Blitz should make better recommendations

[MurphyRock]

My recommendations page is filled with at least a dozen instances of pointless "Get more stars" or "Revisit this song" (even when I already have the #1 score for that particular song!), but not even one instance of "Try this" for a song I already own but haven't played. I have to go to the "Your songs" tab to play those.

Why aren't my owned but unplayed songs being recommended to me? I think that recommending songs I own but haven't played yet would be a good idea, since most of the time that's what I actually want to do!

Also, recommending more than one Score War at a time would be extremely helpful, pretty please! Two or even three Score War recommendations would be ideal. (Hint: To get a new random Score War recommendation, exit completely back to the title screen and then start/reconnect to Rock Band Central - you do not need to quit the game).

[Magnet]

I don't find the Recommended page very useful at all, which is really unfortunate since it was designed to get you spending less time in menus and more time playing songs. Right now I have 8 "Play it again" choices, which I really have no desire to do when I primarily want to play new songs I own but haven't played yet. "Played by friends" seems to be the only time songs I already own but haven't played yet are suggested to me, but it's rare that those songs are in fact ones I haven't played yet.

I'm really surprised the Recommended system is so focused on replaying songs instead of playing unplayed songs.

More than one Score War suggestion at a time would be awesome. Currently what I do if I don't like the Score War is to start the Score War, select Compete Later, go to the Score War under Messages, and then decline it. That's another way to make a new one show up on the Recommended page.

[joseph5185]

hmm..

I'll have to confirm, but I'm pretty sure I get suggestions for songs I have not yet played...that are DLC...

[ixnay]

I too mostly get recommendations for songs I have already played. When I do get recommendations for DLC I don't own, it seems to only be basing them off of alphabetical order since every recommended song title starts with a number or the letter 'A'

[LuigiHann]

I was thinking about posting this as well. I figured it was just a fluke but my experience has been pretty consistent with Murphy and Magnet, that once I played through the initial recommendations, every recommendation aside from Next Blitz Song is either an ad for DLC I don't own, or a suggestion to replay a song I've played already. You'd think it'd be at least 50/50 between played/unplayed suggestions...

[FairwoodStudios]

I think there should actually be a few different approaches to recommendations, seeing as people are always going to approach Blitz differently. So I propose a few different angles-

Collector: Pretty much takes the DLC recommendations and plops them on that tab.
Completionist: Prioritizes songs you haven't played yet; failing that, songs which you haven't gold-starred.
Perfectionist: Prioritizes songs you played but haven't gold-starred; failing that, songs you haven't played; failing that, songs you're low on the leaderboards for.
Social: Finds songs in your library that fit the week's new goals, along with more Score War suggestions (possibly even combining the two).
Default: Picks two or three songs for each category (which is usually close to current behavior, aside from when you get all replay ones...)

Best-case, you'd be able to go into Settings and select which category you want to use, so you get the best-tailored recommendations. But that'd require a patch, so probably just going with Default or picking one at random each run would work (as I'm guessing that recommendations are at least slightly server-side).

[SirDavidTLynch]

From what I can tell, the recommendations screen is weighted towards recently-purchased and recently-played songs. I can get behind the former, making the new stuff easy to find. However, I don't see any reason to revisit a song I already gold-starred the first time when there's hundreds of songs in my library I haven't played at all.

[MurphyRock]

A day after posting this and thinking about how it would work, I just realized why Rock Band Blitz doesn't make recommendations for songs you haven't played yet. I think that it has to do with the "server-based" nature of Blitz.

My theory is this: Recommendations actually come from the Rock Band Central server, not from the local game, and Rock Band Central isn't aware that you own any songs other than those for which you have posted a score.

Is this theory correct?

[thatmarkguy]

My theory is this: Recommendations actually come from the Rock Band Central server, not from the local game, and Rock Band Central isn't aware that you own any songs other than those for which you have posted a score.

Is this theory correct?

Not correct. I had that theory as well, until I put it to the test - I own but have not yet logged a play (in any game) of The Black Keys' "Howlin' For You". However, it is in the pulldown of songs in the Score War tab of the RBW app (which only lists songs I own).

Somehow, RBCentral knows I have that song even though I have never played it in any game. I would guess that RBB uploads the list of content it finds at scan-time to the servers.

[FairwoodStudios]

Somehow, RBCentral knows I have that song even though I have never played it in any game. I would guess that RBB uploads the list of content it finds at scan-time to the servers.

And I seem to recall Nord saying as much, since someone was doing strange stuff with tags and accounts and the result was being able to start a war over a song they didn't own.