Steam launches "Recommended for you"

[Sliver]

<div >

</div>[br]Valve has just announced a "Recommended for you" feature on Steam, which will determine which games you will enjoy based on previous purchases. Along with that you will be able to reccomend different games to your friends.

The "Recommended For You" services on Steam are designed to help gamers discover new games and DLC based upon their tastes and recent purchases, as well as games recommended by friends.Recommendations will appear both on the "Recommended For You" pages as well as in your Steam Community News Blotter. In addition, individual game pages will now include Recommendation info, providing gamers with even more information on the 1,200-plus titles available on Steam

[br] To get more information on Recommended for you, visit http://www.steamgames.com/

 

[Bob-taro]

Surprise #2?

Okay, Valve had announced 3 upcoming surprises:

1. the Mann store
2. "Recommended for you"
3. maybe ... EPISODE 3!!!

A man can dream, can't he?

 

[ríomhaire]

The recommended for you isn't one of the surprises (there was an open beta for it a while ago) and I don't think the TF2 shop was either.

 

[kojk6]

The recommended for you isn't one of the surprises (there was an open beta for it a while ago) and I don't think the TF2 shop was either.

Actually i think Doug mentioned it in PC Gamer .

 

[ríomhaire]

Actually i think Doug mentioned it in PC Gamer .

I thought he specifically mentioned it wasn't. I'll go Google it.

 

[Vegeta897]

These things never work.

Steam only has its games in a handful of very general categories. Are they going to start adding more subcategories?

If I bought a bunch of strategy games, is it just going to give me some random list of all the other games in the 'strategy' category? How useless. I can browse that myself.

Perhaps it will narrow down the list based on customers who bought the game you own as well as a game you don't own.

Either way, if you want to find a game that is similar to another game, there are much more easy and effective ways of doing it.

 

[ríomhaire]

These things never work.

Steam only has its games in a handful of very general categories. Are they going to start adding more subcategories?

If I bought a bunch of strategy games, is it just going to give me some random list of all the other games in the 'strategy' category? How useless. I can browse that myself.

Perhaps it will narrow down the list based on customers who bought the game you own as well as a game you don't own.

Either way, if you want to find a game that is similar to another game, there are much more easy and effective ways of doing it.

It gives you games based on the games you've recently been playing. Eg, it gave me DoDS because my most played Steam game is TF2. I have a feeling it goes by people who play the same games as you also play this game, so it should be to your tastes. It also tells you games that your friends have been playing a lot recently.

 

[Vegeta897]

I suppose I'm just being cynical then. Expecting too much from the phrase "Recommended for you" as if it was an actual intelligent decision that someone like a friend could give you who knows about the game you're playing rather than just some cold calculation.

 

[Shakermaker]

OK, for the heck of it. What does it recommend for you? I get:

Dead Rising 2
Sniper Ghost warrior
Kane & Lynch 2
Mafia II
The new Borderlands DLC

I might get Dead Rising when it's cheap and for my PS3. But other than that: No thanks, Steam.

 

[Paulaner]

I suppose I'm just being cynical then. Expecting too much from the phrase "Recommended for you" as if it was an actual intelligent decision that someone like a friend could give you who knows about the game you're playing rather than just some cold calculation.

The "recommended for you" thing is present in almost every internet shop. I don't expect it being more than statistical calculations about play time, categories and games played by friends.

 

[StarBob]

I got a suggestion for the Overlord expansion because it was the last game I played.. only played two hours though.

 

[morgs]

I was suggested Bloody Good time, anyone played it?

 

[Kisze]

"Recommended for you" probably sees that you play game 'A' a lot and sees that other people who play game 'A' also play game 'B' a lot and then (if you don't already own it of course) it recommends you buy game 'B' ('B' will probably have to be in the same genre though...).

 

[Warped]

I haven't tried it yet but I imagine since I have like 170 steam games it'll only recommend me the shitty games.

ok, so it recommends me some decent games, but i've played most of the ones being recommended. also they seem to shove a lot of expansions at me. i don't like expansions so this may be annoying i think i'd rather just browse like i always do by price point or wait for the xmas sale again

 

[Otto-Grainer]

Expecting too much from the phrase "Recommended for you" as if it was an actual intelligent decision that someone like a friend could give you who knows about the game you're playing rather than just some cold calculation.

Rather? The brain does "cold calculation"s exactly like that every time you shop for anything. That's what it's for. If a friend only knows what you've played, s/he would likely offer you a far less accurate collection of games based on that than Steam does. I think you need a friend who knows you, and what exactly you liked about one particular game in order for suggestions to be more accurate. Heh, although personally I don't have a friend who knows me that well.

Also, does anyone else notice it's only giving you suggestions based on "recent" games you've purchased? I guess it'll be a little while before it picks up everything in your steam account, or maybe it just only started recording a few weeks ago. Also also, I think it does more than "Based on your purchase" of whatever game, it actually recommends some stuff completely unrelated to a title you bought, but far more related to how much you've played a certain game with a friend who's played another particular game.

 

[Vegeta897]

Rather? The brain does "cold calculation"s exactly like that every time you shop for anything. That's what it's for. If a friend only knows what you've played, s/he would likely offer you a far less accurate collection of games based on that than Steam does. I think you need a friend who knows you, and what exactly you liked about one particular game to be more accurate.

A game being similar to a game you like does not make it a good recommendation. Some games are just bad. Steam is totally impartial to the quality of a game.

 

[Krynn72]

It recommends Dead Rising 2 and Black Ops based on my playtime with New Vegas.

I dont think its working right...

Also almost all the rest of the stuff its recommending is DLC or strategy guides. Come on.

Also, holy shit Teafour. You alone made Global Agenda into the second most-played game out of everyone on my friends list.

 

[ríomhaire]

It recommends Dead Rising 2 and Black Ops based on my playtime with New Vegas.

I dont think its working right...

Like I said it sees that you're playing New Vegas and then checks what games people who are playing New Vegas are also playing and guess what are the three big new releases right now that everyone is playing?

 

[Krynn72]

Ergo, broken.

Its a recommendation system, not a what-are-people-playing chart.

Also, how are any of these games "similar" to BIA: Hells Highway? Steam recommendations are even worse than Netflix. Impressive.

 

[Paulaner]

Ergo, broken.

Its a recommendation system, not a what-are-people-playing chart.

Also, how are any of these games "similar" to BIA: Hells Highway? Steam recommendations are even worse than Netflix. Impressive.

These things never work, I'm not surprised.

 

[Vegeta897]

Like I said, if you want to find new games, it's always better to just google it to find games similar to what you like. You'll always find threads on random forums of people asking the same thing you are, and you get actually intelligent human advice and recommendations, not just some software shitting out zeroes and ones.

 

[Surrogate]

It's a frequent pattern matcher. Amazon and countless others use those.

They can be fairly accurate, if given enough data. So it will, if they did it right, become more accurate as data is collected, and as purchases are made such that it can learn the patterns.

These systems can never cater personally to you, but if they accumulate enough data, they will be able to provide a good quality of offers.

Since Valve most likely keep a lot of data (legally or not), they should be able to create, in time, a good pattern matcher. Who knows, perhaps in a year or two, it will have learned our purchasing patterns better than our loved ones and friends? It all depends the level of effort they are putting into it of course.

Do not disregard the power of statistic and artificial intelligence pattern matching; it has already surpassed humans in so many fields. We'll only see more of it

 

[ríomhaire]

Perhaps eventually the recommended for you think will offer you automated personal discounts based on your stats. You seem to have been playing a lot of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., fancy Metro 2033, 10% until Monday, only for you *evil laugh*

 

[dogboy73]

The only thing I've ever bought on Steam is the Orange box. So what will they recommened for me other than EP3?!

 

[Paulaner]

...automated personal discounts based on your stats.

This would be original and quite awesome.

 

[Krynn72]

The only thing I've ever bought on Steam is the Orange box. So what will they recommened for me other than EP3?!

Call of Duty: Black Ops