Keeping you safe from 30fps

I've read a great deal of feedback and criticism of the initiative over the last few days. The majority of it is easily dismissed as hyperbole, misguided or just flat out incorrect, but there was one thing that got me thinking.

So we set up this group to be purely objective. Briefly at the beginning I listed a few games with which I said "look I think this is ok at 30fps because of the genre" but I quickly realised this was worthless information because everyones tolerance of framerate is going to be different, so I switched to providing purely objective information. However, some people correctly stated that some games are affected more by a 30fps lock than others, which is true, but how can we communicate that while simultaneously remaining objective? The answer I think is to include genre information in the recommendations. This remains purely objective but it also allows customers to better gauge how a 30fps lock will affect them.

An example. Toukiden Kowami is a 3rd person action game, the 30fps lock is very noticeable and absolutely has a negative impact on the gameplay. Guild of Dungeoneering is a card game which is purely mouse-driven. The 30fps lock has a much smaller impact on the gameplay as a result. By listing genres on the recommendations, we allow customers to judge for themselves whether or not a game is worth trying regardless of its framerate lock, based on their own personal preferences. Are you the sort of person that only cares when it's a first person shooter? No problem, the recommendation will tell you what the genre is. Are you the sort of person that will not buy a 30fps game under any circumstances? Well the genre information is there if you want to see it but it doesn't affect your ability to avoid 30fps games at all.

This additional infomation serves to empower the customer to make good decisions and judge for themselves whether or not they want to make a purchase, based on how much 30fps bothers them in types of games. It also I would hope goes some way to further reinforcing the idea that this is not a blacklist, nor is it a shamelist, it is an objective piece of information to help Steam users make better decisions.