Actually Played vs Gameplay.Science

Actually Played is a free, client-side Minecraft mod that tracks playtime separately for each server and singleplayer world, distinguishing active play from AFK time. After five minutes without qualifying activity, it stops the counter and reclassifies the recently counted idle period as AFK. Signals include movement intent, camera rotation, keyboard or mouse input, and actions such as breaking or placing blocks. Since the mod checks movement intent rather than position, being carried by water or a minecart does not count as active input. It needs no server installation and says it does not communicate with servers. History remains on the user's machine as readable, editable JSON. Sessions stay detailed for 90 days before older records are grouped into monthly summaries. Listed Minecraft versions are 1.7.10, 1.12.2, 1.16.5, 1.20.1 and 1.21.1, with Forge, Fabric or NeoForge support depending on the version. Realms are not tracked because the client lacks a stable identifier. On Minecraft 1.16 and later, settings are edited in a properties file rather than an in-game settings screen.

Gameplay.Science is an open-source web platform for independent research on video games using behavior data donated by players. It is designed to support studies without requiring direct participation from game platforms. Players can contribute digital trace data through Steam or Discord connections, account integrations such as Steam or Xbox, or GDPR requests. Account linking lets a participant sign in and authorize automatic access to gameplay data. UK and EU players can request data held by a gaming company under GDPR and share it with researchers. The project aims to cover how long people play, what they do in games, and who they interact with. A study using the platform describes Steam authentication through OpenID, public Steam gameplay details, and hourly collection of each game’s incremental playtime. That study says data was stored on encrypted servers accessible only to the research team. Steam and Xbox are listed as supported ecosystems.