One of the features that I and a few others missed about the old design was the area to the sides of the game pages which gave you recommended games. You can see what I mean here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20150318060043/https://www.vizzed.com/play/goldeneye-007-n64-online-nintendo-64-9018-game
(look to the very left and right; may not be able to see it on small monitors)


I've added a section to the very right of the 'PLAY GAME' links which does pretty much the same thing as you can see here:
https://www.vizzed.com/play/goldeneye-007-n64-online-nintendo-64-9018-game


The new one definitely does a better job at finding similar games. I placed it toward the top of the page because I wanted everyone to see it without having to scroll down the page. Since the old page had the games within view above the fold, it resulted into users finding games that they weren't necessarily looking for which means they played games longer and that definitely increases the chances of a new users sticking around. Having it in a spot where it will not go unnoticed means that users are always going to be finding new games to discover based on their current interest.


The query that finds the games is a little intensive so it only executed once per a day (midnight server time) and then caches that info to be re-used throughout the day. It'd really slow down the page if that query was being executed with every page view.


Here's the formula which is used to finding similar games. Each time one of the following fields is found as a match, that basically counts as a "point" and the results are ordered based on which game has the highest "points" that match the current game. Any fields below that have a "x #" means that the points of that match are multiplied by that number.
-name x 4
-theme x 4
-Genre Sport x 3
-Game Genre x 3
-Perspective x 2
-Hack Type x 2
-Genre Non-Sport x 2
-Genre Misc x 2
-Developer
-Publisher
-System

In situations where more than 1 game have the same amount of points, the tie is determined based on which has the highest rating * votes formula. I might make adjustments to the formula at some point but I'm really liking what it recommends at the moment. In the above Goldeneye example, the top recommended game is Perfect Dark which is very convenient since that's basically the spiritual successor to Goldeneye.

If you're playing a Football game, most of the recommended games will most likely be Football games. If you're playing a Christmas game, most of the recommended games will most likely be Christmas games and the ones that are more similar will show up first. If you're playing a game called Aladdin, a lot of the recommended games will most likely also be called Aladdin. Keep in mind that the more information the game your playing has, the more similar the recommended games will be but if you're playing a game that doesn't have very many details added to it (and you can find this out by looking at the right 'Information' box), you probably wont have any games recommended that are very similar but they still could potentially be games you might be interested in.


I'd recommend visiting some of your favorite games to see what's recommended. If you have any questions or feedback, be sure to let me know.

Already noticed it AND used it discover a new game for me : Ghostmuncher Galaxian. lol True story.

This is awesome! I'm so glad that you brought this feature back (as we talked about before) I feel like it's a great way for people to discover games that they might not have found on their own.

You did a great job on the layout of the added feature. It looks great! Great job David!

Ferdinand : Great to hear

Jordanv78 : Yeap and I personally find this new Recommended Games section more useful then the old one. It's actually kinda fun going through various games to see what's recommended.

I noticed this today when I was playing a hack of Lode Runner called Mario Runner. It recommended me the original game! It also recommended me some other games featuring Mario

Thanks for bringing back this handy feature!

I noticed this yesterday screwing around in the RGR a bit. I wont use it much, but it is nice to know that the simularity firmula has been revamped. Might try ut a time or two, tyhough.

Great!
That feature helped me find some great games too. :3