Believe it or not, there actually are people who believe bullshit should be left on Steam as is, just to teach the unassuming buyer a lesson and keep them out of their "hardcore" market, because people who fall for this stuff and don't do research are obviously casuals that play Candy Crush. The mentality... its nauseating sometimes.canadamus_prime said:
Suggest improvements for Steam.
- Thread starter AmberSword
- Start date
"Nauseating??" Nauseating doesn't do it justice.AmberSword said:
I understand this is really minor, but inventory management is really bulky. The whole trading card system is silly but I figure I might as well sell mine for a pittance to whoever cares about them. Which would be helluva lot faster if I didn't have to put them on market one at a time. How hard would it be to make a grouped selection function so I didn't have to input the same price n times in a row? As someone near-ignorant on coding I'm curious to know.
Curate the reviews or something.
They *can* be informative, but I've seen so many variations on "amusing out of context event, 11/10 GOTY" so many times that it's just tiresome now.
Also, I can appreciate the idea of early access, as it takes crowdfunding to perhaps a more accessible platform than Kickstarter or Indiegogo; but it seems to detract from the point when they're put on sale, if they're after funding.
There are other reasons to do so, but I think that not having deep discount sales on early access games is mroe appropriate.
They *can* be informative, but I've seen so many variations on "amusing out of context event, 11/10 GOTY" so many times that it's just tiresome now.
Also, I can appreciate the idea of early access, as it takes crowdfunding to perhaps a more accessible platform than Kickstarter or Indiegogo; but it seems to detract from the point when they're put on sale, if they're after funding.
There are other reasons to do so, but I think that not having deep discount sales on early access games is mroe appropriate.
Removal of regional restrictions.
Whenever a game is released in some censored version here (in Germany), that will be the ONLY version that can be purchased via Steam. Even if the uncensored version is neither banned nor indexed (like in Bioshock's case). I can legally buy these games in any import retail store, order them from foreign Amazons etc., but Steam won't let me buy them regardless. Technically even banned and indexed games can be legally purchased here as well (certain conditions apply) but the situation is a little tricky since they are not allowed to be advertised in any way (as far as I know they cannot even be put in a store shelf), and these games simply being displayed on Steam could be seen as advertisement.
The funny thing is though, that apparently some games, like [Prototype], can be bought with a German IP despite being indexed.
As for foreign retail copies: Sometimes you can activate them with a German IP and get the foreign version, sometimes you can't. Sometimes you get the local version if you do. It is apparently up the publisher/developer what happens in these cases, but it creates an atmosphere of great uncertainty with new releases.
It is probably against the law for Steam to bar German players from activating their (usually legally obtained) foreign copies, but it's not like they care.
Some older games do not even display proper information on wether or not they are censored, although I guess I should be glad that Steam does provide that information at all (PSN certainly doesn't).
I also heard that apparently Swiss players can only get the censored and German-language-only version of Wolfenstein:TNO via Steam as well, which is beyond ridiculous.
I kind of understand that Steam is often just trying to comply with publishers as well as generally trying to be on the extra safe side of the local laws, but it is really annoying at times. Especially since they don't seem to care about a lot of other things that they would be legally required to do, like providing proper refund options, or verifying the age of its users[footnote]PSN, for example, actually does this. In order to get money onto your PSN account you either need a credit card (which requires you to be 18 here as far as I know), or you need to buy a PSN wallet card, which are only sold to people older than 18. That way the user's age is always verified in some way. This also means that demos or free games with an age rating of 16 or higher are either not available in the German PSN store or cost money.[/footnote].
The only way to safely buy foreign products via Steam would be to somehow change my IP, but that would be against Steam's rules and could get me banned, a risk I am really not willing to take, even if an actual ban is highly unlikely.
Whenever a game is released in some censored version here (in Germany), that will be the ONLY version that can be purchased via Steam. Even if the uncensored version is neither banned nor indexed (like in Bioshock's case). I can legally buy these games in any import retail store, order them from foreign Amazons etc., but Steam won't let me buy them regardless. Technically even banned and indexed games can be legally purchased here as well (certain conditions apply) but the situation is a little tricky since they are not allowed to be advertised in any way (as far as I know they cannot even be put in a store shelf), and these games simply being displayed on Steam could be seen as advertisement.
The funny thing is though, that apparently some games, like [Prototype], can be bought with a German IP despite being indexed.
As for foreign retail copies: Sometimes you can activate them with a German IP and get the foreign version, sometimes you can't. Sometimes you get the local version if you do. It is apparently up the publisher/developer what happens in these cases, but it creates an atmosphere of great uncertainty with new releases.
It is probably against the law for Steam to bar German players from activating their (usually legally obtained) foreign copies, but it's not like they care.
Some older games do not even display proper information on wether or not they are censored, although I guess I should be glad that Steam does provide that information at all (PSN certainly doesn't).
I also heard that apparently Swiss players can only get the censored and German-language-only version of Wolfenstein:TNO via Steam as well, which is beyond ridiculous.
I kind of understand that Steam is often just trying to comply with publishers as well as generally trying to be on the extra safe side of the local laws, but it is really annoying at times. Especially since they don't seem to care about a lot of other things that they would be legally required to do, like providing proper refund options, or verifying the age of its users[footnote]PSN, for example, actually does this. In order to get money onto your PSN account you either need a credit card (which requires you to be 18 here as far as I know), or you need to buy a PSN wallet card, which are only sold to people older than 18. That way the user's age is always verified in some way. This also means that demos or free games with an age rating of 16 or higher are either not available in the German PSN store or cost money.[/footnote].
The only way to safely buy foreign products via Steam would be to somehow change my IP, but that would be against Steam's rules and could get me banned, a risk I am really not willing to take, even if an actual ban is highly unlikely.
I wish Steam had more variety of older generation games that would still be fun to play. It's digital so it's not like they're stocking shelves and need to have only the most up-to-date games available.
I would also like to see a lot less low quality games. Some of those indie games look terrible and wouldn't survive as a free flash game.
I wouldn't mind a generally all year round cheaper prices on everything. The markup makes some sense when you've got employees to deal with customers face to face to pay and sometimes paying full price plus having to download the game and drain precious GB of bandwidth from my monthly allowance just stacks up on 'hidden' costs that ends up coming out of my pocket.
All in all, I like Steam. I don't want to go to stores to browse games and it's highly convenient most of the time.
I would also like to see a lot less low quality games. Some of those indie games look terrible and wouldn't survive as a free flash game.
I wouldn't mind a generally all year round cheaper prices on everything. The markup makes some sense when you've got employees to deal with customers face to face to pay and sometimes paying full price plus having to download the game and drain precious GB of bandwidth from my monthly allowance just stacks up on 'hidden' costs that ends up coming out of my pocket.
All in all, I like Steam. I don't want to go to stores to browse games and it's highly convenient most of the time.
Incorporate absolutely everything from Enhanced Steam. Absolutely everything. I cannot think of one single thing Enhanced Steam adds that I don't like. Although some things (like the "lowest retailer price" notifier) might be a bit counter-productive to Valve. Remove or renovate the "tag" system since at the moment it's a glorified genre listing and maybe try to make the forums less shit. And fix the fucking client up a bit games + inventory management is absolutely dreadful.
I can't think of much else Valve could reasonably add without support from the devs + modifying international law. Maybe refunds I guess although I honestly have no experience how difficult it would be to implement such a thing.
I guess the last thing would be distinguishing between "new on Steam" and "new everywhere". Removing re-releases should help the New Releases section be a bit less shovel-warey and give more advertising to the actual new games. I don't particularly want them to add in much more quality-control aside from removing blatantly scammy games though. It's fairly easy to distinguish a bad game from a good game if you have the intellectual capacity to Google it for literally 5 minutes.
I can't think of much else Valve could reasonably add without support from the devs + modifying international law. Maybe refunds I guess although I honestly have no experience how difficult it would be to implement such a thing.
I guess the last thing would be distinguishing between "new on Steam" and "new everywhere". Removing re-releases should help the New Releases section be a bit less shovel-warey and give more advertising to the actual new games. I don't particularly want them to add in much more quality-control aside from removing blatantly scammy games though. It's fairly easy to distinguish a bad game from a good game if you have the intellectual capacity to Google it for literally 5 minutes.
The ability to change the scale of the Steam interface without having to hunt down custom interface skins.
This is for people who use things such as a TV as a monitor and would need to set the text size on windows (if they use that OS) to large. Now for some reason going from normal to large font size causes steam to go for a nice neat layout to a massive clusterfuck that is all over the place and needs to be scrolled to see the main store page.
This is for people who use things such as a TV as a monitor and would need to set the text size on windows (if they use that OS) to large. Now for some reason going from normal to large font size causes steam to go for a nice neat layout to a massive clusterfuck that is all over the place and needs to be scrolled to see the main store page.
Give me options to make multiple tabs, annoying as hell when your trying to look at games and you have to go back and scroll down just to get back where you are.
All of it has to do with that. Last I checked, Origin only offers refunds for EA games. Valve should offer refunds for their own games but offering refunds on everything would be vastly different from what Origin does.RandV80 said:
Hobbyist games.
Basically, if you make some games which you don't want to make money of off, but you still want to distribute them for free and possibly get feedback from players and maybe professionals as to how to improve.
In other words people make games which you get to play for free.
Could also contain a demos for things you'd like to get greenlighted (greenlit?), I guess.
Basically, if you make some games which you don't want to make money of off, but you still want to distribute them for free and possibly get feedback from players and maybe professionals as to how to improve.
In other words people make games which you get to play for free.
Could also contain a demos for things you'd like to get greenlighted (greenlit?), I guess.
Well, yes, to a degree. There are people aggressively against it.canadamus_prime said:
"Buyer beware" isn't in itself a totally bad idea. People should be better consumers. It's just...Yeah, people go too far in saying that it should be okay to swindle people for being all...swindlable.
Yes. Exactly why I call it bullshit. Yes the buyer should beware because there are going to be douchebags out there who'll want to swindle them, however that doesn't make the swindling any less wrong, nor does it mean we shouldn't call people out for doing the swindling or put measures in place to prevent it from happening.Zachary Amaranth said:
Seriously the amount of people believing in this caveat emptor bullshit in gaming makes me believe that we gamers don't even deserve consumer protections laws in the first place. Then we'll see what these hardcore smartasses think.
MORE CURRENCIES, HOLY FUCK I DO NOT WANT TO DO A CONVERSION EVERY TIME I PURCHASE
Seriously how many does Steam support? The United States Dollar and the Euro off the top of my head. Although, The Australian Dollar was doing better than the USD during the sale so I can't complain too much. Those Australian prices were criminal!
As for the actual games how about some fucking quality control? Force a developer to finish his game before he can make another for the early access stuff or have him sign a contract binding him to finish it if he wants it on Steam or limit the amount an early access game can be sold for, keep them off the front page so they don't get any real advertising yet. Something to ensure people aren't gonna get fucked over. Why not all of the above?
More competition with GoG and Origin would also make an interesting price war that I'd love to benefit from, but maybe I'm asking too much.
I like how Fallout 3 has a little warning that it's not up to snuff with Windows 7, they should do that more.
Seriously how many does Steam support? The United States Dollar and the Euro off the top of my head. Although, The Australian Dollar was doing better than the USD during the sale so I can't complain too much. Those Australian prices were criminal!
As for the actual games how about some fucking quality control? Force a developer to finish his game before he can make another for the early access stuff or have him sign a contract binding him to finish it if he wants it on Steam or limit the amount an early access game can be sold for, keep them off the front page so they don't get any real advertising yet. Something to ensure people aren't gonna get fucked over. Why not all of the above?
More competition with GoG and Origin would also make an interesting price war that I'd love to benefit from, but maybe I'm asking too much.
I like how Fallout 3 has a little warning that it's not up to snuff with Windows 7, they should do that more.
I agree with pretty much everything people have already said in this thread so far. The priority for me would just be better browsing. The moment you start to browse ANYTHING that's not on the front page of STEAM you just get a list of 10 games and have to keep clicking "Next 10". It's just terrible design.
Why not have a screen-ful of tiles or an alphabetical list at the bottom of the screen or just anything would be better than just listing 10 games at a time! An infinitely scrolling list would be an improvement over "next 10".
Why not have a screen-ful of tiles or an alphabetical list at the bottom of the screen or just anything would be better than just listing 10 games at a time! An infinitely scrolling list would be an improvement over "next 10".
Again, Amazon can do it for everything. Everything, ever. Digital games. Game codes. Physical box games that they pay the shipping for.SecondPrize said:
There isn't any good reason that Steam can't do the same. Why not hold Steam to a higher standard instead of hoping they at the very least reach the bare minimum?
More currencies or just less bullshit scamming. Possibly both.Gankytim said:
And before people jump on me about this, yes publishers set the price. That doesn't mean Valve couldn't lower the prices themselves and eat the difference, or go the GoG route and give you something that makes up the difference.