Video Store Clerk Simulator
May 3rd, 2008 | by Mike G |
I’ve never found the video recommendation systems employed by the likes of Netflix, Amazon or Blockbuster to be particularly accurate. I’ve seen many movies–approaching 3,000 by my estimate, and it might be that is simply too much information–some of it conflicting–to be of any use to the algorithms designed to cherry-pick only those films that will delight.
Given that, you’d think I’d be better at playing Video Store Clerk in which you play, well, a video store clerk. The premise is that a customer approaches the counter with a film, and based on past ratings of the customer, you must predict how the customer will rate the video on a scale of one to five stars.
According to Ironic Sans, the data from game play will be compiled and compared to real customers’ ratings. A set of data has already been compiled with an automated system for millions of customers. "The question is whether or not the wisdom of crowds can beat the computer. To gather enough data for an accurate comparison, they need a lot of people to play. So please, pass the link around. Digg it. Blog it. They tell me their server can handle the load."
