Leaving games on overnight :: Suggestions / Ideas

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Jamer508 Aug 25, 2018 @ 3:22pm

Leaving games on overnight

I think it would benefit the community greatly to introduce an overnight feature for the tracking of hourly progress in a game. I have had several occasions when I forgot a game was on while I slept. This caused confusion ranging from my friends asking me why I played so much of a game to steam support not applying refunds due to "play time" that was completed as I slept due to the game being idle. Have you had this same issue? If so lets talk about it!

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Showing 1-11 of 11 comments

999999999 Aug 25, 2018 @ 3:23pm

Would be pointless especially for those who regularly idle games.

Count_Dandyman Aug 25, 2018 @ 3:30pm

nobody outside a prison or certain military groups is ever forced to sleep at any given time so it is impossible to say when someone can't be playing because they must be sleeping.

Phantom Aug 25, 2018 @ 3:54pm

The feature that you're asking for is self-control and awareness.

Find it in yourself.

CJ HUNTER Aug 25, 2018 @ 4:13pm

How can you fall asleep while playing a game ? Maybe the problem is that the games you play are too boring. Anyways, I find this suggestion to be useless, playtime can be faked using idle programs, so nobody cares about it.

76561198407601200 Aug 25, 2018 @ 4:45pm

Originally posted by Jmyer:
I think it would benefit the community greatly to introduce an overnight feature for the tracking of hourly progress in a game. I have had several occasions when I forgot a game was on while I slept. This caused confusion ranging from my friends asking me why I played so much of a game to steam support not applying refunds due to "play time" that was completed as I slept due to the game being idle. Have you had this same issue? If so lets talk about it!

If you are applying for refunds that often, then perhaps you should either research a game to see if it runs on your system, or if you even want to play it. As far as forgetting to turn off a game, set a scheduled task to shut ur pc off at a certain time.

B l u e b e r r y P o p t a r t Aug 25, 2018 @ 4:57pm

This is a non issue. Ether not play games that put you to sleep, turn off games and go to sleep (assuming you are old enough to figure that out), do research before you buy a game.

The rules on refunds are clear and this does not need to change because you left a game on.

Jamer508 Aug 26, 2018 @ 12:22pm

To argue my point a bit further. No I dont apply for regunds rgularly. Often I see posotive reviews and a good explination for a game and excelent videos but in context of my actually playing it the material falls short of fun. As far as idle time I think its clear that some games have need for idle time since, for some weird reason, there is a genre for it. But If you mouse is not movie and your keyboard is not being press that a program could assume that you are not playing. accurate play time is important for developers and players alike to get a good understanding of the level of engagement the game gets. As for why this is an issue, imagine playing a game, pausing to discuss something for a family member, friend or do something online that distracts you from the game iteself. One may forget the game is open if this is a common practice for them, and I can aruge many of you do this. So overal it isnt a non issue, the feature of tracking game time is obviously important for financial policies of Steam and its a joke among us because that clock means nothing since we ignore it due to idling being a comon practie. I would image steam already does some key logging and it would be hard for developers to mark there product as an idle game. So with some games marketed as idle and other not it would be possible for steam to hae a more accurate game time. Maybe seperating them into 2 "game time" and "engagement time" to help enforce their policies and have a better understanding of who users are doing with certain titles.

76561198407601200 Aug 26, 2018 @ 3:40pm

Originally posted by Jmyer:
To argue my point a bit further. No I dont apply for regunds rgularly. Often I see posotive reviews and a good explination for a game and excelent videos but in context of my actually playing it the material falls short of fun. As far as idle time I think its clear that some games have need for idle time since, for some weird reason, there is a genre for it. But If you mouse is not movie and your keyboard is not being press that a program could assume that you are not playing. accurate play time is important for developers and players alike to get a good understanding of the level of engagement the game gets. As for why this is an issue, imagine playing a game, pausing to discuss something for a family member, friend or do something online that distracts you from the game iteself. One may forget the game is open if this is a common practice for them, and I can aruge many of you do this. So overal it isnt a non issue, the feature of tracking game time is obviously important for financial policies of Steam and its a joke among us because that clock means nothing since we ignore it due to idling being a comon practie. I would image steam already does some key logging and it would be hard for developers to mark there product as an idle game. So with some games marketed as idle and other not it would be possible for steam to hae a more accurate game time. Maybe seperating them into 2 "game time" and "engagement time" to help enforce their policies and have a better understanding of who users are doing with certain titles.

Again, the refund system wasn't made so you can demo again, review it thoroughly before purchasing. For idle time, turn off the game before bed or if you start to feel tired.

Crazy Tiger Aug 26, 2018 @ 10:07pm

Originally posted by Jmyer:
To argue my point a bit further. No I dont apply for regunds rgularly. Often I see posotive reviews and a good explination for a game and excelent videos but in context of my actually playing it the material falls short of fun.

Which can happen and yeah, it sucks. Just as you go to the movies and the movie isn't what you thought. Do you get a refund then? The local cinema's here don't give it.

As far as idle time I think its clear that some games have need for idle time since, for some weird reason, there is a genre for it.

Yeah, I never understood the fun in idling either. But to each their own.

But If you mouse is not movie and your keyboard is not being press that a program could assume that you are not playing. accurate play time is important for developers and players alike to get a good understanding of the level of engagement the game gets.

I've played matches at slow speed in Championchip Manager/Football Manager without interacting with both mouse and keyboard. I've played racing management games where I watch the race in slow speed without interacting with mouse and keyboard. Or people pause the game for a long time because they take a bath. Doesn't matter, the game is open, so the game is working at the moment.

As for why this is an issue, imagine playing a game, pausing to discuss something for a family member, friend or do something online that distracts you from the game iteself. One may forget the game is open if this is a common practice for them, and I can aruge many of you do this.

And that is completely on the player. If the player misses refunds because of his behaviour, it's the behaviour that needs to change. The refund rules are clear and for everyone. People adjust to fit the refund policy, not adjust the policy to fit them.

So overal it isnt a non issue, the feature of tracking game time is obviously important for financial policies of Steam and its a joke among us because that clock means nothing since we ignore it due to idling being a comon practie.

It *IS* a non-issue. Leaving games overnight (per your OP example) is not a Steam issue, it's a player issue. And no, Steam does not have to cover for a players mistake.

I would image steam already does some key logging and it would be hard for developers to mark there product as an idle game. So with some games marketed as idle and other not it would be possible for steam to hae a more accurate game time.

I hope not that Steam does keylogging, I haven't read they did and they have no business to do so. Steam also doesn't care what genres a game has, it has a clear refund policy for all.

Maybe seperating them into 2 "game time" and "engagement time" to help enforce their policies and have a better understanding of who users are doing with certain titles.

Again, Steam has no need to know what people do with certain titles. That is a players business and of no importance for the refunds or the game hours. You also cannot simply assume that "engagement time" for you is the same as for someone else.