Let's take a second look at new developments within the video game database landscape.
MobyGames feeds its Twitter account with a "Cover Of The Day" for quite some time now. If you own such an account, it's a good follow with many good memories or new-found gems.
Furthermore, some interesting discussions took place there: one is about the corner case of documenting game creation kits and the example games that come with them, another one called "MobyPain" is about the current state of the MobyGames contribution process. And a rather new discussion seeks to identify the biggest holes (besides the inevitable ones like Browser games, or Steam releases) within the MG database.
Last, but not least, some new platforms found their way into the MobyGames database. They're finally documenting interactive DVDs, the Timex Sinclair 2068, and some of the virtual machines for Interactive Fiction like Infocom's Z-Machine, although the discussion for the latter seems to suggest that these might be changed to game groups or a general VM platform in the future.
The biggest news made IGDB this cycle, who launched the first version of their API. An API offers standardized access for fetching all kinds of data from a database, so they can be used elsewhere, and is therefore an important thing to have. This first IGDB API offers access to game data, companies, people, franchises, and platforms, which seems quite comprehensive so far. There's also the possibility for game shops to integrate their game products to the price comparison feature of IGDB; another strong sign for the commercial nature of the project.
In other news, this project became a bit more social with the addition of a basic "friends" feature, and a revamped "Karma Hunter" page, which is the one-stop shop for people looking for things to contribute.
On August, 1st, VideoGameGeek celebrated their fifth birthday by doing a myriad of community events. Nice to see such a lively community!
Database projects we are monitoring:
Universal Videogame List (UVL)