Over time, whether we intend to or not, we all end up with our own personal video game collections. Maybe you own every title released by your favorite niche publisher or strive to acquire each entry in a storied franchise. Whatever your goal, you always have room for that crown jewel in your collection. Serious seekers of swag aren't satisfied until they own these ultra-rare items. That's a nice Metal Gear Solid collection you have, but where's your can of promotional snake meat? Cool, you have every Legend of Zelda game. Too bad you don't have a Jackson Zoraxe guitar. You say you're an EarthBound fan, but you don't have a Mach Pizza air freshener? Fear not, for a new resource is now available for the game collector in all of us.
Game Swag is part news blog, part editable database, both of which are devoted entirely to video game products. Clyde Mandelin (aka Tomato of Mother 3 fan translation fame) created the site to be the definitive resource for game merchandise information, and he's off to a great start with hundreds of entries already available in the database's first week live. If you ever wanted to know more about what's in your collection or what you're missing, Game Swag is for you. It documents every piece of game merchandise you can imagine as well as those you can't.
"I think older gaming swag has a simple charm to it — whether it's old Atari game boxes or the old Nintendo Power magazines, there's just something there that oozes excitement," Mandelin says regarding why he chose to devote his free time and energy to the wide world of game products. "Newer merchandise doesn't have that, but it has tons of creativity and originality instead. Stuff like canned snake meat promoting Metal Gear games, wine bottles promoting Bioshock, or even just all the crazy game controllers that are everywhere now. I think that's why I like game merchandise so much — it spans decades and it's all interesting for different reasons. Even more so when you start to take a look at game merchandise from other countries too."
In addition to cataloging merchandise, Game Swag also updates daily with interesting yet focused game news. "There are a lot of gaming sites out there, but there really aren't that many specifically devoted to the merchandise aspect, so my hope is that Game Swag can help fill that niche," Mandelin says. "Plus, since we focus on just one aspect of gaming, we can catch news stories a lot of outlets miss."
Naturally, the site covers a lot of ground, but Mandelin explains the simple rule that governs what is and isn't swag. "It's tough to define a clear border for something like this, but the general rule of thumb is that items like those need to be based off of a game, rather than the other way around," he says. "Since GoldenEye the game was based off of GoldenEye the movie, the movie wouldn't be listed on the site. But since Tomb Raider the movie was based off of Tomb Raider the game, the movie would be OK to have on the site. But Tomb Raider movie posters wouldn't belong on the site, because they're based on the movie." Pervasive franchises like Pokémon can cause problems, he says, but if it's based on a game, "it's probably A-OK."
Mandelin explains that many of Game Swag's features, and even the site itself, were born out of the need to automate the wealth of information he's trying to present. It began when he was cataloging merchandise for his site EarthBound Central. "It was getting really tedious to the point where I decided to use a database to make the process more automated," he says. "Around the same time, I had seen some forum threads where people were discussing obscure game merchandise, and I noticed they didn't have any reference sites to link to. Then I realized the simple EarthBound swag database I set up could be expanded to fit ALL gaming merchandise, and that was how the Game Swag project got started."
Game Swag uses eBay marketing data to automate prices for in-demand items, but Mandelin wants a full market-data license to improve the site's accuracy and automation. "It's not cheap, though, so it really depends on if the site does well or not at first," he says. "It's kind of like an RPG almost — it's like if there's a really powerful sword you want to get, but to afford it you have to go around and grind for a while and level up with your weaker equipment…. Man, that's nerdy."
Still, Game Swag already boasts some interesting features behind the scenes, like the its "availability learning" capability. "Originally, the admins were going to enter all the availability info by hand as pages were made, but I realized it'd be a ton of work if the site ever got really active," Mandelin says. "So I hit upon the idea of having people submit URLs and then having the site do all the really hard work for them." Despite the automation, Game Swag still needs dedicated users to help the it expand.
Mandelin didn't originally plan for the site to be an open resource. "I didn't think anyone else would want to add to it," he said, but beta-testers helped change his mind. "Some of the beta-testers mentioned how fun [creating an item page and filling it out] was, so I'm hoping users will get a lot of out it, too. There's also a sense of fulfillment knowing you're helping out fellow gamers who're looking for a particular item or trying to sell a particular item." To further encourage user contributions, Game Swag features a system Mandelin likens to Xbox Achievements and PlayStation Trophies. Mandelin also plans to increase accessibility through mobile and international versions of the site.
Ultimately, Mandelin wants Game Swag to be the go-to resource for video game merchandise. "Kind of like how whenever someone brings up a topic about whatever, they'll include a link to Wikipedia as a reference," he explains. "I want Game Swag to be a place where people will do the same thing whenever talking about a specific game item."