How do I search the points shop?

[Darkling]

I'm curious how I'm supposed to spend these points when there's no way to look for something I want. Is search functionality (30 year old technology) that hard to implement?

[Aachen]

Toward the top one can filter by game — though a category needs to be selected first.

[Darkling]

That's not good enough. I need a keyword search.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

That's not good enough. I need a keyword search.

It's likely in the works, I was more surprised the points shop didn't launch with a search feature. Narrowing by games is OK, but it seems a bit simplistic as-is.

[Darkling]

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

It's likely in the works, I was more surprised the points shop didn't launch with a search feature. Narrowing by games is OK, but it seems a bit simplistic as-is.

I don't know if Steam has always been like this, but almost every part of the interface is clunky and suboptimal.

Example: Why can't I favorite a bunch of of discussion boards and access them somewhere, or better yet aggregate their threads in a single location? Or multiple locations (hubs) of my choice?

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

It's likely in the works, I was more surprised the points shop didn't launch with a search feature. Narrowing by games is OK, but it seems a bit simplistic as-is.

I don't know if Steam has always been like this, but almost every part of the interface is clunky and suboptimal.

You should see the old "sewage green" client back in the early years.

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

Why can't I favorite a bunch of of discussion boards and access them somewhere

"Subscribe to discussion" is an option.
Bookmarking is another.

Though I see your point, a few people have been asking for something similar where it's more user-friendly to look at essentially, bookmarked items, for the client itself.

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

or better yet aggregate their threads in a single location? Or multiple locations (hubs) of my choice?

Being able to "pin" some game hubs would be particularly nice, you can use the "Suggestions/ideas" section, I'm sure some people would agree with some of these things especially in regard to the search, bookmark and hubs.

Though they essentially 'pin' themselves if you've played them recently. Toggle between automatic; recent played and pin the top 5-6 you want, would be preferable. Else, make a section in the library for your top games, click the game, and click "discussions".

[wuddih]

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

That's not good enough. I need a keyword search.

even if a search existed it would not help you much
most items just have the item name and the game name attached to it, game name is already searchable and thats about it.
that will not change anytime soon as most partners chose not to use item descriptions for their point shop items. how those items are presented is choice of the respective partner who owns it.

[Darkling]

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

You should see the old "sewage green" client back in the early years.

What's its significance?

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

"Subscribe to discussion" is an option.
Bookmarking is another.

Though I see your point, a few people have been asking for something similar where it's more user-friendly to look at essentially, bookmarked items, for the client itself.

I don't have a history or bookmark option in the Steam client, nor any way to customize the UI. Best they can give me is screen decorations. I understand that they want to proof it against the inept, but they're making it largely pointless to use for anything. Why should I use it for guides when I can't easily search for anything?

No option for number of threads displayed per page, or posts per page. Basic forum functionality from the 90s.

No tabbed browsing for certain areas, or bookmarked boards. I can favorite specific guides, but I don't think I can save guide areas for certain games, or organize guides by game.

Originally posted by Mad Scientist:

Being able to "pin" some game hubs would be particularly nice, you can use the "Suggestions/ideas" section, I'm sure some people would agree with some of these things especially in regard to the search, bookmark and hubs.

Though they essentially 'pin' themselves if you've played them recently. Toggle between automatic; recent played and pin the top 5-6 you want, would be preferable. Else, make a section in the library for your top games, click the game, and click "discussions".

I know what I want better than Steam does, and I'm not going to give them a single penny if I don't want to. What I do want is the ability to find what I want through powerful search functionality (such as what existed on every search engine in the late 2000s before Google decided we didn't actually want to see what we were explicitly searching for). I want this so I can more easily find what I want and give Valve my money.

I guess Valve doesn't want my money, or they want to erect barriers to me giving them my money, or they consider the people who are more easily duped by "AI" suggestions to have extra special money.

I think a lot of people share my mindset. It's the typical power user mindset. It shouldn't be that hard to implement software solutions that are probably older than most of the Steam userbase.

[Darkling]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

That's not good enough. I need a keyword search.

even if a search existed it would not help you much
most items just have the item name and the game name attached to it, game name is already searchable and thats about it.
that will not change anytime soon as most partners chose not to use item descriptions for their point shop items. how those items are presented is choice of the respective partner who owns it.

Some portion of them would do so, and there's always the title and I assume comments. If they added a user-created tagging system people would probably make their own tags and volunteer to moderate them.

[Waclaw83]

Originally posted by wuddih:

Originally posted by Charizard 2076:

That's not good enough. I need a keyword search.

even if a search existed it would not help you much
most items just have the item name and the game name attached to it, game name is already searchable and thats about it.

It's all bonkers. Decided to spend my points on some emoticons, because why not? Oh yeah, Steam is kind enough to show me all of the emotes in store, including those that require you to have games I... don't have. But to learn that, I need to click like a test monkey on the thing I like and see myself. So after 15 "you need to own the game" hits, I'm done with that part of the shop. Guess auto filters that show you only stuff you can buy is too much to ask

[Darkling]

Originally posted by Waclaw83:

It's all bonkers. Decided to spend my points on some emoticons, because why not? Oh yeah, Steam is kind enough to show me all of the emotes in store, including those that require you to have games I... don't have. But to learn that, I need to click like a test monkey on the thing I like and see myself. So after 15 "you need to own the game" hits, I'm done with that part of the shop. Guess auto filters that show you only stuff you can buy is too much to ask

Gaben apparently doesn't want us spending points in the point shop.

[zaphodikus]

Search is not a priority, it's not hurting their business enough

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/5544461758367487685/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/2577696996223145981/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3203748716340827430/

Basically customers are captive, so if the customer cannot find the milk on the shelf the customer is trapped in the store anyway, they will buy another item just to escape. It's scary how people cannot see the think walls. I wish the younger generation were more discerning, because software quality seems to be going the way of land-grab with little thought for limiting to doing on thing well. External sites as linked in the above threads show how third parties make this more scale able.

[Pierce Dalton]

Yep, the point shop has a lot to improve. It baffles me how they didn't include a "sort by new" option yet...

[Darkling]

Originally posted by zaphodikus:

Search is not a priority, it's not hurting their business enough

https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/5544461758367487685/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/2577696996223145981/
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/0/3203748716340827430/

Basically customers are captive, so if the customer cannot find the milk on the shelf the customer is trapped in the store anyway, they will buy another item just to escape. It's scary how people cannot see the think walls. I wish the younger generation were more discerning, because software quality seems to be going the way of land-grab with little thought for limiting to doing on thing well. External sites as linked in the above threads show how third parties make this more scale able.

I disagree that it's not costing them business. They could easily rival Discord if they paid any attention to chat, and Twitch if they paid attention to streaming and payment methods. It seems like they're Microsoft in the early 2000s; happy to sit around and harvest money rather than improve their product.

After the Bioshock DRM updates and what Bethesda is doing with Skyrim I'm not going to spend any more money in Steam unless I have no other choice. GOG is my first source for games now.

[IFIYGD]

It'll all get done in ValveTime™.
At least they added the jump button on profiles an update or two ago, that lets you jump to the points shop page for stuff you may come across on someone else's profile, that catches your fancy. Came in handy for me to find the avatar frame I have now. I wanted something that looked like snow- search would have done me no good, because there is nothing "snow" about the frame I am using. I saw it on someone else's profile, and thought it would work as "sparkly falling snow", and was able to use the new button to jump right to the points shop page to buy it.
It's not everything that everyone is asking for, but it is a step towards that.

[zaphodikus]

Mostly I find items other people have, and ask them what the item is called, so yeah the shopfront is pretty pants. you have to see something being used in order to want it.

I'm loathe to tell anyone where their business lies, or what loses them money, mainly because I don't have loads of dosh, so I probably don't have a business nose. I just call what I think points the way.