Don’t disappoint DEWEY
Steam is back with another game-backlog-clearing exercise for 2020. I barely made a dent last year, but I enjoyed having a nudge to play – or at least think about playing – some of my library’s deep cuts.
This time, Steam’s Spring Cleaning Event has a little helper companion, DEWEY, the “Smart Home Librarian,” to recommend you games that have been stuck sitting in your library, unplayed and unloved, for too long. By finishing his tasks, you’ll earn a 2020 Steam badge that can be further leveled-up.
More to the point, you’ll light up a multi-floor home, which is satisfying in a “Wow, am I this easily amused?” sort of way. I’m not kidding! I wasn’t going to report on this, but the house hook got me.
There are seven Spring Cleaning tasks in total, and each of them is represented by a grayed-out room. If you click on a DEWEY icon on one of the floors, he’ll pop out to suggest three games in your backlog for a given category. For instance, these are my suggestions for the Trusted [Human] Friend task:
My friends have good tastes! And boy, I sure am terrible about owning games on multiple platforms – in this case, Anomaly and Fallout: New Vegas – and then somehow never touching them on Steam.
You can’t participate in the Spring Cleaning activity unless you’re logged in, and if by some miracle you don’t have an endless lineup of “maybe later” games sitting in your backlog, Steam will push free titles instead. If you need DEWEY’s motivating presence, the event runs until May 28 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific.
I know people get into badges and trading cards and all that extraneous jazz, but I hope Valve considers adding a more impactful reward to the next event. A coupon, even a small one, could go a long way.
