Formerly MobyGames, now GameFly. You give them unrestricted (non-exclusive) usage rights for any data you submit, and you're not allowed to scrape it because the database is under GameFly's copyright. Which makes sense, because if they didn't have full rights to the data, any number of things could force them to stop displaying or even remove stuff. As for the future of the data, that's where MobyGames' notorious communication problems come into play: those who would tell, don't know, and those who know, won't tell. Asking questions is pointless. Worst case scenario, there is no recourse if GameFly decides to shut the site down (such as releasing the database back to the original founders).

It has become worse due to an approver mass exodus several years ago, in response to the lack of open communication (see above). Many deemed it no longer worth spending their time on, considering the uncertain future of the project.

It's a different paradigm indeed. My suggestion was to stick to the stringent approval process, but get into the habit of stating sources with the information; verifiability and such. An approval process can guarantee a higher standard, but only if the approval process itself is accountable. Of course suggestions like this have now become doubly pointless because not only is nobody who can do anything about it listening (see above), but the redesign also broke so many other things that there seems to be a complete approver's strike in progress.

They did, they just ignored all the responses they got.

Better Dead Ratification

Jesus Christ. I'm seeing mild-mannered people I've known for years (from there, since I was a contributor and an approver years ago) ripping into the MobyGames admins. It's scary.

I think this was the last straw for a lot of people. The site is finished.

Well, is there an alternative to mobygames that works with a Creative Commons license?

Man..., this new site runs slower than molasses. =(

this, and a (decent) API would be nice.

Maybe we should talk to the GOGWiki people about attempting to grow one ourselves in parallel to the GOG specific one!

Nope, and that probably wouldn't be a good idea since all the content would just be stolen by sites with higher Google rankings and which would throw ads on everything.

That problem is highly overestimated, especially if your site is established. MobyGames certainly would've fit that criteria. Besides, you can prevent the worst of it by choosing the right CC license. Attribution is a given, so other sites can't claim the content as their own. Choose the non-commercial model and they're not allowed to put on ads, which prohibits making a SEO-optimised ad dispenser site. And those who don't care about those rules, well, they don't care if it's CC or copyrighted either, as evidenced by various sites that have copied MG content as-is over the years.

But of course this would have to be a new project; GF/MG couldn't change the license even if they wanted to. They'd have to get the permission from each contributor whether they'd be allowed to continue using their additions under the new license, which borders on the impossible. Personally, the thing I'm most concerned about is the (probably the world's largest) cover scan collection. This is all GameFly's property, they can take it away at any time and nobody else is allowed to use it; yet this is probably the most hard-to-replace part if any new project tried to. All those local editions and budget re-releases and strange compilations, etc.

An openly licensed database would be no problem. In some respects, Wikipedia already is one, albeit a really bad one. And you don't see sites built from Wikipedia dumps stealing their traffic either.




Amen to the blowing of gaskets. I'm probably the last person to raise allegations and assume bad intentions (or lack of good intentions). But by this point even I had to say, whether MobyGames has a future or not, I understand that this is not in our (the community's) hands, but at least talk to us. There is absolutely no excuse for dragging the community along for years and not even once making a clear, official statement about the state of affairs. It costs nothing but 10 minutes of someone's time and is all we've asked for for years. Supposedly there would be people paid to do just that. But nothing. The redesign definitely was the last straw, because it being worked on was always the excuse we were fed when someone official did decide to drop by -- "we hear your concerns, but at the moment, the redesign is top priority." Well, none of our concerns were heard and now we have de facto proof that no one is interested in starting to listen.

It's hard to put in perspective if you're involved, but by now I think I can say that MobyGames is absolutely the worst-handled web project I have seen in close to 20 years of being on the web. Zero communication, I have not witnessed this in even the most ramshackle personal hobby site projects.

Own a handful, not even all that obscure or rare either (Monet: The Mystery of the Orangery comes to mind), but I could never be bothered to add them with all the effort it took to contribute anything on there. Even contributing Cover Art, which is what I did most, started to be a bit of a pain.

I thought I had one, a PC Booter named Demon Force, but that's from an era when it was near impossible to find legal copies of games here, and I think it's probably Brian Fargo's The Demon's Forge, though I don't have a working floppy drive to make sure.
Oh, damn, you had that? I've been looking for quite a while for that.

It does not run all that well on modern computer. The scroll speed makes things nigh unplayable, and it has graphics issues as well (though these are not all that bad). It's a nice historical curiosity, but there are better games out there that deal with similar things (like Cities in Motion 1 & 2)

Yip: Volgarr the Viking :P

Yea, it will probably never see another release. It was meant as an educational tool and was mainly given to schools in & around Stockholm, with a small amount sold to the general public. These days it is too outdated to be used as an educational tool, and a real niche game, probably only appealing to people who live in Stockholm and/or people who have played most other games of that type, and who are looking for something new.