Steam Labs is a virtual place where Valve conducts "experiments" to make Steam easier to use. One of the most interesting experiments we've seen so far is the "Interactive Recommender," which uses machine learning instead of traditional tags to find games you might be interested in.

The latest experiment, Play Next, performs a similar function and is based on the same technology that actually powers Interactive Recommender. But instead of rooting around the store to find a game you might want to buy, it uses your vast backlog (you have one, right?) to find a game you might want to buy.

The Play Next page lists three games from your library that you should consider playing next, each with a micro-trailer (another Steam Labs attempt), tags, and a short list of similar games to give you a reason to be interested If you know more than the machine, you can determine that you know more than the machine. If you decide you know more than the machine, a "Next Picks" button will bring up a list of three different games. It is unclear if there is a strict limit on the number of recommended games, or if the number of recommended games varies depending on the size of your library or other factors: a total list of 12 games, starting with "Metro: Last Light Redux" and ending with "Shadow Warrior Classic Redux," is The list repeats itself.

Valve warned that there may be some bumps along the Recommend Road as they continue to tweak and tune the system. They said, "The algorithm we use to select comparable games is also a new system we're experimenting with here in the lab, and it's a work in progress. So don't be surprised if you see some unexpected comparables," they wrote.

Most of the suggestions I receive are of the "yeah, yeah, I know" sort that I can expect, but a few are unexpected. For example, "Jotun" is said to resemble "Shadow Warrior," "Lovely Planet," and "Limbo," and one (a reboot of "Thief," which I won't name) is said to be similar to "Dishonored 2," "Death of the Outsider," and "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided," however reasonable the suggestion that it "resembles" Ex: Mankind Divided, it won't. (Sometimes machines don't understand.)

As the careful may have noticed, Play Next is Steam Labs experiment 008, and its previous experiment, Community Recommendations, is 006. Valve has stated that nothing crazy is happening: it's just that it's not a "good" game. Valve has stated that nothing strange has happened: they started experiment 007 before Play Next and are still working on it.