Dear Valve: Please Fix Steam in 2017
- Thread starter ffronw
- Start date
Where'd my game go?: This is really more of a gaming media issue than a steam issue. If a game is on steam, its extremely easy to find, every game has a list of similar games next to it to organically feed into other games. The fact is you won't be able to find every game on a generated list of suggestions when there are hundreds of popular games. Other than a brief moment under "new releases" a sales platform is never going to be the primary means of advertisement for a product.
Where'd all these games come from?: Steam has never claimed or tried to be a gaming gatekeeper. In fact it has went through efforts to allow small indie developers to be able to publish on steam. With ease of access means that more shovelware garbage will flood the system. Honestly the best I would even consider is a system similar to Xbox 360 xbox store and xbox arcade. Basically hiding any non-AAA developed game behind an "indie/small dev" filter or checkbox. Keep in mind this will infuriate pretty much every single indie dev as now their products are listed with the rejects on steam instead of the front page.
Why does the Steam sale suck now?: Refunds. Since you can refund games, you can't have 90% off sales, since you don't have short window 90% off sales there isn't incentive to keep checking the store 4 times a day, since there isn't incentive to check the store every 4 hours, you just buy the games you want and don't look back. And since there's no reason for users to keep checking in, there's not really incentive for steam to make mini games and spend money to give them things to do.
So, what should Valve do about it?: They have games queue and games curators for organic discovery, the bloat of crapware is one of the important issues that I think could be alleviated with soft blocks. Basically if there's too many refund or negative reviews for a game, it is removed from anything other than directly searching. If a single developer has this on too many games, any new release are auto banished unless redeemed. Also they do need to hire at least a small team to start removing the worst of the worst offenders, if not already being done. Steam sales aren't going to get better, but they can find better ways to engage players, such as their "Name your own category awards" interaction has to shift with shifting market.
Where'd all these games come from?: Steam has never claimed or tried to be a gaming gatekeeper. In fact it has went through efforts to allow small indie developers to be able to publish on steam. With ease of access means that more shovelware garbage will flood the system. Honestly the best I would even consider is a system similar to Xbox 360 xbox store and xbox arcade. Basically hiding any non-AAA developed game behind an "indie/small dev" filter or checkbox. Keep in mind this will infuriate pretty much every single indie dev as now their products are listed with the rejects on steam instead of the front page.
Why does the Steam sale suck now?: Refunds. Since you can refund games, you can't have 90% off sales, since you don't have short window 90% off sales there isn't incentive to keep checking the store 4 times a day, since there isn't incentive to check the store every 4 hours, you just buy the games you want and don't look back. And since there's no reason for users to keep checking in, there's not really incentive for steam to make mini games and spend money to give them things to do.
So, what should Valve do about it?: They have games queue and games curators for organic discovery, the bloat of crapware is one of the important issues that I think could be alleviated with soft blocks. Basically if there's too many refund or negative reviews for a game, it is removed from anything other than directly searching. If a single developer has this on too many games, any new release are auto banished unless redeemed. Also they do need to hire at least a small team to start removing the worst of the worst offenders, if not already being done. Steam sales aren't going to get better, but they can find better ways to engage players, such as their "Name your own category awards" interaction has to shift with shifting market.
local currency would be a good step. im getting sick of randomly guessing what the actual price will be.Bedinsis said:
alot of excitement from the sales has probably gone for most people simply because they have already picked up most if not all they badly wanted in previous years
Use the quote thingy like everyone else, its a great tool to have discussions that arent direct responses to the original post.TomWest said:
bluegate said:
And yeah, I know you arent pointing fingers but still, just to keep everyone chilled, I do buy recent games at full price if its something that I want (recent examples, Hitman full season when only the first episode came out, Doom, Rainbow Six Siege). So yeah, basicly the only games that to me were the ones that I was actually getting hyped before release.Bedinsis said:
The rest, yeah, I wait, because Im not that into them but I know that I will still be able to enjoy. And those games are the ones that might as well be bought in a sale, I wasnt going to buy them at full price anyway.
Cant make me feel guilty for trying to be a considerate consumer and avoid impulse buying shit that I dont really need or want.
I can't agree with the logic of this post, at least in terms of specifically the video-game industry.bluegate said:
One, between the costs of certification processes and the fact the console owner takes a giant swath of the income, a developer selling on steam even at a massive discount is still seeing as much if not more profit than they would from the console market per sale.
Two, on consoles after the initial opening period of sales that tends to be all you get because of the prevalence of used game sales in physical media. A game on a sharp sale on steam generates some money, while a used game sale generates none for the publisher/developer.
Three, developing for one platform doesn't tend to be an exclusive thing unless a platform is paying for it to be so. Once you have a game ready for a console, there's no reason not to port it to PC so long as you expect the sales of it to be greater than the port cost.
Four, even if the industry does 'collapse', someone else will fill it in. There is a demand for PC experiences, and so long as there is money to be made somewhere someone will be setting up to make money off it.
Valves passive attitude towards what's coming on to steam, aside from games not that wouldn't even qualify as an alpha, has directly endangered users through content creators (or rather those who bought Unity assets) insinuating ill intent both on and around steam itself.
To me that is something that really does need sorted, Greenlight started off promising, Giana Sister Twisted Dreams being one of the first titles (a great game), but much of it now seems like a have-a-go exploitation than opening the door for content creators with genuine commitment towards quality.
To me that is something that really does need sorted, Greenlight started off promising, Giana Sister Twisted Dreams being one of the first titles (a great game), but much of it now seems like a have-a-go exploitation than opening the door for content creators with genuine commitment towards quality.
Flash sales became redundant when Steam Refunds entered the picture, since Valve explicitly said they don't consider refunding a game and then immediately buying the discounted version to be a abuse.
The surge of trash on the store is also unbelievable. And I simply don't buy that it's impossible to do any form of duration. Half of these games have glaring flaws in the first TEN MINUTES for goodness sakes: a single employee testing to see if the game is PLAYABLE on start-up shouldn't be too much to ask, and would probably cut the flood by a good portion to boot.
The surge of trash on the store is also unbelievable. And I simply don't buy that it's impossible to do any form of duration. Half of these games have glaring flaws in the first TEN MINUTES for goodness sakes: a single employee testing to see if the game is PLAYABLE on start-up shouldn't be too much to ask, and would probably cut the flood by a good portion to boot.