Hey guys, I'm currently building a backlog website, and I was wondering what sort of features you would want in it? I have some pretty ambitious ideas that will differentiate it enough from backloggery, but is there anything specific that you guys would find useful?
I actually think the way backloggery looks is terrible. I've never gotten much into editing it to personalize it, but I really wish it would take advantage of widescreen monitors.
I also think it would be a good idea to be able to import excel spreadsheets or csv's. It wouldn't have to be that flexible, i.e. just say it HAS to be in the format game name, system, status (U, B, C, M), review score (1-5), etc. But entering games on the backloggery website one at a time is a massive pita. It'd so much easier to just construct a spreadsheet, upload it, then have all the advantages of having it online. It would also follow that it'd be great to be able to export as well.
I can see the appeal of having a centralized database, but if I had to choose between central database or enter games on your own I would go with the latter since it allows more flexibility. I would also like playtime counters.
I would like better options for games you've rented, borrowed, sold, etc. Backloggery has "formerly owned" and "borrowed/rented" which are fine, but my problem with them is that they basically delete the games from all counters. I wish I could use backloggery as a way to track # of games I've beaten, played, etc. but since once you enter something as borrowed tit disappears from all trackers I would have to keep my own separate tally to account for those categories.
I think being able to create custom systems would be nice. Where I would benefit most from this is on PC sometimes I buy a game from some random PC digital distribution shop. Checking just now I see that backloggery has added origin, gog, gfw, gamersgate, gamefly, etc. which is actually pretty awesome, but there are still random ones that aren't accounted for like individual stores (thq for example) and I don't see Amazon on here either. Also missing GreenManGaming.
I am more interested in analyzing my trends and seeing other people's trends then comparing my trends to others trends, so I guess I always want more flexibility rather than more centralization.
Oh, and unlimited or near unlimited space to review games. I actually normally write one to two paragraph reviews of all the games I play which I occasionally post in here or in the Steam thread but always keep in my own personal journal, and it'd be great if I could keep those in the same place as where I keep my list of games.
Really I should just make my own spreadsheet. I've tried it in the past, but I always get bogged down in picking categories. I'm such a data oriented guy that I want as many categories as possible, like date of purchase, price purchased at, genre, date of first play, date of completion, any future dates of playing, etc. And while all of that is easy for games going forward, I actually waste time trying to figure out dates going back as well which is where I get lost. The two features I'd miss from backoggery is the "now playing tab" and the "recent activity tab". Maybe there are ways to do that on a spreadsheet as well.