These are some neat features.
It's rough around the edges, but playing around with the Interactive Recommender has already resulted in a bunch of new additions to my wishlist.
Hopefully Valve will keep working on it, cause it certainly seems to do a better job than the old discovery queues.
I also look forward to seeing what kind of novel features that Epic will bring out in response to the competition. Maybe a *checks notes* shopping cart?
Where were you every other year Steam adds and experiments with features?
What you could thank Epic for, is better communication of what they do in the form of larger summaries posted to the SteamWorks community of developers - which hadn't happened since EGS (despite the work occuring well before hand) - rather than the standard "here's the new feature" post: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/1697194621363928453
If you're paying attention - this is the same as every year
Look at valve jump with that shopping cart nipping at their heels.
Ironically, the continued development of steam will be a lot more visible now that this horse race has been conjured up. So many are compelled to compare now.
Look at valve jump with that shopping cart nipping at their heels.
Ironically, the continued development of steam will be a lot more visible now that this horse race has been conjured up. So many are compelled to compare now.
I found it funny to see the 2018 year in review summary that was posted - with all the links to all the features / changes posts they had made that folks conveniently forget about. There is a ton of work needed for Steam particularly with the choice of how their store will operate (as open as possible) bringing its own challenges. However, with Valve functioning at this usual pace, there is far more improvements vs nearly every other provider - which really is a necessity with the scale and breadth of customers and games. Hopefully the refreshed client beta isn't too far behind
Actually recommending games you like then? I mean, it can't guess what you've got on other platforms.
The Microtrailers should use you're excluded tags, actually same should be said for the recommender. yes, the recommender has selection to exclude tags, but it should use the tagging already used elsewhere I think.
This is a good point though. Typically I would "ignore" these games, but that would indicate that you do not like the games.
So what they need is a marker for "I own it and like it" in addition to "ignore", and recommendations can then hopefully be games you might actually want to have recommended
Parsnip brought this up earlier, but there are problems with using time played as the metric for a recommendation engine. The time you spend with a game doesn't directly correspond with how much you like it. Should a 3-hour narrative game that touched your soul really count for less than an idle game you ran for 150 hours while binging Netflix? And if the recommendation engine turns out to drive sales, indie developers can't afford to ignore it. Are we going to see studios try to optimize their game concepts to resemble games with high average play times?
All of that is basically steam's half-assed curation which I have absolutely zero interest in. In theory it is great and I am curious at the Interactive Recommender. But my experience is that if you already own most of the games you like to play (e.g. Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress, when DF is on steam) it just defaults to "I dunno, this is popular?" since people who played at least one of those games also played that.
In ways ti reminds me of Pandora back in the day. If you like death metal you got a LOT of death metal and it was awesome. If you liked bands like Poets of the Fall you tended to eventually get a broken channel because their songs have enough range that it pokes in to other genres and eventually you are rocking out to NSync (not that there is anything wrong with that).
And god help the Bowie fans.
Although I do wonder how many precautions were made to ensure there is less porn than the average Artifact stream in Automated Show and the like.
The recommender is neat, but they need to let you set a threshold for the amount play time a game needs to be taken into account. I have a bunch of games that I've idled for cards and they should not be taken into account.
Don't do this. Definitely don't do this. Not if you're working AT work anyways. Some ladies in suggestive poses start flashing their underwear during the Strategy Games rundown, its one of those hentai slide puzzle games.
Oh hey, totally random, but can you sell me on Overcrowd? It's the sort of thing that seems really in my incredibly niche wheelhouse, but the reviews seemed a little lukewarm/mixed.
Holy crap, the Automatic Show feature is something that I was recently thinking Sony or MS could add on their stores as a way to quickly promote indies every month, although more about Sony given how they don't seem to focus as much on those. Something about a monthly/weekly video of upcoming and new releases and a UI prompt for every game to jump directly to the store page or add it to wishlist if the viewer was interested. It turns out Valve did it first, and it's indeed something they needed.
The games are moving a bit too fast, tho, but I can't think of a way to promote all those game without sending the video length into almost an hour.
As someone who plays mostly strategy games on PC, seeing Counter-Strike near the top of the Recommender list was...weird. The rest of the list wasn't particularly interesting either. But once I moved the slider all the way to 'niche' things got reeeal interesting. Ended up putting quite a few gems on the wishlist. Moving the other slider to show games a year since release also brought up some interesting results.
Parsnip brought this up earlier, but there are problems with using time played as the metric for a recommendation engine. The time you spend with a game doesn't directly correspond with how much you like it. Should a 3-hour narrative game that touched your soul really count for less than an idle game you ran for 150 hours while binging Netflix? And if the recommendation engine turns out to drive sales, indie developers can't afford to ignore it. Are we going to see studios try to optimize their game concepts to resemble games with high average play times?
The good news is: we already take this into account, for exactly the reason you describe. Play-time information is normalized based on the distribution of per-game play-time, so that games with intrinsically different play times are on an equal-footing as far as the model is concerned.
1) It's great to see Microtrailers essentially become official, and the subsequent idea of the quad trailers is something I really like.
2) The Automated Show takes the quad trailers concept and converts them into a half hour presentation. It's probably the most effective thing in terms of the number of additions to my wishlist. However, I do think it would be better suited splitting each component into an individual video, so instead of generating one half-hour video every day, Steam generates a dozen three-minute videos that get updated every fortnight or so. It's something that probably takes some refinement to get right (especially on the categorisation: Senran Kagura Reflexology is definitely not a simulation game!)
3) The Machine Learning Recommendation thing kinda breaks for people who idle for cards (like me), since the only two data points are playtime and release date. I'd like an option to filter out stuff that I've already ignored and stuff I've already wishlisted. Ideally, I'd like the algorithm to take account ignores/wishlists, but for a first draft it seems pretty effective for most people.
2) The Automated Show takes the quad trailers concept and converts them into a half hour presentation. It's probably the most effective thing in terms of the number of additions to my wishlist. However, I do think it would be better suited splitting each component into an individual video, so instead of generating one half-hour video every day, Steam generates a dozen three-minute videos that get updated every fortnight or so. It's something that probably takes some refinement to get right (especially on the categorisation: Senran Kagura Reflexology is definitely not a simulation game!)
I agree with you and I was being sarcastic over the insufferable defense that "EGS will make Valve compete". I updated my post to make it more obvious.
Oh hey, totally random, but can you sell me on Overcrowd? It's the sort of thing that seems really in my incredibly niche wheelhouse, but the reviews seemed a little lukewarm/mixed.
Weird. Store page has Steam reviews at Very Positive.
And outlet impressions seem to back that up as well.
"Immediately compulsive ... what's here is already a wonderful mix of strategy and puzzling" Rock, Paper Shotgun
"Cool-looking ... quirky-looking ... blends base-building, pausable real-time strategy, and spatial puzzling" PC Gamer
"The unlock tree seems extensive, randomised environmental restrictions add an extra layer to the experience, forcing ingenuity in your multi-floor station layouts, and there looks to be enough control over individual elements - from deciding which tools your staff prioritise on their rounds to which staircase leads up and which goes down - to ensure that there are always interesting strategic and creative choices to be made. Oh, and it's wonderfully presented too." Eurogamer
"Hugely satisfying ... Overcrowd seems likes a great spin on the Theme template, and I can't wait to try it again" Kotaku
"Overcrowd hits that sweet spot of being challenging. Each time I lost a mission it made me more conscious of how I build the station and what I should avoid next time" Big Boss Battle
Anyway, like it says on the tin, Overcrowd is a glorious mashup of builder/tycoon foundation, RTS staff management, and spacial puzzling. All done with crisp, inviting visuals and a killer retro soundtrack. It's a really unique product.
It's funny, as someone who's completely allergic to the RTS genre, Overcrowd does have a lot of RTS gameplay elements but it doesn't bother or fluster me in the least.
You spend a lot of time directing your staff around taking care of decaying needs, like emptying bins, filling fuel generators, watering plants, etc. Then you have to pay attention to how the commuters are reacting to the space. They have little text prompts over their heads commenting on lighting conditions, amenities, prices, and such. They can be pro or con and this affects your station's Reputation, an important game statistic. So you're reacting to their needs in real time, using Bonds (game XP) to build out your tech tree with new infrastructure items to make them happier.
There's a lot to pay attention to, but it never feels overwhelming or anything. The game is just asking you to consider big-picture growth while paying attention to small-picture station maintenance.
It's pretty damn ace when you get into the rhythm. It's got a neat flow. Reminds me a lot of Two Point Hospital but with deeper building tools.
KatherineOfSky has a great YouTube series on the game if you want to see it in action.
I tested the 3 features out and the recommendation thing is nice, in my case I already knew about those games when looking at niche and new but ya those are games that I would buy if I had both the time and money and also when looking and popular and old I knew about those game and would buy them if I had the time and money.
The Automated Show thing is nice but I think it would be nicer if it had a time stamp so that you can see what category of stuff they are showing.
The micro thing is cool and is does also seem to show stuff for curators that you follow.
Hopefully the next thing they can do is recommend which games to play out of my backlog
Is the automatic show done with machine learning? Would it be unrealistic for them to eventually generate individual videos per genre, even if less frequently?
Finally Valve heard my plight for a Direct-like highlight video! While I don't mind everything is AI-generated, I hope a (or ideally, several) human still do the final passing before publishing the video.
Is the automatic show done with machine learning? Would it be unrealistic for them to eventually generate individual videos per genre, even if less frequently?
I wish there was a way to easily omit one of your games from influencing the Interactive Recommender. I have over 3000 hours in Dota 2 (the grand majority of my time on Steam) but I don't want any other games like Dota 2. It still ended up with a pretty good selection of games based off the other games on my list, but it'd be a nice tweak to the feature.
I'm actually really liking the recommendation engine (especially that popularity slider), but I think Steam needs to either factor in games I have wishlisted/followed, or include a button that lets me say I own it somewhere else. Most of my old/indie games I either own a physical copy or own on GoG.
Weird. Store page has Steam reviews at Very Positive.
And outlet impressions seem to back that up as well.
"Immediately compulsive ... what's here is already a wonderful mix of strategy and puzzling" Rock, Paper Shotgun
"Cool-looking ... quirky-looking ... blends base-building, pausable real-time strategy, and spatial puzzling" PC Gamer
"The unlock tree seems extensive, randomised environmental restrictions add an extra layer to the experience, forcing ingenuity in your multi-floor station layouts, and there looks to be enough control over individual elements - from deciding which tools your staff prioritise on their rounds to which staircase leads up and which goes down - to ensure that there are always interesting strategic and creative choices to be made. Oh, and it's wonderfully presented too." Eurogamer
"Hugely satisfying ... Overcrowd seems likes a great spin on the Theme template, and I can't wait to try it again" Kotaku
"Overcrowd hits that sweet spot of being challenging. Each time I lost a mission it made me more conscious of how I build the station and what I should avoid next time" Big Boss Battle
Anyway, like it says on the tin, Overcrowd is a glorious mashup of builder/tycoon foundation, RTS staff management, and spacial puzzling. All done with crisp, inviting visuals and a killer retro soundtrack. It's a really unique product.
It's funny, as someone who's completely allergic to the RTS genre, Overcrowd does have a lot of RTS gameplay elements but it doesn't bother or fluster me in the least.
You spend a lot of time directing your staff around taking care of decaying needs, like emptying bins, filling fuel generators, watering plants, etc. Then you have to pay attention to how the commuters are reacting to the space. They have little text prompts over their heads commenting on lighting conditions, amenities, prices, and such. They can be pro or con and this affects your station's Reputation, an important game statistic. So you're reacting to their needs in real time, using Bonds (game XP) to build out your tech tree with new infrastructure items to make them happier.
There's a lot to pay attention to, but it never feels overwhelming or anything. The game is just asking you to consider big-picture growth while paying attention to small-picture station maintenance.
It's pretty damn ace when you get into the rhythm. It's got a neat flow. Reminds me a lot of Two Point Hospital but with deeper building tools.
KatherineOfSky has a great YouTube series on the game if you want to see it in action.
Thanks, that video series is pretty neat! I think my main concerns from the negative reviews I read were "not enough management sim" and "too much employee micromanagement." The latter I'm still not sure about, as there does seem to be an awful lot of it, but KatherineOfSky's videos alleviate the worry about "not enough management sim" somewhat.
Back to the main topic: I think Steam actually rolled out the microtrailers a bit earlier, as I seem to remember seeing them on the main page during the summer sale. Also, I can already see the perils of using the Interactive Recommender:
I'm desperate for a 'I already own this on another platform / have played this' button on Steam. Until they add it, their recommended lists feel useless to me :/
I'm desperate for a 'I already own this on another platform / have played this' button on Steam. Until they add it, their recommended lists feel useless to me :/
Yep. For the games I end up owning I create a category in my library for things like this. Only to of course lose them at some point when Steam decides to erase my categories.
The recommender didn't seem to factor my much higher playtime of Hitman 2016 with the recommendations, and I was bummed to see they didn't include the "assassination" tag in the drop down to further narrow the recommendations. I wanted to find more games like that but no dice apparently. When I threw the slider to niche titles I got about 90 percent horror recommendations lol. Some of them look interesting but the list wasn't nearly as big as I was hoping, maybe about 10 titles in total. Hope this gets more tweaks to generate varied results.
I actually really like the idea of the automated weekly shows giving highlights of current or upcoming games. Even better is their suggestion of varied genres because I really do sometimes want to know just what is available in a specific genre then the whole store and means a far quicker video cut.
Definitely love these experiments, it is exactly what Valve needs to do in order to engage customers on what is new and upcoming because any form of true gate keeping like Epic's just becomes very selective on who is allowed to be there. That is 100% not fair to developers even if the current situation is saturation of the market, because media like this gives customers the chance to sift through the saturation.
Yep. For the games I end up owning I create a category in my library for things like this. Only to of course lose them at some point when Steam decides to erase my categories.
Yeah categories are still client-side at the moment, though hopefully we can get cloud saves of those. I actually have it set up with OneDrive that it backs up the Steam userdata folder so that I've always got a backup just in case.
My most played games are FFXIV (70 hours) and Dragon Quest XI (50 hours), followed by Ni No Kuni 2 and Dark Souls 3.... and The Interactive Recommender recommended me DMC 5, Resident 2 and Doom.
Nifty. I've added at least 4 games to my wishlist because of this recommender. Just to keep track of them. I've discovered quite a few games I never would have otherwise.
Being able to browse a bunch of trailers quickly in a genre you're interested in, for instance Rogue-likes, is a nice way to see a lot of games you might like.
One of the problems with browsing game lists, even narrowed by genre, is going into each and every product page and seeing what it's like. Microtrailers makes that faster.
A quick test of "Rogue-likes" let me browse through a dozen games really fast to get a general idea of what each is sort of about.
With some tweaks here and there these could be really great tools going forward.
I'd like to see the Automatic show split into it's categorised parts and some additional user definable variables to the interactive recommendation device but so far this is looking very promising.
