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STEAM | July 2015 - Nothing To Buy With Our Arkham Knight Refunds

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Sober

Member
You'd think the Framerate Police curation group would actually label games from the last few years rather than go back to the 1990s for starters.
 

Momentary

Banned
If people are using it to target developers, which I personally doubt it since they get targeted anyways these days without it, then that sucks.

But I like it. I didn't know WotS 4 was 30fps. I'm glad that I found out. It still won't stifle my purchase, but now I won't be so let down when I start the game up.
 

Sober

Member
If people are using it to target developers, which I personally doubt it since they get targeted anyways these days without it, then that sucks.

But I like it. I didn't know WotS 4 was 30fps. I'm glad that I found out. It still won't stifle my purchase, but now I won't be so let down when I start the game up.
"Obviously TotalBiscuit wouldn't condone that sort of thing" but his sycophants are not exactly people he keeps on a tight leash, so they just basically become his attack dogs because all they seem to understand is if TB doesn't like a thing (surprisingly, they know even if he only implies it), they'll go after it for blood.
 

Momentary

Banned
Well I don't know if it's because I'm so old or what, but I'm out of the loop on all these internet gaming personalities and all the stupid political movements that go with them. Think this statement will be the last time I even mess with the whole thing.

Moving on to Ys Origins..

This music video basically sums up the range of feelings I had with the game so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8-vje-bq9c

Probably one of the most awesome things I've seenin my life.
 

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.
If people are using it to target developers, which I personally doubt it since they get targeted anyways these days without it, then that sucks.

But I like it. I didn't know WotS 4 was 30fps. I'm glad that I found out. It still won't stifle my purchase, but now I won't be so let down when I start the game up.

I think the whole "framerate police" is a pretty terrible idea, honestly. Obviously, I'm all for informing people as much as possible about a game before making a purchase - but this has got to be one of the worst ways to go about it.

I understand that they're simply exploiting how the store shows particular curators for a game, but after all this blows over the end result will be that these capped games will simply have a +1 "curators recommend". The store displays new and/or popular curators by default, and it's something that developers can block from their store pages if they choose. If the group remains popular, the best option that developers have is to simply block them from the store pages, and some already have.

If I had developed a game on Steam, regardless of the status of it's frame rate, I'd simply exclude this group from my available curators that show up on my store page. Especially now that the group is taking it into their own hands to issue threats to developers. We're way past the point where Valve needs to step in and shut groups like this down, in my opinion.

A safer alternative: give the developers/publishers a dedicated box on the store page to list things like this, and make it optional. If it's left blank, it could simply say something like "Unspecified" which would prompt them to fill out the information. If they choose not to display it, you can pretty safely assume the game has a fixed framerate.
 
I think the whole "framerate police" is a pretty terrible idea, honestly. Obviously, I'm all for informing people as much as possible about a game before making a purchase - but this has got to be one of the worst ways to go about it.

I understand that they're simply exploiting how the store shows particular curators for a game, but after all this blows over the end result will be that these capped games will simply have a +1 "curators recommend". The store displays new and/or popular curators by default, and it's something that developers can block from their store pages if they choose. If the group remains popular, the best option that developers have is to simply block them from the store pages, and some already have.

If I had developed a game on Steam, regardless of the status of it's frame rate, I'd simply exclude this group from my available curators that show up on my store page. Especially now that the group is taking it into their own hands to issue threats to developers. We're way past the point where Valve needs to step in and shut groups like this down, in my opinion.

What do you think of the (banned) 30 fps tag?
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
If I had developed a game on Steam, regardless of the status of it's frame rate, I'd simply exclude this group from my available curators that show up on my store page. Especially now that the group is taking it into their own hands to issue threats to developers. We're way past the point where Valve needs to step in and shut groups like this down, in my opinion.

Shutting down the group would really be the only option. Unfortunately, it seems like the war hounds will be out for you the moment they find out that the Framerate Police curator is blocked from your page. The more you try to resist, the more they'll throw a fit.

A safer alternative: give the developers/publishers a dedicated box on the store page to list things like this, and make it optional. If it's left blank, it could simply say something like "Unspecified" which would prompt them to fill out the information. If they choose not to display it, you can pretty safely assume the game has a fixed framerate.

This would be a much better and more neutral way to go about it. Which means it'd probably never happen. ;-;
 

Momentary

Banned
I think the whole "framerate police" is a pretty terrible idea, honestly. Obviously, I'm all for informing people as much as possible about a game before making a purchase - but this has got to be one of the worst ways to go about it.

I understand that they're simply exploiting how the store shows particular curators for a game, but after all this blows over the end result will be that these capped games will simply have a +1 "curators recommend". The store displays new and/or popular curators by default, and it's something that developers can block from their store pages if they choose. If the group remains popular, the best option that developers have is to simply block them from the store pages, and some already have.

If I had developed a game on Steam, regardless of the status of it's frame rate, I'd simply exclude this group from my available curators that show up on my store page. Especially now that the group is taking it into their own hands to issue threats to developers. We're way past the point where Valve needs to step in and shut groups like this down, in my opinion.

A safer alternative: give the developers/publishers a dedicated box on the store page to list things like this, and make it optional. If it's left blank, it could simply say something like "Unspecified" which would prompt them to fill out the information. If they choose not to display it, you can pretty safely assume the game has a fixed framerate.

I would be all for this. Like I said. I don't know who these internet people are and don't realize the drama that comes with their names.

I've always wanted something that states because things for game on Steam like:

Max Framerate:
Max Resolution:

Those 2 things would probably give most what they want. If it's left blank then consumers could either be wary and do research as to why or take a chance.

But at the end of the day, we have the refund policy now even if people buy it without researching first.
 

Sch1sm

Member
yea i figured that would work. It is absurd that a common sense feature like full screen is not in this games menu options.

I think they left it out, since like I said in my edit, you can change it in the .ini. Maybe they just left out the necessary line for it in the options menu, who really knows.

I guess, sometimes when they port it's forgotten that things aren't auto full screen like a console to a TV.
 

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.
Shutting down the group would really be the only option. Unfortunately, it seems like the war hounds will be out for you the moment they find out that the Framerate Police curator is blocked from your page. The more you try to resist, the more they'll throw a fit.

Yeah, it's a shame how shitty people can be. If there are substantiated threats of violence that have arisen as the result of the curator group's recommendation, that's actually against the rules. Well, sort of. It gets tricky when you're simply the middle man. But I think if someone started a curator group called "This developer blows goats" they would be shut down in a hot minute even if their reviews just said "I have proof" (which itself doesn't violate the rules if you take the context of who's saying it out of the equation).

Weren't there some GamersGate curators removed from Steam for this very reason? (that their followers were issuing threats based on what the curators said?)

This would be a much better and more neutral way to go about it. Which means it'd probably never happen. ;-;

I'm working on implementing this the Enhanced Steam way - crowd-sourcing.
 
I think the whole "framerate police" is a pretty terrible idea, honestly. Obviously, I'm all for informing people as much as possible about a game before making a purchase - but this has got to be one of the worst ways to go about it.

I understand that they're simply exploiting how the store shows particular curators for a game, but after all this blows over the end result will be that these capped games will simply have a +1 "curators recommend". The store displays new and/or popular curators by default, and it's something that developers can block from their store pages if they choose. If the group remains popular, the best option that developers have is to simply block them from the store pages, and some already have.

If I had developed a game on Steam, regardless of the status of it's frame rate, I'd simply exclude this group from my available curators that show up on my store page. Especially now that the group is taking it into their own hands to issue threats to developers. We're way past the point where Valve needs to step in and shut groups like this down, in my opinion.

A safer alternative: give the developers/publishers a dedicated box on the store page to list things like this, and make it optional. If it's left blank, it could simply say something like "Unspecified" which would prompt them to fill out the information. If they choose not to display it, you can pretty safely assume the game has a fixed framerate.
The better alternative is have a developer-produced 'game specification' tab after recommended requirements, listing a game's supported resolutions, frame-rates, a list of compatible peripherals (controllers, racing wheels, etc), if it has subtitles, amount of graphical scalability, and whatever else that the game is capable of supporting. Perhaps even something like a graphics card benchmark graph if the dev is particularly resourceful. This sort of extra information could solve a lot of potential surprises before they happen, while also bringing PC games' collective features more in-line with one another, not to mention helping prevent a lot of laughable PC ports from ever plaguing the marketplace.

I mean, honestly, there's no good reason to avoid this sort of transparency now that the refund system is in place.
 

Caerith

Member
Long Live the Queen is listed in the garbage dump. What is wrong with you people?

I'd like to live in a world where that isn't a typo.

Oh and anyway those threats probably aren't real and/or the developers are threatening themselves to make a bunch of sociopathic assholes total biscuit's fans look bad and/or those threats are just made by a handful of bad apples but the movement is actually about ethics light-hearted and purely objective.
/s
 
I play windowed in a fair amount of games so I can alt+tab out to other apps. I'm sure the number of people who also do this is low.

Fullscreen games can support alt+tab. It's only the bad ones that lock up or crash when you do it.

I remember my early years of PC gaming when I thought it was standard across all games. Oh, those were the days.
 

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.
The better alternative is have a developer-produced 'game specification' tab after recommended requirements, listing a game's supported resolutions, frame-rates, a list of compatible peripherals (controllers, racing wheels, etc), if it has subtitles, amount of graphical scalability, and whatever else that the game is capable of supporting. Perhaps even something like a graphics card benchmark graph if the dev is particularly resourceful. This sort of extra information could solve a lot of potential surprises before they happen, while also bringing PC games' collective features more in-line with one another, not to mention helping prevent a lot of laughable PC ports from ever plaguing the marketplace.

I mean, honestly, there's no good reason to avoid this sort of transparency now that the refund system is in place.

Actually, developers can add whatever they'd like to their Steam store pages. So if they wanted to, they could add all of this information. The only thing is that it'd be a lot more effective if it were standardized among all games / developers.

Ironically, the first game on Steam that actually does this (regardless of whether their game has a locked framerate or not) would probably see a huge bump in sales as a result, and others, seeing this success, might follow suit. After this whole Batman fiasco, I think developers should be smart enough to know that it's difficult to hide stuff like this from the internet nowadays.
 

Sch1sm

Member
Fullscreen games can support alt+tab. It's only the bad ones that lock up or crash when you do it.

I remember my early years of PC gaming when I thought it was standard across all games. Oh, those were the days.

There's more of those than I'd like. It's even worse on Mac OS - forget locking up or crashing, the command just does nothing. Game stays in foreground but simultaneously unselected so my movements don't register in a fair amount of the ones I've played in the last year on my rMBP.
 
Actually, developers can add whatever they'd like to their Steam store pages. So if they wanted to, they could add all of this information. The only thing is that it'd be a lot more effective if it were standardized among all games / developers.

Ironically, the first game on Steam that actually does this (regardless of whether their game has a locked framerate or not) would probably see a huge bump in sales as a result, and others, seeing this success, might follow suit.
I remain sceptical, seeing that some developers would prefer to advertise their games rather than add more information about the game they're currently trying to sell.

By making it an actual, required field in the store developers risk looking inconsiderate by leaving it empty or sparsely detailed. At the very least it would encourage them to provide a bare minimum of additional information.
There's more of those than I'd like. It's even worse on Mac OS - forget locking up or crashing, the command just does nothing. Game stays in foreground but simultaneously unselected so my movements don't register in a fair amount of the ones I've played in the last year on my rMBP.

Oh, I never even thought of Macs. That really sucks.

Quality of life issues can be a real mood-killer. Hopefully this stuff can be more standardised as Steam and Valve's console-box (forgot the name :x) Steambox solidify their positions.
 

Dsyndrome

Member
What the fuck...
XhTKlRT.png
[/IMG]
Why do I care that Command and Conquer 3 is 30 FPS? And that's the only curator for this game?

Not that I really use the curator system, but seeing 30 FPS locked emblazoned near Add to Cart pisses me off. Keep that shit near the review section, I don't even follow you, Framerate Police!
 

zkylon

zkylewd
What the fuck...

Why do I care that Command and Conquer 3 is 30 FPS? And that's the only curator for this game?

Not that I really use the curator system, but seeing 30 FPS locked emblazoned near Add to Cart pisses me off. Keep that shit near the review section, I don't even follow you, Framerate Police!

curator system is pretty much broken and dumb

that's why everyone should just use my thingie :>
 
What the fuck...

Why do I care that Command and Conquer 3 is 30 FPS? And that's the only curator for this game?

Not that I really use the curator system, but seeing 30 FPS locked emblazoned near Add to Cart pisses me off. Keep that shit near the review section, I don't even follow you, Framerate Police!

Alert Waifu Hunter.

But seriously, is seeing some other curator's "This game is great and is fully strategic and real-time. 9/10 [Link to Site]" any better?

The curation system was a mistake, you know. It's nothing but advertising.
 
I guess I'm in the minority but I think the 30fps steam currator is pretty useful, it gives some info that I would like to have before I buy a game, it wouldn't affect my purchasing decision much but if I see a game with the 30fps "badge" I would be more keen on finding out why it's locked which could point to other problems as well.
 

Dsyndrome

Member
curator system is pretty much broken and dumb

that's why everyone should just use my thingie :>

I applaud your 94 hours in Dead State, btw. Nobody else is more than eight hours from my Friends. I keep meaning to start it but see a shiny object or something.
 

Lain

Member
What the fuck...

Why do I care that Command and Conquer 3 is 30 FPS? And that's the only curator for this game?

Not that I really use the curator system, but seeing 30 FPS locked emblazoned near Add to Cart pisses me off. Keep that shit near the review section, I don't even follow you, Framerate Police!

I'm still hoping for an update that let us only see the curators we follow, not every big curator. As it stands now, I don't see any because I removed all curators from showing up thanks to ES.
 
It's okay to like different things.

Circle is a strange beast -- at first it didn't click for me... but then I gave it another shot and I really liked it for it's strong ties to the core NES games.

Aria of Sorrow (and Dawn of Sorrow) are my favorite Igavania games, bar none.

Harmony of Dissonance really didn't do anything for me and was a rather huge disappointment.
 

Coreda

Member
I can't see a developer/publisher willingly offering that info unless there's no cap, which frankly is probably more games than not so there's less need for the info in most cases. As mentioned in the video with the banning of the '30fps' tag and top reviews often being memes it's not easy to at a glance see if a game on sale for example has a 30fps lock.

Shame about the TotalBiscuit followers creating problems but I don't fault TB for the idea of wanting to inform PC users. If this was created by a GAF'er I have to wonder if more here wouldn't like the idea.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Alert Waifu Hunter.

But seriously, is seeing some other curator's "This game is great and is fully strategic and real-time. 9/10 [Link to Site]" any better?

The curation system was a mistake, you know. It's nothing but advertising.

i mean, the problem with the curator system is that instead of doing something simple like allowing people to quickly turn their reviews into curation and not have to freaking create a group just to curate (wtf is up with that, srs?) they came up with that shit

would be nice if ppl could just give something thumbs up or thumbs down and not review at all, too, and know if your friends like it or not and have it show as recommended if many of them do

tho i do appreciate the fun little jokes that anime butt makes

I applaud your 94 hours in Dead State, btw. Nobody else is more than eight hours from my Friends. I keep meaning to start it but see a shiny object or something.
it's probably like 20 hours more since i also played the beta a bunch :p

let's say it did a ton of things right specifically for me

-___-
 

eyeless

Member
can anyone tell me if the stalker complete mod for shadow of chernobyl includes the zone reclamation project bug fixes? or do i need both
 

Miguel81

Member
Circle is a strange beast -- at first it didn't click for me... but then I gave it another shot and I really liked it for it's strong ties to the core NES games.

Aria of Sorrow (and Dawn of Sorrow) are my favorite Igavania games, bar none.

Harmony of Dissonance really didn't do anything for me and was a rather huge disappointment.

I appreciated the challenge that that title provided, and the music is great. God damn was it dark on the OG GBA, though.

On a different note, maybe I'm misremembering but Batman Origins fights seem a lot tougher than the ones from Asylum and City. This is on hard mode, but still. I like it.
 

Grief.exe

Member
I guess I'm in the minority but I think the 30fps steam currator is pretty useful, it gives some info that I would like to have before I buy a game, it wouldn't affect my purchasing decision much but if I see a game with the 30fps "badge" I would be more keen on finding out why it's locked which could point to other problems as well.

It's very useful information to have as a consumer.
 
I appreciated the challenge that that title provided, and the music is great. God damn was it dark on the OG GBA, though.

On a different note, maybe I'm misremembering but Batman Origins fights seem a lot tougher than the ones from Asylum and City. This is on hard mode, but still. I like it.

There's a different pacing to the fights -- I'm not sure what it is, but I found there were times where enemies channeled their inner flash and would be able to hit you before they would have been able to in City or Asylum... but once you get used to it, the rhythm is still there.

It's very useful information to have as a consumer.

Depends on the consumer.

I know I know. This is probably stupid.

Is there a reliably way to get Batman Arkham Knight for steam currently?

nVidia code in the BST thread. $20.
 

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 very useful information to have as a consumer.

I agree that the information is important to consumers. I disagree that having a curator that gives the same 9 letter review to each game is the right way to inform us.
 

Grief.exe

Member
Depends on the consumer.

If the consumer isn't particularly interested in 30 FPS caps, then the curstion becomes irrelevant anyways. Ultimately becoming a moot point.

I agree that the information is important to consumers. I disagree that having a curator that gives the same 5 letter review to each game is the right way to inform us.

I don't really see any other alternative. Valve banned useful tags such as Uplay and 30 FPS. Enhanced Steam warning are an option, but that dographic is likely more well informed than your average user anyways.

I think this was a creative way to get the word out.
 
I agree that the information is important to consumers. I disagree that having a curator that gives the same 5 letter review to each game is the right way to inform us.

More information is always good.

Objective or not, naming your group with the word police adds a connotation of subjectiveness into it, which considering TB's elitist attitude, doesn't surprise me.

I don't really see any other alternative. Valve banned useful tags such as Uplay and 30 FPS. Enhanced Steam warning are an option, but that dographic is likely more well informed than your average user anyways.

Anybody who actually cares enough about the information being stated would not be considered an "average" user.
 

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.
Enhanced Steam warning are an option, but that dographic is likely more well informed than your average user anyways.

Enhanced Steam has over two million downloads and it turns out that having warning messages on the store page ends up being pretty effective even if it's in the hands of a small percentage of Steam's total user base. I've personally worked with a few developers who had questions about 3rd party DRM and how it interacts with Steam - several of which were convinced to remove their extra DRM because they didn't want the red banner on their store pages any more. I'd say that, overall, messages like that have been a success.

It's also the kind of thing that helps a program like Enhanced Steam reach more people. With the DRM example I see posts on Reddit/Twitter all the time like "Dude, I didn't know Black Flag on Steam required uPlay!" and a string of people telling them "Dude, you should have been using Enhanced Steam". In fact, that feature became so popular and such an issue that when Valve redesigned the store they included a section specifically for 3rd party DRM, although they sadly chose to make it yellow.

Anyway, it's something I'm working on and I'm also making it crowd-sourced so that there isn't just one person who says "Yes this game has a locked frame rate" that gets to be the authority (or police, as you will) on the matter. Hopefully it's another feature that proves popular enough that people take advantage of it, use it, and it eventually finds it's way into Steam proper.
 

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Knurek

Member
I don't really see any other alternative. Valve banned useful tags such as Uplay and 30 FPS. Enhanced Steam warning are an option, but that dographic is likely more well informed than your average user anyways.

I think this was a creative way to get the word out.

There's nothing creative about blanket state '30 fps lock' statement, considering some of the games its being applied to.

Heroes of Might & Magic III?
The Banner Saga?
Baldur's Gate?
Cook, Serve, Delicious?
Clicker Fucking Heroes?

There's 30 fps (in 3D games) and there's 30 fps (in 2D games/strategy titles/etc). Really.
 

Dsyndrome

Member
"Winning" C&C Uprising made me realize I had none of the games digitally. Rectified that, unfortunately on Origin, now I have them all and am missing Westwood Studios. C&C is the first game I've actually played on the client. So congrats ModBot for spreading e-commerce and such with the garbage dump.
wish they were all on Steam but that's not gonna happen.
 
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