So many awful games.

[Vara]

Took a look through the Steam store. Wow. That was terrible.

It would appear that recently we've struck quite a bump, a bump in gaming quality versus quantity. Hentai, Early Access, and the awful Indie Game Market manifesting nothing but broken, below par, and pricy games with little content. For a while it's been clear that Valve doesn't want top of the line quality ganes filling their stores, but is instead focusing more towards quantity over quality.

I, for one, would happily remove hundreds of games from the Steam market if I had even the slightest chance. Staring with the hundreds of Hentai/Anime games that completely plauge the market. Afterwards, I'd completely remove Early Access entirely; Early Access developers have no reason to finish a game if it's already sold thousands of copies. In short, Early Access just doesn't work. It's like pizza: The devs make the pizza half baked and 'promise' to bake the other half, but never do. They just give you a half finished pizza for the full price.

It's so revolting to see promises broke right before your eyes and that game you were promised turn into something so disgusting you can't even stomach it. Make it so you can refund an EA game ANYTIME, that'd fix it quick and make this greedy devs work. I'd also make sure those Indie game creators are placed under a heavy thumb so they can't release their foul 'games' anymore.

What are your thoughts? Tell me!

[BlackSpawn]

There is objective criteria:

Phone and tablet mobile ports
Asset flips
Proof of concept / barely playable alphas sold as full games
Abandoned incomplete early access games
Greenlighted detritus that makes it via key offers, vote manipulation, giveaways, etc.. (many wouldnt make it otherwise)

Just a few basic examples off the top of my head.

Not every high school project and amateurish effort is worthy of being sold on the Steam store indistinctly along with actual finished, original, playable games.

There could be exceptions, of course, but by and large these titles shouldnt INDISTINCTLY be sold on Steam. At worst, they should be clearly tagged in a section of the store composed of 10 cent disposable games.

[Sr. Raikuo]

Stuff you don't like != awful

[Reported.]

Consider Steam as a communal trough more than a game store. Then people are free to pick games as they can, regardless of quality.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

The primary grounds on judging a game would be content, longevity, graphics, sound, playability, stability and how it compares to other games in its genre.

There is a myth in Steam that having more games means more choice and is therefore better for customers. That isn't necessarily totally true.

Steam now has in excess of 10,000 games. To spend one minute each considering 10,000 games would take in excess of 166 hours or in excess of four weeks work. Realistically only the most dedicated of purchasers who don't actually play the games they buy are going to get anywhere near this.

As a result for me like most purchasers the Steam store is no more than 1,000 to 2,000 recognisable games (been a gamer for a LONG time) and a vast pit of unknowns which could range from hidden gems (I was lucky enough to find Castle Crashers after it being promoted on the store front) to Unity asset rip offs and asset flips put together in one short afternoon.

I am exceptionally careful about parting with my money on non AAA games because Steam's virtually complete abdication of any form of responsibility for the quality of games in ITS store means that there is a high risk of being ripped off if you buy any game that hasn't got a high review rating with over one thousand reviews. Even then better check the detail on both positive and negative reviews.

As a result I think there are probably significant numbers of good games that are not selling well solely because customers can't find them. I know you can search by genre but that imposes too tight a limit. How many people knew that we wanted to play a game where you had to mine and collect resources to build the most basic artifacts in a world with really blocky graphics until Nox made "Minecraft" ?

In my view there are OBJECTIVE differences between good games and really awful ones and the company that made the Half Life series, Left four Dead, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 should know the differences between a great game, a good game, a flawed game, an average game, a below average game and one that is a blatant no effort rip off. Indeed most experienced customers do. But since computer games are played often by children many purchases will be made by them or on their behalf not everyone out there comes with a fully updated consumer awareness. Most people shop at stores where the seller takes responsibility for the quality of their products. And at the moment Steam shows no interest in whether they're going to get ripped off or not.

Getting rid of the last category on Steam would be far better for customers, far better for honest and competent developers, and better in the long run for Steam. At the moment Steam has created a market where con merchants can make money just by uploading unity asset rip offs and asst flips onto Steam. In a world where large numbers of people live on less than $5.00 a day how long will Steam be able to keep the gates open and unguarded before organised gangs in Asia start pumping this rubbish into Steam at the rate of hundreds a week ?

S.x.

[Tito Shivan]

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

Phone and tablet mobile ports

These strikes me as really weird. You're using a very broad brush there to paint stuff.

Why we should not have phone and mobile ports into Steam? Why shouldn't be able to play Hitman or Lara Croft Go on my PC, for example?
Should console ports (GTA V) not be sold on the store too?

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

Abandoned incomplete early access games

We've gone through this time ago. How do we define exactly when an Early Access is 'abandoned'?
(Not to mention an Early access cannot be 'incomplete' since you buy it at the actual status...Stop buying without reading the FAQ)

Publicado originalmente por The Rock God:

Me too! So many games that have no place in a reputable store.

TF2 - F2P trash that supports itself through microtransactions.
Mount & Blade: Warband - Indie trash. Get real developers, selling real games.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare - More Indie trash.
Skyrim - The game has over 1000 documented bugs! There's even an "unofficial patch" you can get that fixes them. Why does Steam sell this?
Arma III - Well known for being so poorly optimised that even $4k computers have problems. But what do you expect from some Indie developer?
Garry's Mod - 1) Indie trash. 2) Not even a real game. 3) You have to buy other games - which aren't even made by the same company - to unlock all of the content.
Europa Universalis IV - $40 game. $250 in DLC. Steam will let you get away with anything as long as they get a cut.

Also Why is Bethesda even selling games when all their products are so buggy? Skyrim, FO3, FONV, FO4...?
Don't forget Train Simulator. Thats like over two grands on DLC!!!
/sarcasm off

Now seriously. Your post is a shining example of why these kind of 'There should be some sort of 'QA' demands will eventually bite you on the rear no matter what.
This point was specifically adressed during the last Stem Developer Days. The problem with QA is that you cut some bad weeds at the expense of having 'the next big thing' not make it into the store.

This video is worth a watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGCyfEYfLks

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

There is objective criteria:

Phone and tablet mobile ports
Asset flips
Proof of concept / barely playable alphas sold as full games
Abandoned incomplete early access games
Greenlighted detritus that makes it via key offers, vote manipulation, giveaways, etc.. (many wouldnt make it otherwise)

Just a few basic examples off the top of my head.

Not every high school project and amateurish effort is worthy of being sold on the Steam store indistinctly along with actual finished, original, playable games.

There could be exceptions, of course, but by and large these titles shouldnt INDISTINCTLY be sold on Steam. At worst, they should be clearly tagged in a section of the store composed of 10 cent disposable games.

None of the aboce is a reason to deny a game's existence on Steam.
And no, if you go to enforce rules about what can and cannot be sold on Steam, there should be no exceptions. Because you'll end with the very same situation you have now.

Sorry to tell you, but Steam is not your elitist's PC master race market place. Never been.

Steam caters to millions of different gamers and some of them use the PC rather causally. I for one play a lot of those mobile ports on my laptop if i have time to kill, because most of the time it's running anyway. But thank you for denying me to buy them on Steam.

Publicado originalmente por gallifrey:

Steam now has in excess of 10,000 games. To spend one minute each considering 10,000 games would take in excess of 166 hours or in excess of four weeks work. Realistically only the most dedicated of purchasers who don't actually play the games they buy are going to get anywhere near this.

How in god's name to you get the idea that a single person will buy all the games on Steam? That's the point about customer's choice. I can buy all the major or ciritcally acclaimed titles that are released. I can buy all the racing games I find, I can buy all indie puzzle platformers, I can buy all Russian indie games, I can buy CS:GO only ... I do not need to buy every single bloody game.

Publicado originalmente por gallifrey:

But since computer games are played often by children many purchases will be made by them or on their behalf not everyone out there comes with a fully updated consumer awareness. Most people shop at stores where the seller takes responsibility for the quality of their products. And at the moment Steam shows no interest in whether they're going to get ripped off or not.

Oh right. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!
Ignore the fact that the average gamer is in its thirties. Ignore the fact that a child should not have unsupervised means to buy games on the internet or at all. Ignore the fact that children are quite capabale of knowing what they want. Nervewreckingly so.
And most of the time they do not want the Russian indie game sold for a dollar but rather GTA V with the fancy graphics that everyone in school is talking about.
Have you even played video games as a child? Or come in contact with any?

[BlackSpawn]

Tito: You failed to understand the premise of my post. And to account for the last statement / paragraph included within it.

Crap tablet and phone mobile ports sold as if they were self contained pc games.

An early access title is incomplete by definition.
If the alpha fails to be updated and worked on, it becomes yet another abandoned early access game to join the alpha cemetery.

The faq doesnt absolve unscrupulous developers and publishers from dropping the alpha for the cashgrab and start running and other unsavory individuals and practices.

[ted]

I thought it was already obvious that steam has no care for their customers. Their only priority is dosh, dosh and dosh

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

Tito: You failed to understand the premise of my post. And to account for the last statement / paragraph included within it.

Crap tablet and phone ports sold as if they were self contained pc games.

Again you use a term that has literally no objective criteria at all other than "I don't like it".

We obviously should take Dark Souls entirely off of Steam too because that's "objectivley a crap console port"

[BlackSpawn]

Easy to misunderstand what i say when you twist the words to mean something else entirely, which i never said.

My original posts are self explanatory, reread them if you need to.

The OP and others do have a point.

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

The OP and others do have a point.

No you do not. Your goal is directly contradictive to the platform holder's goal. You want to limit accessibility for developers while Valve wants a simple distribution platform with as little borders as possible for creators to share their work.

People who want McDonald's to offer haute cuisine also have a point. They're still barking up the wrong tree.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

The OP and others do have a point.

Yes, and that has always been:

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

Stuff you don't like != awful

If even one person wants to buy a game the developer decided to put on Steam, I see no reason why they should not be able to do so. It doesn't effect me as there is a search and filter available.

[Gallifrey - CSSC Gaming Founder]

Publicado originalmente por Spawn Of Totoro:

Publicado originalmente por BlackSpawn:

The OP and others do have a point.

Yes, and that has always been:

Publicado originalmente por Satoru:

Stuff you don't like != awful

If even one person wants to buy a game the developer decided to put on Steam, I see no reason why they should not be able to do so. It doesn't effect me as there is a search and filter available.

So you know all ten thosand games Steam sells in its store then ?

S.x.

[cinedine]

Publicado originalmente por gallifrey:

So you know all ten thosand games Steam sells in its store then ?

Unless you prove otherwise, yes. And be it that it's bought by some of the collectors.

[Flurdy]

I'm agreeing with Totoro here, even if there is only an handful of people that would want to buy/play the game then why wouldn't it be on steam? Theres plenty of games i think look awful but i'm sure theres a group of people out there that would enjoy that very same game.
(And vice versa)