Why can free games not be included in showcases?

[Lillia]

Purely a curiosity question. I know free games or smaller indie games show on their store page that they have limited profile features, but I guess I am just curious as to why that is. Is it just because the games are free? Or is it to encourage purchasing games for the profile instead of only relying on free games?

[Iceira]

Ask suggestion & ideas.

[ReBoot]

It's to discourage ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bottom-of-the-barrel barest-minimum-effort fake games.

A while ago, this feature didn't exist. A while ago, every. Single. Game. Contributed to the game count on one's profile. As usual, the moment humans can turn something into a e-peen show-off, they did. Game hoarders started mass-gathering cheaply made ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pseudo-games costing under a buck each and with huge sales numbers, said ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ pseudo-games flooded the Steam storefront, clouding it, obstructing it, burying actual games, made-to-be-enjoyed-while-playing games under their sheer mass.

To counteract this, a game now has to have a certain confidence metric which, from what I gathered, got to do with amount of monetary turnover. This way, masses of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ barest-minimum-effort-pseudogames quickly became less and less.

[Lillia]

You know when you put it that way it makes a lot of sense. It's genuinely too bad! There are so many lovely free games that have a ton of love put into them. I would love to be able to put them on display.

[K-Driver]

Free games can sometimes get unlimited profile features, but it seems a bit random. Not sure if it's based on a manual review.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by K-Driver:

Free games can sometimes get unlimited profile features, but it seems a bit random. Not sure if it's based on a manual review.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile#2

[K-Driver]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by K-Driver:

Free games can sometimes get unlimited profile features, but it seems a bit random. Not sure if it's based on a manual review.

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile#2

:nkCool:

There's a few games where just 'metrics' unlimiting the game don't add up.

The Looker was unlimited a year after its release, I can't remember how many reviews it had at the time, but it's currently at 14k reviews.

Holocure is still limited more than a year after its and it has 27k reviews. It's also a much longer game so it shouldn't be based on playtime either.

Neither game has any DLC or in-app purchases so it isn't based on revenue either.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by K-Driver:

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/profile#2

There's a few games where just 'metrics' unlimiting the game don't add up.

The Looker was unlimited a year after its release, I can't remember how many reviews it had at the time, but it's currently at 14k reviews.

Holocure is still limited more than a year after its and it has 27k reviews. It's also a much longer game so it shouldn't be based on playtime either.

Neither game has any DLC or in-app purchases so it isn't based on revenue either.

They already stated...

Q. What metrics are used to qualify a game for profile customization features?

A. Our confidence metric is based on sales and player engagement figures. We do not include data from user reviews, wishlists, total playtime, or any other judgment of the "quality" of the game. We're simply looking for a broad player base.

[K-Driver]

Sales aren't a factor in F2P games with zero DLC or In-App purchases.

Checking SteamDB Holocure has far more players and the community hub seems far more active too so "player engagement figures" doesn't add up either.

[76561199851528731]

Originally posted by Lillia:

Purely a curiosity question. I know free games or smaller indie games show on their store page that they have limited profile features, but I guess I am just curious as to why that is. Is it just because the games are free? Or is it to encourage purchasing games for the profile instead of only relying on free games?