GamrCred Launches a New Gamer Reputation Aggregation Service

It is not as if Nintendo is a stranger to the concept -- look at their flagship RPG series, the Pokemon games and close examination will reveal a very well-developed and well-executed recognition system in the form of Ribbons and awards that dates back to the early titles in the second generation of the games... Serious Pokemon Trainers, Breeders, and Pokemon Masters were able to unlock and collect the following Ribbons that marked their achievements and prowess in the Pokemon Series:

-- Contest Ribbons: From Hoenn's Contests and Sinnoh's Super Contests, Pokemon Trainers could unlock a different Ribbon for winning each of the four ranks of the five different categories, which include Beauty, Cool, Cute, Smart, and Tough.

-- Gift Ribbons: Unlike most other Ribbons, Gift Ribbons are not awarded to Pokemon already captured or owned by players, but usually appear on the special Pokemon that are acquired as part of a real-world event, or via the Wondercard and Pokemon Station events.

-- Memorial Ribbons: The fifteen Memorial Ribbons in the games mark specific special actions and accomplishments for individual Pokemon!

-- Tower Ribbons: Awarded to Pokemon that were used to complete challenges in the Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Johto Battle Towers, the Tower Ribbons are a perfect example of the established protocol for marking achievements and accomplishments in a video game.

The above examples are just a sampling of the categories under which Ribbons are awarded, and with that sterling example it seems like an obvious choice for Nintendo to create a Ribbon System rather than following Microsoft along the Achievement path, or Sony to the Trophy shelf (that does not exist yet heh), and the rumor is that the Wii U will actually be delivering some sort of gamer recognition scheme shortly after it launches, with credible sources claiming that a gamer recognition system is planned for the first major addition and update for the Wii U after its launch, just in time for the holidays!

While we will just have to wait and see as far as the situation with Nintendo goes, what we do not have to wait on is details on the newest scheme in gamer cred and recognition of prowess, as that has been revealed now that the new GamrCred Service (www.GamrCred.com) has launched its private beta.

The by-invitation-only beta has, so far, been made available to games journos and bloggers, but the inclusion of three free gift-them-to-whoever-you-want-to beta keys with each of the accounts that has been given out by the service means that the friends and colleagues of games journos who have already been invited can look forward to having a go at the new service themselves.

After registering the beta key that the service provided to your GU reporter, he took a long and careful assessment of his gaming contacts and ended up sharing the three keys he received with members of the GU Staff and one of his editors -- but the word is that the folks at GamrCred may begin offering game publications and websites bundles of beta keys to give away -- so keep an eye on the tag GamrCred here on Gaming Update because if/when we get a bundle of keys we will certainly be running a trivia contest to give them away!

You are probably wondering what's so special about GamrCred that caused us to be so selective about who we sent those three beta keys to? Well, we are happy to share that with you! But first, I can has Pie?

Unlike the well-established Achievement System on LIVE and the Trophies on PSN, not to mention the Achievement System on Steam, GamrCred takes an all-inclusive and almost holistic approach to the subject of giving cred where cred is due by not only measuring gamer reputation and prowess by the number and type of Achievements and Trophies that they have unlocked via Xbox LIVE, PSN and Steam, or the completion percentages for the recognition systems in the games that gamers play, they have devised a system that not only celebrates these activities and accomplishments INSIDE the games that gamers play, but they also evaluate and reward your activities OUTSIDE of the games you play!

What that translates to is an evaluation of the social side of things, from what gamers say about the games that they play on their personal websites, their personal blogs, and the personal gaming-related content that they share via social content sharing sites like Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, YouTube, and the BioWare Social Network, they also include their activities via blogs on the Wordpress site and platform, but also blogs that are part of websites using the Wordpress software, and they plan to include other blogging platforms in the near future.