Convincing studios/devs to stop using the My Documents Folder

[Samoth]

For some reason game studios and others have begun to use the My Documents Folder to store parts of the program.
I for one am tired of seeing that folder getting stuffed with more and more things, until I now can't separate all my things, from all of their things.
I wish there was a way to come to common ground on this. There has to be 20 folders in it now, and growing. It irks me to no end, and it's only getting worse.

[Darkwave Dahlia]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Bug:

It should really be in appdata/local

That's also sort of bad because most users have no idea where that is, and isince there's no environment variable for it, its actually harder to get to for users. Also note appdata is also hidden by default making it again a chore for most users to find.

It is not presumptuous to expect that someone who is bothered by this structure can know how to find this folder. Or, to put it another way, if they think it's going to affect them in some way or cause you trouble, then they're not pursuing their hobby diligently enough.

[Nico]

You can store your documents elsewhere and change the windows documents button link.

I use a folder at the top of my documents for real documents

[Muppet among Puppets]

My "documents" contains only game stuff.
Its easy to backup.

But then there are games you need to read where you find that.

I never used a folder microsoft created for me to store my stuff in them. Just because it had the name suggesting that i should do that. Maybe thats the difference.

[ReBoot]

Hide game folders. That solves a lot.

[Samoth]

that one person hit it on the head, we have places for it "My games" ^/ saved games.
And yes to answer a respondant, I am older than computers(in-home) period. There were no Atari's, no 'personal pc's'. I watched my father solder together the motherborad parts to make his first computer in 1980. It was from Heathkit. And when Radio Shack was a real thing. I am pretty damn old. Past the half-century mark now.
I saved my first programs on audio cassette tapes. On a Sinclair with 2K mem, and 2K on board. That had a smoking new 4K RAM expansion, for a grand total of 8K ram. lol.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Games, and software apps been using that place for over decades, just saying... If you want a neater place to look, make your own folder, and add shortcuts into it, there you go all neat & organize first work problem solved.

Some games have save stored in game own folder where it installed, but issue is if happen to uninstall, or delete game, you lose your save with it.

Not a lot games use appdata, reason is that most people had no idea that exist, let alone knew how to get to it, or didn't realize they shouldn't be mindlessly deleting things from that area if they don't know what they're doing, as may have software that depend on things from there in order to run, or to function calling to do things.

A lot of games use documents because easiest place to find, most people know it, and wouldn't be much of an issue if they mindlessly delete things besides losing save of things basically.

Some games use My games folder which is inside document, to help keep document neat, but most game devs are lazy, and don't want to put the effort of my games, I know.

Another place game save may go in is game client folder, where keep userdata folder, or called it something else that not in game folder so don't lose save if uninstall, or delete game folder.

[kitt]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

You know that for most games out there you can change that by editing the ini files right?
Thety started using that because people hated having to hunt across a dozen different folders looking for config, and save files. Plus it allowed settings, saves, etc to be tied to users.

yea its so much easier..

My Documents, AppData (that is hidden by default), game folder...

yea totally easier for getting to your files than just having it in the game folder... gosh..

Then you have games that create like several folders and you have to test which one is actually being used (hello Paladins).

Then some games only use the registry for their data..

yep I can see how much easier it all is.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Originally posted by kitt:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

You know that for most games out there you can change that by editing the ini files right?
Thety started using that because people hated having to hunt across a dozen different folders looking for config, and save files. Plus it allowed settings, saves, etc to be tied to users.

yea its so much easier..

My Documents, AppData (that is hidden by default), game folder...

yea totally easier for getting to your files than just having it in the game folder... gosh..

It is easier. One folder could have all game saves.
Try to find a game save in steam in a "game folder". I just tried, had to guess my "number", then the game number, ....... way easier than looking for the name of a game in documents, and have the saves.

[Samoth]

i would be so pleased if they could find some middle ground. Granted the idea of hiding those folders might help. It is just a huge clutter. And also like some said they don't even use them sometimes, it can be a empty folder. All I see is a mess in the My Documents folder. :)

[Scheneighnay]

They could always just toss it in the root of your user profile. Some programs I have do that.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Frankly speaking, as far as I'm concerned, the saves should be in the same directory as the game, preferably in a dedicated subfolder.

Nowadays we have game saves in any of the following locations:
* the game's installation directory
* C:\Users\name\Saved Games
* C:\Users\name
* AppData:
** AppData\Local\Gamename
** AppData\Local\Publishername
** AppData\LocalLow\Gamename
** AppData\LocalLow\Publishername
** AppData\Roaming\GameName
** AppData\Roaming\PublisherName
* whatever the Documents folder is
** Documents\Saved Games
** Documents\SavedGames
** Documents\Gamename
** Documents\Publishername
* C:\Users\name\My Documents (distinct from the Documents folder)

What a mess.

[百地希留耶]

(*≧ｍ≦*)

[RetroGrade]

I agree old skool developer had it right. This modern claptrap skooled in unit 8200.


Ya want to debate it with sourced links Tel Aviv troll .. thought not! they never debate it secret squirrel trolls. look into it your self AWAKEN

[Nico]

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Frankly speaking, as far as I'm concerned, the saves should be in the same directory as the game, preferably in a dedicated subfolder.

Nowadays we have game saves in any of the following locations:
* the game's installation directory
* C:\Users\name\Saved Games
* C:\Users\name
* AppData:
** AppData\Local\Gamename
** AppData\Local\Publishername
** AppData\LocalLow\Gamename
** AppData\LocalLow\Publishername
** AppData\Roaming\GameName
** AppData\Roaming\PublisherName
* whatever the Documents folder is
** Documents\Saved Games
** Documents\SavedGames
** Documents\Gamename
** Documents\Publishername
* C:\Users\name\My Documents (distinct from the Documents folder)

What a mess.

It is dangerous to have the save files in the same game directory, what if you want to delete a game and you decide to just delete it's folder?

For the appdata folders, usually you can order by date to find a recent game file you want to access

[RiO]

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Frankly speaking, as far as I'm concerned, the saves should be in the same directory as the game, preferably in a dedicated subfolder.

That violates the folder permissions model and conflicts with multiple user accounts being able to run the game and keep separate saves and configuration.

Originally posted by Quint the Alligator Snapper:

Nowadays we have game saves in any of the following locations:

[..snip..]

What a mess.

Yes; it's a mess.
Really; you only need three folders to 'do it right' :

Users\<user>\AppData\Local\<publisher>\<product>\
Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\<publisher>\<product>\
Users\<user>\Saved Games\<publisher>\<product>\

The first has machine-specific configuration and data; e.g. stores graphics settings; audio device settings; etc. and is where things like shader cache go.

The second has non machine-specific configuration and data; e.g. stores generic gameplay settings; key mappings; volume settings; etc.
As the Roaming folder's only benefit is to use it to support roaming user profiles, which is really only a solution in practice used for business networks you might as well just put this data in the Local folder and actually take the Roaming one off the list.
On the other hand, the split is also useful for e.g. Steam's cloud save platform.
A distinct Local/Roaming split means the Roaming configuration can be part of the cloud backup and migrate along to other machines safely; without affecting the Local configuration that is machine-specific.

The third is where save games go.
It's a bit of a toss-up where auto-saves should go. They are not manually created by the user, so they could be considered as AppData. However, Microsoft's guidance also states that AppData should be considered temporary and volatile and that anything put there, the application should be able to restore / recreate in a default state if need be. So auto-saves should still go in the third Saved Games folder, because they represent state that should not be lost and cannot be (easily) recreated.

And I'd strongly argue that any publisher or developer doing it differently is, in fact, 'doing it wrong.'