AUGUST 2019 PCWorld 23“We chose ‘popularity,’ but you could
also think of it as ‘mainstream-ness.’ One
person wants to know the newest and most
popular games around, and the next person
wants the opposite: games that are
interesting and relevant but not necessarily
well-known. We think this tool will be helpful
to those on both ends of that spectrum.”
It sounds interesting. I have a fairly large
Steam library, and doubtless play more niche
games than the average person. That said, I’ll
be curious what recommendations the new
tool serves up, and whether it at all addresses
the feeling that amazing indie games are
getting lost in the shuffle these days.
It’s worth noting also that while I called the
Interactive Recommender a replacement for
the Discovery system, Valve sees it as
additive—for one reason in particular. “New
games in a system such as this one have a
chicken-and-egg effect known as the ‘cold
start’ problem” writes Valve. “The model can’t
recommend games that don’t have players yet,
because it has no data about them.” Thus the
Discovery Queue will still be the place to find
the newest games—or the new Automated
Show, if you’ve got the patience.BOTTOM LINE
Interesting ideas, all of them. Perhaps what’s
most interesting about this announcement,
though, is Valve’s caution. Valve’s often been
criticized for implementing big ideas without
soliciting feedback first. Hell, it just happened
last month, as poorly explained details
regarding the latest Summer Sale led to
widespread Wishlist purges and raised the ire
of developers.
But maybe Valve’s got it right for once.
From the announcement: “Rather than
introducing a big change to the way
customized recommendations are
determined on Steam, we’re introducing this
new recommender as an experiment
customers can seek out and try. This will help
us get better usage data while avoiding any
sudden shifts that we know can be frustrating
for customers and developers who are
accustomed to Steam.”
It’s a surprisingly responsible approach,
and one I hope pans out. I could certainly use
a few more rafts to survive the flood that is
Steam these days.Interactive Recommender.