GameDiary vs Gameplay.Science

GameDiary tracks PlayStation Portable game playtime in the background and presents statistics for individual games and the full library. Its PSP release has a kernel-mode tracking plugin and a user-mode application. Tracking covers native PSP games and PlayStation 1 classics running through POPS; statistics include session history and activity graphs. The plugin also extracts icons from EBOOTs and ISOs. The interface supports English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, French, Italian, Japanese, and Chinese, with language detection from PSP settings. Web tools let users edit sessions visually and merge backup files from multiple Memory Sticks or PSP consoles. The responsive web interface works from a PC or smartphone with a backup.json file exported by the PSP app. Installation requires a PSP 1000, 2000, 3000, or Go with custom firmware and a Memory Stick or MicroSD-to-MS adapter. The project is free under the MIT License. Some homebrew that overwrites RAM boundaries or uses custom interrupts may temporarily pause tracking intervals.

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.