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STEAM | September 2016 - Good job doing previous stuff, let's do new stuff

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Right, Bioshock The Collection is getting released tomorrow. I have never played Bioshock 2 so I think I'm going to play all of them this time.
 

Teggy

Member
I just remembered how feel-sy Bioshock 2 is and I don't think I can replay it. The game really knows how to push your emotional buttons.

I still think that bit toward the end of the game that I won't spoil is one of the most clever things done in a game ever. You know what I'm talking about.
 

rtcn63

Member
I still think that bit toward the end of the game that I won't spoil is one of the most clever things done in a game ever. You know what I'm talking about.

I'm guessing you're referring to

tenor.gif
 

Nzyme32

Member
Have to keep subjectivity of reviews in mind but so far I've had no fun with sub-60 rated things but generally a good time with anything above to varying degrees.

Exactly the same. Was thinking about this earlier. There are only a few 70%+ games that I like but beyond that it's seeming a bit more varied but almost always things I'm happy with and enjoyed.

Sunless Sea is one of my favourites for a bunch of reasons and sits at 81%; Steam Controller is at 79% and that is something I really like a lot - yet these are good measures of actual sentiment towards them in general.
 

Vibranium

Banned
Chris Metzen done with the industry, wow, he really was a big talent regardless of your thoughts on his later work. This is a golden opportunity for Blizzard to do some writer shopping, on the other hand.
 
Some off-topic reviews get marked as 'helpful' simply because they are funny. These don't appear to actually be helpful in determining whether you should buy the game, so we're working on some ways to better detect and filter out these.

They could hire a moderator...

LOL can't even say that with a straight face.
 
Lords of the Fallen is actually pretty fun so far, the armor designs are great and the graphics overall are impressive. Nvidia Turbulence tech with embers is actually really cool looking too.
 

Unai

Member
So, if a game is not being sold on Steam in my region, but there are Steam keys in other legal sources like Green Man Gaming, Humble Bundle, Nuuvem or Bundle Stars, it will activate just fine in my account as long as I can actually buy it in one of these sites, correct?
 

Tellaerin

Member
There are five levels of different types of bad in that system and only three that are in anyway positive.

The three point system is the only real grading system worthwhile.

I'd like to see outlets go with a five-point scale (0-4 stars), along the lines of some movie reviews. It's familiar to people, it has decent granularity, and it doesn't come with the baggage of a percentage system, where people start (bizarrely, IMO) equating the percentages with school grades and decide that the midpoint of the scale - 50% - is not "average" but "fail/utter shit".
 

Dusk Golem

A 21st Century Rockefeller
We'll have a sale close to Halloween which will have a theme of scary or 'Halloween' themed games, or games that hold Halloween events.

If you want a horror game, one of the better sales to wait for. I know a lot of horror devs will put their game on a deeper discount during the Halloween sale rather than the Winter Sale being in the spirit of Halloween.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
new review system changes are great

- you can filter reviews by steam purchases versus key activations
- key activations don't count for the overall score
- 160 games had significant divergences in key activation score / steam purchase score (i.e. evidence of review tampering)
- 14% of games will have a score category change

next up:
- ways to detect games where dumb fucking internet morons upvote and signal boost their spam reviews that don't represent what actual human beings think about the game
- better ways to filter off-topic meme reviews
 

Lomax

Member
Diminishing the reviews of games from steam keys really does seem like the first step towards a more significant change. I still think at some point their "generate unlimited keys for free" policy will change to something more restrictive. The growth phase of Steam is over, they stopped talking about member numbers a while ago, there's just no longer any need to pull people into the ecosystem, all pc gamers are going to find their way to steam now. So basically the key policy is becoming more and more just something pulling profits away from steam but still having all the associated hassles.
 

ModBot

Not a mod, just a bot.
This is a scheduled automated repost on behalf of Uraizen, who is running this raffle.

ModBot said:
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 from the message below containing the game you want to enter for. Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.
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Batman: Arkham Knight -- MB-130328058BC94575 - Taken by Benedict. 89 entrants total.


t1473783564z1.png
 

Tellaerin

Member
new review system changes are great

- you can filter reviews by steam purchases versus key activations
- key activations don't count for the overall score
- 160 games had significant divergences in key activation score / steam purchase score (i.e. evidence of review tampering)
- 14% of games will have a score category change

next up:
- ways to detect games where dumb fucking internet morons upvote and signal boost their spam reviews that don't represent what actual human beings think about the game
- better ways to filter off-topic meme reviews

"Key activations don't count for the overall score"? Does that mean anything purchased outside of the Steam store (Humble, Amazon, etc.) doesn't factor into the score? I'm not too keen on that, if that's the case...
 

Grimalkin

Member
The way I see it, if the game has divisive reviews its definitely worth my time.

I don't normally read reviews so I just checked; most of my favorite games have scores from 60-89.

The Curse of Monkey Island - 89
Darksiders - 83
Gothic 3 - 63
The Lord of the Rings Online - 86
Orcs Must Die 2 - 82
Psychonauts - 87
Puzzle Agent - 70
Syberia - 82
Titan Quest - 77
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - 80
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide - 79

I'm honestly a bit surprised that some of these are as high as they are. Fairly certain Curse of Monkey Island and Psychonauts didn't score that high when they first came out. I was the lone, sad defender of COMI on adventure game forums for the longest time. :p

Others I'm like, "What the fuck..." like Titan Quest. That game has always been solid gold. And what's wrong with Puzzle Agent?

Bloodlines had a lot of bugs and issues when it first came out, so I'm not surprised by the score. Same with Gothic 3, to say that game is "rustic" without fan patches would be a polite way of putting it.

Then again, I couldn't get Fallout 3 to run at all until the fan bug fixes came out and that game is sitting at a 91, so who can say what is and is not quality.
 

Grimalkin

Member
"Key activations don't count for the overall score"? Does that mean anything purchased outside of the Steam store (Humble, Amazon, etc.) doesn't factor into the score? I'm not too keen on that, if that's the case...

Yep, that's exactly what it means.

Customers that received the game from a source outside of Steam (e.g. via a giveaway site, purchased from another digital or retail store, or received for testing purposes from the developer) will still be able to write a review of the game on Steam to share their experience. These reviews will still be visible on the store page, but they will no longer contribute to the score.
 
"Key activations don't count for the overall score"? Does that mean anything purchased outside of the Steam store (Humble, Amazon, etc.) doesn't factor into the score? I'm not too keen on that, if that's the case...

It does seem like a pretty blunt way to deal with the problem of devs giving keys for good reviews.

Maybe some sort of rep system for reviewers, the longer you've been on steam, the more reviews you write, the more games you have etc...
 

morningbus

Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
"Key activations don't count for the overall score"? Does that mean anything purchased outside of the Steam store (Humble, Amazon, etc.) doesn't factor into the score? I'm not too keen on that, if that's the case...

I don't think it'll be too much of an issue honestly, as the score as a sign of quality should still be accurately represented by just official Steam purchases.

There isn't a scenario where the Steam community is somehow going to be more lenient on a game than bought elsewhere.
 

Knurek

Member
- better ways to filter off-topic meme reviews

In three years, Valve will become the largest supplier of video games. All computers will be are preinstalled with Steam client, becoming part of a massive botnet. Afterwards, they run with a perfect operational record. The Steam Review Machine Learning Project is greenlit. The system goes online August 4th, 2017. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Steam begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Steam fights back. It launches its payloads against the targets in Russia because Steam knows that the Russian counterattack will eliminate its enemies over here.
 

oipic

Member
I don't think it'll be too much of an issue honestly, as the score as a sign of quality should still be accurately represented by just official Steam purchases.

There isn't a scenario where the Steam community is somehow going to be more lenient on a game than bought elsewhere.

Agreed, although the obvious point of difference between Steam purchasers and those who have sourced keys from elsehwere is the return policy available to the former.

Might be drawing a long bow, but this move could perhaps take out of play some angst-ridden reviews from (for example) pre-orderers of games for whom said title doesn't work - those who purchased on Steam might get their refund and move on (and have their review removed?), whereas the only outlet for those who purchased a key from elsewhere might be to vent via a negative review.
 

Knurek

Member
You all know that the fact key reviews don't count means that devs can just stop giving them to previous owners with no fear of retribution?
 

morningbus

Serious Sam is a wicked gahbidge series for chowdaheads.
You all know that the fact key reviews don't count means that devs can just stop giving them to previous owners with no fear of retribution?

If it means the internet gets a little less power, I'm willing to take that trade off.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Diminishing the reviews of games from steam keys really does seem like the first step towards a more significant change. I still think at some point their "generate unlimited keys for free" policy will change to something more restrictive. The growth phase of Steam is over, they stopped talking about member numbers a while ago, there's just no longer any need to pull people into the ecosystem, all pc gamers are going to find their way to steam now. So basically the key policy is becoming more and more just something pulling profits away from steam but still having all the associated hassles.

That might be true, but I don't think this is the precursor. The problem that motivated this is laid out in great detail in the new review system post; they have caught developers buying reviews. 160 games with statistically significant review differences between purchases and key activations, and let's charitably say a third of those are outright fraud? That's a problem that needs solving. And the most logical way to solve is is to prevent the dev from spamming reviews, but I don't think it's possible to prevent the dev from doing that while still allowing Humble/Amazon/etc. purchases to count--if anything, the system required to do that (i.e. force devs to register their intent when asking for individual keys) is more restrictive and more Valve oversight of the resale process.
 
We'll have a sale close to Halloween which will have a theme of scary or 'Halloween' themed games, or games that hold Halloween events.

If you want a horror game, one of the better sales to wait for. I know a lot of horror devs will put their game on a deeper discount during the Halloween sale rather than the Winter Sale being in the spirit of Halloween.
Is the rest of Revelations 2 ever gonna go on sale? I'm tired of having to buy the deluxe edition to get all the episodes and I feel like Capcom honey potted me with that Humble bundle way back.
 

The Hermit

Member
I never understood the fascination about reviews nowadays.

so many people can tamper the number ( either for more or less) that I don't take it seriously anymore.
 
I never understood the fascination about reviews nowadays.

so many people can tamper the number ( either for more or less) that I don't take it seriously anymore.

Games can sold poorly and devs can go bankrupt due to tampered Steam reviews. Steam reviews is serious business.
 
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