Steam discovery queue and related stats

Some time back, Steam decided to implement a "discovery queue", whereby they would present their customers with a daily selection of a dozen games (and now, other things like streaming videos), tailored to their tastes, with an eye towards tempting them with things they might like, but otherwise might never see.  Great idea in theory, and I've played along, checking out a batch of games on a more-or-less daily basis.  Steam says I've now been presented with over 10,000 different titles... sounds like a fine time to see how the idea matches up with reality!

First, the numbers... of those 10,002 items I've been exposed to, 4,151 I've rejected outright.  I think that illustrates how well tailored their recommendation engine is... and it's no surprise to me, really.  Their tool allows you to define tags you're not interested in.  For example, I've told it I don't care about any "VR" titles (because if there's one thing I hate, it's wearing goggles over my glasses), yet still they show up in my queue.

How about the positive results?  Well, at this moment, I have 66 games in my "wishlist", waiting for sales or an unexpected "dead zone" in my gaming desires to snatch up.  I have another 21 games in "early access" or otherwise "coming soon" that I'm following - I don't buy unfinished games (what with the bounty I already have and/or are finished and waiting in my wishlist), and that lets me keep an eye on promising titles and see who makes it to a properly finished game, and who gets abandoned or rushed out the door in an unfinished state.  As for actual purchases, I've currently got 445 games in my library, along with three pieces of non-game software and three series of streaming videos... at first blush, 4%+ sales might not seem like a bad thing, but those numbers also include games I purchased before this program launched, and games I bought through the Humble Bundle, where I've often picked up a game or two I wanted, along with 6 or 8 that I didn't care about, because, at a buck a piece or so, with proceeds going to charity, why not?  Side note:  you should look at the current Humble Bundle... I'd be all over it, if I didn't already own the games I care about in it.

I guess the takeaway here would be, if you haven't tried Steam's discovery queue, it wouldn't hurt to give it a go for a few days, but expect diminishing returns to set in quick.  Unless you're like me, that is... I find it entertaining in its own right, seeing some of the dreck people try to pass off as a worthwhile, playable game, never mind some of the straight-out weirdness you can find.