Separate the "Prelude" and "Prologue" games from the free games section.

[Takinatar]

Hi !

m getting annoyed by this. Im often checking what's new in the free section etc...

And for a while now, in the "new" tab, it's getting more and more filled with "Prologue" and "Prelude" and whatever other variants of that word there is.

It's starting to really get annoying, all those are just free demos of an unfinished game. 90% of the times you'll see there is the real game "soon available".

But im that tab to look for free games, not demos.
I already have to dodge mobile games now coming to steam for some reasons, and now Ai generated games, but now i have to dodge all the spam of the prologues games.

Please.

Put them in their own section, filter or idk.

[derw4tz]

its not only in the Free section: I want to browse new releases and 80% of games are "prologues"

and it gets worse every week

most often i just give up and don´t buy anything and just move on with my day

[Start_Running]

So because there are so many free games you want to redefine what a free game is?

Wow.
Steam users will complain about any and everything.
Prologues are games m8. Demos are not. Simple as.

[Strawblaze]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Takinatar:

Hi !

m getting annoyed by this. Im often checking what's new in the free section etc...

And for a while now, in the "new" tab, it's getting more and more filled with "Prologue" and "Prelude" and whatever other variants of that word there is.

It's starting to really get annoying, all those are just free demos of an unfinished game. 90% of the times you'll see there is the real game "soon available".

But im that tab to look for free games, not demos.
I already have to dodge mobile games now coming to steam for some reasons, and now Ai generated games, but now i have to dodge all the spam of the prologues games.

Please.

Put them in their own section, filter or idk.

+1. I hate it long time. And it's not just a matter of ignoring their existence: they've taken over the Free to Play section even though just a small amount of them are actually similar to a free game and not just a Demo. Steam needs to address this and create a new category for them or just tell them to abandon this trend and go with the intended Demo implementation. I remember when browsing the F2P category regularly was a fun activity because you'd actually find free games and not just disguised demos.

Furthermore, this Prologue thing is indirectly abusing the Steam algorithm/workflow, affecting Curator pages and a lot more than some people may realise. When you add a Demo to an already existing store page, it's just like a free optional download. It may help the page's ranking (just like adding more languages and ticking other feature boxes do), but it doesn't set up a whole new scoring for it. Now, if you set it up as a separate game/store page, you get double the odds of it appearing on Discovery Queues, as well as the trivialization of options like the Ignore button, since ignoring it one time won't stop the other one from appearing for you in the future. There's no sugar-coating it: if the way Demos work right now feel insufficient in some way, that needs to be addressed so that the Free to Play category can be freed (pun unintended).

[Kai]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

So because there are so many free games you want to redefine what a free game is?

Wow.
Steam users will complain about any and everything.
Prologues are games m8. Demos are not. Simple as.

Bro prologues are just demos with their own page. Go to r/gamedev and you'll see even the people literally making them agree.

Personally, I'm tired of demos of shovelware trash, most of which will never see a full release, filling the new releases and free games sections. There is a demo feature freely available to devs on steam, use it. Don't think it's very good? Complain about it to valve. Don't exploit a loophole to ruin the store pages.

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kai:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Start_Running:

So because there are so many free games you want to redefine what a free game is?

Wow.
Steam users will complain about any and everything.
Prologues are games m8. Demos are not. Simple as.

Bro prologues are just demos with their own page. Go to r/gamedev and you'll see even the people literally making them agree.

Yes but there is one difference between a demo and a prologue/prelude. Narrative flow. Preludes and OPrologues are as a rule tied to the narrative of the main game. Demos Can be but can just as easily be unrelated standalones meant to give a vertical slice of game play.

Prologues also needn't always be free, dev/pubs can put a price tag on them
RThey can't do that with Demos.

[William Shakesman]

Like I keep saying, Valve incentivizes this behavior by ghettoizing demos but letting prologues take double the catalogue space. I don't like free games or the people who play them much but even I wouldn't wish their spaces invaded by this weird perverse incentive Valve gives to developers

[なかの31]

I actually like the Prologue/Prelude games.
They actually improved the Free to Play session.

Generally I used to browse the Free to Play session and have nothing to download, now eventually I get to try something new, and maybe even get a new game to look forward to in the future.

Would, in theory, be nice if the free to play session had actually interesting games showing up.

[Captainn]

Adding my input for any publishers reading. If I see a "prologue" (demo) being pushed as a free game I will block you. You will not get money from me for being annoying. I hope that Steam changes their policy on these deceptive titles.

[Start_Running]

Ursprungligen skrivet av vgnblankslate:

Pfft, Valve will never do anything. Apparently too much are worshipping at the alter of Gabe Newell to do anything about it.

I believe we are witnessing the 'Enshittification' of Valve and no I don't give a rat's ass about the Steam Deck.

Because free gamesn you don't like exiist?
talk about an over reaction.

[benj]

+1, would like to see Steam take action on intentional mislabeling of demos. They're making the new releases a pain to browse through.

[Shinoskay]

I just glanced into free games and only saw one prologue, what the hell are you guys searching that its giving you several?

this is to say, I do not see the problem you are complaining about, help me see its not just a you problem.

[FlammaVarga]

+1, I dont want any demo's or prologue games on my store page without the option to filter them out.