodreads is, it’s a “social web site” where users enter books they’ve read, are currently reading and would like to read in the future. You can rate books on a 1-5 star scale and leave reviews as you like. You can add friends which allows you to see what books they’re reading, etc. It’s a great way to see what kind of reading your friends do, what their tastes are and what you have in common. Often, it’s surprising to see who’s read what. It’s also a great way to discover new books and authors. If we’re not already friends, I’d love to see what other Buttonmashers are reading. You can find me here.)
As I was adding a few books to my ever-growing “to-read” list on Goodreads, the thought occurred to me — would a Goodreads type website for gaming work? Would you use it?
I was also thinking if there was a site that is already doing that. There are sites that allow you to keep track of your collections. I use IGN and I know CAG has a system for cataloging your gaming collections. But these aren’t perfect because my collection is fluid. I am constantly adding and removing games to my collection. I want a way to catalog what I’ve played, what I’ve owned and what I want. Both sites have “wish lists” but they are just that — lists. I also what a way to keep track of progression I’ve made in my games.
I know there’s Backloggery (you can find me here), a site I signed up for but never really use. It’s been a while since I’ve visited the site but I don’t remember it being very user-friendly. But it was part of what I was looking for.
Giant Bomb has a pretty cool system. You can sync your various gamer profiles (Xbox Live, Steam, PSN) and it tracks your progress across platforms to give you an idea of how your “achievements” (pun intended) stack up against all other users. In particular, they breakdown achievements as “Rare”, “Uncommon” and “Common” based on the number of other people who have reached those achievements. Again, this is cool but is also only a part of what I’m looking for. I really like their system, but since I don’t have any “followers” or friends on the site I can really speak to the social aspects of the site. (Again, you can find me on Giant Bomb here)
So would a Goodreads-type site work for gamers? Would it be something you would use?