Freedom = $1.05
Banned
It also has the reverse effect where now I buy games but I won't run them because I want the easy credit for playing a game for the first time.
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STEAM | April 2014 - Insert witty title here.
- Thread starter MRORANGE
- Start date
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It also has the reverse effect where now I buy games but I won't run them because I want the easy credit for playing a game for the first time.
I haven't started the playfire rewards, but I do the same thing for trading card revenue.
I assume that every game I buy is one I am at least casually interested in, so it's pretty easy to just accept that absent a strong desire to play something specific, when I choose to play a new game, I will play the one that pays me to play it.
I have to play this, it looks very interesting.
But... humor? I thought it was supposed to be about a woman on the brink of suicide. Or am I talking about a different game? (if so, then I'd love to know what's the game I'm talking about!)
Okay, I'll bite.
Uh, Valve doesn't "push games on Steam". Publishers are given clearance and they can subsequently upload, well, whatever they want. That said, I do agree that Valve needs to make a distinction between games that are new to Steam and those that are new in the broadly-understood sense that they are new to the public at large. Most obviously I'd point to jshack's frustration that some publishers don't make a distinction between a game's original release date versus its Steam release date -- this is something that Valve could very easily fix.
Patently false. As with the Featured Items "carousel", the "Featured Games" section is one of the few components of the front page that Valve handles manually. Let's look at the three games that occupy the top three slots:
Far Sky: 25th April
War of the Vikings: 15th April
Hakwen: March 7th
"Only"? No. But, yes, Valve does tend to prefer to advertise games that are more popular. For obvious reasons. It's why tabs such as "New Releases" exist. There's an argument to made, though, that Valve could do more to bring attention to new releases... but this leads into the earlier issue of release dates.
Valve thought the same thing. It's what lead to Greenlight. "Steam should focus on interesting games" is a fanciful concept because the spectrum of personal taste is excessively broad, hence the move to autonomous self-publishing and user-curated storefonts.
Stallion Free
Cock Encumbered
Maybe he should try to do a little more internet marketing for his game instead of expecting Valve to do 100% of that for him.
bobnowhere
Member
Emailed them with the Paypal proof of purchase. The early couple of groupees bundles don't show up in my account for some reason. Also I think the date is wrong in the wiki, according to the paypal record it was March not Feb.
Thanks!
Tizoc
Member
Sigh Sony giving a discount on the 30 FPS ver. of Wolfenstein makes me wish the PC ver. had a discount too.
As is, and assuming GMG offer me a 30% discount code for Wolfenstein, factor in my GMG credit, I should be able to get it for under $30. Just need a little more credit for me to get it for $25 though if they ever offer me a 30% discount code.
EDIT: Let me know if I should edit my post =X
As is, and assuming GMG offer me a 30% discount code for Wolfenstein, factor in my GMG credit, I should be able to get it for under $30. Just need a little more credit for me to get it for $25 though if they ever offer me a 30% discount code.
EDIT: Let me know if I should edit my post =X
Thanks for Gun Monkeys!
ashecitism
Member
It's like Valve can never win this. It's either too few games get released or too much. They could definitely do a better job with the release dates and new releases tab, but otherwise people asked for faster release rate, so eat what you cooked.
Sigh, I wonder what's the point of all those Debut bundles Indie Royale has been putting out, if they frigging take close to forever to add Steam keys to the games released?
I'm sure they will do so, just after they add Game renaming to the client.
I'm sure they will do so, just after they add Game renaming to the client.
PandaPedinte
Member
What if Valve created a "Old games newly released on Steam" section?
morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
Yeah. Anyone who's been here long enough can remember the time when people complained that it was too hard to get on Steam.
This is the consequence.
But it's certainly fun to read comments from developers who've finally gotten their's and now want the gates closed right behind them.
New to Steam
Well, it should NEVER be a problem of quantity of stuff released. I mean, that should ALWAYS be a good thing, never mind the quality.
The problem here is that the Steam store frontpage is completely sub-par for a huge task like that.
Just saying, it's still 940px width, like PC gamers are stuck with a '95 CRT monitor up to 1024x768.
That's so much wasted real estate, it's quite unbelievable.
B-Tier Sims! Yea!!
ModBot said:Instructions for participants:
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Rules for this Giveaway:
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Woodcutter Simulator 2013 --MB-004F1C4AD8EF75D3- Taken by nightstorm. 1 entrants total.
Trainz Simulator 12 --- Taken by Man Puncher. 1 entrants total.MB-CE86DD5C31C3A127- Taken by Man Puncher. 1 entrants total.
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Im still waiting for this though. Comes from the guys behing Savant Ascent. Been in development for years. Still no release date than "we aim for 2014"
I've waited for that one for so looong now too. I really hope it comes this year.
spindoctor
Member
Yup. I kind of wish there was just a specially tuned, pure co-op campaign option in the game. I know it's against the single player philosophy of the series but playing with a friend is just amazing.
And I honestly don't understand why no one else has copied all the cool ideas these guys come up with for multiplayer. Ideas like bloodstains, phantoms, messages healing you, invasion, Blue sentinels are just brilliant.
Damnit I was hoping the 11th hour would unlock as a bonus game for the Last Dream bundle. Now it seems unlikely.
PetriP-TNT
Member
RIP one dollar
spindoctor
Member
Hey I was holding off on buying the bundlestars bundle which had both of them in the hope that IG would handle it. What can I say... when it comes to bundles I'm excessively cheap.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Exactly. Not very many people are complaining that these games are actually on Steam, though a few are. Just like any storefront, you are free to chose the games you like and ignore the rest. I think everyone's complaint at this point is that the "New Releases" section of the home page isn't viable any more for informing people of actual new releases.
There are a lot of issues with the home page - including it's width. I mostly think the home page's main problem is it's lack of user customization. When you go to the home page for Amazon.com (for example) you see things that are relevant to your browsing and purchase history. You see actual recommendations for things Amazon.com thinks you may be interested in. When anyone visits Steam, it's always the same static content that's not tailored to your gaming interests in any way.
Hell, I think they could leave the "new releases" section as-is and people would complain less about it if Valve actually made a decent (reponsively designed) homepage that had actual user-centric content.
NingenJanai
Member
So now that Kadokawa bought From Software they will never patch GFWL out of Dark Souls 1, right?
spindoctor
Member
I'm pretty sure Scamco will retain control of the Dark Souls franchise. The decision on whether or not to remove GFWL still lies with them.
Jawmuncher
Member
I thought Namco owned Dark Souls much like how sony owns Demons Souls.
Aside from that I think we'll see a patch still.
BinaryPork2737
Unconfirmed Member
For the low low price of $1.99 (due to the current 50% discount), you too can experience the world of Redneck Racers, now available on Steam.
Wow, five whole classic tractors! What a bargain!
Jawmuncher
Member
3.89 for the Indiegala Monday Bundle? No thanks I was getting far too used to the 1.89 for the first 24 hours. All i want is The Cat lady and it's bound to hit a minimum sooner or later for my cheap ass.
ashecitism
Member
All I now is once user-created storefronts go live I'm making my own!
It's going to be...the Half-Life 3 storefront! Will only have one pic and an 'Add to cart' button.
It's going to be...the Half-Life 3 storefront! Will only have one pic and an 'Add to cart' button.
Ban Puncher
Member
Yeah, Scamco owns the Dark Souls IP. Those saying that the recent buyout doesn't matter are in for a rude shock. From self-publishing the games in Japan is just a gesture, not a reflection of ownership.
ashecitism
Member
jshackels when you were at Valve were the any hints of a redesign? Surely with Steam Universe they're planning one.
BinaryPork2737
Unconfirmed Member
10/10, would buy for $4.99.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Actually, quite the opposite. I asked them straight up if they were planning on or had anyone currently working on a redesign, and the answer was "no". I asked if they had heard of the people's complaints about the home page and/or seen the TotalBiscuit video about the new release section. Blank stares.
And a "who is TotalBiscuit?"
So unless they were just being SUPER tight lipped about it, I don't think a homepage redesign is being worked on or planned at this time.
PetriP-TNT
Member
ModBot said:Instructions for participants:
I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line below containing the key.
Rules for this Giveaway:
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:
Desura Crystal Picnic (The Dark Souls of Duck Games) -- MB-025C0F0FDF09AAA2
wow
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
RE: Secrets of Raetekon, I expressed this in a different thread, but honestly the problem is that there are too many games. Period. And this is true in a lot of genres on a lot of platforms. No one out there has enough time (or enough money in some cases) to play through everything excellent. So when you launch, say, Bodycount by Codemasters, you're also competing against some of the best FPSes ever, all of which are cheaper and have more awareness. If someone is in the mood for an FPS, and they haven't played Battlefield or whatever other game you might pick, they're going to choose those over Bodycount. The same is true here; there are probably 250-500 indie games with excellent reputations and word of mouth out there.
Secrets of Raetekon is a third game by a dev who previously made a Wii U exclusive that got pretty middling reception, and then a number of years ago a WiiWare/PC game that personally I didn't like. Admittedly, this game looks better to me. I've got it on my wishlist. But I'm not likely to spend $9.99 on a new release that mildly piques my interest when there are hundreds of games I own but haven't played, including some of the best games ever made, and hundreds more games at or below this pricepoint that also interest me. This is a real issue for puzzle games especially; you could make a really polished match-3 puzzle game, or even a new type of puzzle, but mostly you're competing against every other puzzler ever made and most people will satisfy their craving for puzzle games before they get to yours. Why do you think Popcap doesn't released 6+ games a year anymore? Because so many others are releasing games in that genre now, because distribution services make those kinds of games accessible.
Even if I limited my scope to new releases, there are dozens of new games coming out a week. A lot of them are bad, but it doesn't take a very high hit to miss ratio to have some pretty significant games coming out. Child of Light is about to come out, and I hazard a guess that's going to make a splash. Goat Simulator has been out for less than a month. Rust and DayZ are still sucking up a lot of oxygen. FTL just got a free expansion. The last Blackwell game came out. FRACT OST was just published by Indie Fund, that's a surefire sign based on their previous games that we're dealing with an interesting original product. It's not just about quality, it's just... it's not like people out there are starving for stuff to play, desperately saying "where is the PC game that I want to play?" and having not heard of SoR because of the deluge of shit on the front page. People are playing stuff. There's too much to play. And with games-as-a-service, often times people are playing as much time as ever, but concentrating it more on fewer games. That's a valid approach, but it also means games get left behind.
But this is not a problem that's going to be solved unless fewer games get released. So who is the person who is currently trying to make it as a professional game dev who is going to give up their dream and go back to database programming for some mid-level corporate outfit? I don't think there's going to be a rush of people nominating themselves to do this.
It's the double edged sword. Fewer restrictions on who can make games--and I'm not just talking Steam releases here, but just generally the rise of middleware, fewer contractual restrictions, the existence of digital distribution--means that more people will enter the market. The number of actors entering the market is rising at a rate faster than the amount of money entering the market or the amount of person-hours entering the market on the player side. This is going to result in a lower median number of sales and less visibility for the median game. Even if the total number of sales is growing, even if it's a bigger pie, it's still being cut into too many slices.
If you had a town with 500 people, and 100 of those people were hairdressers... even if they were all really talented hairdressers, the best case scenario is that some of them would go bankrupt and the worst case scenario is that all of them would go bankrupt. Because 500 people can't sustain 100 hairdressers. And I think we're running into some of the same problem here.
I'll probably pick up Secrets of Raetekon in a bundle. Or on sale for 75%+ off. I don't see how anyone could blame me for making that decision. Even if I specifically wanted to support this dev, I couldn't possibly specifically support every dev I want to. Someone's going to get left out. If that can't sustain this dev, I'm really really sad for him--just as I'd be sad for anyone who can't pursue their dream. And if I bought his game, I'd probably be skipping someone else's game, or if I increased my spending on games I'd have less to spend on other things, or if I increased my overall spending I'd have less saving and thus less spending later. And same goes with my time--spending time on his game means time not spent on another game, or more time spent on games but less on something else, or more time spent on everything and less time sleeping. In both money and time, it's not zero-sum, but it's not an infinite commodity either.
I think discoverability is very important. I think arranging space so that people can more easily express their preferences and better match their preferences to what's available is key. It would suck if someone wanted to play this game but couldn't find it. But at this point I feel like a lot of the discoverability problems are basically solved for even moderate-information consumers. Steam's got browse by category, it's got new releases and top sellers, it's got the tagging system, it's got stuff your friends bought, it has greenlight, it has the front page carousel, it has recently updated, it has browse by review, it has browse by price, it has sales and specials, it has featured blocks for featured sales, it has sales events, it has keys sold elsewhere, it has content sharing for in-built viral marketing. Are there really not enough ways on Steam to find some stuff you want to play if you bother to look? I doubt it.
And once you've solved discoverability problems, what you're left with is demand problems. Those can't really be solved.
Secrets of Raetekon is a third game by a dev who previously made a Wii U exclusive that got pretty middling reception, and then a number of years ago a WiiWare/PC game that personally I didn't like. Admittedly, this game looks better to me. I've got it on my wishlist. But I'm not likely to spend $9.99 on a new release that mildly piques my interest when there are hundreds of games I own but haven't played, including some of the best games ever made, and hundreds more games at or below this pricepoint that also interest me. This is a real issue for puzzle games especially; you could make a really polished match-3 puzzle game, or even a new type of puzzle, but mostly you're competing against every other puzzler ever made and most people will satisfy their craving for puzzle games before they get to yours. Why do you think Popcap doesn't released 6+ games a year anymore? Because so many others are releasing games in that genre now, because distribution services make those kinds of games accessible.
Even if I limited my scope to new releases, there are dozens of new games coming out a week. A lot of them are bad, but it doesn't take a very high hit to miss ratio to have some pretty significant games coming out. Child of Light is about to come out, and I hazard a guess that's going to make a splash. Goat Simulator has been out for less than a month. Rust and DayZ are still sucking up a lot of oxygen. FTL just got a free expansion. The last Blackwell game came out. FRACT OST was just published by Indie Fund, that's a surefire sign based on their previous games that we're dealing with an interesting original product. It's not just about quality, it's just... it's not like people out there are starving for stuff to play, desperately saying "where is the PC game that I want to play?" and having not heard of SoR because of the deluge of shit on the front page. People are playing stuff. There's too much to play. And with games-as-a-service, often times people are playing as much time as ever, but concentrating it more on fewer games. That's a valid approach, but it also means games get left behind.
But this is not a problem that's going to be solved unless fewer games get released. So who is the person who is currently trying to make it as a professional game dev who is going to give up their dream and go back to database programming for some mid-level corporate outfit? I don't think there's going to be a rush of people nominating themselves to do this.
It's the double edged sword. Fewer restrictions on who can make games--and I'm not just talking Steam releases here, but just generally the rise of middleware, fewer contractual restrictions, the existence of digital distribution--means that more people will enter the market. The number of actors entering the market is rising at a rate faster than the amount of money entering the market or the amount of person-hours entering the market on the player side. This is going to result in a lower median number of sales and less visibility for the median game. Even if the total number of sales is growing, even if it's a bigger pie, it's still being cut into too many slices.
If you had a town with 500 people, and 100 of those people were hairdressers... even if they were all really talented hairdressers, the best case scenario is that some of them would go bankrupt and the worst case scenario is that all of them would go bankrupt. Because 500 people can't sustain 100 hairdressers. And I think we're running into some of the same problem here.
I'll probably pick up Secrets of Raetekon in a bundle. Or on sale for 75%+ off. I don't see how anyone could blame me for making that decision. Even if I specifically wanted to support this dev, I couldn't possibly specifically support every dev I want to. Someone's going to get left out. If that can't sustain this dev, I'm really really sad for him--just as I'd be sad for anyone who can't pursue their dream. And if I bought his game, I'd probably be skipping someone else's game, or if I increased my spending on games I'd have less to spend on other things, or if I increased my overall spending I'd have less saving and thus less spending later. And same goes with my time--spending time on his game means time not spent on another game, or more time spent on games but less on something else, or more time spent on everything and less time sleeping. In both money and time, it's not zero-sum, but it's not an infinite commodity either.
I think discoverability is very important. I think arranging space so that people can more easily express their preferences and better match their preferences to what's available is key. It would suck if someone wanted to play this game but couldn't find it. But at this point I feel like a lot of the discoverability problems are basically solved for even moderate-information consumers. Steam's got browse by category, it's got new releases and top sellers, it's got the tagging system, it's got stuff your friends bought, it has greenlight, it has the front page carousel, it has recently updated, it has browse by review, it has browse by price, it has sales and specials, it has featured blocks for featured sales, it has sales events, it has keys sold elsewhere, it has content sharing for in-built viral marketing. Are there really not enough ways on Steam to find some stuff you want to play if you bother to look? I doubt it.
And once you've solved discoverability problems, what you're left with is demand problems. Those can't really be solved.
For the low low price of $1.99 (due to the current 50% discount), you too can experience the world of Redneck Racers, now available on Steam.
Wow, five whole classic tractors! What a bargain!
I saw this pop up earlier when I was on my phone and got excited because I misread the name as "Redneck Rampage", haha. "About bloody ti--oh."
Seeing as there's 2 days of April left and we're on 391 pages I wonder what will come first? The May thread or 400 pages? Not like GAF would explode if it went over of course but it's tantalisingly close to tea time.
Yeah I think even on the .jp site for the original despite not being publisher by Namco in the region there, they are clearly visible in the site footer credits. So what next? Devil Souls? I'd love a less janky and slowed down return of Kings Field.
Yeah I think even on the .jp site for the original despite not being publisher by Namco in the region there, they are clearly visible in the site footer credits. So what next? Devil Souls? I'd love a less janky and slowed down return of Kings Field.
:|
Tell me, if you had access to the Steam API, how many hours would it take you to add the following:
1. Infinite categories per title.
2. 'New on Steam' front page section.
3. Ability to see how your friends tagged a game you own.
4. Ability so if you have 2 different people in your Family Sharing group, and they both have a game you'd like to play, that you can choose who to lend it from. Currently, it's just random if that game is listed one friend's or the other's list.
ashecitism
Member
hoo boy....
trailmix16
Member
does anyone know what the criteria is for the "Avg Game Completion Rate" on your steam profile? 100% achievement, finishing the game...?
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
It's hard to say, since I'm not entirely sure how their existing data is structured. I think in order of difficulty I would say 2 would be the easiest request, followed by 3, then 1, then 4. It would require both access to the Steam API as well as the client's source code - two things I'm likely not going to gain access to until I'm employed by Valve.
But these kinds of issues are (to my knowledge) only technically limitations which can easily be overcome with the time and attention of a competent developer. Meaning, I don't think there are any business reasons or contractual obligations preventing any of these things from happening, besides maybe number 4.
Gianni Merryman
Member
It is indeed, you should try it.
The story is pretty much dark and disturbing still there is a lot of humour in the dialogues, only thing maybe in order to catch some subtleties one has to be familiar with English/British culture.
BinaryPork2737
Unconfirmed Member
I agree with pretty much everything you said. It's a shame that the dev's game didn't get noticed, but there are just so many products coming out in a single given day that it's becoming even more challenging to be noticed. While I do agree with their statement that Valve could do a better job in terms of acting as a curator, completely blaming Valve for their situation isn't the right thing to do. I feel like their situation only further reinforces the notion that opening the floodgates on Steam isn't a good idea.
Hopefully the article, and others like it, will raise attention to the dev's game, at least. Admittedly, I wouldn't buy it for $9.99 since I've heard middling impressions of the game from reviewers and users alike, but still, I hope for the best.
The greatest disappointment.
This is a thread on Steam I found a while back that explains it a bit.
Also, those Child of Light reviews.
DJSebolski
Member
Do you guys recommend Raven Legacy of a Master Thief?
The Unreal engine 4 Elemental Demo is available for download, going to check it out!
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=809236
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=809236
But what about custom store fronts? How could they not be working on a redesign?
trailmix16
Member
hey thanks, this is actually a lot more forgiving than I originally thought. And I guess more on an incentive to not play games you own.
morningbus
Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
On one hand it sucks that they're not focusing on redesigning the homepage.
On the other hand it's confirmation that no one is paying attention to TotalBiscuit.
I think this is a net positive.
jshackles
Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
Never thought about that, but it's definitely possible. It'd look like this.
But what about custom store fronts? How could they not be working on a redesign?
I think "custom storefronts" are much farther out than people realize. But then again, this is just an educated guess of mine based on my own personal understanding of what is going on at Valve and the people involved.
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