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Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:15pm
Steam game discussion pages are useless now
One thing I liked about Steam is the convenience of having a forum board attached to each game where you can talk about the game, ask questions etc.

But now every board I go to, the first thing I see is "iS tHis GAmE wOKe", "LGBT", "pronouns".

Legit questions about the gameplay, lore discussions etc are completely drown out whereas these troll topics get dozens and dozens of replies.

Truly sad to see.
Last edited by Dweller Beyond the Threshold; Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:51pm
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Originally posted by Wayward:
I somewhat think it's a little dishonest to brush the problem away or pretend that it isn't one. I know that Game Hubs can opt for their own moderation, so it makes it difficult to know if it is a hub moderated by Steam or moderated by people appointed by the developers. But still, if in most of these cases the Hubs are moderated by Steam, it is disappointing.

I know that there is a lot of reports to go through, but perhaps it's time to consider hiring more people, or more accurately outsource to an additional company or to a larger one. Every game having a dedicated Discussion board is actually one of Steam's best features and perhaps taken for granted or underappreciated. Most developers do not use it to communicate, but that is fine. The main reason it is nice, is to allow users to help each other, especially with technical issues. In games which are popular to modify, it's not uncommon as well to see users who are troubleshooting their mods with help from the people who regularly post on the board. I have seen that many game hubs have some dedicated users who become regular posters and tend to be very knowledgeable and helpful.

Political propaganda is not new, that is true, but the lack of proactive moderation is. The paid moderators do not engage with the community or defuse situations or have the perception to notice alternate account abuse or ban evasion. They only respond to reports. They also do this rather slowly.

And on top of all, the award system is also a recent feature. It encourages trolling on discussions and creating low effort reviews and guides, for the sake of receiving spiteful awards. For whatever value it will added, it also has a massive drawback. Perhaps greater than this value. Will these things exist without awards? No doubt, they already were existed. But it certainly doesn't help the frequency to incentivize doing them.

After all, we still have laws even knowing that criminals will break them. We don't put a notice which states that vandalizing public property may actually sometimes result in a monetary reward.

:LN2TheEye:
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Showing 1-15 of 55 comments
Eagle_of_Fire Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:16pm 
Welcome to reality.

In other words: just a reflection of "modern" times.
#1
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:18pm 
Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:
Welcome to reality.

In other words: just a reflection of "modern" times.
Sucks that I play games so I can get a moment of repose from the real world. But nope, people gotta bring all that trash in here as well.
#2
Eagle_of_Fire Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:22pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:
Welcome to reality.

In other words: just a reflection of "modern" times.
Sucks that I play games so I can get a moment of repose from the real world. But nope, people gotta bring all that trash in here as well.
You don't have to participate in a social activity that you do not like or disagree with tho.

Games are not more woke than whey were 30 years ago. Both sides try to convince you it is, but it isn't and has never been true.

Just don't read the threads/forums which seem to be contaminated by it and you'll notice it will go away in time. It isn't our first rodeo.
#3
rawWwRrr Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:28pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:
Welcome to reality.

In other words: just a reflection of "modern" times.
Sucks that I play games so I can get a moment of repose from the real world. But nope, people gotta bring all that trash in here as well.
Preaching to the choir... it overflows into the community forums, as well. See:
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3815166994157607121/
#4
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:28pm 
Originally posted by Eagle_of_Fire:
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Sucks that I play games so I can get a moment of repose from the real world. But nope, people gotta bring all that trash in here as well.
You don't have to participate in a social activity that you do not like or disagree with tho.

Games are not more woke than whey were 30 years ago. Both sides try to convince you it is, but it isn't and has never been true.

Just don't read the threads/forums which seem to be contaminated by it and you'll notice it will go away in time. It isn't our first rodeo.
it's not about ignoring something you don't like. If it's one or two topics per discussion board, I wouldn't care. But go to, say, Starfield's board or BG3's, and like half of them are completely off topic politics BS. And no, they are not going away, it's the exact opposite that's been happening precisely due to the lack of moderation.

At this point these trolls are severely impacting the intended use and enjoyment of the discussion space by drowning out actual on-topic discussions. This is the reason why moderation exists in the first place. You can't just say ignore the trolls because eventually there will be nothing but trolls left.
Last edited by Dweller Beyond the Threshold; Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:29pm
#5
ReBoot Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:40pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
But now every board I go to, the first thing I see is "iS tHis GAmE wOKe", "LGBT", "LEFT VS RIGHT".
Visit other games' forums. I've been to a couple yesterday, this isn't the first thing nor even on the front page, if anywhere at all.
#6
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:44pm 
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
But now every board I go to, the first thing I see is "iS tHis GAmE wOKe", "LGBT", "LEFT VS RIGHT".
Visit other games' forums. I've been to a couple yesterday, this isn't the first thing nor even on the front page, if anywhere at all.
well I tend to play big new releases, and the ones I go to are without exception all seriously polluted.
Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health, but there's no point for me to go there because I don't play that game.
Last edited by Dweller Beyond the Threshold; Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:44pm
#7
ReBoot Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:45pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Visit other games' forums. I've been to a couple yesterday, this isn't the first thing nor even on the front page, if anywhere at all.
well I tend to play new, hot releases. Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health, but there's no point for me to go there because I don't play that game.
Dread Templar, to name one example, got released in '23. Steelrising's from '22. None of this on their forum either. The reason why you keep see this ♥♥♥♥ isn't because you're into new games!
Last edited by ReBoot; Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:49pm
#8
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:49pm 
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
well I tend to play new, hot releases. Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health, but there's no point for me to go there because I don't play that game.
Dread Templar, to name one example, got released in '23. None of this on the forum either. The reason why you keep see this ♥♥♥♥ isn't because you're into new games!
"new, HOT release", missed a key word there pal ;)
#9
ReBoot Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:50pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Dread Templar, to name one example, got released in '23. None of this on the forum either. The reason why you keep see this ♥♥♥♥ isn't because you're into new games!
"new, HOT release", missed a key word there pal ;)
So that part about
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health
was a red hering, am I understanding this correctly?
#10
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:53pm 
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
"new, HOT release", missed a key word there pal ;)
So that part about
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health
was a red hering, am I understanding this correctly?
A new game that's niche will probably not be affected by what I described here, like the example you give about Dread Templar. Similarly, a popular old game like Skyrim will likely also be spared from these trash topics. So both "new" and "popular" are important criteria, which unfortunately happen to be the games I tend to play.
#11
ReBoot Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:02pm 
Ok, so it was a red hering, we're specifically talking about "current mass-market trend".

Welcome to society. Hot stuff affects all kinds of people, very much including people not giving two ♥♥♥♥♥ about that particular thing, merely going for hot. Hot stuff affects superficial people, you really just gotta deal with that. Come to think of it, the communities most infamous for how vile they are, tend to correlate with top played games on Steam. Has been like that since day 1 of Steam, has been like that before Steam, has been like that before videogames.

What you're discovering, is a short slice of what's been happening throughout the history of media, not a change happening under our very eyes. If you don't want to delve in elementary school-level debates (with some contemporary coat of paint), don't go there. That's the only sensible solution as complaining is the equivalent of hitting "Reply all"[devblogs.microsoft.com] to complain about too much email going around - pouring oil into the burning fire. Do your part (report provocative, off-topic & whatnot posts), let it die out.
Last edited by ReBoot; Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:03pm
#12
Dweller Beyond the Threshold Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:04pm 
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Ok, so it was a red hering, we're specifically talking about "current trend".

Welcome to society. Hot stuff affects all kinds of people, very much including people not giving two ♥♥♥♥♥ about that particular thing, merely going for hot. Hot stuff affects superficial people, you really just gotta deal with that. Come to think of it, the communities most infamous for how vile they are, tend to correlate with top played games on Steam. Has been like that since day 1 of Steam, has been like that before Steam, has been like that before videogames.

What you're discovering, is a short slice of what's been happening throughout the history of media, not a change happening under our very eyes. If you don't want to delve in elementary school-level debates (with some contemporary coat of paint), don't go there. That's the only sensible solution as complaining is the equivalent of hitting "Reply all"[devblogs.microsoft.com] to complain about too much email going around - pouring oil into the burning fire.
really? I've been on Steam for a long time and I like it as a platform so much precisely because of these convenient features. I simply cannot recall a time in the past, say 5 years ago, for any game, where such huge amount of political topics inundate every big new releases' discussion page like they are now.
Last edited by Dweller Beyond the Threshold; Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:05pm
#13
ReBoot Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:08pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
really? I've been on Steam for a long time and I like it as a platform so much precisely because of these convenient features. I've never remember in the past, for any game, where such huge amount of political topics inundate every big new releases' discussion page like they are now.
Talking about LITERALLY THIS EXACT THING, yeah, this is almost new. "Almost", because racism has been going around on online forums, including this one, long enough. If you don't see this, it's because it either died out or got under control.

Yeah dude, politic propaganda has already been to this very forum! Look, I'm not pretending like this isn't a problem. It very well is! I'd like to remove the illusion of novelty though. This. Is. Not. News. You're discovering what's long been a thing, albeit with a different coat of paint.
#14
Eagle_of_Fire Sep 9, 2023 @ 11:17pm 
Originally posted by UnhappyLawbro:
Originally posted by ReBoot:
Visit other games' forums. I've been to a couple yesterday, this isn't the first thing nor even on the front page, if anywhere at all.
well I tend to play big new releases, and the ones I go to are without exception all seriously polluted.
Yeah I'm sure a 10 year old game's discussion is perfectly fine and health, but there's no point for me to go there because I don't play that game.
You have to consider the fact that the internet in general is toxic. The bigger a game get, the more popular it get, the bigger the amount of undesirable or bad actors who's going to show up. This is just statistics. Remember your bell curves and stuff...

I didn't really pay it much attention but I was watching an Asmongold video the other day and his own personal opinion about why Starfield is so heavily defended although, again in his own personal opinion, it is one of the most mid game he played in a while (he would rate it 5 or 6 out of 10...) is because it is so popular on the Xbox. Some people even get to play the game for free with a pass of some kind. Not only is it natural to have so many trolls and undesirables gathering around a popular game, now you have to add console wars (that nobody but those war boys agree with or like) to the mix...
#15
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All Discussions > Steam Forums > Steam Discussions > Topic Details
Date Posted: Sep 9, 2023 @ 10:15pm
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