Today Steam announced the “Play Next” experiment that uses an algorithm to help you decide what games you should play. This process uses similar technology to the Interactive Recommender Valve released some time ago. While I’ve only tested the Recommender, it did suggest games that I already had interest in or would at least like to try.
Digging into my extensive backlog, the first set of games wasn’t particularly impressive. All three were very old games. Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has been in my library since 2012. They were even suggested based on games I haven’t played in years. I think there might be some bugs to be worked out in this process.
Personally, my method for attacking my ever-growing backlog is to play what seems most interesting. Plenty of games are going to slip through the cracks, but I can’t dwell on lost opportunity. I find it more enjoyable to play a classic game people would want to talk about from the past few years than to dig into some obscure indie title I might have overlooked from 2014. That’s just my perspective though. This tool on Steam may be your new best friend in defeating the multi-headed hydra that is the video game backlog.
Here’s a full article discussing how I decide what games to play.
