Let Penny Arcade Pick Your Next Game

[Marshall Honorof]

Let Penny Arcade Pick Your Next Game

Why rely on your puny human brain to decide on a game when the Penny Arcade guys can use the robotic overmind to do it for you?

The robot apocalypse might come way of Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade. Oh, sure, it seems innocuous enough right now: The popular webcomic, in conjunction with metrics company EEDAR, will release an iOS app to recommend games based on players' personal tastes. However, the Decide-o-Tron is, "The avatar of a sentient artificial intelligence, housed in your handheld device." Start warming up those EMP grenades.

If you decide to throw caution to the wind and learn more about this app, you may be pleased to know that the Jerry "Tycho" Holkins had some more to say about it. "The Decide-O-Tron is essentially Pandora for games, that's about as clear as I can make it," said Holkins. "It can very quickly build a library of the games you like and own, and then - just as quickly - tell you what you should play next."

While similar services already exist, this app has two very interesting pedigrees. One, of course, is from Penny Arcade, and the other is from Geoff Zatkin, President of Electronic Entertainment Design and Research. EEDAR supplies metrics and database research to many major game companies, including Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Sony Computer Entertainment, and Take-Two Interactive. Between the pop culture sensibilities of the Penny Arcade team and the multitude of data on hand at EEDAR, the Decide-o-Tron's predictive potential could be astounding.

The Penny Arcade guys generally turn out good non-comic entities. They've already made two videogames, a CCG, and a multi-million dollar charity, so a game-choosing app should be well within their capabilities. Expect it to launch within the next week or two, although interested users can demo it at PAX.

Source: Joystiq [http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/22/decide-o-tron-app-from-penny-arcade-will-help-you-decide-which-g/]


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[GeorgW]

Seems like a good game, but why iOS exclusive? Everybody knows Android is what all the smart people use, and doesn't Gabe use windows 7 phone?

 

[Something Amyss]

I was actually interested in trying this, then I saw this was an iOS app, and I don't have any iProducts anymore. Ah well.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

Hopefully this gets brought to Win7 phone and Android devices, I'm fairly interested in trying this.

 

[Tzekelkan]

Also, it's going to be free. So yay.

Want Android version.

 

[Odlus]

Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of dumb. Are people really to lazy to actually go to a game store and pick out something on their own? Besides that its completely useless. I doubt that app could accuratly predict half of the shit that I would or would not like. Hell my game library is so random the thing would probably rather delete itself then even try.

Yes, I'm sure you're a rather unique and beautiful snowflake whose tastes could never be predicted or understood. But for the rest of us peons who don't have the time to look up an online review for every game in the store, it'd be nice to have a program that could make potential suggestions based on our gaming likes and dislikes.

If I bought more than one or two games a year this would see some use from me. Heaven knows how much I've used Pandora.

 

[Odlus]

Yes, I'm sure you're a rather unique and beautiful snowflake whose tastes could never be predicted or understood. But for the rest of us peons who don't have the time to look up an online review for every game in the store, it'd be nice to have a program that could make potential suggestions based on our gaming likes and dislikes.

If I bought more than one or two games a year this would see some use from me. Heaven knows how much I've used Pandora.

Why do you have to look up a review? Cant you you know actually judge for yourself wether or not you think a game is good. I find that using common sense and ones own instinct works a hell of a lot better then looking at some highly skewed review (hint they all are) from some random smuck.


Sure I dont buy games all that often but there is no way in hell I would ever use some shit like this or trust a reviewer. I also the only ever time I have purchased a game that sucked was because I took somebodies advise.

Not everyone has piles of spare cash lying around they can waste on trying out random games on a hunch. I, and many other people, read reviews to save myself money or to find games I should look into more. Bastion would have never been on my radar if I hadn't seen the video review for it here, for example.

 

[tharglet]

Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of dumb. Are people really to lazy to actually go to a game store and pick out something on their own? Besides that its completely useless. I doubt that app could accuratly predict half of the shit that I would or would not like. Hell my game library is so random the thing would probably rather delete itself then even try.

Personally, if I were to use it, I wouldn't necessarily be looking for things I may have heard of... there's many games out there, and if something can suggest a game that I've possibly never heard of, that appeals to a certain section of my gaming library it could have potential interest.

 

[TheAweDude]

Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of dumb. Are people really to lazy to actually go to a game store and pick out something on their own? Besides that its completely useless. I doubt that app could accuratly predict half of the shit that I would or would not like. Hell my game library is so random the thing would probably rather delete itself then even try.

Personally, if I were to use it, I wouldn't necessarily be looking for things I may have heard of... there's many games out there, and if something can suggest a game that I've possibly never heard of, that appeals to a certain section of my gaming library it could have potential interest.

And that, at least I think, is what the app is truly designed for. No, it's not going to tell you that you have to play Portal, Bioshock or CoD, it's going to suggest indie games that you've never heard of.

 

[infohippie]

I'd love to give this a try, hopefully it can come up with some esoteric choices that I would never have heard of otherwise. I, too, hope it gets an Android release, since I don't own any iDevices. And aren't iPhone sales in a gradual decline now, as Android picks up more ex-Apple customers?