As I’ve mentioned before, I play and write about video games quite frequently. My parents probably thought that this particular hobby wouldn’t get me far in life, and to that I say “hah!” However, since becoming an adult gamer (and subsequently, a writer on the topic), I’ve certainly discovered the need to budget my time properly. No, this doesn’t mean spending less time on games and more time on work. It means spending less time looking for games and more time gaming.
If you’ve never read the popular gaming webcomic Penny Arcade, you’re doing yourself an egregious injustice (especially if you like games). The comic includes an amazingly witty, yet dry sense of humor that the creators (along with the help of The Binary Mill) so gracefully included when they developed Decide-o-tron: an iOS app that recommends games based on the games you already like. It’s like iTunes Genius, but for video games. Let’s dig into it more after the break.
Getting Started
As you know, if you’ve ever read any of the reviews I’ve written, interface plays a big part in making or breaking an app for me. Fortunately, Decide-O-Tron has a slick interface that successfully blends the iOS usability we’ve grown accustomed to with the aesthetically pleasing art style of Penny Arcade.
Decide-O-Tron 8000
Upon launch, Decide-O-Tron will ask you your preferred gaming platforms, and is capable of recommending games for Game Boy Advanced, GameCube, Nintendo DS and 3DS, PS2, PS3, PSN, PSP, Wii, Xbox and Xbox 360, and Windows PC. You’ll also be asked to input some superficial personal information, like your postal code and age, which I can only assume is used for regional information and the recommendation of games rated Mature.
But how will I discover new Dreamcast games?
Decide-O-Tron supports Facebook connect, for syncing your games library so you never lose your data, as well as turning even your single player gaming habits into a social experience.
Finally, you’ll be asked to begin building your games library, so that Decide-O-Tron knows what you like and what to recommend. There are several ways of doing this. The fastest is to import your games library from PSN or Xbox Live (assuming you use either of these services).
Functionality
If you’ve elected to build your games library manually, you have two options. Tap that Search tab on the bottom bar, and you can choose to either search for a game via text field or to scan a bar code. I’ll mention the bar code utility more later, but it’s useful here for plopping down on that big old bean bag chair next to your games shelf and quickly scanning all of the games you own into your library.
It's like a self-checkout but in my living room.
Whether you scan a barcode or search with text, tapping on a search result will bring you to the game’s information screen. Here you can find out quite a bit about the game, including a general review score, the release date and a brief overview, among other things.
Most important, however, is the two buttons located beneath the game title. As you’d expect, you can tap Add to Library to add this game to the list of games you own, thereby improving the suggestions that Decide-O-Tron imparts. The other button, Add to Wishlist, lets you keep track of the games you discover but don’t yet own.
One of my favorites.
Tap on that Wishlist tab at the bottom of the screen to view all of the games you want. You can sort this list by priority, or filter out the games that are already released or are upcoming titles.
There are probably more games that I want…
The “What’s New” tab at the bottom of the screen shows you upcoming titles from your Wishlist as well as a few contextual lists from the creators of the app. Interestingly, this is also the screen where the only ad in the entire app is located. Not bad for a free app.
New Releases
So you’ve got your library built up, and your list of games you want is stocked up with upcoming titles. Now it’s time for Decide-O-Tron to tell you what to play. Tap the corresponding tab at the bottom.
Decide-O-Tron makes suggestions in one of two ways. You can tap Choose Criteria and input game information such as genre, platform, release date, or review score, and the app will pull a list of titles that match these criteria. You can also opt to exclude games that are already in your Library or your Wishlist.
I only play games that get 100/100.
Alternatively, you can simply ask Decide-O-Tron to make recommendations based on the titles that are already in your library. After a pleasant splash screen, the app will give you a list of titles it thinks you might be interested in playing. This list can be filtered with the same criteria as if you were searching based on criteria alone.
Time to make a spreadsheet for my games budget.
Final Thoughts
Decide-O-Tron focuses primarily on the utility of the games recommendation engine. This is certainly a neat feature, as I have enjoyed using the similar iTunes Genius feature when searching for music or iOS apps. But with the embarrassment of riches that is the Fall gaming release season, Decide-O-Tron (particularly with the Wishlist feature) is also a great app for cataloging your games and keeping track of the ones you want. Next time you’re at the game store and you notice a game you want to remember, whip out your iPhone, scan that barcode and add that title to your Wishlist.
Non-gamers will likely find Decide-O-Tron useless, but if your thumbs feel at home on those joysticks, you can’t beat the low, low price of free for cataloging and discovering new games.
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