AHA-Lambda
Member
That is a hell of a click bait title
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STEAM | January 2016 - Out of cash, out of cache
- Thread starter MRORANGE
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That is a hell of a click bait title
Sorry, let me rephrase
Jesus Christ Steam Greenlight?
But the game merely being on Greenlight isn't a problem. Please don't tell me you subscribe to the notion that Valve should manually screen Greenlight submissions because bad/offensive games don't deserve any sort of publicity whatsoever. I'd even argue that Sterling going out of his way to highlight such games on Greenlight is doing far more "damage" than the open nature of Greenlight itself.
crazyrabbits
Banned
Finally finished Mass Effect 3, done and dusted.
With the DLCs and mods that address the shortcomings (the restored content mods and the Galaxy Map mod, mainly), it's a fun roller coaster ride that is superficial but still (mostly) works.
Without those, it's casualized mediocrity, barely worth remembering save for a couple bright spots. It honestly feels like Bioware hired a team from Hollywood to make the game more cinematic and linear. There were long points where I started getting bored with the whole thing.
With the DLCs and mods that address the shortcomings (the restored content mods and the Galaxy Map mod, mainly), it's a fun roller coaster ride that is superficial but still (mostly) works.
Without those, it's casualized mediocrity, barely worth remembering save for a couple bright spots. It honestly feels like Bioware hired a team from Hollywood to make the game more cinematic and linear. There were long points where I started getting bored with the whole thing.
Endruen
Member
Quoting myself for the next page because nobody answered. Is Crypt of the Necrodancer too difficult for Rythm lacking people?
Jawmuncher
Member
Yeah ME3 isn't a bad shooter, but it loses even more from both ME2 and ME1. The lack of dialog choices bothered me even more. It was literally just Renegade or Paragon options the entire game. No change up to how you wanted to react. Was even worse when stuff like this was cut for FemShep. Still think it's a solid game, but I can understand the disappointment as the series closer for some. Thank god that Citadel DLC came out though. Best ME DLC right besides Shadow Broker.
SPOILERS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDWpd9nCKws
mmhmm
crazyrabbits
Banned
The thing is that the conversation system is one of the few high points of the game. There were several instances where using conversation options led me to long strings of prompts, and the few times where it has "autodialogue" (mostly in post-mission wrap-ups) were disposable fluff that mostly felt like fanservice. (And yes, I used the Extended Anderson Conversation mod)
I had a bigger problem with:
1) the weird ways the expanded universe content was shoehorned into the narrative (Kai Leng, Kahlee Sanders, Vega, etc.)
2) the fact that exploration and sidequests were a far speck from what they were in ME2 (and not the N7 missions, which despite being fewer in number, felt a bit more expansive and varied in terms of mission goals and unexpected snags)
3) how inconsequential most of the characters introduced in ME2 were in the scope of the plot
4) the weird way the game tries to push this narrative that you can't win and everyone's fucked no matter what you do, when the preceding games allowed you to triumph if you prepared enough
It's more cream and brown, but yeah.
I actually don't mind the color scheme that much, but they are just a tad out of my price range. Rocking 558's here.
lashman
Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
xPaw said:This was initially posted in the private Steamworks group, but the SteamVR page showed this post for no apparent reason. Below is a direct copy paste of Valve's post, as is.
In short: More customers bought more games across more of the Steam catalog.
As you already know, the format of discounts in this year’s Winter sale was a little different from past years. This year’s sale was centered around discounts that ran for the full length of the sale, rather than changing from day to day for featured titles. Our hypothesis was that this new format would be a better way to serve customers that may only be able to visit Steam once or twice during the 13-day event. We also saw this change as an opportunity to showcase a deeper variety of titles to customers each day, while having confidence that any game being highlighted would be at its lowest discount.
More products viewed
As a result of this format change, we were able to encourage customers to browse through their Discovery Queue, thereby surfacing a string of personalized recommendations including titles that aren’t otherwise highlighted on the home page. By dropping users a free Steam Trading Card for browsing through their personalized Discovery Queue (up to three times each day) many customers were exposed to 36 different product pages every day for each of the 13 days of the event.
This resulted in three times as many views of product pages as in past sales events.
Not just views, but action
One of our concerns going into the Winter Sale was that extrinsically motivating customers with a trading card might encourage people to just click through their Discovery Queue and not actually pay attention to the games being presented. It turned out that customers found a lot of value in using the Discovery Queue, resulting in a huge up-tick in sales and wishlist additions. Looking back over wishlist data, we typically see only a slight increase in the rate of customers adding items to their wishlist during sales versus during non-sale time periods. However, this year we saw a 197% increase in the rate of wishlist additions during the sale. Some of these additions were then subsequently purchased during the sale while others remain on customer wishlists as indications of future interest in those games.
Revenue impacts
As the Steam catalog expands, we continue looking for new ways to help customers discover more interesting titles deeper on Steam. Major sale events provide great opportunities for us to test out new ways of organizing offers and features to serve these goals. In terms of revenue, the discount strategy and Discovery Queue usage resulted in a resounding success.
As with past years, popular hits continue to sell well during major sales events. But what about the thousands of other titles on Steam? We looked at performance of the group of games outside of the Top 500 in revenue terms. This group collected 35% of product page traffic during the sale, which is over 4x their share of traffic from the previous winter sale. And these weren’t just idle views--we also saw 45% growth in the revenue generated by this group of games as compared with the last winter sale.
The number of games on Steam continues to increase. But the Winter Sale’s visibility and revenue growth is a great indicator that customers are taking advantage of Steam features and tools to find games they want to play, and shopping beyond the front page. As always, we'll keep working on new ways to serve customers and we welcome any feedback from partners. Thanks!
Alien8
Member
Ok. I think it'll be hard to see again flash deals on summer/winter Steam sales.
Steam Winter Sale: Recap by Valve
Edit: lashman'd
Steam Winter Sale: Recap by Valve
Edit: lashman'd
Jawmuncher
Member
No matter what we did, Dailies were never going to come back.
The Dear Leader
Banned
So this is how flash sales die... to thunderous sales.
TheAutomator
Banned
Welp. There it is.
I definitely added a number of games from the discovery queue. Some were just ones I knew of but were big enough where I hadn't bother to wishlist them (Divinity: OS, for example) but a lot were ones I'd never heard of. I'm pretty sure I bought less than I did during the last flash/daily sales though - I only bought things at their historic lows, aside from 1 item.
The queue push for cards is a great system. Still disappointed in the worse discounts, though. I still end up waiting until the end of a sale just in case I change my mind or another shop has a better deal along the way.
Edit: I don't mind daily/flash deals dying. I just mind the discounts worsening.
The queue push for cards is a great system. Still disappointed in the worse discounts, though. I still end up waiting until the end of a sale just in case I change my mind or another shop has a better deal along the way.
Edit: I don't mind daily/flash deals dying. I just mind the discounts worsening.
Nyteshade517
Member
LurkerPrime
Member
The Dear Leader
Banned
I just really dislike how low effort the sales have become, I mean the deals are there and all but the spectacle and hype is kind of gone, they used to be these huge events were everyone was excited for the meta game and stuff surrounding the sale, including flash sales, and daily deals but now it's just trading cards and a lame comic book. I'm probably being overly sentimental but I can't help but feel bummed about the whole thing. Seeing the sales report really puts the final nail in the coffin, I expect cookie cutters sales from now on from the looks of it.
Uh... who's ready for the next issue of Detective Gingerbread and his cool detective stuff.... don't everyone get excited at once.... -_-
Uh... who's ready for the next issue of Detective Gingerbread and his cool detective stuff.... don't everyone get excited at once.... -_-
Baron von Loathsome
Member
I thought he died alone, a long, long time ago.
I was shown part of the music video for "Blackstar" in one my classes last month, I felt that he still had it.
The Dear Leader
Banned
That whole album is great, he definitely still had it.
At the rate were going now, you're grandchildren will be losing their minds over 10% off of their $120 games.
Wow. what a joke.
UcchedavÄda
Member
I have to admit I don't miss having to check Steam throughout the day to make sure that I didn't miss some fantastic flash-sale. They could, however, work on improving the discovery queue; I found a few interesting entries, but it mostly felt disconnected from my gaming interests. Some way to completely blacklist genres you're not interested in would be nice.
Congrats to the winners and thanks for the chance, Milena!
rainking187
Member
I guess with daily and flash deals gone you should wait for weeklong deals to buy Activision games. The Fast and the Furious game was 25% off during the winter sale, it's 75% off this week.
Chairmanchuck
Member
So. That HL3 reddit post. True or not?
The Dear Leader
Banned
Which one?
crazyrabbits
Banned
I... don't know. Having now played all of them across the entire series, I'd put Citadel below Lair and From Ashes. The latter is such an integral part of the game (from a lore standpoint) that I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't pick it up. Javik has some of the best lines in the game and some pretty substantial content if taken on certain missions.
I played Citadel right before the endgame, and it's incredibly jarring to go from a fanservice-laden conspiracy plot to the downright depressing and downbeat mood of the final mission.
Jawmuncher
Member
Yeah it's better to play it after the game like most did, regardless of it's actual canon placing.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
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.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Yeah, fair, I see your point.
I'd like to hope it doesn't get through Greenlight however, then that's another conversation.
Jawmuncher
Member
Can't blame anyone here caring about their own wallets before developers.
The Dear Leader
Banned
The mods removed it because of a PM from Valve asking them so... IT MIGHT BE REAL.
but probably not.
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
i never played through ME3 with From Ashes because i thought the whole thing behind that was fucking bullshit. They were trying to sell day one DLC that was incredibly important to the lore and story of ME3 and affects events throughout the game.
That shit left such a bad taste in my mouth that when the ending ended up being a series of skittles colors i was kinda glad that EA shat the bed with ME if this is what they were going to do with it.
Man, still bothered by From Ashes
That shit left such a bad taste in my mouth that when the ending ended up being a series of skittles colors i was kinda glad that EA shat the bed with ME if this is what they were going to do with it.
Man, still bothered by From Ashes
crazyrabbits
Banned
I know there's a mod for that too, but I didn't bother to download it. I played Omega right after Sur'Kesh, and Leviathan right after Thessia. Also, holy fuck is the Suppressor pistol from the Citadel DLC overpowered. I did Priority: Earth on default difficulty only using it. I was downing Banshees in less than two clips with maxed out extended barrel upgrades.
I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole thing, because my experience was much better with mods. MEHEM, despite the amateurish and corny original soundtrack (if you take that option) is a pretty decent substitute, and the gameplay in general was actually very fun.
I'd probably pick up Andromeda, though not until it goes on sale for dirt-cheap like ME3 did.
I know. I was there arguing on the BSN in the wake of the game's release. I just wanted to do a full completionist run of the trilogy to start the year off.
Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
Or, actually, that's only part of the data, but it was the main post published to developers, so it's about the same, just the condensed version.
Seems they're here to stay, and I can say that my game's performance reflects what is written here.
Seems they're here to stay, and I can say that my game's performance reflects what is written here.
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.
Good riddance to the daily sales. Having to check steam three times a day to see if the game you want is on sale and only having limited time to look at new things that pop up was terrible.
This way every game that wants a sale gets a sale and you have plenty of time to decide what you are going to buy. And best yet, you can buy and play what you've been looking forward to immediately. I'm glad the new model has shown to be successful.
This way every game that wants a sale gets a sale and you have plenty of time to decide what you are going to buy. And best yet, you can buy and play what you've been looking forward to immediately. I'm glad the new model has shown to be successful.
Chairmanchuck
Member
The thing is games didnt get that big discounts anymore as shown by the data compared to last year.
I want to buy Dragon Ball Xenoverse, but last year it might have been in a 75% daily sale (like Bamcos Naruto games were usually during the summer/winter sales), but it was just 50% during the whole sale.
Well, the flash sales were the three times a day thing. The dailies were still great though, and they lasted for 48 hours, those are what I'll miss.
Jawmuncher
Member
Not touching Andromeda until i'm certain it's not a reskinned inquistion.
If it even has a sort of point system to be able to go to main missions, it can fuck right off. DA:I was such a disappointment, put side quests and big area's over the actual story. It's a fun game if you like to just fuck around, but if you're there for the main content it's not very good since there's not much of it. Always liked ME1-3 blend of Side Content and Main Missions. Outside of barren planet exploring or probing.
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