Premium Account on Steam

[FrozenDevilz]

So now we have limited account & normal account. But what about premium account?

This can be a great idea, like a monthly / yearly premium subscription that grant us various access.

The most possible feature is to have special badge for Premium Account.

The other possible feature is to have selection over Steam UI,
genre selection on store's front page recommendation & discovery queue,
increased cloud storage,
workshop limit removal,
artwork limit removal,
premium discussion sub-forum,
increased chance of foil drop,
increased card drop total,
voting poll on threads,
simultaneous downloads / updates,
signatures on discussions,
friends / groups grouping ( separate friends / groups by custom name, this is good for people who have hundreds of friends / groups ),
custom status ( right now we only have fixed status by Steam ),
special icon for premium beside the name ( kinda like moderators or staff icon ),
own thread moderating ( not removing people's posts, more like able to close your own threads ),
more options ( kinda like this: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=412220803 ),
more bb codes function ( increase / decrease font, highlight, font change, font color, highlight, left / center / right text alignment, text indent, etc ),
other various features that I haven't mentioned.

And I don't think this can be abused, well maybe it can, but more unlikely, because why? Because you need to pay for premium account to be , that means, less people have the feature = less abuse.

Why do I think this is a great idea? Because these features were suggested by other from various thread, and by having a Premium Feature account, it's more possible for Steam to implement these features, because it's profitable for them.

Having Premium Account feature can also be profitable for traders, it's because when traders paid to have Premium Account, they can be presumed as trusted trader. Because why a scammer would pay for the Premium Account feature?

So what do you guys think about it?

[jer]

Considering that you said it was abusable at all makes it a bad idea.
Also, I think that features like less uploading limits should come with higher Steam Level, it just makes more sense.

[TheAmberFox]

Having an option to pay more to unlock features would only cause more segregation between the community.

People would feel cheated as they have to pay a monthly subscription to experience the "true experience" quite similar to a file sharing site with premium or free accounts.

At least the trading card system was less intrusive and it only served to unlock showcases which are really just "decorations" while the system you proposed plans to limit features whether existing or new .

I'd say the system is fine as it is because all of Valve's customers should be treated equally.
At least that is my opinion on this suggestion.

[jer]

Valve doesn't need any more money anyway, they are already making a truckload of money from CS:GO every day. And have you ever played a game like Robocraft that has monthly subscriptions? Not so fun when you can't do most of the features without paying every month.

[FrozenDevilz]

Originally posted by Engie Turtle:

Considering that you said it was abusable at all makes it a bad idea.

Don't you read what I write next? It's more unlikely, since these features will be restricted only to Premium Accounts.

Originally posted by TheAmberFox:

Having an option to pay more to unlock features would only cause more segregation between the community.

But this is the only way that you can make suggested features from all over the threads to be possible. The reason that Steam are more unlikely to implement others suggestions because they didn't include what's the profitability for Steam.

Also, Premium Accounts are implemented in most websites nowadays, even Youtube has its own Youtube Red, Spotify has its Go Premium, LinkedIn has its own Linkedin Premium, and many more.

[jer]

But my point still stands, because even if you have to pay for it, doesn't mean noone is going to use it. Considering the giant community, there will probably be a good handful of rich Steam users carrying around their "Premium" tag.

[Fox]

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

But this is the only way that you can make suggested features from all over the threads to be possible. The reason that Steam are more unlikely to implement others suggestions because they didn't include what's the profitability for Steam.

The "paid mods" debacle proved that additional revenue gain is a very weak point if you happen to anger a non-negligeable part of the community. Look for "subscription-based" suggestion (most of them, granted, being for a Xbox Gold/PSPlus-like subscription) to see all the backlash the community can unleash to anyone daring to suggest it.

Also, it may be worth noting that a direct money stream may not be the end of all implemented suggestions so far. Look at the broadcasts or music player for an example of something that grants no direct money to Valve, yet got in anyway.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

Also, Premium Accounts are implemented in most websites nowadays, even Youtube has its own Youtube Red, Spotify has its Go Premium, LinkedIn has its own Linkedin Premium, and many more.

The "others sites do that, so let's do it too" is actually meaningless on its own, as multiple features not implemented in Steam can actually be better received by the community (post count or signatures in forums being one example out of many)

This is discounting the fact that the differing communities can make or break an idea (rating posts work on other sites, but were a failure of the old Steam forums, for example)

EDIT : forgotten a sentence.

[FrozenDevilz]

Originally posted by Fox:

The "paid mods" debacle proved that additional revenue gain is a very weak point if you happen to anger a non-negligeable part of the community. Look for "subscription-based" suggestion (most of them, granted, being for a Xbox Gold/PSPlus-like subscription) to see all the backlash the community can unleash to anyone daring to suggest it.

Paid mods is another thing. The reason it is failed, isn't because of the payment system itself. It's because probabilty of the mod being broken when paired with another paid mod. Also, the self-policing paid content is one of the biggest mistake on Steam implementation for paid mods. And with thousands of mods already available at workshop, it's impossible for Steam to control every one of the copyrights, thus making it failed.

[Fox]

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

Paid mods is another thing. The reason it is failed, isn't because of the payment system itself. It's because probabilty of the mod being broken when paired with another paid mod. Also, the self-policing paid content is one of the biggest mistake on Steam implementation for paid mods. And with thousands of mods already available at workshop, it's impossible for Steam to control every one of the copyrights, thus making it failed.

That would have been grounds for a redesign. However, the enormous backlash made its coffin and sealed it shut. Even the damage control failed to mitigate the PR disaster.

That's the reason a subscription for premium features may not live long : as TheAmberFox said, people will only see "pay us monthly to get new features/features you wanted since years" and proceed to wreck havoc on public grounds until it dies, regardless of the merits one may see in the idea.

This is added on by the fact that some of the suggestions can be deflected for reasons other than money. To take your initial post :

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

genre selection on store's front page recommendation & discovery queue,

Not giving it to everyone would lead them to spend less money, so, going by the "pay me monthly to get things you would actually buy from us" seems less-than-subpar for a store's business point of view.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

workshop limit removal,

Apparently, this is already a thing with the newest tools.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

simultaneous downloads / updates,

That would not speed up things in the slightest, due to your home bandwidth being the bottleneck in the process. And choosing being downloading 2 games in two hours or download one game after another in the same time frame (giving you the first one in one hour) seem to point to the latter being better.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

signatures on discussions,

Some people (including me) find it annoying, and it proves to be useless clutter on those discussions, where less features actually made it better to read (only name, image and post to judge a discussion's or poster's quality).

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

friends / groups grouping ( separate friends / groups by custom name, this is good for people who have hundreds of friends / groups ),

Everyone can already set their own categories for friends.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

custom status ( right now we only have fixed status by Steam ),

That would need moderation, as you could be offensive or trying to impersonate a Valve employee for scamming purposes. Money isn't a deterrent for careless people or criminal rings.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

special icon for premium beside the name ( kinda like moderators or staff icon ),

The same point about impersonation applies.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

own thread moderating ( not removing people's posts, more like able to close your own threads )

I don't see any good point to it being added. One could lock the thread and claim censorship in another, or lock it when things don't go his way and attempt to reset the discussion status by making another post.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

more bb codes function ( increase / decrease font, highlight, font change, font color, highlight, left / center / right text alignment, text indent, etc ),

It's not a well-received suggestion AFAIK, as it quickly can render posts made unreadable beyond belief. The provided options are enough for posting purposes.

[TheAmberFox]

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

Originally posted by TheAmberFox:

Having an option to pay more to unlock features would only cause more segregation between the community.

But this is the only way that you can make suggested features from all over the threads to be possible. The reason that Steam are more unlikely to implement others suggestions because they didn't include what's the profitability for Steam.

Yes that is true BUT

When a suggestion undermines the community itself then it isnt suitable

A company depends on happy customers and if Valve implements this system of paid subscription, they will lose a lot of loyal customers because people are expecting equality once they pay their $5, not be met with another paywall to access new/old features

[FrozenDevilz]

Originally posted by Fox:

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

special icon for premium beside the name ( kinda like moderators or staff icon ),

The same point about impersonation applies.

No, it's not. What I meant is special icon for premium that differs from normal account, but also different from moderators & staff icon, like having a "P" logo indicates that the user is not a moderator / staff, but the user is a premium user.

Also what about the other features I suggested that you didn't mention? Those can still greatly apply in what I thought.

[Fox]

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

No, it's not. What I meant is special icon for premium that differs from normal account, but also different from moderators & staff icon, like having a "P" logo indicates that the user is not a moderator / staff, but the user is a premium user.

That was what I meant to. However, it would not stop scammers from pretending the opposite should they need to impersonate a figure of authority.

It may look flimsy, and I'd tend to think this, but sadly, it works. So, this may just be equivalent to giving scammers extra ammo if the perk is poorly communicated upon launch.

Originally posted by ƑŘỖŻẸŇĎẸVĨĹŹ:

Also what about the other features I suggested that you didn't mention? Those can still greatly apply in what I thought.

They could apply in the suggestion, yes (some things, such as increased Cloud storage, may better fit in the Trading Card system, but I didn't go over it because the issue is still money-based), but it still doesn't deflect TheAmberFox's point about segregating the community.

Should paid mods have failed to convince you about how loud the community can speak in the case of an injustice, the Steam Mobile app and associated trade/market hold may be viewed as another, lesser example : had it be not backed up by other real issues (IIRC, scamming businesses, the high amount of tickets related to hijackings and theft), I don't think it'd have lasted either.

[ferferga]

Except for the workshop and steam cloud things you mention, I think that polls for the forums and the rest are wasteful.

Multiple downloads I suppose that aren't working yet because it can overload many PCs, take note that actually you can download games at the same time with different computers...

In my opinion, if they ask for premium subscriptions, Steam will die.

In my opinion, this thread topic and ideas are more suitable for Steam:

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/10/412449508287386313/

Also, for what you said, I'm unsure if many people will pay for it. Because you are paying a monthly subscription that show you more things to buy (the thing you say about store). That's a scam itself!

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

Hell no.