BoardGameGeek vs Interactive Fiction Database

BoardGameGeek is a free online resource and community for board game and card game content, available on the web and through official iOS and Android apps. Game entries combine information, user ratings, forums, and related material. Members can browse reviews, images, play aids, translations, session reports, and live discussion forums. They can maintain virtual collections of games they own, play, rate, comment on, or follow, and account holders can log plays from a collection or game entry. The site also includes a Geek Market and game trading between members. Core site access and registered membership are free, and there is no free trial. Annual supporter levels of $15 or more include a supporter icon; levels of $25 or more add ad blocking, a read feed for past subscriptions, and historical gaming trends. BoardGameGeek says it relies on community support and advertisements to cover expenses such as servers, bandwidth, and employees. Users must be at least 18 to have an account.

Interactive Fiction Database (IFDB) is a free community catalog that helps players find interactive fiction games and decide what to play. Members can add and edit listings, search by title, author, or description, and narrow results with filters for genre, language, authoring system, format, rating, and publication date. Discovery tools include personalized recommendations, lists, polls, reviews, ratings, competitions, and member profiles. For supported titles, a Play Online option opens a game in a browser without an interpreter download; IFDB catalogs game information rather than hosting the games. Developers can use HTTP APIs that return JSON to search, retrieve listings, edit tags, or publish iFiction XML. Those APIs are intended for low-volume, user-driven applications, not frequent crawling or high-load mirroring. Full SQL exports excluding personal information are available through the IF Archive and updated roughly quarterly. IFDB also has web access and supports Z-machine, TADS, Hugo, and executable applications. It is maintained by the Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation and funded by supporter donations.