Today, on 1 March 2019, the venerable video game database MobyGames celebrates 20 years online. Founded in 1999 by Jim "Trixter" Leonard and Brian Hirt, MobyGames has accumulated a vast and ever-growing database of video games and various associated pieces of information from 1951 onwards, in particular focusing on older titles, while auto-scraping some popular digital storefronts like Steam and PlayStation Network has helped keep up with more recent releases. A recent addition to the system is a free API for easier data access for developers of applications and other websites.
Trixter even posted a retrospective article on his blog to commemorate the event, and you can see some of the database metrics in the official celebratory tweet below:
As of today, MobyGames has been documenting video games for 20 years!! In total we have nearly 200,000 games from 266 platforms meticulously documented. Here's to another 20 years!
— MobyGames (@MobyGames) March 1, 2019
What's next and a request for your help: https://t.co/6NFIHMZU05 pic.twitter.com/EbVofY8Yam
For many years, MobyGames has enforced an approval system, with select trusted community members having access to controls that can approve or decline a data submission, which for the most part leads to a more credible set of information rather than sticking to unverified claims like the infamous "end-of-the-month" release dates, and refuses to accept data that can not be proven unlike some other databases. Even when something is deemed inaccurate, anyone can file a correction claim, assuming enough proof is provided, and thus help improve the site.
I myself am a contributor and approver on the site, and I keep learning something new about games and their developers on a near-daily basis. In this age when endeavours of archiving and verifying are cast aside in favour of quickly mangled content in text or video with little regard for fact, I believe there's a place for a community of people who value games enough to store as much knowledge as can be found for this ever-moving medium.