--- /dev/null
+ VALVE EXPLAINS HOW IT DECIDES WHO'S A 'STRAIGHT UP TROLL' \r
+ PUBLISHING VIDEO GAMES ON STEAM (VICE.COM) \r
+\r
+ Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (BeauHD)\r
+ from the behind-the-scenes dept.\r
+\r
+ 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\r
+ o Source link: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kmej7/valve-it-really-does-seem-bad-games-are-made-by-bad-people\r
+\r
+\r
+ An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard:\r
+ Wednesday, Valve, the company that operates the huge online\r
+ video game store Steam, shared more details about how it plans\r
+ to control and moderate the ever-increasing number of games\r
+ published on its platform. In the post published Wednesday,\r
+ Valve shared more details about how it determines what it\r
+ considers "outright trolling." "It is vague and we'll tell you\r
+ why," Valve wrote. "You're a denizen of the internet so you\r
+ know that trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply\r
+ trying to rile people up with something we call 'a game shaped\r
+ object' (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically\r
+ and just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but\r
+ isn't what 99.9% of folks would say is "good.") Valve goes on\r
+ to explain that some trolls are trying to scam folks out of\r
+ their Steam inventory items (digital items that can be traded\r
+ for real money), while others are trying to generate a small\r
+ amount of money through a variety of schemes that have to do\r
+ with how developers use keys to unlock Steam games, while\r
+ others are trying to "incite and sow discord." "Trolls are\r
+ figuring out new ways to be loathsome as we write this," Valve\r
+ said. "But the thing these folks have in common is that they\r
+ aren't actually interested in good faith efforts to make and\r
+ sell games to you or anyone. When a developer's motives aren't\r
+ that, they're probably a troll." One interesting observation\r
+ Valve shares in the blog post is that it rarely bans\r
+ individual games from Steam, and more often bans developers\r
+ and/or publishers entirely. [...] Valve said that its review\r
+ process for determining that something may be a "troll game"\r
+ is a "deep assessment" that involves investigating who the\r
+ developer is, what they've done in the past, their behavior on\r
+ Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking\r
+ information, developers they associate with, and more.\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Just charge a $5K "listing fee" (Score:5, Interesting)\r
+ (by west ( 39918 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ 98% of the total garbage disappears (as well as a few percent of\r
+ the good). Of course "not terribly good games" will still\r
+ appear, but it gets rid of the absolute garbage.\r
+ Or if people are appalled at paying to appear on Steam, allow\r
+ spending $10K for a Steam "check-mark of marketing", and allow\r
+ users to filter to show only check-marked games.\r
+\r
+ ** \r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:1)\r
+ (by Anonymous Coward)\r
+\r
+ \r
+ "Choices"???\r
+ Thirty-five (35) games were released on Steam today alone .\r
+ Go fuck yourself.\r
+\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Steam wants the garbage (Score:3)\r
+ (by rsilvergun ( 571051 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took away\r
+ garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying goes, one\r
+ man's trash is another's treasure.\r
+ \r
+ Plus, a lot of good devs get their start making trash.\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:3)\r
+ (by AC-x ( 735297 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ > because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took\r
+ > away garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying\r
+ > goes, one man's trash is another's treasure.\r
+ I'm sorry, but anyone with a functioning brain would see\r
+ that infinitely more effort and polish has been put in to\r
+ games like Goat Simulator than any of those garbage "asset\r
+ flips" that litter the Steam store.\r
+ Yes the difference between a good and bad game is\r
+ subjective, but broken zero effort trash is much easier to\r
+ agree on...\r
+\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by mentil ( 1748130 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Will never happen. There are way too many games like PUBG\r
+ that would've never become Steam hits if they had such a\r
+ policy. It only needs to be enough to make the trolls miss\r
+ it/lose out with their scams; $100 would likely be enough.\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by Escogido ( 884359 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Either would shut a lot of starting indie games developers\r
+ out of the system, thus preventing said developers and the\r
+ gaming industry in general from making future hits.\r
+ Basically, all new games are either essentially\r
+ reskins/clones of existing games, or trying new mechanics\r
+ and/or interactions, and sometimes (rarely) stories and\r
+ characters. Given the typical indie level production values\r
+ are garbage, in general, only the ones that try to innovate\r
+ actually do have some value for the industry. However, first\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Best New Feature (Score:2)\r
+ (by Kunedog ( 1033226 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ > A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can\r
+ > ignore things you're not interested in. In the past you've been\r
+ > able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or\r
+ > Early Access) you didn't want to see again. But now we've added\r
+ > ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers,\r
+ > publishers, and curators.\r
+ Imagine how much easier browsing Netflix would be if you could\r
+ filter out whole franchises and showrunners. Of course, that\r
+ might make it obvious how little on Netflix actually interests\r
+ you.\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2, Funny)\r
+ (by Anonymous Coward)\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Then they could charge a fee to shows that don't want to be\r
+ filtered by you\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by Archfeld ( 6757 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Sounds like Amazon, and the Kindle Library. No matter what\r
+ you search, every 7th listing is a 'Sponsored' listing,\r
+ and even if you specify a particular author or absolute\r
+ title, you always get 10 or 12 additional 'bonus' items\r
+ listed.\r
+\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Early Access Garbage and abandonment (Score:2)\r
+ (by shendar ( 674986 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ How about if a developer starts a EA Project and walks away\r
+ (takes forever with no progress) they are banned from further\r
+ EA? How about if they are banned from the store entirely?\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:3)\r
+ (by AC-x ( 735297 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ I'm sure the type of developer who does that would simply\r
+ abandon their old label and create a new developer account to\r
+ carry on.\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by mentil ( 1748130 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ "I'm sick of development, so here's version '1.0'."\r
+ Also define 'forever' in a timescale that doesn't apply to\r
+ Notch, Rockstar or Valve.\r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by Calydor ( 739835 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Wait. I see what you did there.\r
+ You mentioned three developers.\r
+ CONFIRMED: Half-Life 3 is being produced by Notch and\r
+ Rockstar!\r
+\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:1)\r
+ (by Crashmarik ( 635988 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Already May well be the most overloaded operator in the English\r
+ language. As it seems to mean anything anyone anywhere takes\r
+ objection to, or otherwise makes them feel bad.\r
+\r
+ ** Re: Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:2)\r
+ (by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ The troll in me wants to say that "nazi" probably has "troll"\r
+ beat ;)\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** \r
+\r
+ ** Re: (Score:2)\r
+ (by tepples ( 727027 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Furthermore, unlike console and mobile platforms, Steam has\r
+ very little switching cost. An end user can always just up\r
+ and switch to Itch or Origin or GOG or Humble or wherever\r
+ else.\r
+\r
+\r
+ ** Steam's progression (Score:3)\r
+ (by Luckyo ( 1726890 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ So Steam started as "shove it down their throats" Counter Strike\r
+ 1.6 launcher. Evolved into highly curated game store over about\r
+ a decade.\r
+ Then decided to suddenly drop all curation and allow anything\r
+ and everything on the platform. Got flooded with garbage. Added\r
+ weird "meta gaming" shit like trading cards. Got games that\r
+ literally existed just to allow people to get cards. Allowed\r
+ some trading and other meta gaming of the system. Even got\r
+ pressured by some SJW types to drop politically controversial\r
+ games like Hatred and even had their recent porn games brouhaha.\r
+ And now, they're doing this. I guess there's just too much\r
+ pressure from all directions, and they really just decided that\r
+ no, we're not bending to various pressure groups, and instead\r
+ just making sure that asset flips and such are not on the store.\r
+ If true, good on them.\r
+\r
+ ** Early Access (Score:2)\r
+ (by tylersoze ( 789256 ))\r
+\r
+ \r
+ Eh, all I really want from Valve is a filter that blocks all\r
+ "Early Access" games from ever appearing, as I'm browsing for\r
+ games on their web site.\r
+\r
+\r
git://git.nikiroo.be / gofetch.git / blobdiff