Raptr - Game Tracking and Community and Rewards

ArcSyn

You've probably heard of it? I had heard of it a while ago, but just recently signed up for it. It tracks your gametime from Steam, Xbox, and PSN and ranks you according to time played, achievements, and you can also get rewards for having played games to the point you are "dedicated."

I don't know much about it, but I know you can add friends through Facebook, Twitter, or Email. Despite that it knows your friends on Xbox and Steam, it won't actually make any connection for friends to compare your Raptr stats that way.

Do you use Raptr?
Is it worth running another program on my laptop for the rewards?

Maybe we can keep a running list of usernames to add as friends and compare stats. I'm ArcSyn there as well.

TychoCelchuuu

I used it to get some free stuff for Blacklight: Retribution. It doesn't actually make you install another program so that's a plus.

anoffday

I've heard of it, but never signed up for it. What kind of rewards can you earn?

skeldare

I'm confused. You're an active member of the board but this almost feels like stealth marketing. Need more information.

ArcSyn

Sorry, I'm not entirely sure what all the benefits are for Raptr, so I was trying to put something out there to see if anyone else has used it or benefited from it. Definitely not trying to advertise, just trying to find out if I should bother continuing to patronize them (though it's free).

Rewards currently are:
End of Nation Beta access - requires you to have reached "Hardcore" or above status in a RTS game.

Rusty Hearts Extra Packs - requires differing status in the game Rusty Hearts to get the different levels of add on packs. Plus Facebook connection.

Star Trek Online Captain's Critter - requires "Experienced" in STO and Facebook.

Blacklight: Retribution - requires different status in Blacklight: Retribution

I don't currently qualify for any of them, but I've heard they give away different sorts of things and sometimes they are pretty good coupons and game items.

Corpekata

It's just a sort of meta Steam/Live thing. You link your accounts. There's some community features. Sometimes playing games earn you rewards. You get ranked in games based on hours played/achievements, and these determine the reawards. For instance, recently they gave away some copies of Psychonauts and Stacking. To qualify you needed to be "Hardcore" in Costume Quest, Iron Brigade, or Limbo on PC (which was basically you needed to have beat the game). Community features are pretty standard discussion topics, friend list type stuff. You can compare things in games pretty easily over the other official platforms. Like if you visit a game's page it'll show your rank and how your friends are doing in it as well. You can track non-official DRM games too, like stuff you bought on GOG, though sometimes it can be annoying to get the program to recognize stuff.

They've also given away some other good recent rewards like a 75 percent off Serious Sam 3 coupon. Most of the good stuff tends to be aimed at PC gamers, though they did give away some copies of Minecraft XBLA and like a month of Xbox Live at one point. Most of the best rewards tend to be quantity or time limited. Don't think I've seen a PSN reward yet.

The program is lightweight and rather unobstrusive, though I think you can largely use the website for most things. The friend list intergration is weird. I'll frequently get a "Hey, this is your Steam friend on Raptr, do you want to add them to your friend list?" prompt and hit yes, but nothing seems to happen.

Anyways, name is Corpekata on there.

Darkewolfe

Ok, so here is what Raptr is:

It's a gaming data farming resource. They're trying to build as significant and specific as possible marketing data on people in the "game" zone as possible, and they will be selling the crap out of it as hard as they can. It's supposed to appeal to users, because you can link all your accounts to feel even more achievey. The problem is, they're either not making a ton of money yet, or they just aren't using those profits to build into the user experience and prizes. Some people do it for the freebies, but mostly it's not worth it just because you should be aware that marketing data that specific on you is worth way more than they're offering.

ultimakay

Some of the freebie stuff is neat, but most of the rewards require you to link a facebook account and it doesn't really seem worth signing up for if you don't have one.

ArcSyn

Darkewolfe wrote: »

Ok, so here is what Raptr is:

It's a gaming data farming resource. They're trying to build as significant and specific as possible marketing data on people in the "game" zone as possible, and they will be selling the crap out of it as hard as they can. It's supposed to appeal to users, because you can link all your accounts to feel even more achievey. The problem is, they're either not making a ton of money yet, or they just aren't using those profits to build into the user experience and prizes. Some people do it for the freebies, but mostly it's not worth it just because you should be aware that marketing data that specific on you is worth way more than they're offering.

Is there a better "data farming" company out there I can sell my stats to and be paid for them? I'm not arguing for Raptr, I'm just curious. Data is valuable, but rarely can an individual actually monetize that data. It'd be nice if there was a company that actually directly paid you for information, and I don't mean those annoying "work from home taking surveys for cash!" sites. :P

With online being such a thing with most games, Blizzard, Valve, Microsoft, Sony can gather all the data they need from users for "free" because if a user is online, they can gather what game they are playing, how long they played, how far they are from achievements, if they bother with secondary achievements or just play through the main game, etc.

DiannaoChong

The only reward that seemed worth it was free minecraft on X360, but it required facebook linking, and there was a bru-haha that didnt change anything. Any reward half worth it requires FB linking in addition to whatever now. 99% of the rewards are freebies in F2P games that are basically "the first ones always free", or coupons for hardware. The coupons for hardware are pretty good to be honest, but I didn't have any interest in what was offered (keyboard/mice/headphones/% off logitech).

I've used the IM client for a bit, and its lacking in alot of functionality you would see in say... pidgin. They do not update the client that often, so don't expect a "in progress" open source app where you are constantly getting new things. It hangs and crashes a but more then you would hope. It just seems like a gaming facebook to me, and I could care less about social networking.

It will compare stats and information with your friends, IF they use raptr as well. I found it good as a way to tell when my friend was jumping on a game on 360/ps3 from my pc without firing up the console, and it combined with AIM/GTalk/whatever. It also updates statuses for the game you are playing in those clients automatically. so AIM people see "now playing: saints row 3".

Is there a better "data farming" company out there I can sell my stats to and be paid for them? I'm not arguing for Raptr, I'm just curious. Data is valuable, but rarely can an individual actually monetize that data. It'd be nice if there was a company that actually directly paid you for information, and I don't mean those annoying "work from home taking surveys for cash!" sites.

Google will straight up send you 15$ in gift cards if you install a tracking widget in chrome and let them watch you for 3 months. That's about the best I have seen. I dont know the name of the program though, sorry.

Darkewolfe

No, there's not really a better offer right now. But is a free skin for the free to play shooter you'll play for a week really worth anything at all? Because I don't think it is, and I'm happy to simply not sell that marketing data on myself until there's actually a real offer on the table.

Steev

Eh, I started using it because a few friends of mine use it too. I didn't even know about the free stuff until I got an email from them a few months ago about "a new reward is within your reach!" or whatever. Turns out it was Minecraft on XBLA and I managed to snag a copy. Almost every free game they give out as a reward is usually extremely limited in quantity and chances are high that they'll run out by the time you hear about it, though.