My so-called (MORE connected gamer) life

As an update to this post about connecting my gaming experiences (and connection gaps), I think I may have solved some of the gaps, and decided I don't want to fill one particular one.

Where we left off:

1. All new blog posts auto-publish notice to Twitter and Facebook (done)
2. Select blog posts (my acting and gaming blogs) auto-publish notice to LinkedIn (done)
3. Xbox Live activity is automatically posted to Twitter and Facebook (partial)
5. Select Facebook game activities post to Twitter (this is right out)

(First for #5, even though I figured out how to do it, I've decided I don't want to post my Facebook game activities to Twitter. Most of my time in those games at this point is industry research, would likely be noise to my non-Facebook following Twitter followers, and the recursive problem the Facebook-to-Twitter-to-Facebook pipe could cause -- while interesting -- is not something to which I should probably subject either set of followers.)

For #3, "partial" meant my Xbox Live activity and Facebook connectivity was limited to my Xbox Live Friends list that had also done the on-console and in-Facebook integration -- an overlap of maybe six, out of my dozens of Xbox / Facebook "friends".

So, that created this picture (the Xbox / Facebook app is orange, because it does what it's supposed to do -- just not as much as I'd like it to do):

The connected social media gamer: Gappage.

Enter raptr.com.

The site's headed up by Dennis Fong (former pro-gamer "Thresh", and the guy behind such things as Gamer.com and gaming social site Xfire.com); and RealNetworks/Rhapsody Ranah Edelin; and former eBayer Dave Swenson ('member me Dave? 'Member?).

Anywho, with a bit of tweaking and some recent upgrades that made it usable for my particular needs, raptr.com's slotted into the gaps I needed filled.

By creating a raptr.com account, and giving it my Xbox Gamertag (just the handle, not the account or login info), raptr was able to pipe my "now playing" and Xbox Achievements info to Twitter and/or Facebook (since I have that info available as "public" in the Xbox console privacy settings).

And it lets me post some other value-add information with those two bits of data -- like notification when I pass an Xbox friend with my Achievements, and a published daily summary of what I've played in a given day.

It also lets me customize some of the messaging, so my "I'm playing" notice reads, "I'm playing [gamename]. If it's got multiplayer, let's play ..."

(Sadly, it doesn't let me customize my Achievements comparison note, so no, "I just passed aancsiid with Left 4 Dead Achievements! Face!")

So, to avoid too too much noise to my outer circle, I use Raptr's sharing configuration to pipe the "I'm playing" message to Twitter (which auto-pipes to Facebook, since I have XBL friends on both services), and pipe the Achievements, daily game summaries, and braggadocio only to Facebook (via Facebook Connect), under the assumption my Facebook crew is more of an inner circle (at least compared to the Twitterverse), and may care more, and/or are less likely to tell me if they don't.

All of that looks like this:

The connected social media gamer: With Raptr.com goodness.

(And for Facebook connect, there's an option to not broadcast status of Facebook games, which my connections probably appreciate.)

So, all that's got some niftage by itself, but Raptr enables quite a bit more.

By downloading and installing the Raptr desktop client, I can have it do the same things for my Steam games it does for Xbox titles -- with no extra work or configuration. (That same client will enable the same kinds of things for World of Warcraft character status and Sony PSN Trophies.)

The client can do other things like serve as a Trillian-lightish IM client, and keep tabs on your various game connections and whether they're online. To be honest (and no disrespect meant), I could care less about that particular functionality -- but maybe that will change if I can get comfortable with a better understanding of how they handle and protect things like my Windows Live ID and password. (Besides, it's kind of onerous to set up.)

So, for completeness, here's how everything looks with Steam added in the mix:

The connected social media gamer: With added Steam-y goodness.

Right. So I've probably beat this to death.

But like I said in the original post, "I'm all about planned setup with minimal follow on work (work smart to avoid working hard, when possible)".

Plus, I got to make yet more Visio charts. So ... win?

Hrm ... up next ... maybe phone integration? Ve shall see....