Thoughts about Developer turning off general comments on Steam Discussions.
The developer in this case is Krafton, and the game is PUBG Battlegrounds.

For a number of years, the Developer has stated that their official discussion forum has been Reddit and their Discord channel.

Steam discussions on the game hub have been open still but weren't being community managed by the Developers moderation team. Steam's own moderation team have been providing Steam's general moderation to the discussions.

This all fine, it's the Developer's choice to be active on Steam or not.

However, recently the Developer has returned in the last 24 hours, started responding to posts, and then turned off any community discussions about their game on the Steam Platform. The message "Posting privileges: Only group moderators and officers are allowed to post in this forum." now shows and it's no longer possible to post a new thread, nor respond to existing threads/topics. There's been 298,784 threads posted in it's history.

They've also started banning users posting on other sections of the game hub that are speaking out about it. (e.g in Announcements and Feedback)

What's your thoughts on a Developer on the Steam platform basically flexing and suppressing discussion of their game on Steam like this? Is this practice normal?
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Shady Knights; 1.10.2024 klo 16.36
Alkuperäinen julkaisija: Crazy Tiger:
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:
PUBG community manager has confirmed that there were some issues when changing settings on their Steam Hub yesterday which caused the issue with regular Steam users being locked out of the "General Discussions" forum.

This has now been corrected and appears to simply be a mistake.

My ban on the hub appears to be unrelated and due to some in the community taking issue with my post, claiming I was naming and shaming players which was absolutely not the case. This is a result of false reporting only, and nothing that the developer has initiated.
Yeah, I figured something like that. I can imagine they locked it for a while for the cleanup and removal of all those spam and scam threads.
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Yujah 1.10.2024 klo 16.54 
Whether it's normal or not, given the cesspool that many Steam game forums are, it's often in any case sensible to close one's Steam game forum.

I believe there will always need to be one forum left available for posting into. As long as that's the case...
You're referring to this?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/578080/discussions/

There hasn't been anything in 8 hours, and so i assume you mean that. I never played the game. But see no issue, in developers not having wanting to do with the Steam Forums. In some cases, idk why they're there.

Some are so neglected they become trash hubs. Other, they leave a couple of kids to run the whole show, and are irresponsible at that. And on others, they let Valve run the whole moderation show, and can be days before anything is done, if it's done.

Some hubs with games i thought the dev long out of business, though the game still being sold.

Personally, i see no issue in fact, of ending the forums altogether. Idt they solve much.

We just enjoy sparring with eachother. But the legal and political situations in some of our states, may indeed have developers, if not Steam itself pack up shop from the forums.
Only the General Discussions are blocked.

Every other sub-forum is open to everyone.

:nkCool:
cSg|mc-Hotsauce lähetti viestin:
Only the General Discussions are blocked.

Every other sub-forum is open to everyone.

:nkCool:

I think there's only one, 'Events and Announcements", and by the look of that, they may shut that as well.

Viimeisin muokkaaja on xBCxRangers; 1.10.2024 klo 17.15
cSg|mc-Hotsauce lähetti viestin:
Only the General Discussions are blocked.

Every other sub-forum is open to everyone.

:nkCool:

Yes...there's Feedback with one thread on it - where users are already getting banned.

Bug Report - I suspect any discussions here other than bug reports will get deleted or banned.

Event's & Announcements - can only comment on offical news, can't post your own discussion.
xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:
You're referring to this?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/578080/discussions/

Yes.

xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:

Some are so neglected they become trash hubs. Other, they leave a couple of kids to run the whole show, and are irresponsible at that. And on others, they let Valve run the whole moderation show, and can be days before anything is done, if it's done.

It's a feature of Steam. It's the developers choice if they want to engage on it or not. Didn't think that Developers could selectively opt out or disable this.

xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:
Some hubs with games i thought the dev long out of business, though the game still being sold.

PUBG is frequently a top 5 game on Steam. I get your point, but don't see that it's relevant on this case.


xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:
Personally, i see no issue in fact, of ending the forums altogether. Idt they solve much.

We just enjoy sparring with eachother. But the legal and political situations in some of our states, may indeed have developers, if not Steam itself pack up shop from the forums.

Yes I agree but that's what moderation's for and this is also a core feature/function of the Steam platform and has been part of Steam's DNA and a key differentiator over EGS. I checked the other top 10 games played on Steam and all have general discussions open and users are able to create new discussions there. This seems to be out of alignment on the Steam platform for other games with high playerbase.
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:

Yes I agree but that's what moderation's for and this is also a core feature/function of the Steam platform and has been part of Steam's DNA and a key differentiator over EGS. I checked the other top 10 games played on Steam and all have general discussions open and users are able to create new discussions there. This seems to be out of alignment on the Steam platform for other games with high playerbase.

Right, but as i said, they may not want to deal with moderation, may feel moderating on a site not up to par is not for them, or otherwise just not not wanting to deal, with what can be at times a huge headache.

I know a game hub, they just don't want to be there. They want to push, and even chide people into going to their official site off of Steam. And it shows, because they're arrogant and don't know how to run a forum.

And so i def understand the Steam Forums have been a centerpiece, but as i've explained, may become a liability as compared to the past.
xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:

Right, but as i said, they may not want to deal with moderation, may feel moderating on a site not up to par is not for them, or otherwise just not not wanting to deal, with what can be at times a huge headache.

They've chosen not to be there moderating it for 4-5 years. They used to have a sticky about it advising that the official forum is on Reddit/Discord. So they haven't been dealing with moderating it, Steam has been doing it.

This is all fine and normal. The Dev's aren't forced to moderate their own Steam hub. This has been the status quo for quite a long time.

There seems to be a change recently though. The sticky has been removed, the dev has returned, and suppressed all general discussions on the Hub. This seems unusual.


xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:
I know a game hub, they just don't want to be there. They want to push, and even chide people into going to their official site off of Steam. And it shows, because they're arrogant and don't know how to run a forum.

Yes, this happens from time to time...but do they ever switch off the ability for Steam users to post onto the games general discussion hub? This is not a feature of the game or the developer, it's a feature of the Steam platform. Does the developer really have this right to silence the community like this on Steam?
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:
xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:

Right, but as i said, they may not want to deal with moderation, may feel moderating on a site not up to par is not for them, or otherwise just not not wanting to deal, with what can be at times a huge headache.

They've chosen not to be there moderating it for 4-5 years. They used to have a sticky about it advising that the official forum is on Reddit/Discord. So they haven't been dealing with moderating it, Steam has been doing it.

This is all fine and normal. The Dev's aren't forced to moderate their own Steam hub. This has been the status quo for quite a long time.

There seems to be a change recently though. The sticky has been removed, the dev has returned, and suppressed all general discussions on the Hub. This seems unusual.


xBCxRangers lähetti viestin:
I know a game hub, they just don't want to be there. They want to push, and even chide people into going to their official site off of Steam. And it shows, because they're arrogant and don't know how to run a forum.

Yes, this happens from time to time...but do they ever switch off the ability for Steam users to post onto the games general discussion hub? This is not a feature of the game or the developer, it's a feature of the Steam platform. Does the developer really have this right to silence the community like this on Steam?

Personally, to be candid, i never heard of this happening. You did say they have Valve running their hubs. I've seen that as explained.

Who knows, given the new User Agreements that made it very tough to sue, maybe they may feel it's too easy to get sued with the new agreement. And don't want to be part of any liabilities as to what may happen on the forums. I sincerely don't know.

As a console main, we don't really have forums. But do to the extent, they need to have customer services for these games. And so they have a MS employees fielding the customer service questions.

But aside from that we have to go to other sites to have discussions about games.

It's an interesting topic no doubt, and certainly up for discussion. I just can't offer what they can get away with or what they can't on this topic. Only to say, if it can't be run effectively, don't have it at all.
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:
The developer in this case is Krafton, and the game is PUBG Battlegrounds.

(snip)

However, recently the Developer has returned in the last 24 hours, started responding to posts, and then turned off any community discussions about their game on the Steam Platform.

(snip)

What's your thoughts on a Developer on the Steam platform basically flexing and suppressing discussion of their game on Steam like this? Is this practice normal?
My thoughts are simple... when a developer / publisher sells a game on Steam but then doesn't allow us "Steamers" to interact with their gamehub as intended then I don't want anything to do with that game. Funny coincedence, I just checked the store page and gamehub myself and lo and behold... the game sits on my ignore list. Yah, in hindsight I'd say that was a good decision to make given the current circumstances..

But that's also all there is to it for me. Free game? Well, I know of much better free games to engage with.
They pay for it, they decide how it is used. If they decide "not" is how its used, then thats their prerogative.

They are under no obligation to take, or provide, a space for discussion. They have met Valves requirement of one forum open for anyone to use.
Malfunctioning Robot lähetti viestin:
They pay for it, they decide how it is used. If they decide "not" is how its used, then thats their prerogative.

They are under no obligation to take, or provide, a space for discussion. They have met Valves requirement of one forum open for anyone to use.

Aren't the people buying games on Steam the ones paying for it?

They aren't providing the space for discussion. Steam is. It's part of the platform.

What are these requirements you are mentioning? Can you link to them? I'd like to read it and see exactly what it says.
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:
Malfunctioning Robot lähetti viestin:
They pay for it, they decide how it is used. If they decide "not" is how its used, then thats their prerogative.

They are under no obligation to take, or provide, a space for discussion. They have met Valves requirement of one forum open for anyone to use.

Aren't the people buying games on Steam the ones paying for it?

No.
Shady Knights lähetti viestin:
Malfunctioning Robot lähetti viestin:
They pay for it, they decide how it is used. If they decide "not" is how its used, then thats their prerogative.

They are under no obligation to take, or provide, a space for discussion. They have met Valves requirement of one forum open for anyone to use.

Aren't the people buying games on Steam the ones paying for it?

They aren't providing the space for discussion. Steam is. It's part of the platform.

What are these requirements you are mentioning? Can you link to them? I'd like to read it and see exactly what it says.
No, you already answered your own question. They are buying games. Not forums. Thats why the forums can exist before the game is even on sale.

The community hub comes with the "purchase" of the store page, and the devs can choose not to utilize it at all. They can moderate it as they see fit, and they can restrict access as they see fit.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/community#1

In fact devs can simply choose not to set up forums at ALL
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Malfunctioning Robot; 1.10.2024 klo 20.09
Malfunctioning Robot lähetti viestin:



In fact devs can simply choose not to set up forums at ALL

Thanks for the link, reading the info indicates that the community hub goes live as soon as the release date is set to "coming soon" , there does not seem to be an option to opt out of forums or disable them by not setting them up at all. If the Dev does nothing, they simply get a default community hub setup and activated automatically.


https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/community#discussions

Highlights that Developers can setup "Post rights - Who is able to post in existing threads and create new ones." which seems to be what was done in this case. The Developer has blocked posting rights on the general tab for anybody other than the "Only group moderators and officers", effectively blocking anybody else from posting.


All the information is written in such a way as to be helpful for a Dev using the Hub features and for the Steam community to be using those features..

I don't see anything at all that talks about disabling discussions about their games. I also don't see anything referencing what the Dev's obligation is with regards to having a minimum of one forum to be open like you are suggesting.


I take your point that the Dev's pay to activate the hub, but it is the Steam users (those that buy the games) that fuel Steam as a company and these features are part of the core DNA of what make Steam more than just a shop front. If what you are saying is true, then there must be other examples on Steam that have done this. Do you know of any?
Viimeisin muokkaaja on Shady Knights; 1.10.2024 klo 20.54
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