We think this question gets to the heart of what many spreadsheet users are starting to feel: the tools you know can do more, but the path from "I want this" to "I have this" feels blocked by jargon and unfamiliar steps. The user here wants to automate their game collection, pulling live data from The Games Database API, but they describe themselves as a total beginner. That gap between ambition and execution is exactly where most people stop. And that's a shame, because the underlying idea, live data, automated updates, no manual typing, is not as complex as it sounds.
What this person is really asking for is permission to start small. They don't need to understand REST architecture or JSON parsing today. They need a single, repeatable step: how to make a spreadsheet talk to an external source. In practical terms, that means learning one function or one script that fetches data, then mapping that data into the cells they care about, game title, release year, platform, cover art URL. The API key is just a password that says "I'm allowed to ask." The real work is understanding that a spreadsheet can act like a browser: it sends a request, receives a reply, and displays the result. For a beginner, the first success is seeing that reply appear in a cell.
We'd argue that the smartest approach here is to use a tool like Google Sheets with its built-in `IMPORTDATA` or `IMPORTHTML` functions, or a simple Apps Script function that calls the API. Those are forgiving entry points. They let you test the connection without writing a full program. Once you see the data land in your sheet, you can then ask: how do I refresh this automatically? How do I handle errors when the API is down? How do I add new games without breaking the structure? Each question builds on the last, and each answer teaches a transferable skill. The user's game collection becomes a sandbox for learning data automation.
So our opinion is plain: start with the simplest working version, not the perfect one. Pull one game's data. Get it to update every hour. Then expand. The technology is not the barrier, the fear of the first step is. This user has already done the hardest part: they identified a specific, personal problem and asked for help. That is exactly how real learning begins. The rest is just a series of small, concrete experiments.