Before You Follow a Game Trend, Write Down Three Gameplay Preferences
Before buying a game because it is everywhere, write down three things you personally like doing while you play: the actions you want to repeat, the pace you enjoy, and the kind of progress or company you prefer. Then compare those preferences with the game’s official store description, features, screenshots, and any available demo. A popular tag or review score can help you find a candidate; it cannot tell you whether its moment-to-moment play fits you.
Why three observable preferences help
“I like good games” is too broad to guide a choice. “I like arranging a space,” “I enjoy making a short sequence of tactical decisions,” or “I want to play alone” describes something you can recognize in actual play. A short list gives you specific questions to ask of the store page and keeps attention on what you will do, instead of how many other people are talking about the title.
Use actions, not labels, to describe your preferences. Genre words such as “adventure” or “strategy” can cover very different routines. Steam’s own documentation describes store tags as community-applied categories that include genres, themes, and attributes; popular tags can shift as people apply them. Treat tags as useful clues for discovery, not a complete account of play. Steam: Introducing Steam Tags, A Powerful New Way to Shop For Games
Preference 1: What do you like doing repeatedly?
Start with the activity you most enjoy in games you already know. Think in verbs: explore, aim, build, sort, plan, collect, race, talk, sneak, or solve. Ask yourself what you return to willingly after a game introduces a new area or objective. If the answer is hard to name, recall a recent session: what were you doing when you decided to keep playing?
Make the preference narrow enough to check. “I like building” could mean placing furniture, planning a layout, assembling equipment, or managing a settlement. “I like combat” could mean choosing attacks carefully, reacting quickly, or preparing a character between encounters. Your three notes are not a personality test or a permanent identity; they are working descriptions of actions you have noticed you enjoy.
Preference 2: What pace and decision rhythm suits you?
Describe whether you prefer time to think or pressure to act. You might enjoy pausing to compare options, responding quickly to changing events, or alternating between planning and execution. Add a detail about repetition if it matters: do you like a familiar loop that gradually changes, or do you want each section to introduce a different task?
The official description can suggest a rhythm, but it may not settle every question. Steam recommends that developers use the longer “About This Game” section to describe features in more detail, and says screenshots or short clips can illustrate them. Read past a short store synopsis and look for verbs, examples, and visuals that show what players repeatedly do. If those materials leave your key question unanswered, mark it unknown rather than filling the gap with assumptions. Steamworks: Store Page Written Description
Preference 3: How do you want to play and make progress?
Write down whether you usually want a solo experience, play with other people, or like having both options. Then note what kind of progress feels satisfying: improving a place, unlocking options, following a story, refining a strategy, or simply completing a self-contained round. These are separate questions. A store page may list multiplayer support, but that alone does not tell you how much of the experience depends on it.
Check the platform’s feature list for details such as single-player or co-op, and read the description for what changes over time. A demo, when one is available, can answer questions that promotional wording cannot. Steamworks documentation says demo pages can list the features, languages, and player modes supported by the demo; it also cautions developers to distinguish demo content from features available only in the full game. So check what the demo actually includes before using it to judge the whole title. Steamworks: Demos
Compare the page with your list, one preference at a time
Use a small evidence table. For each preference, record what the official page explicitly supports, what looks plausible but remains uncertain, and what appears not to fit. This is a practical reading aid, not a rating system that predicts whether you will love a game.
My preference: An action I enjoy repeating; Evidence on the official page: A described feature, screenshot, or demo moment; What I still need to know: Does it appear often enough for my taste?
My preference: A preferred pace; Evidence on the official page: The way the description or footage presents decisions; What I still need to know: Is play mostly quick reactions, considered choices, or a mix?
My preference: A play or progress style; Evidence on the official page: Listed player modes and described goals or progression; What I still need to know: Does the relevant mode exist in the version I’m considering?
For an illustration, compare two real Steam pages without treating either as a recommendation. Stardew Valley’s official page describes tending a farm, raising animals, growing crops, crafting, and joining a community; it lists single-player and several co-op modes. Balatro’s page describes a poker-inspired deck-building game involving hands, Joker cards, and combinations, and lists single-player. Those descriptions offer different observable activities to compare with your own three notes. They do not establish which game you will prefer, and the examples do not imply that these are the only ways to enjoy either game. Stardew Valley on Steam · Balatro on Steam
Use reviews to investigate fit, not to borrow someone else’s verdict
A review can be useful when it explains what a player did and what they liked or disliked about that experience. Search the text for your three preferences: Does the reviewer discuss the activity you care about? Do they describe its pace? Are their comments about solo or group play relevant to your intended mode? A broad positive or negative score answers a different, more general question.
Steam explains that user reviews share players’ experiences and indicate whether they recommend a product; the score aggregates positive and negative reviews. That summary does not show whether the reviewers value the same activities you do. Skim a few specific comments for evidence about your list, and set aside comments that do not address your questions. Steamworks: User Reviews
Make a simple decision before you buy
For each preference, label the page’s evidence clear, uncertain, or mismatch. “Clear” means you found a direct description, feature listing, or demo example that supports what you want. “Uncertain” means the page does not give enough detail. “Mismatch” means it explicitly describes a play style you do not want. These labels are a way to organize your reading, not an objective score.
If the central activity is a mismatch, popularity is not a reason to overlook it. If a key preference remains uncertain, look for a relevant official clip, demo, or clearer feature listing before deciding. If all three have some supporting evidence, you have a more grounded reason to consider the game. You can also save it for later: Steam’s Discovery Queue describes options to wishlist, follow, ignore, or skip a title, so encountering a game need not lead straight to a purchase. Steam: Steam Discovery Update
Close with three plain sentences: “I like doing ___.” “I enjoy a pace that is ___.” “I usually want progress or play with ___.” Keep them near you when you browse. The next time a game becomes hard to ignore, compare its official description with those preferences, and let the concrete evidence guide your decision.