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[luvcraft]

I realize it's not a game, but I've had pleasant experiences with announcing projects that WERE games here, and it's game-related, so hopefully this announcement will be well-received.

I'm working on an automated video game recommendation website called reccr; basically you rate the games that you've played, and it compares your tastes to everyone else's tastes, and recommends games that it thinks you'll like. It's currently in beta, and it needs more "social" aspects, but the core "recommendation" feature is working great, and it also has tags and the ability to comment on games. It also gives you the option to submit games that aren't in the system yet if you do a search and the game you want doesn't show up.

There are a few indie games there already, but you're welcome to submit more; there's a specific "platform" icon for Windows indie games, and games tagged with it automatically link to TIGdb on their details page.

So! Please come check it out, rate some games, submit any games you want to see added, leave some comments, and tell me any feedback, comments, questions, bug reports, etc. that you have, either here in this thread or via the contact link on reccr. Thanks!

[it_is_coming]

It said I would like Deus Ex because I like Dwarf Fortress.

[tergem]

I would like pac man because I like civilization and mirror's edge? 

In order for this to work you're going to need more people using the site, otherwise rating by democracy is worthless.

[verhoevenv]

I got Baldur's Gate 2 because I like VVVVVV...

I hope this gets improved somewhat by gathering more ratings, but it seems there's a whole lot of clustering of 'general good games' without much differentiation. And frankly I'm not sure it will get better a lot.

I have never done anything with recommendation engines so there's not much advice I can give you. I would take a look if it's possible to gather more input about the games than a simple one-dimensional rating - things like genre, age etc - and maybe see if you can toss that in the mix, but you'll have to do your own experiments to see if the predictions get better.

OTOH, I *know* I have to play the games it recommends, so I guess it's not too bad, but the 'why' (which makes you think of 'this game is comparable to') is kinda off-putting.

[mcc]

It said I would like Deus Ex because I like Dwarf Fortress.

That... makes... a frightening amount of sense

[luvcraft]

thanks for the feedback so far! Deus Ex -> Dwarf Fortress kinda makes sense to me, too.

as tergem mentioned, the recommendations will steadily get better and better the more people rate games (which is why I'm trying to get the word out about it and get more people to join), but I think it's already really useful, and has recommended me a lot of games I never would've considered otherwise.

The "games with similar ratings" section doesn't indicate games with similar gameplay, it indicates games that appeal to people with similar tastes; so even though Cave Story and Rock Band 2 are nothing alike, the fact that they have 100% similar ratings means that if you liked one then chances are you'll like the other even though they're very different games. If you're looking for games with similar gameplay, that's what the tags are for (and you're also welcome to leave comments listing games with similar gameplay).

I realize that seems kind of strange. I guess I've found my first question for the FAQ!

[valis]

Sign in via Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo!

Say what?  How about not?

Nice idea but does it really require signin based on external credentials?

[kyru]

Nice idea, signed up and started rating things, also added info for a game I couldn't find.

On that, how long does it take for added games to show up on the site?

[luvcraft]

Sign in via Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo!

Say what?  How about not?

Nice idea but does it really require signin based on external credentials?

yep! As it says on the sign-in page:

Why is reccr asking you to sign in via Facebook or Twitter? It's simply so that reccr can rely on another service to verify that you are you. It means that you don't have to come up with another password just for reccr, and it means that reccr doesn't have to worry about storing passwords and keeping them secure.

reccr will NEVER post anything to your Facebook, or Twitter, or any other service without your explicit permission.

So far everyone who's told me they were worried about signing in via Facebook or Twitter is OK with signing in via Google, and overall I've gotten a lot of positive response to how easy the sign-in is.

[luvcraft]

Nice idea, signed up and started rating things, also added info for a game I couldn't find.

On that, how long does it take for added games to show up on the site?

it takes until I get on and check the queue of new submissions.

Thanks for using it! Please let me know how good or bad your recommendations look!

[Danmark]

There really needs to be a category for mods. Total conversions are games unto themselves, as different from one another as stand-alone games using the same engine, even if you need to purchase another game to play them. I've certainly clocked more hours in mods than all other games combined, and a couple of my all-time favorites are mods.

Especially at this early stage, with many even non-obscure games not yet listed, there really needs to be a way to see which games you've submitted. They don't show up immediately, I guess pending moderator approval? That makes sense. You must be able to see a list of approved submissions of yours though.

[floatstarpx]

I don't think it really works very well... they should look at a different recommendation algorithm.. it suffers from the problem last.fm used to suffer from - where it'd always recommend The Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers to everyone because they were so popular...not much use as a recommendation, really. They found a better way to do the recommendations/comparisons/etc.. - I can't remember the details, but I'm sure they've blogged on it.
Example:
It's recommending me Brain Age Express: Sudoku, and says... "Because you liked Left 4 Dead".