Valve has announced that they've updated their Deep Dive experiment in an effort to get some better results out of it, and also so it performs better.
Part of this update was just making the search perform smoother, and Deep Dive should now return results a lot faster. Another part was also changing up the UI some, and the goal was an easier to read system that now displays its finds in columns instead of rows. You also now have the ability to mix and match sections, able to change any of the three categories into another. My advice is to change all three to "similar gems" for the best result.
However, the biggest change came from one of the search algorithms being replaced. Originally the "very similar" section just pulled the "more like this" search from Steam, while the "somewhat similar" section used a custom algorithm that would basically run the search twice and pull up second-hand results. However, this meant that each search would double, and the results weren't the best, so Valve chose to can that algorithm. Now the "somewhat similar" section will pull up the "more like this" search from Steam, while "very similar" section runs a new algorithm called Keystone Tag that will only consider tag similarity and absolutely nothing else.
Out of curiosity, I tried the experiment again, the same way I did when I first wrote about it in a news article. I once again used Remember Me to see what I'd get. My "similar gems" were the exact same as they were last time, and my "somewhat similar" games were now the exact same three games that were my "very similar" games that I got last time, which makes sense considering the changes Valve said. Now my "very similar" games were Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Complete Edition, Devil May Cry 3 Special Edition, and Devil May Cry HD Collection. Having played all three of those games, and Remember Me, I can safely say that the "very similar" section still needs a lot of work.
However, by following my earlier advice to change all three to "similar gems", I ended up with some really interesting games I've never heard of, such as ECHO, Neon Struct, and Quadrilateral Cowboy, along with some games I have heard of, like State of Mind and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, that are much closer to what I was actually looking for.
If you want to run the Deep Dive yourself, you can find it in Steam Labs.
How do you feel about Deep Dive? Have you managed to find any cool games using it? Not interested? Let us know in the comments below!
