Dog Problems
Banned
You should take a look at the crap that gets put on there before saying this.
Mutant Mudds Steam REJECTED
- Thread starter Box of Bunnies
- Start date
You should take a look at the crap that gets put on there before saying this.
Warm Machine
Member
It may still be in Steam limbo. Expect 14 weeks or even more.
The difference between your two examples is that the second person is not willing to go to a different service. Both are expressing their preference for Steam, not seeking monopoly.
And your second example is not indicative of a destructive nature either. Can you explain to me how many PC gamers refusing to buy games on other DD services is destructive to the market?
Just off the top of my head...
Every game not accepted to Steam might as well not exist. Steam will not ever accept every game submitted to them, for reasons both fair and unfair. Whether they think it's not good enough for their service, or it doesn't tick certain boxes on their checklist, or it's not what they're looking for, or they just don't like the logo or the name or they just don't feel like it. A lot of good people make good games that don't win the lottery of getting accepted to Steam. There are a lot of good games out there right now that aren't on Steam. Not a few. A lot. And this is how it will always be. Steam can not have everything go through them, they don't have the time or the resources or the desire.
What reasons would they have to improve, or to correct things they are already having problems with? For such a major player in the PC games space, their support is really poor. Why ever correct this? Why would they keep pushing their front end and service forward with more features if you want to make them the only game in town?
If for some reason they went under, which can happen to even the most safe and successful companies, there goes PC gaming with them, at least for a time until other services filled the vacuum.
I know there's a lot of crap there, but there is also an endless amount of crap, as well as quality games, that are not there. I don't know how they pick the games, but they are obviously very selective and mostly ignore unknown indie games. Games with an IGF nomation or other noteworthy prelaunch attention seem to have a much easier time getting through.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
It's like when Zuda was still alive (DC's short-lived online comics site). 98% of the comics in the monthly competitions were crap.
But the shit that didn't get in was fucking horrible.
Night_Trekker
Member
It's weird to me that Steam rejects anything when they have plenty of garbage games with Metacritic scores of 50 or below.
AzureSkies
Member
I have a feeling that some of the terrible games on Steam just get in through Publishers relationship with Valve, more than anything. Of course, this is excluding terrible indie games and terrible Source games like Revelations 2012. I can't believe that exists.
I wish Valve would apply the same stringent policies to bigger publishers aswell. There is no reason why most of Paradox's, IC Companys or Meridian 4's games should be on Steam. Also how come Rogue Warrior from Bethesda is even on Steam?
It has been repeated many times (not necessarily by you) in thread that Valve should not have any reason not to distribute a "good" game. What the hell is a "good" game? How are you able to make the judgement that a lot of the games that are being rejected are good, when you've not played them? You might end up liking them were they to be released, but how are Valve going to decide which games would be considered good by sufficient number of consumers so as to justify their approval? In this particular case the game has been on another platform, so Valve has something to gauge the game's prospects by.
And that is just one consideration, there are evidently more as you've mentioned. But I would not use the term "lottery" to describe their approval process, especially when I have so little knowledge of it. Even from the outside it does not seem like a "lottery" process, though seemingly there are flaws, most notable being a lack of plausible explanation in case of a rejection.
The same reasons that have driven Valve as a company all these years? Valve hired a renowned economist to study the digital economies in Steam ecology to better understand them and therefore offer better service. That's one example of Valve seeking continuous improvement. Despite the fanaticism and loyalties, a firm would not survive in a competitive market with stagnation. Steam has competitors, though they have smaller reach; competitors that offer part of what Steam offers, competitors that offer service which Steam does not. Indeed the fanaticism and loyalties have roots in the quality of Valve's output. If that output starts to lose its value, Valve would not continue to flourish, however large their footprint may now be.
PC gaming would not die with a collapse of Steam ecology, even temporarily, because the PC market is not a monopoly. There would be a shock, no doubt. The market does not have a situation where barrier to entry is so high that new competitors cannot enter. And while it may take significant time for someone to parallel the feature set found in Steam, a satisfactory service is far from an improbability. Many already prefer GOG or Amazon over Steam.
Night_Trekker
Member
Well, I personally don't care if any "objectively" bad games are available for purchase. The Metacritic score (when available) is displayed predominantly on each game's page, and that's a good general indication of how worthwhile a game is. If someone wants to buy a game that got a bad rating, that's fine with me. I'll probably grab DNF the next time I see it on sale, for example.
As for Rogue Warrior... Bethesda is sure to get a few sales even if people know the game is crap, so why not?
linko9
Member
Valve just comes off looking like dicks in this situation. It would be ridiculous to argue that this game does not measure up to the quality standards of Steam, as there are many games on the service that are much worse than this one, in my and most other people's opinions. I understand that they can't spend too much time reviewing ever game that gets submitted to them, but when it's a game that has been released on another platform and has proven its quality, there's no excuse for rejecting the game. Definitely makes me lose respect for Valve (or more accurately Steam).
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Not every platform has the same standards? For all we know he submitted the game with only the 3ds resolution available.
Nabs
Member
Dude, what? Submit that shit again.
What's even weirder are the stories of how games get rejected with no response multiple times until a friend of a friend puts in a good word for them. For a storefront as large and important to developers as Steam is, their vetting process often seems disappointingly arbitrary and disorganized from an outsider's perspective.
I could say the same about nearly any type of game on most platforms period though.
For real. From the interviews with various indie devs it sounds like you need to actually put in some serious work when doing the submission if you want to make it through.
Round up reviews, message board threads, awards, previews any kind of coverage you were able to get for your game. Like any other competitive industry you really need to sell your game in the pitch/submission to stand out from the probably thousands they get every day.
I know if I was was running the selection process the games that had all those things would get a much closer look than the hundreds of other barebones submissions.
It also sounds like they are fine with resubmissions, so keep making it a better pitch for your game each time you submit. It sounded like the Offspring Fling guy went through a ton of submissions before getting in.
Phife Dawg
Member
This is pretty strange considering all the crap that's on the system.
