What does Steam think that "players like you love"?

[ZedClampet]

Steam has many mysterious algorithms to help you find things to play/buy. There are at least two sections that say "Players like you love...". One is on the store front page, and one is in your library (you have to have "play next" selected as one of the sections).

For me, in my library, Steam has been recommending Bioshock 2 Remastered for ages. Yes, I got it somehow at some point, but that's obviously not my sort of game. Bioshock 2 is it's number one recommendation, but the other recommendations seem more accurate, like Elite Dangerous and Fallout Shelter.

On the storefront, the AI must've been drunk when it gave me these recommendations: Battle for Bikini Bottom, Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, Man Eater. and Lost Ark. I might try Lost Ark once it settles down a bit, but the rest of those are not happening.

So what does Steam think you'd love? Do they seem accurate?

 

[Brian Boru]

Hah, interesting Q

Storefront:
Gordian Rooms—escape room puzzle, decent suggestion.
SWTOR
bitburner—coding game, decent suggestion.
Halo Infinite

It's safe to say from those that the Storefront is at least half only a marketing tool, only half related to my likes—the other half is presumably Steam's likes. Half of those are multiplayer, which is a sin I've never been guilty of, same applies to MMORPG.

Library:
Tomb Raider is my top, but I don't see myself bothering with it, it has 4 strikes for me—third-person, platformer, RPG, QTE—if the tags are accurate.
Other suggestions are …um, reasonable… considering there's a reason they remain unplayed in my library.

 

[Zloth]

Store (my first list had Star Wars: The Old Republic, which I went and ignored because I played it elsewhere, then I came back to the front page and got this):

• Star Wars Squadrons (nope, too peoplee)
• Death Stranding (sane suggestion)
• The Ascent (nah, too shooty)
• Chorus (nah, too shooty)

Library

• Divinity: Original Sin Enhanced Edition (already played the not-enhanced edition)
• Devinity 2 Developer's Cut (already played the uncut)
• Plague Tale (should be playing it real-soon-now)
• God Eater 2 (played it, didn't enjoy it much)
• Doom Eternal (should be playing it soon)
• Assassin's Creed 3 (came free with Odyssey, not planning to play it)
• Ashesh of the Singularity (came free with something? won't play it)
• Bioshock 2 Remastered (already played the original)
• Plague Inc (came free with something, could possibly play it)
• Borderlands GotY (played the original)
• Far Cry: Blood Dragon (maybe someday)

And so on and so forth. Underworld Ascendant shows up eventually... eeesh.

Also funny sometimes is the "similar to games you've played" that Steam shows. If there's any tag that's the same, it seems to kick it off. Chorus, which is a space shooter, is marked as being similar to No Man's Sky and Horizon: Zero Dawn.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Steam has many mysterious algorithms to help you find things to play/buy. There are at least two sections that say "Players like you love...". One is on the store front page, and one is in your library (you have to have "play next" selected as one of the sections).

For me, in my library, Steam has been recommending Bioshock 2 Remastered for ages. Yes, I got it somehow at some point, but that's obviously not my sort of game. Bioshock 2 is it's number one recommendation, but the other recommendations seem more accurate, like Elite Dangerous and Fallout Shelter.

On the storefront, the AI must've been drunk when it gave me these recommendations: Battle for Bikini Bottom, Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, Man Eater. and Lost Ark. I might try Lost Ark once it settles down a bit, but the rest of those are not happening.

So what does Steam think you'd love? Do they seem accurate?

It seems "Play Next" is based on unplayed games in your library only, as when I click on it, Steam comes back saying "You don't have any unplayed games in your library that are strongly recommended for you".

At any rate, their so called "strong" recommendations are indeed a bit off the wall. On the store front under "Players Like You Love", sure there's a few I've played like Days Gone, Battlefield V, and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, but the bulk of it is stuff I have no interest in, like Madden, NBA2K##, SIMS4, and some BMX game. Their algorithm seems very poorly made, and I have to wonder if it's largely a scam to clean out their closet.

It's also very poorly utilized, as it tends to only scroll through 3 pages of games, which change randomly. When I first looked at it, one of the pages showed Monster Energy Supercross - The Official Videogame 4 (which makes sense because I own the previous game in that series on Steam), but now it doesn't show, and the sports game suggestions I see now are far worse. There's literally only those 3 games I mentioned that are interesting to me at all. The rest I don't give a crap about.

Algorithm my arse!

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

Gears Tactics:

Makes sense as I played a fair amount of it on Gamepass already

Star Wars Squadrons:

No idea why this is suggested, I played about 5 hours of Elite Dangerous and no other space combat or flight games. Not many Star Wars games in the last 15 years either since the KOTOR games, apart from Jedi Fallen Order which was also on Gamepass so Steam has no idea.

Mini Motorways:

Never heard of it, looks interesting and probably the best suggestion out of these considering its completely new to me.

Detroit: Become Human.

Played Heavy Rain on PS3 a long time ago and it was fine I guess. I did play Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us all seasons a long while ago so maybe its thinking I'm still interested in story/adventure games.

Weird how its not recommending Total War Warhammer 3 at all, considering the first two games are my most played games by hours spent.

Library is recommending stuff I already played on another platform that I picked up on sale like Dead Space and Bioshock 2 remastered, also Child of Light, The Surge, Wasteland, The Messenger. Stuff I picked up really cheap on sales and haven't felt like digging into yet.

Did anyone do a 'whats your game completion rate in steam' thread yet? I dont remember one and I just realized it tells you on your profile.

 

[Alm]

I get:

• Cloudpunk - Looks cool but I don't know anything about it.
• Automobilista 2 - again I like racing games so I think I would like this.
• Jackbox 7 - I have a Jackbox bundle which is great but I think that a lot of them would disappoint.
• Gwent - tried it, not for me.
• Doom 64 - Might be worth a try. I liked the originals, but never completed them.
• Forza Horizon 5 - I have this on Gamepass, it's great.
• Titanfall 2 - I have this on Origin. A really good game but multiplayer I get annihilated.
• Sea of Thieves - I like the game but wish there was a PvE only version.
• Crab game - I don't think this is my type of game.
• Control - On my to-be-played list.
• bitburner - Probably not for me.
• Wingman - I like the idea of fighter jet games but most leave me disappointed.

 

[Brian Boru]

whats your game completion rate in steam' thread

Kinda sorta, but not really

Completionists—are we there yet?

Who among us is in urgent need of MAT—Move Along Therapy? How long do you stand on the MAT? Must you get that last obscure hidden item, even if it takes the weekend? Or are you more of a wipe your feet on the MAT and keep going kind of player—give the 100% a shot, but oh well if you can't hit...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Pifanjr]

On the storefront I get:
Muck, a free survival roguelike that looks like something you wouldn't pay money for.
Sea of Thieves, which one of my friends almost convinced me to buy a few months ago to play with him, so that's a decent recommendation
Vampire Survivors, a bullet hell roguelike.
Helltaker, a free indie puzzle game

I'll check the library later, I don't have Steam installed on my work laptop.

 

[Frindis]

Store Page:

• Loop Hero
• Bitburner
• Helltaker
• OpenTTD
• TapWizard
• Perfect Vermin
• Melvor Idle
• College Bound *COUGH*
• Wizards
• Crab Game
• Trudograd
• Nightmare

Library (First ten):

• Chivalry: Medival Warfare
• Clicker Heroes
• Will To Live
• This War of Mine Final Cut (played on GoG)
• Borderlands The Pre-Sequel (played free week or something, not a fun game)
• Vermintide (played the sequel, not my cup of tea)
• RPG MO
• Fable Anniversary
• Stone Shard Prologue
• Minion Masters