For serious gamers like me, it’s nice to have a comprehensive list of everything you own. For stats geeks like me, it’s better to have an actual database.

Now I could make my own database in Access if I had any clue how it actually worked. Or I could use Filemaker, which is more user friendly. Instead, I use Game Collector.

It’s not the most flexible database out there, to be sure. It has limited customizable fields and doesn’t like to track all the information you would want it to track. It is also impossible to have different displays for separate databases. For example, my “all strategy games ever made” database would ideally show different information than my “what I’ve got” database. Can’t do that.

Still, for forty bucks this is a good program. It is fast, user friendly and plugs in the All Game Guide and Amazon databases so you can download a lot of the fields automatically. You can include links to whatever connected sites you want and it has a big field for notes and descriptions. Once you buy it, you can update for free for life, so as the database gets better there is no need to shell out another forty bucks.

Eventually I will have to make my own database, but I can export my Game Collector information to another format, so I should be able to import it to another later. It’s easy, attractive and almost complete. Highly recommended.