MobyGames

MobyGames

MobyGames' official logo until 11 March 2014
Web address MobyGames.com
Commercial? Yes
Type of site
 Gaming
Registration Optional, Free
Available in English
Owner Blue Flame Labs[1]
Launched March 1, 1999 (1999-03-01)
Alexa rank
 Negative increase 37,403 (February 2016)[2]
Current status Online

MobyGames is a commercial website which catalogs video games both past and present.

As of February 2016, this includes over 190 gaming platforms (arcade, consoles, computers, social networking sites, handheld game systems, and mobile phones) and over 100,000 games,[3][4] spanning over 40 years.

The site is supported by banner ads and by users paying to become patrons.[5]

Overview

The MobyGames database contains information on video games and the people and companies behind them. Some individual developer profiles have biographical information.

Content is added on a volunteer crowdsourced basis, with all items tracked to a non-anonymous user account. Prior to being merged into the database—whether it be an entirely new entry or a small piece of information appending any existing item—all submissions must first go through a process of verification and validation by "approvers".[6] Similarly, members of this group are comprised entirely of volunteer users, taking on the obligations of copy editors to make sure that information presented to visitors is accurate and meets the predefined standards of quality.[7] The most commonly used sources are game packaging and manual or the game itself (title and credit screens), but also publishers' announcements, interviews with developers, etc.

Registered users can rate and review any game entry, and the scores are aggregated into a single value. Users can create game "have lists" and "want lists," which may be optionally made public. This can generate another list of games available for trade with other users.

The site has an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own subforum.

History

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt, and David Berk (who joined 18 months after the project started, but was still credited as a founder), three friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience.

The database began with entries for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows games, since those were the only systems the founders were familiar with. On its second birthday, MobyGames started supporting other platforms, initially the leading consoles of the time such as the PlayStation, with classic systems added later. According to David Berk, new platforms are added once there is enough information researched to design the necessary framework for them in the database, as well as people willing to be approvers for the new platform.

In Summer 2010, MobyGames was sold by its founders to GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] As this was only announced to the community post factum, a few major contributors left in protest, refusing to do volunteer work for the now commercially owned website.

In September 2013, most of the key contributors had boycotted MobyGames as a protest against a radical unilateral site overhaul by GameFly.[9] The community reported missing features, unappealing design and impaired functionality, and slower performance, as a result of the overhaul.[10] As revealed on the forums, the redesign had been previewed some months earlier to a select group of contributing members, who had reported numerous errors and had rejected the new concept, which was put into production anyway.

On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San-Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game boxart).[11] Upon assuming control of the site, Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel.[1] Numerous fixes and improvements have been announced, and most contributors resumed their work.

Support for arcade coin-operated games was added in January 2014.

Awards

MobyGames was nominated for a Webby Award for Best Game-related Website[12] by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences on April 11, 2006.

References

  1. 1 2 Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2014-01-01.
  2. ↑ "Mobygames.com Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
  3. ↑ Ports for different platforms count towards this number. Without ports/conversions, compilation and special edition entries the number of unique titles is over 40,000.
  4. ↑ MobyGames database stats. Retrieved from MobyGames 2013-09-02.
  5. ↑ "MobyGames Patrons". MobyGames.
  6. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". MobyGames.com. Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  7. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". MobyGames.com. Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2016.
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-07-02.
  9. ↑ "MobyGames Forums". MobyGames.
  10. ↑ "MobyGames Forums". MobyGames.
  11. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray. "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". Retrieved 2014-01-01.
  12. ↑ "2006 Webby Nominees, Games-Related category". Webbyawards.com. 2011-10-28. Retrieved 2012-03-07.
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