Steam maker also reiterates it doesn't want to moderate things as the "taste police."
Read the whole story
Read the whole story
Valve working on “more accurate” replacement for Steam Spy’s sales data
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Nobody is asking for the "taste police". We're asking for curation based upon basic things like doing away with blatant asset flips and bug riddled incomplete games. For fucks sake, some of the trash on the storefront shipped without EXE's to actually run the damn game! That speaks of absolutely zero quality control. Forget a bug that makes a game unplayable, no EXE means nobody can even start the damn thing in the first place. Many of us are tired of Steam being the new Atari when it comes to QC.
Upvote
99
(103
/
-4)
To quote the late John "Total Biscuit" Bane (poorly): "If you are asking for money it's a full release, either fix the bugs in a timely manner or be prepared to offer a lot of refunds."
Upvote
51
(52
/
-1)
Sales data in the world of PC gaming has been really hard to come by compared to the mobile storefronts for a long time. You can get sales data for various apps on Android and iOS without much of a hassle for comparison. Steamspy came in and filled that gap.
Both players and developers can benefit from this data, it could help players know if a multiplayer game is actually successful for example, and for developers it can help with knowing how big a demographic they could potentially attract with a certain type of game.
The remaining question is probably whether or not Steam will make it possible for individual publishers/developers to opt-out their data. But if they do, it might indicate that their game failed and that they're afraid of people hearing about it.
Regardless, there might be more alternate solutions to approximate that data popping up, like this one for example:
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerGl ... nsteam.php
Both players and developers can benefit from this data, it could help players know if a multiplayer game is actually successful for example, and for developers it can help with knowing how big a demographic they could potentially attract with a certain type of game.
The remaining question is probably whether or not Steam will make it possible for individual publishers/developers to opt-out their data. But if they do, it might indicate that their game failed and that they're afraid of people hearing about it.
Regardless, there might be more alternate solutions to approximate that data popping up, like this one for example:
https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TylerGl ... nsteam.php
Upvote
19
(19
/
0)
It's amazing how massive Steam is for how little features it really is. Despite the whole thing being a relatively tiny shop, it sells a huge amount of software. I'm surprised (as in not really) that Steam didn't have enhanced sales data back around 2012-2013. It is a multibillion dollar company.
Just goes to show how incredibly awfully misunderstood and mistreated PC gaming has been by the big publishers. The worse thing is how Steam is the best games marketplace platform out there. It's like if the smartphone market consisted of Android (Steam), and a few other junky OSes from the early 2000s. There is no iPhone equivalent.
To be fair I like Steam. It's simple and does mostly what I want it to.
Just goes to show how incredibly awfully misunderstood and mistreated PC gaming has been by the big publishers. The worse thing is how Steam is the best games marketplace platform out there. It's like if the smartphone market consisted of Android (Steam), and a few other junky OSes from the early 2000s. There is no iPhone equivalent.
To be fair I like Steam. It's simple and does mostly what I want it to.
Upvote
33
(38
/
-5)
They have been promising a new, better, store UI for years. Better curation tools. Better skin support. Better community support to stop spammers(No russian bot, I am not joining your group, why do I even get those invites?). Better Tools for managing large games libraries.
Add this to the fucking list of things Valve promises but I will not hold my breath on waiting to see.
Add this to the fucking list of things Valve promises but I will not hold my breath on waiting to see.
Upvote
17
(23
/
-6)
I am sure Steam has advanced Analytics they give certain groups(IE not us). They have talked about sales data in the past and how certain discounts drive sales numbers.
Steam is not stupid. They are just lazy and their supposed completely flat management structure lets them keep being lazy.
Upvote
26
(28
/
-2)
Public APIs are great. How much will they reveal though? Will we see sales numbers? I can see reasons developers might not want to make such things public. They might not even be allowed through certain publishers.
There have been weeks the DLC looked better than the shovelware which made up the entirety of that week's releases :/
Upvote
19
(19
/
0)
Upvote
9
(15
/
-6)
No, there are plenty of gamers who use Steam and do want Valve to reject the games that are outright racist/sexist/etc. As someone else pointed out above, right now Valve is well on its way to becoming another Atari unless they prevent publishers from putting out another Custer's Revenge on their platform.
Upvote
8
(35
/
-27)
I don't know about Valve's curating of it's software library, but I would appreciate the ability to turn off automatic updates for games and software I've installed through Steam.
Upvote
-7
(4
/
-11)
edit: I have to eat crow. I tried to block updates in a steam game and didn't see any options to do so.
Upvote
21
(22
/
-1)
My views on what should or shouldn't be on the storefront are probably different than yours, and that is the same for every user on the platform. I am sure there are quite a few users that would cheer a Custer's Revenge style game (an many other things I find racist/sexist/etc.) Heck, there are celebrated games like Mike Tyson's Punch Out and Duke Nukem 3D that could be legitimately argued to be blocked for the above listed reasons. Do you really think they should be banned because they are sexist and/or racist? It isn't Valve's job to police this crap, it is our society's job. Our problem is we are too busy celebrating our own collective fall into decadence to care.
Upvote
21
(32
/
-11)
Since they're offering games makers so little, they should really drop their rates. Taking 30% off the top is too much if they're not even helping to find customers.
Upvote
17
(20
/
-3)
Yes i believe that data is being sold and having it available for free is not in their best interest.
Upvote
4
(7
/
-3)
Albino_Boo
Ars Praefectus
It not being lazy the sales breakdown and the demographics of those that buy games is worth money. The big boys get that data,why should they give away commercially valuable data for free.
Upvote
4
(6
/
-2)
You forgot to mention Half Life 3. We've been waiting for that since 2007.
Upvote
16
(18
/
-2)
Besides Custer's Revenge, what other games are on your list of games I shouldn't be able to purchase on Steam?
After that, I'll share my list of games that you shouldn't be able to purchase on Steam.
Upvote
21
(32
/
-11)
They got rid of that a few years ago.
Edit: You can defer it until you open the game/software though.
Upvote
10
(12
/
-2)
Yeah I'm sure Sony Nintendo and Microsoft are losing money hand over fist as they 'moderate' historic games into the furnace of 'generations'.
Perhaps people who are suggesting Steam's approach is significantly disliked by the Steam user base can explain, why don't those users just buy their games from the windows store or elsewhere?
Upvote
-12
(5
/
-17)
Ironically enough, GoG does exactly the opposite even if they can't track sales and online users as well as STEAM. Their business model is about restoring games and getting rid of bugs before releasing.
Just pointing this out, since most companies would not release a game without DRM in GoG due to shareholder backlash.
Upvote
22
(24
/
-2)
I didn't forget. Gabe just has a google bot that counts posts about it. Then he delays it by a week every time somebody mentions it.
Upvote
21
(21
/
0)
Ever notice that most of the people whom are the loudest about censoring some form of media(comics, movies, rap, video games, ect) are usually the people whom know very little about it or not familiar with things?
I had a friend, who is a gamer, very disconcerted about Steam's accouncement about open access to all games. But when prodded he basically admitted he only plays consoles games and hasn't even touched steam in years.
Upvote
-15
(15
/
-30)
Well shit. I didn't believe you, so I opened Steam, and under Automatic updates, they have three options:
1. Always keep this game up to date
2. Only update this game when I launch it
3. High Priority - Always auto-update this game before others.
Unless I am missing something, it looks like you are absolutely correct and Steam is forcing updates.
Upvote
29
(30
/
-1)
Does basic quality standards equal the "taste police", now? Is that what's happening? Has Valve lost all sense of self-respect for their storefront and their user base, and now only care about making as much cash for as little effort as possible? Actually, that's a stupid question, because the answer is clearly yes, if they can't be bothered to remove garbage like Active Shooter and AIDS simulator until prodded by the press. I guess Valve has become just another lifeless bottom-feeder corporation, in the veins of Activision-Blizzard or EA; although not quite as bad as either of those.
Or maybe I'm just saying that because they haven't made a new game in years, and they haven't had a chance to show this new cultural shift in a new game yet. I suppose we'll get to find out whenever Artifact (or whatever it's called) comes out.
Regardless, I'm done with Valve's mealy-mouthed promises and apathetic attitude. Maybe they will prove me wrong, but I really doubt it. Guess it's time to move over to GOG for the foreseeable future.
Or maybe I'm just saying that because they haven't made a new game in years, and they haven't had a chance to show this new cultural shift in a new game yet. I suppose we'll get to find out whenever Artifact (or whatever it's called) comes out.
Regardless, I'm done with Valve's mealy-mouthed promises and apathetic attitude. Maybe they will prove me wrong, but I really doubt it. Guess it's time to move over to GOG for the foreseeable future.
Upvote
6
(18
/
-12)
Upvote
-4
(4
/
-8)
Thanks to the controversies surrounding games like Active Shooter and AIDS Simulator, Valve has effectively dodged the issue of basic quality control. Ever since Erik Johnson's blog post the other week, I've seen lots of comment threads devolve into shouting matches. One side has people who have wanted, for quite a while, for Valve to curate Steam and remove games that are broken asset-flips that were made in the span of a day, as well as similar-quality titles that are just meant to game the Steam Trading Card market. The other side is a group of people that seem to have only popped up around the time of Erik Johnson's post to defend Valve's complete and utter lack of curation. This group confuses people's calls for quality control with calls to censor controversial games for their content.
Now, anybody who wants Valve to stop broken games and scams from getting on Steam gets lumped into the same group as people who want censorship. In a way, this is probably what Valve wanted all along.
The initial "Who Gets To Be On The Steam Store" post that Valve made co-opted the same kind of language and talking points that genuine free-speech supporters use. Valve is hiding behind said language and talking points as an excuse to further remove themselves from managing their store. It also helped to create a cohort of people that will defend the corporation, with said people creating a false equivalency between wanting a store to be curated based on the most baseline of quality control and wanting a store to not sell a game because of controversial elements in it. The only thing that Valve truly cares about these days is money. I wish that they'd come out and say it to our faces rather than trying to dupe people into thinking they genuinely care about free speech and freedom of expression.
Now, anybody who wants Valve to stop broken games and scams from getting on Steam gets lumped into the same group as people who want censorship. In a way, this is probably what Valve wanted all along.
The initial "Who Gets To Be On The Steam Store" post that Valve made co-opted the same kind of language and talking points that genuine free-speech supporters use. Valve is hiding behind said language and talking points as an excuse to further remove themselves from managing their store. It also helped to create a cohort of people that will defend the corporation, with said people creating a false equivalency between wanting a store to be curated based on the most baseline of quality control and wanting a store to not sell a game because of controversial elements in it. The only thing that Valve truly cares about these days is money. I wish that they'd come out and say it to our faces rather than trying to dupe people into thinking they genuinely care about free speech and freedom of expression.
Upvote
16
(20
/
-4)
To be fair, as I asked before, why are these supposed steam users who want (presumably as you do) a specific 'quality' not just shopping elsewhere, most other (massive corporates) seem to be all about 'quality' control.
Megacorp (market bias/history burning) 'quality control' is pretty much why I put up with steam, but if you don't like it, you're not forced to shop on steam any more than I'm forced to shop in TK Max
Upvote
-11
(1
/
-12)
tl;dr version:
Curation for Quality: Good
Curation for Content: Bad
I agree completely (provided my interpretation is accurate).
Upvote
16
(18
/
-2)
Steam is trash nowadays. Shitty bogus games, DRM and their likewise crappy slow UI. The only thing that good is the review section.
Upvote
-14
(1
/
-15)
Except there isn't actually that much choice. Tons of good games use Steam's backend for multiplayer and/or can't be bought anywhere else.
Upvote
15
(17
/
-2)
Compared to Sony/Nintendo/MS (whose 'curation' I equally dislike)?
Upvote
-9
(2
/
-11)
I'm not sure I understand your series of posts? Are you saying that there is no issue with regard to the technical quality of Steam games that are on the Store?
You come across as saying "yeah...it's crap on the Steam store. That's their prerogative. Don't like it, shop somewhere else."
I think everyone can agree that between Steam and GOG, there isn't really a more comprehensive source for PC games. We'd just like them to do some kind of minimal technical QC on the products they're putting on the shelves.
Upvote
11
(13
/
-2)
I believe you can include the MS store plenty of physical outlets along with steam and gog.
Now where do I go to tell Sony, Nintendo, Apple and google to support 'my choices in curation'?
Upvote
-12
(0
/
-12)
In November I earned my 12 year badge with Steam and I own over 300 games. I think that makes me a Steam user. I, speaking only for myself, don't think Steam gives me enough tools. I was in my queue on Saturday, and it showed me another horrible Sakura game, even though I've clicked "not interested" in any other one I've been shown. Why? Because I played a casual JRPG like Atelier Sophie, and some people tagged it and the Sakura games "moe." Another example, you can only choose 3 tags to filter out, and even they are "less," not none.
So there are people who use Steam and still find its tools for filtering and recommendation poor, and wish there were more curation because of those limitations.
TL;DR: You perhaps don't speak for all Steam users any more than you chided Akemi for.
An edit: I am not calling for horrible sexist games not to exist, I just don't want to be advertised them, and Steam's API is clearly not up to the task, despite 12 years and 334 games worth of training. So I kinda wish those games were opt in instead of opt out.
Upvote
23
(24
/
-1)