So I keep getting spammed by Greenman Gaming to install Playfire and get rewards, and AMD keeps shoving Raptr down my throat via driver updates.
Does anyone here use these services? What do they actually do? Of course anyone should be wary of free services giving you free rewards, that screams data mining and phishing to me. What do they gain from recording your gaming habits?
Are they actually safe to use? That they're endorsed by GMG and AMD, two very reputable companies, confuses me as to what they're actually getting out of the relationship.
The only information on either service I've really been able to find is an Xbox forum thread complaining about having their accounts phished after using Playfire, and a couple of Reddit threads complaining about Raptr rewards being impossible to get.
Raptr and Playfire are not necessarily scams but the way they are both setup they can seem like a scam. In reality both of these programs are actually a type of social network similar to the Steam community but unlike the Steam community Raptr and Playfire require external funding via investors and sponsors. The analytics tracking is how the companies make money because the investors (mostly game marketing companies) get to have those surveys for much cheaper than if they did it themselves. The rewards program is a way for Raptr and Playfire compensate the users for the analytics (the games you can get for using the program) and it is also used for sponsorships (the sweepstakes you see are the result of a sponsorship). Also the reason why GMG tries to get you to download Playfire is because they own it and AMD has Raptr because they needed a GeForce Experience and Raptr already had almost all the functionality the needed. So I hope this explains a little more about what's going on with these things.
I have a Nvidia card and I use raptr to keep track of certain game related news and hours for all my games (not just steam). I also have been using raptr for quite a while and I like it.
I have not used playfire and I do not know anything about it.
Raptr is fine. It just sits quietly in the corner like steam and mostly does what steam does. It also does Shadowplay-like screen recording for AMD cards.
I find playfire pretty useless, but Raptr is good as it consolidates your friends list from PSN/XBL/Steam and raptr all into one convenient list. The video recorder is OK, the built in Twitch support is good for those who use it, you can keep (AMD) drivers up to date and you get points for playing games which can be used to buy games/ F2P items etc.
I personally don't find it intrusive or memory hogging so I'd say go for it :)