Removed

[PinkPanzer]

Removed

[xCHADDYBOIx]

can you add me me dude

[Crazy Tiger]

As someone who thinks that Valve is heavily overrated as a game dev (I stopped playing HL around, I think, the halfway point and gave the disc away because the game is just bland and tedious) and certainly doesn't see them as the "good guy" that some people fell for, I can indeed say you should ditch the rose tinted glasses.

For me Steam is just another store/launcher/platform, just like the rest. They're not special in any way, nor are they "there for the consumer". Load of bollocks and great marketing, but mostly hot air.

That said, I have no issue with Early Access. The main problem for me with Early Access is the people themselves. Wrong expectations, not properly reading what the store page says, not being aware of what they actually buy, etc. What Early Access mostly did is sho how game development is and how rocky that road can be, but the general public simply is not ready for that.
To me Early Access games are mostly honest product (I say mostly because bad actors exist everywhere). They market themselves as unfinished games, which is a lot better than those AAA releases that market themselves as finished games but are in a worse state than most Early Access products.
Ultimately it's just a label. One that other stores also are carrying as both GoG and Epic also have Early Access games.

I avoid most gaming communities due to people being people and have been doing so for over a decade. But that's not a Steam issue, that's just a humanity issue.

Ultimately I'm here for my games and as long as I can play those, I'm fine.

[Muppet among Puppets]

Crazy Tiger eredeti hozzászólása:

As someone who thinks that Valve is heavily overrated as a game dev (I stopped playing HL around, I think, the halfway point and gave the disc away because the game is just bland and tedious) and certainly doesn't see them as the "good guy" that some people fell for, I can indeed say you should ditch the rose tinted glasses.

Or that you need to scope all scope levels through to get out of the scope. Their censored versions. The removal of library list. The notifications that remind me for weeks on topics that dont even exist anymore or were unsubscribed. A store i dont really now anymore how to use.

You can not know what special ideas come next, and you think, what?

[Start_Running]

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

Good day to you and thank you for reading.

Each time there is a Steam sale i can't wait to dive into the discounts and splurge on games whom have been on my wishlist for some time, but this year was different and i didn't want to buy anything at all, and so i wondered why?. And after a while i got it, i lost my trust in Steam and started to see them as another shark in the sea hunting for profit and protecting themselves against any liabilities customers be damned.

Now you might think: Isn't that a bit naive of you?, for Steam is a business not a charity, ofcourse they are going after profit and their own interests. Maybe you are right, but i have grown up with Steam or rather Valve, from the first Half Life until current time so i always gave this company the rose tinted glasses treatment. But lately those glasses are starting to have a lot of cracks and a lot of good will has been burned. Let me explain my issues(not in any particulair order):

- Early acces: Games can be in this state forever and every complaint about the game in question is countered with: But its early acces, everything is subject to change...those game breaking bugs? early acces, that feature promised but stil not in the game after years? early acces, No progress in the game development? early acces....and so on and so on. Most of the games in my wishlist are eary acces and seem to stay there forever.

- Game announcements: announcements can be made far far into the future and the release date can be extended into oblivion, and if there is an party with a big sack of money the promised release get canceled, customers kept in the unknown and release seems unlikely dispite even selling the game in early acces or pre sale.

- Games are always subject to change: Take the recent uproar with Skullgirls (which in my opinion is validated), games are always in danger to have removed: themes, characters, items, clothing, maps or can be changed and censored willy nilly, regardless of the time of release (it can be decades), money invested, or whatever. Games can be even removed completely if some-one somewhere takes issue with a game and want it gone. Yes, if you bought the game you are allowed to keep it but can be changed and all the fun sucked out of it.

- Censorship: Censor-ship seems to be applied to the standard of the current mood of the Steam moderater in charge at that day. There seems no consistency at all, for one day a game can be allowed to sell with no issue but part 2 of that game gets denied for some reason while the theme, graphics and gameplay are nearly the same. You can create a game and have the player engage into any form of sexual deviancy with animals, world leaders and monsters, but a Japanese RPG with a high school setting gets denied at the spot for promoting underage molestation(even when the game has no sexual elements at all). Even when a game has been released for a while, it can be censored in the blink of an eye to comply with the often insane demands of the censorship demanding party while none of the active players has reported any issue.

Or it could be that you've just gotten used to the dopamine rish and don't feel as giddy. Plus you may be suffering backlog-guilt


Th skullgirls thing.. meh. I suspect some intrepid fan will find a way to patch in the old sprites though I can kinda see where the devs are coming from. Siimply put they need more money, and eyeballs and to be fair the fanservice probably doesn't help them get into more kid friendly market places.

I don't like it. I mean I know why I bought the game.

[Xhoas]

You are not losing faith, you are starting to dislike Steam as a whole...

[Mad Scientist]

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

- Early acces: Games can be in this state forever and every complaint about the game in question is countered with: But its early acces, everything is subject to change...those game breaking bugs? early acces, that feature promised but stil not in the game after years? early acces, No progress in the game development? early acces....and so on and so on. Most of the games in my wishlist are eary acces and seem to stay there forever.

The big blue warning sign is there for a reason. If the game is not in a state you approve of or would like, it's there to tell you not to buy it unless you're happy with it as-is or to wait until release date. Allowing things to actively develop is no reason to lose trust in Valve, they literally warn you with a big blue box.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

- Game announcements: announcements can be made far far into the future and the release date can be extended into oblivion, and if there is an party with a big sack of money the promised release get canceled, customers kept in the unknown and release seems unlikely dispite even selling the game in early acces or pre sale.

This is again, why you don't buy EAGs if you have trust issues in regard to if it'll even be released. As for other games, you should read the reviews or look at other games they've made, if something seems off; don't make a purchase. That is on the Developer (again) & users, not Valve.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

- Games are always subject to change: Take the recent uproar with Skullgirls (which in my opinion is validated), games are always in danger to have removed: themes, characters, items, clothing, maps or can be changed and censored willy nilly, regardless of the time of release (it can be decades), money invested, or whatever. Games can be even removed completely if some-one somewhere takes issue with a game and want it gone. Yes, if you bought the game you are allowed to keep it but can be changed and all the fun sucked out of it.

I've gotten a game where some content was removed and swapped with a better version of what was removed, it's an EAG and was expected from the announcements and Dev blog. Some use placeholders, others may see a mistake made & in need of being fixed by removing content to prevent being removed from the store such as sexualizing children which should've never been done in the first place. That says more about the Devs and such choices & actions catching up with them than it does Steam/Valve.

Again, trust issue is with the Developers there. Steam is already made to allow branches if a Developer wishes to release such to players.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

- Censorship: Censor-ship seems to be applied to the standard of the current mood of the Steam moderater in charge at that day. There seems no consistency at all, for one day a game can be allowed to sell with no issue but part 2 of that game gets denied for some reason while the theme, graphics and gameplay are nearly the same. You can create a game and have the player engage into any form of sexual deviancy with animals, world leaders and monsters, but a Japanese RPG with a high school setting gets denied at the spot for promoting underage molestation(even when the game has no sexual elements at all). Even when a game has been released for a while, it can be censored in the blink of an eye to comply with the often insane demands of the censorship demanding party while none of the active players has reported any issue.

People familiar with BG3 have informed others that it simply fades to black and does not show anything, as a "recurring joke" which others mislead users on to claim some sort of bestiality times. Sexualizing children is a big "No". Putting them into sexual content or something sex based is of course going to result in a ban/removal of the product if not removed. Of course, promoting certain actions is also a bannable offense to no ones surprise because it's completely justified to remove such things.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

- The community is too powerfull and too powerless at the same time: The Steam community is a tight knit group of gamers, and while there may be differences in taste, interests,gender and so forth, we always played together and had fun. Lately however, there is a group who find issue with everything, be it in-game, on and off-topic comments, in game development who spam the report button on comments, demand games to be changed to their tastes, derail on topic discussions and make it their purpose to ruin the lives of others in the name of good. Where they screaming into the void it wouldn't be an issue, but they get listended to and Steam often comply's with their demands. On the other hand when the community is rightly protesting against unfair or ridiculous changes(again Skullgirls), Steam always seem to rule in favour and stamp out any form of protest or outcry.

Game Devs and their appointed Game-Hub Moderators may run their section as they wish. Seeing as the reviews are only seen as Off-Topic, they may still be seen as the reviews by removing the filter of off-topic reviews. Game Hubs and the general forums aren't really a place for "anything goes" and the community doesn't need power; one can be in basically any game hub without being banned if they follow the sections rules they are participating in.

People that are a nuisance in any category are subject to removal especially if they are known to have ill-intent and have displayed it historically. If people have an issue with a Devs decision they need to write to the Dev and stop buying their products. Leave a valid review and move on if needed, while being sure to review the product itself.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

I as a customer i dont feel protected by Steam anymore, and all the goodwill build up in the past is nearly gone. Community guidelines which are unclear and open for interpretation

They are there to be the storefront, all decisions on whos product to buy is on the users, as is looking at a Dev to ensure they might not have any form of history of making users unhappy. However, I see no issue in removing the sexualization of children from a game.

The "guidelines" aka rules, are simple to follow. They can be different in game hubs, often having a stickied thread at the top of their forum rules. Simply acting in good faith or being neutral, not starting or causing fights, not derailing, not name-calling or trolling ETC is a good way to remain in good standing.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

developers abusing Steam goodwill, activists destroying the gaming community and Steam doesn't speak out or seems to do anything at all to protect customers.

But if valve was to stop all bickering, they would be hit all over social media with claims of "censorship" and "anti-consumer". Sometimes letting people misbehave only to end up banning them or letting the Dev/Game-Hub Mods ban them shows that people cannot act in any way they wish without punishment.

They already get involved in game hubs which make news for any reason such as Factorio, Hogwarts Legacy, Cyberpunk etc as it happens so they do protect the userbase, but they don't remove a large amount of people unless they're violating the rules. Activism unrelated to the game will get people hit, as will any call to action that may be unlawful or seen as harassment or misleading other users - which is protecting users.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

Now you can argue: Steam is only a glorified shop, they have no obligation to do so. Yes, but no, Steam has grown big, too big in such a size that selling or not selling a game on Steam can make the diffrence to succes or failure especially for a starting developer

Plenty have started their success on kickstarter without even using Steam, but may use so to increase their reach. Selling on Steam doesn't equate to success, making a game people want and getting the word out gets success.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

so game creators and gamers have no other choice than to rely on Steam for their gaming needs.

Definitely false.

They can sell anywhere, as long as they can use social media correctly and make a game to attract people then where they sell wont matter if people want to buy it. As said, using Steam only increases the reach potential but does not guarantee success.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

Even major studios have come back to Steam after trying to break free. I don't feel right enabling anti consumer behaviour at all and am very reluctant to continue shopping.

What "anti consumer behavior"?
You're free to spend money anywhere, many people sell the same game on other platforms for maximum earning potential as it's a smart business move.

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

Do you feel the same

No.
My only immediate strong dislike is using chromium instead of a custom made client, so people regardless of Operating System can keep using the client (just due to the architecture of the base code) but primarily to not use any google related product. At that point people may still be subject to their OS's vulnerabilities, but they could accept and just play. Having an issue with others decisions should realistically, make people go to the source of the issue which is often the Game Developers themselves.

People will often blame other parties instead of the responsible party. Steam just offers a storefront and options, it's up to the Game Developers to keep current or potential customers happy with their own decisions or to keep them informed & seek out feedback.

[Haruspex]

Steam isn't your friend. They're not your buddy. They won't attend your birthday party or your funeral. Your relationship with Steam is a business one. They have games you want and a service to facilitate those games. You have money. That's it. That's where the relationship ends.

Sounds like the honeymoon is over for you is all.

[J4MESOX4D]

Steam is just a store and Valve's objective is to make as much money as possible. They have no relationship with the community whatsoever and there is also no quality control on the products they sell. It has been like this for a long time but is becoming more noticeable with the sheer amount of bloat in the store and them making changes to the platform that may aggravate users for being seemingly needless or arrive broken. The community has no input on such changes and we don't know if our feedback is even being listened to.

With volunteer mods also departing involuntarily, the bridge between the community and the few Valve employees who once engaged with the community has been closed and now the platform is in a more frustrating place than ever especially after the recent client update debacle which is still not fixed for many users. Basically we just have to suck up the decisions that are made and the way things are done.

[MistaM]

Harusp3x eredeti hozzászólása:

Steam isn't your friend. They're not your buddy. They won't attend your birthday party or your funeral. Your relationship with Steam is a business one. They have games you want and a service to facilitate those games. You have money. That's it. That's where the relationship ends.

Sounds like the honeymoon is over for you is all.

Nothing more to write. Well done Sir.

[Phoenix]

I have been with Steam since I got Race07 in 2008 from my local game shop, which is now closed and the only shops around are console crap, which I have not touched since my kids moved out years ago. At that point I had never heard of Steam, but ever since it was installed, I got almost every game on here, from here, with a few from other sites, but the bulk here.

Summer sale same issue. I used to get at least 10 - 20 games most years. This year, everything on my wishlist was %20 discount, bar than one which was %25.
I browsed through virtually everything trying to find games and I only ended up getting 3 games at %50 - %70 discount at at total of 20 odd pounds spent. Terrible.

Just yesterday Xenonauts 2 released. I had removed it from my wishlist about 2 years ago as it had already been about 5 years waiting at that point. Now it's finally out, but after all that time and it is still bare bone and in early access for gawd knows how many more years.

I would love to be able to hide indie games as there are far far too many, but 1 in every few hundred ain't bad, which means you have to go through "every single one of them".

This latest update is a nightmare. Sometimes it's fine, other times it gets so bad that I can spend anything up to 20 minutes trying to get a page to load, and when it finally loads, half the time it doesn't load what you clicked on. The lag, disconnects and error screens since have gone from an issue every few months, to multiple issues every day.

Deleting download cache used to be a good thing if your dl speed was lower than usual as the dl continued where it left off and with the usual speed. Now when you do, the download starts all over again, regardless of how far in you are. Also, about an hour ago, I was on my alt account and did it, and when the steam window came up with my usually 2 accounts showing, my main was gone and had to re-add it along with email verification and my alt was showing a picture it has never used and it was showing display name as it's Russian Fishing account name, which has never been used as display name, so I removed and re-added it as well, which fixed it.

Definitely going downhill.

[Lying Sack Of Fun]

I can understand why people use other platforms like GOG.

[nullable]

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

Good day to you and thank you for reading.

*snip*

All I see is a wall of text post were a user has projected a bunch of their feeling onto a store that serves millions of people across the world and is disappointed in that store for not meeting the expectations they've invented based on their feelings.

A majority of your complaints are naive, or misdirected. And it sounds like you've lost trust in Steam because Valve doesn't use it to control developers into doing things your way, on your schedule. It kinda sounds like you don't understand software development either and you think Valve should do something about that too.

And it sounds like rather than accepting some users understand issues better than you, and can make better predictions about what will happen. You've decided instead, no, they're some how influencing Valve to get the outcomes they want. I think you're really kidding yourself there.

Valve is not run or influenced by a committee of users whose crime is not executing things according to your beliefs and values.

I think you've been deluding yourself a long time and now you're just on phase three of your delusion. You've come to realize Valve doesn't run according to the fantasy you created and now you're onto arguing why that's so wrong. Good luck. It's certainly a recipe for unhappiness, if that's what you're going for.

Steam is just a store. PC games are just games. And no one has more problems than people, which is why they tend to make up so many when they don't have enough real problems to deal with.

[Malfunctioning Robot]

This is why faith is a poor substitute for thinking

[Lystent]

Loli-mancer eredeti hozzászólása:

...- Games are always subject to change: Take the recent uproar with Skullgirls (which in my opinion is validated), games are always in danger to have removed: themes, characters, items, clothing, maps or can be changed and censored willy nilly, regardless of the time of release (it can be decades), money invested, or whatever. Games can be even removed completely if some-one somewhere takes issue with a game and want it gone. Yes, if you bought the game you are allowed to keep it but can be changed and all the fun sucked out of it.
...

These mandatory updates, last I knew, were supposed to be a key feature of steam. Often enough, they have been a key liability for various reasons ranging from devs factoring out pretesting to old games getting necro-updates jammed in so hard that the game breaks.

[Bee🐝]

lying sack of fun eredeti hozzászólása:

I can understand why people use other platforms like GOG.

People should use every platform that gives them great games and service at an affordable price. I’ve never understood why people would cling to one store.

Today I got a great deal on Golden Idol from Indiegala (they are way too often overlooked), might pick up a bundle from Fanatical with my discount code tomorrow, and last week I grabbed Privateer and the first Wing Commander games from GOG. Sales galore!

And after all that, Steam still seems to be doing just fine.