test/expected/SLASHDOT/0102640946

   1       VALVE EXPLAINS HOW IT DECIDES WHO'S A 'STRAIGHT UP TROLL'
   2              PUBLISHING VIDEO GAMES ON STEAM (VICE.COM)
   3
   4   Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (BeauHD)
   5   from the behind-the-scenes dept.
   6
   7   o Reference: 0102640946
   8   o News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/18/09/06/2146237/valve-explains-how-it-decides-whos-a-straight-up-troll-publishing-video-games-on-steam
   9   o Source link: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kmej7/valve-it-really-does-seem-bad-games-are-made-by-bad-people
  10
  11
  12     An   anonymous   reader   quotes  a  report  from  Motherboard:
  13     Wednesday,  Valve,  the  company  that operates the huge online
  14     video  game store Steam, shared more details about how it plans
  15     to  control  and  moderate  the ever-increasing number of games
  16     published  on  its  platform.  In the post published Wednesday,
  17     Valve  shared  more  details  about  how  it determines what it
  18     considers  "outright trolling." "It is vague and we'll tell you
  19     why,"  Valve  wrote.  "You're  a denizen of the internet so you
  20     know  that  trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply
  21     trying  to rile people up with something we call 'a game shaped
  22     object'  (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically
  23     and  just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but
  24     isn't  what  99.9% of folks would say is "good.") Valve goes on
  25     to  explain  that  some  trolls are trying to scam folks out of
  26     their  Steam  inventory items (digital items that can be traded
  27     for  real  money),  while others are trying to generate a small
  28     amount  of  money  through a variety of schemes that have to do
  29     with  how  developers  use  keys  to  unlock Steam games, while
  30     others  are  trying  to  "incite  and sow discord." "Trolls are
  31     figuring  out new ways to be loathsome as we write this," Valve
  32     said.  "But  the  thing these folks have in common is that they
  33     aren't  actually  interested  in good faith efforts to make and
  34     sell  games to you or anyone. When a developer's motives aren't
  35     that,  they're  probably  a troll." One interesting observation
  36     Valve   shares  in  the  blog  post  is  that  it  rarely  bans
  37     individual  games  from  Steam,  and more often bans developers
  38     and/or  publishers  entirely.  [...] Valve said that its review
  39     process  for  determining  that something may be a "troll game"
  40     is  a  "deep  assessment"  that  involves investigating who the
  41     developer  is, what they've done in the past, their behavior on
  42     Steam   as   a   developer,   as   a  customer,  their  banking
  43     information, developers they associate with, and more.
  44
  45
  46   ** Just charge a $5K "listing fee" (Score:5, Interesting)
  47      (by west ( 39918 ))
  48
  49
  50      98% of the total garbage disappears (as well as a few percent of
  51      the good). Of course "not terribly good games" will still
  52      appear, but it gets rid of the absolute garbage.
  53      Or if people are appalled at paying to appear on Steam, allow
  54      spending $10K for a Steam "check-mark of marketing", and allow
  55      users to filter to show only check-marked games.
  56
  57      **
  58
  59         ** Re: (Score:1)
  60            (by Anonymous Coward)
  61
  62
  63            "Choices"???
  64            Thirty-five (35) games were released on Steam today alone .
  65            Go fuck yourself.
  66
  67
  68
  69      ** Steam wants the garbage (Score:3)
  70         (by rsilvergun ( 571051 ))
  71
  72
  73         because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took away
  74         garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying goes, one
  75         man's trash is another's treasure.
  76
  77         Plus, a lot of good devs get their start making trash.
  78
  79         ** Re: (Score:3)
  80            (by AC-x ( 735297 ))
  81
  82
  83            > because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took
  84            > away garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying
  85            > goes, one man's trash is another's treasure.
  86            I'm sorry, but anyone with a functioning brain would see
  87            that infinitely more effort and polish has been put in to
  88            games like Goat Simulator than any of those garbage "asset
  89            flips" that litter the Steam store.
  90            Yes the difference between a good and bad game is
  91            subjective, but broken zero effort trash is much easier to
  92            agree on...
  93
  94
  95
  96      ** Re: (Score:2)
  97         (by mentil ( 1748130 ))
  98
  99
 100         Will never happen. There are way too many games like PUBG
 101         that would've never become Steam hits if they had such a
 102         policy. It only needs to be enough to make the trolls miss
 103         it/lose out with their scams; $100 would likely be enough.
 104
 105
 106      ** Re: (Score:2)
 107         (by Escogido ( 884359 ))
 108
 109
 110         Either would shut a lot of starting indie games developers
 111         out of the system, thus preventing said developers and the
 112         gaming industry in general from making future hits.
 113         Basically, all new games are either essentially
 114         reskins/clones of existing games, or trying new mechanics
 115         and/or interactions, and sometimes (rarely) stories and
 116         characters. Given the typical indie level production values
 117         are garbage, in general, only the ones that try to innovate
 118         actually do have some value for the industry. However, first
 119
 120
 121   ** Best New Feature (Score:2)
 122      (by Kunedog ( 1033226 ))
 123
 124
 125      > A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can
 126      > ignore things you're not interested in. In the past you've been
 127      > able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or
 128      > Early Access) you didn't want to see again. But now we've added
 129      > ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers,
 130      > publishers, and curators.
 131      Imagine how much easier browsing Netflix would be if you could
 132      filter out whole franchises and showrunners. Of course, that
 133      might make it obvious how little on Netflix actually interests
 134      you.
 135
 136      ** Re: (Score:2, Funny)
 137         (by Anonymous Coward)
 138
 139
 140         Then they could charge a fee to shows that don't want to be
 141         filtered by you
 142
 143         ** Re: (Score:2)
 144            (by Archfeld ( 6757 ))
 145
 146
 147            Sounds like Amazon, and the Kindle Library. No matter what
 148            you search, every 7th listing is a 'Sponsored' listing,
 149            and even if you specify a particular author or absolute
 150            title, you always get 10 or 12 additional 'bonus' items
 151            listed.
 152
 153
 154
 155   ** Early Access Garbage and abandonment (Score:2)
 156      (by shendar ( 674986 ))
 157
 158
 159      How about if a developer starts a EA Project and walks away
 160      (takes forever with no progress) they are banned from further
 161      EA? How about if they are banned from the store entirely?
 162
 163      ** Re: (Score:3)
 164         (by AC-x ( 735297 ))
 165
 166
 167         I'm sure the type of developer who does that would simply
 168         abandon their old label and create a new developer account to
 169         carry on.
 170
 171
 172      ** Re: (Score:2)
 173         (by mentil ( 1748130 ))
 174
 175
 176         "I'm sick of development, so here's version '1.0'."
 177         Also define 'forever' in a timescale that doesn't apply to
 178         Notch, Rockstar or Valve.
 179
 180         ** Re: (Score:2)
 181            (by Calydor ( 739835 ))
 182
 183
 184            Wait. I see what you did there.
 185            You mentioned three developers.
 186            CONFIRMED: Half-Life 3 is being produced by Notch and
 187            Rockstar!
 188
 189
 190
 191   ** Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:1)
 192      (by Crashmarik ( 635988 ))
 193
 194
 195      Already May well be the most overloaded operator in the English
 196      language. As it seems to mean anything anyone anywhere takes
 197      objection to, or otherwise makes them feel bad.
 198
 199      ** Re: Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:2)
 200         (by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ))
 201
 202
 203         The troll in me wants to say that "nazi" probably has "troll"
 204         beat  ;)
 205
 206
 207   **
 208
 209      ** Re: (Score:2)
 210         (by tepples ( 727027 ))
 211
 212
 213         Furthermore, unlike console and mobile platforms, Steam has
 214         very little switching cost. An end user can always just up
 215         and switch to Itch or Origin or GOG or Humble or wherever
 216         else.
 217
 218
 219   ** Steam's progression (Score:3)
 220      (by Luckyo ( 1726890 ))
 221
 222
 223      So Steam started as "shove it down their throats" Counter Strike
 224      1.6 launcher. Evolved into highly curated game store over about
 225      a decade.
 226      Then decided to suddenly drop all curation and allow anything
 227      and everything on the platform. Got flooded with garbage. Added
 228      weird "meta gaming" shit like trading cards. Got games that
 229      literally existed just to allow people to get cards. Allowed
 230      some trading and other meta gaming of the system. Even got
 231      pressured by some SJW types to drop politically controversial
 232      games like Hatred and even had their recent porn games brouhaha.
 233      And now, they're doing this. I guess there's just too much
 234      pressure from all directions, and they really just decided that
 235      no, we're not bending to various pressure groups, and instead
 236      just making sure that asset flips and such are not on the store.
 237      If true, good on them.
 238
 239   ** Early Access (Score:2)
 240      (by tylersoze ( 789256 ))
 241
 242
 243      Eh, all I really want from Valve is a filter that blocks all
 244      "Early Access" games from ever appearing, as I'm browsing for
 245      games on their web site.
 246
 247