Poll: Does Steam Need A Purging?

[Vigormortis]

Should we also start trying to burn down physical game stores that still have unsold copies of The Order: 1886 while we're at it?

If you can tell that something is obviously horrid shovelware, just don't buy it. Why is this apparently a difficult concept to understand?

More over, where's the outcry to 'purge' iTunes for housing 'shitty music'? Where's the outcry to 'purge' Walmart because their movie sections house copies of Pixels?

The (double) standards people are projecting here are just baffling.

Well, they already tried the 'Everyone In, Sort It Out Yourselves' approach, and look where we are now - Swimming in shit.

Are we, though? Are we really?

I know everyone keeps saying we are, and many keep pointing to Jim Sterling's ongoing escapades in finding and playing shitty Steam games[footnote]A prime example of confirmation bias.[/footnote], but are we really suffering under a deluge of shitty games? Are we being forced to buy and play the bad games? Have they taken away our ability to discern the bad from the good, to ignore what we dislike, and ask for a refund on the things we regret buying?[footnote]These questions aren't necessarily targeted at you. You're comment functioned more as a segue for me to pose them. Forgive me if they seem combative.[/footnote]

I guess I'm just not seeing the issue. The gaming industry has been "flooded" with shitty games since its inception. Anyone remember the early 90s? This 'problem' is hardly exclusive to Steam.

Ah yes, I see the error of my ways now.

In this case, we should definitely institute a purge led by a brave individual, so let's all let Jeff decide what needs to go. Come on, Jeff - everybody is counting on you!

Oh no, not Jeff! Anyone but Jeff! That guy has no taste! He wouldn't know a good game from a UnitZ asset flip!

Might I suggest Stacy instead? She knows what makes for a good game. Plus, we could claim to be more 'inclusive' because we charged a woman with the task.

That'll show those dirty SJW types. Hmph!

 

[Kyrian007]

No. I always know exactly what I'm spending my money on when I buy a game. The massive library of terrible games on Steam... I honestly don't pay much attention to it. Even if a game flips by that looks interesting... gee, the chrome icon pops up this thing called a google search. I can find out everything I need to know about a game in 10 seconds. I approve of but really didn't care about Steam refunds. I've actively wanted every game I've ever bought on Steam... I don't buy games I'd need to return for whatever reason.

 

[jklinders]

A full purge? Maybe not. But they need to do something about some of the shovelware going out under more than one name in an effort to avoid bad publicity from negative reviews. A couple of "devs" have been pulling some shady shit with renaming games or stealing assets and I'm not aware of any real repercussions.

Just this week I saw an "Early Access Game" (can't remember the title) that flat out admitted that it was unplayable but still demanded money from gamers to test their pre alpha game that had been in Early access for months. That shit is not only unethical but I could fucking swear it was flat out against the so called rules that Steam has for Early Access. Maybe they had made changes that broke the game to accommodate feedback, but pull it off the fucking store until you get it working again.

About the shit that's already there? I guess it's there, damage done. But moving forward they should be flagging devs that pull this shit and tell them to piss off until they straighten up.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Steam has a 2 hour refund policy, does it not? You find a game, look at the pictures, watch some videos, and if the price is agreeable, you buy it. If you're not having fun within two hours, you ask for your money back.

Valve should probably have basic standards of required functionality. But Valve should do a lot of things, including but not limited to allow people to treat games that they "own" as actual goods that can be bought, traded, and sold.

 

[Elijin]

I can understand the sentiment, but when applied you get an issue of 'What goes and what stays? Who decides? What happens when products people want are deemed undesirable by this system?'

 

[Gorrath]

While I am for some EXTERMINATE in the form of culling the outright dishonest pricks, there is enough protection in place now that it's not much of an issue. With user reviews, curators and refunds there isn't much room to blame the distribution platform for anyone's lack of spending 5 minutes to actually check if a game is a shitpile or not. Plus, some games start out rough but get into better shape later on. Give me choice and you give me responsibility. I'd rather have both of those than a lack of either.

 

[Gorrath]

Might I suggest Stacy instead? She knows what makes for a good game. Plus, we could claim to be more 'inclusive' because we charged a woman with the task.

That'll show those dirty SJW types. Hmph!

Stacy isn't even a "Real Gamer Girl" tm. and Jeff's taste is indeed atrocious. Clearly what needs to happen is that Steam just needs to become Origin and EA should decide what games go on it.

 

[Naldan]

So, please tell me why this bothers you in any way, specifically.

Steam needs a good UI, though.

 

[The Bucket]

You'd get games being slammed out of it because one of the staff members said something silly on Twitter or whatever

Aye, SJW killing off games. But would you want to support the racist gaming company by accident? It would matter if the votes that counted towards killing a game from it's listings were people who actually played the game a lot. Votes multiplied by hours played? (But they negative reviews would just open their games and not play them all day).[/quote]

It really wouldn't be limited to SJWs doing it, no parts of the gaming community are above a bit of vote brigading. And I doubt people would play the games broken enough to qualify for removal all that much. Democratizing everything isn't necessarily a good idea

 

[dohnut king]

I just take a few seconds to research games before I purchase them. I am my quality control.

This.

Don't buy a game that just came out. Wait for reviews (user and media) and read them critically. This isn't perfect, but its a better guard against garbage than anything Valve could or would implement.

 

[votemarvel]

Valve does need stricter quality control over what it allows onto Steam but they have no reason to do so.

They have people locked into the "Steam or no sale" mentality to such an extent that people will refuse to buy a game unless it is available on Steam's storefront even if it is the final part of a trilogy they love.

I have a feeling that Valve could send electric shocks to people's intimate bits every time they loaded up Steam and people would love them for it.

Until people are willing to break their devotion to Valve, the company will continue to allow any old dross onto their platform.

 

[Bedinsis]

I don't really care. It is so seldom I actually buy games that when I do I make sure to do the research beforehand.

I do have a question for those talking down on Greenlight: Have you actually bought a greenlight game? From what I've understood I can see why someone would not care for it, but if all you go on are the negative coverage you miss out on the possible positive experiences one might have with the service. Therefore I wonder from what perspective you are writing; if you've bought a greenlight game and deemed greenlight worthless based on that experience that strengthens your argument above if it is just the reports you're bashing it on.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Yes. All the yes in the world.

Purge Greenlight of the unwashed scum and unscrupulous con artists.

 

[DoPo]

Ah yes, I see the error of my ways now.

In this case, we should definitely institute a purge led by a brave individual, so let's all let Jeff decide what needs to go. Come on, Jeff - everybody is counting on you!

Oh no, not Jeff! Anyone but Jeff! That guy has no taste! He wouldn't know a good game from a UnitZ asset flip!

Might I suggest Stacy instead? She knows what makes for a good game. Plus, we could claim to be more 'inclusive' because we charged a woman with the task.

That'll show those dirty SJW types. Hmph!

Wait, Stacy? No, can't have that. I have it on very reliable source that there have been three separate cases of cooties of unidentified source in her area in the last three months. Is Stacy to blame? Can you afford to take that chance? Do you want the whole gaming community to get cooties?

No, leave it with Jeff - he has it covered. Besides, he has a black friend, a female friend and a gay friend[footnote]It is possible that two or more of those might be the same person[/footnote]. He knows his stuff.

 

[CaitSeith]

It would be nice if the most down-voted negatively reviewed games would disappear from listings.
I hate when I browse through some of the games to see what's new and only finding RPG Maker titles and indie cash-in games all over the place. It hides the gems worth considering.

I don't like are when it recommends me games I don't like because "you bought this game" nonsense. It's a terrible system that has never introduced me to something I wanted to try or buy.

You'd get games being slammed out of it because one of the staff members said something silly on Twitter or whatever

Or developer groups slamming down competitors to keep them out of Steam. They already buy peoples' Greenlight approval; really unlikely they wouldn't make people disapprove other developers too.

 

[gsilver]

I've been increasingly tempted to perform a Steam purge myself, by creating a new Steam account.

No publisher packs where there are only 5 games that i really want, no bundle games of dubious quality, no "Hey, that could be really cool!" early access games

Just stuff that I *really* like and will continue to play.

 

[CaitSeith]

I can understand the sentiment, but when applied you get an issue of 'What goes and what stays? Who decides? What happens when products people want are deemed undesirable by this system?'

Consoles companies don't seem to have issues with that. Have you noticed the seal of approval on the games cover? That means someone already solved those questions.

 

[gsilver]

I can understand the sentiment, but when applied you get an issue of 'What goes and what stays? Who decides? What happens when products people want are deemed undesirable by this system?'

Consoles companies don't seem to have issues with that. Have you noticed the seal of approval on the games cover? That means someone already solved those questions.

There's a whole lot of bad games on consoles these days

Ride to Hell: Retribution and Aliens: Colonial Marines both passed the test.

And that's not even looking at the console's downloadable titles. For every Ori and the Blind Forest, there are dozens of less-than-stellar and many outright bad titles.

 

[CaitSeith]

I can understand the sentiment, but when applied you get an issue of 'What goes and what stays? Who decides? What happens when products people want are deemed undesirable by this system?'

Consoles companies don't seem to have issues with that. Have you noticed the seal of approval on the games cover? That means someone already solved those questions.

There's a whole lot of bad games on consoles these days

Ride to Hell: Retribution and Aliens: Colonial Marines both passed the test.

And that's not even looking at the console's downloadable titles. For every Ori and the Blind Forest, there are dozens of less-than-stellar and many outright bad titles.

There is a big difference between "one to dozens of less-than-stellar" and "one to hundreds of zero-quality-control". As bad as Ride to Hell: Retribution, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Amy are, they don't hold the candle against any of the 100 worst games in Steam.

 

[hermes]

There needs to be some sort of curation or tiered content in Green Light. It makes no sense that established indie companies like Iron Galaxy or Devolver Digital appear on greenlight next to random guy that ripped Minecraft assets a barely functioning FPS.

It makes sense given Valve's idea of half implementing stuff and just letting the world try to figure it out, but at this point hurts discoverability a lot more than it helps.