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JaguarWong

A collector's conundrum: Android/iOS games

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I think 'collector' can sometimes bring the wrong image to mind (thanks The Simpsons).

 

So yeah, I do own a lot of games and a lot of consoles but they are all there to be played - the only thing I have that's still sealed in its original packaging is a Yoshi amiibo.

 

To get to the point. As a full on geek I like to keep tabs on the games I have by means of a spreadsheet, (check it out if you're curious: https://goo.gl/cm6slg) because of this I know, for example, that I have exactly 1077 video games - Or do I...

 

This morning I finished Kathy Rain, I loved it. On the train to work yesterday I was playing Lara Croft Go, I love that too.

 

But neither of those games appear in that spreadsheet because I played them both on my phone.

 

It seems so pointless a thing to bother a person but I can't quite bring myself to add an Android column - and if I did, what criteria would I use?

 

Anything goes? Only games I have installed? Only games that are also on 'proper' platforms? Only games that aren't freemium?

 

All opinions on this most 1st world of problems are welcome.

 

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Assuming your device still runs them all and you can access them, bosh everything in there, no? I'd throw it all in. I give Currency Converter Lite a 9.2 for replayability 😉

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I keep track of my collection and completion status on a dedicated site (backloggery.com/lachlancooper). This naturally includes iOS/Android, though the huge abundance of F2P can make it hard to draw a line around what's actually part of my collection. I guess I generally leave out free stuff unless I've spent money or a decent amount of time on it.

 

It might be going slightly over the top, but I also maintain a spreadsheet tracking the price, date, and store for every purchase. Mostly this is to satisfy idle curiosity, so I can tell at a glance how many games I bought and how much I spent each year.

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Don't you see the bigger problem? You haven't even mentioned Flash/web games yet! Time to start paging through the Jayisgames.com archives to see exactly which Escape the Room games you've played. (I admit I have done something like this to try to remember a Flash game I once played and failed miserably.)

 

My advice is that while it's nice to have a searchable record, don't let your methodology for keeping what's basically a modern-day diary ruin your life. I'd say you should only add a game to your spreadsheet if you liked the game and remembered to add it after you played it.

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I'd say you should only add a game to your spreadsheet if you liked the game and remembered to add it after you played it.

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That's a nice idea (and I do have a played/completed column) but one of the main reasons for having this is to know what I own and haven't played.

And it's more of an inventory than a diary. A blog with thoughts on every game played would be a diary - I kind of had that when I was playing every game on Mame (http://mybudgetmame.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/setting-standard-mame-hidden-gems-0-9.html) but it's very different to a list of the games in my collection. 

 

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Yeah, I agree just having a list of played/unplayed games across services is useful. Steam kind of has this functionality for games on Steam but it feels a little janky, however the nice thing is that it's done automatically. If it's not on Steam, GOG, or Humble then I'm probably not gonna remember where to go to see if I own a game. Not surprised people just buy extra copies of games they already own on Steam for the convenience.

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