Zaidel Posts: 116 Registered: 9/11/2016
Z41D3L
# 1 - Posted on 9/28/2016 21:38:25

Games marked as "Now Playing" aren't showing in the new profile page.
I would also like to see some kind of bar/graphic/stats or something like that for your whole collection as we had before.

Other than that I'm loving the new profile page, keep it up! :D

*Edit: Forgot to mention I already know it's not finished yet, just thought I could mention it anyway.

Post Edited on 9/28/2016 21:40:19
moho_00 Curator Backer Posts: 6846 Registered: 6/10/2011
moho_00
# 2 - Posted on 9/28/2016 22:48:05

Thanks for the feedback!

We're currently trying to figure out a good way to present the collection / console / platform breakdown that you're referring to. I've been missing that one as well :P

As for the Now Playing section, there's a pretty large shift in what gets displayed in that section with the new page. Rather that looking at the games in your collection that have the "Now Playing" flag set (which is how the old page worked), it looks at what your active playthroughs are. I plan to add a tooltip to explain what's being presented in that section, but I haven't had a chance to do it yet.

The main reason I opted to switch gears on this one is because playthroughs provide so much more interesting data to present :) They have time entries, dates, potentially tied to bounties / missions, goals, etc. They're more "alive" than the Now Playing flag for games in a collection.

I've tried to build things with flexibility in mind since everyone collects / plays games a little differently, so playthroughs certainly aren't required, but an ongoing goal I have for the site is to tighten up the integration between your collection, playthroughs, and completions. I'm long overdue for providing some sort of help / direction on the site so users don't have to read my mind on how things work :P

In the meantime, @DOBERMAN_AX put together a nice article that covers the basics of playthroughs, if you or anyone else is curious.

Post Edited on 9/28/2016 22:49:20
Zaidel Posts: 116 Registered: 9/11/2016
Z41D3L
# 3 - Posted on 9/29/2016 19:52:50

Ok, I see, the thing is I want to track the games I'm currently playing but I don't usually submit time entries and such because I'm the type who would be playing a game, leave it open while doing something else and then continue playing... so I don't think those times are very accurate. And for games that have multiple saves but a total timer I just don't know what to put...

jwcooley Curator Posts: 983 Registered: 2/28/2014
jwcooley
# 4 - Posted on 9/29/2016 19:56:59

My method is to track via a notepad or my phone.

If I'm playing a game on the PC, I usually open notepad and type in my start time and then my stop time when I'm done. Put in an entry for said playtime.

For consoles, I usually use the phone to track my time played.

Not perfect methods, but that's what I do.

moho_00 Curator Backer Posts: 6846 Registered: 6/10/2011
moho_00
# 5 - Posted on 9/29/2016 20:00:40

I just use the stopwatch on my watch to track how long I spend in a session. I would eventually like to add a built-in stopwatch kinda thing here on the site, but then you run into people not stopping them :P (myself included)

Drymonema Curator Backer Posts: 395 Registered: 5/31/2016
drymonema
# 6 - Posted on 9/29/2016 20:06:33

I tend to rely heavily on Steam or GOG Galaxy's time played stat. But I'm also not very anal about my completion times...

@Zaidel I do the same thing where I'll leave a game open while I'm doing something else. For example I just finished Regency Solitaire, and my Steam played time said over 24 hours, but I know I'd left it sitting while I did some work, so I just did a really rough round-down to 20 hours. I know we're looking for fairly accurate stats on here, but not so much that you can't guesstimate ;) (my opinion only - if moho tells me I'm wrong and to gtfo then, you know, listen to him)

As for the Now Playing section, I think it's much better now that it's connected to Playthroughs. Motivates me at least to actually create goals and then hunt them down.

Post Edited on 9/29/2016 20:16:05
dhobo Curator Backer Posts: 1965 Registered: 1/5/2015
darwinsocialism
# 7 - Posted on 9/29/2016 20:43:56

Honestly, if a game doesn't provide me with the means to keep track of how long I've been playing within the game itself, then 99% of the time I will guesstimate. I'm also the kind of person who will leave a game running in the background while I do other things, so using Steam's timers, etc... are nearly useless to me as well. I'm trying to get into the habit of keeping a stopwatch nearby since I'd like to track things more accurately out of self-interest, but I'm pretty lazy. Once I've settled in for some gaming if I've forgotten to grab the watch, I can't be bothered any more and the whole idea goes out the window, lol

Collecting the time information is only really meant to give everyone here on the site an approximate idea of how long various games are, it doesn't need to be super precise. Unless you're doing speed runs, but in those cases, I'm sure people will be tracking those more precisely due to the competitive nature of the run itself (whether it's shooting for personal bests or actual records.)

It's not like the accuracy on time tracking is heavily enforced here on the site any way. We'll clean out obvious garbage values like people entering unrealistic/impossible times, but that's about as far as it goes.

Post Edited on 9/29/2016 20:45:33
Zaidel Posts: 116 Registered: 9/11/2016
Z41D3L
# 8 - Posted on 9/29/2016 20:46:13

I think I will rely on the stats most games usually provide about the amount you played them (and if they don't, I'll try to do it myself). Now the problem is the games I have already played (now that I'm getting into this it would be cool to add the games I have previously played), because even though some of them have time stats I have no idea when I finished them :/ ummm

Forgot to mention I'm playing and idle game whose timer is up to 515 days lol (because it counts every second since I started playing it, even if I'm not)

Post Edited on 9/29/2016 20:50:46
Zaidel Posts: 116 Registered: 9/11/2016
Z41D3L
# 9 - Posted on 9/29/2016 20:58:29

Also, this doesn't have anything to do with the post but, could you please add the euro currency? I've been planing on updating the prices of the games I have to be more accurate and converting every single price to dollars is really tiresome.
Edit: I think I saw someone mention this already on another post but I'm not sure.

Post Edited on 9/29/2016 21:00:40
dhobo Curator Backer Posts: 1965 Registered: 1/5/2015
darwinsocialism
# 10 - Posted on 9/29/2016 22:00:09

@Zaidel - I'm in the same boat with a lot of my previously played games. There's no way I could remember how long it took me for some of them since they were so long ago, so I've opted to put them back on my backlog so I have an excuse to enjoy them again ;)

DOBERMAN_AX Posts: 245 Registered: 6/28/2016
# 11 - Posted on 9/30/2016 5:18:04

As stated, it can be pretty tricky to be accurate all the time, but maintaining a solid effort will be what counts towards looking back at all of your completion times. Keeping things accurate on the site is a pretty big incentive for me as well. Anyway, yes moho, I would really like to see a stop-watch counter integrated (funny, I was just considering proposing that idea today xD) as a part of My Playthroughs. In the case of dhobo, adding a play/pause - stop feature would be perfect for him and others like him who run in the background. With this method, pausing said playthrough could enable the user to "pick and choose" when the time will be recorded, therefore making it very easy to filter out the inaccuracies.

With the latest updates to the My Profile page, I think it might be a good time for me to put together a couple more community guides on how to utilize these features in the most convenient way.

Post Edited on 9/30/2016 7:03:54
DOBERMAN_AX Posts: 245 Registered: 6/28/2016
# 12 - Posted on 10/3/2016 16:57:44

UPDATE:

I just posted a new guide regarding completions, so hopefully this and my other Playthrough's guide will help cover/answer any questions that one may have regarding these categories of the site.

AX's Guide to Completions (view article here) -> http://completionator.com/Article/View/12

Feel free to comment on the article itself for any feedback!