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299a08f3 NR |
1 | VALVE EXPLAINS HOW IT DECIDES WHO'S A 'STRAIGHT UP TROLL' \r |
2 | PUBLISHING VIDEO GAMES ON STEAM (VICE.COM) \r | |
3 | \r | |
4 | Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (BeauHD)\r | |
5 | from the behind-the-scenes dept.\r | |
6 | \r | |
c715ea02 | 7 | o Reference: 0102640946\r |
299a08f3 NR |
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\r |
9 | o Source link: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kmej7/valve-it-really-does-seem-bad-games-are-made-by-bad-people\r | |
10 | \r | |
11 | \r | |
12 | An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard:\r | |
13 | Wednesday, Valve, the company that operates the huge online\r | |
14 | video game store Steam, shared more details about how it plans\r | |
15 | to control and moderate the ever-increasing number of games\r | |
16 | published on its platform. In the post published Wednesday,\r | |
17 | Valve shared more details about how it determines what it\r | |
18 | considers "outright trolling." "It is vague and we'll tell you\r | |
19 | why," Valve wrote. "You're a denizen of the internet so you\r | |
20 | know that trolls come in all forms. On Steam, some are simply\r | |
21 | trying to rile people up with something we call 'a game shaped\r | |
22 | object' (ie: a crudely made piece of software that technically\r | |
23 | and just barely passes our bar as a functioning video game but\r | |
24 | isn't what 99.9% of folks would say is "good.") Valve goes on\r | |
25 | to explain that some trolls are trying to scam folks out of\r | |
26 | their Steam inventory items (digital items that can be traded\r | |
27 | for real money), while others are trying to generate a small\r | |
28 | amount of money through a variety of schemes that have to do\r | |
29 | with how developers use keys to unlock Steam games, while\r | |
30 | others are trying to "incite and sow discord." "Trolls are\r | |
31 | figuring out new ways to be loathsome as we write this," Valve\r | |
32 | said. "But the thing these folks have in common is that they\r | |
33 | aren't actually interested in good faith efforts to make and\r | |
34 | sell games to you or anyone. When a developer's motives aren't\r | |
35 | that, they're probably a troll." One interesting observation\r | |
36 | Valve shares in the blog post is that it rarely bans\r | |
37 | individual games from Steam, and more often bans developers\r | |
38 | and/or publishers entirely. [...] Valve said that its review\r | |
39 | process for determining that something may be a "troll game"\r | |
40 | is a "deep assessment" that involves investigating who the\r | |
41 | developer is, what they've done in the past, their behavior on\r | |
42 | Steam as a developer, as a customer, their banking\r | |
43 | information, developers they associate with, and more.\r | |
44 | \r | |
45 | \r | |
46 | ** Just charge a $5K "listing fee" (Score:5, Interesting)\r | |
47 | (by west ( 39918 ))\r | |
48 | \r | |
49 | \r | |
50 | 98% of the total garbage disappears (as well as a few percent of\r | |
51 | the good). Of course "not terribly good games" will still\r | |
52 | appear, but it gets rid of the absolute garbage.\r | |
53 | Or if people are appalled at paying to appear on Steam, allow\r | |
54 | spending $10K for a Steam "check-mark of marketing", and allow\r | |
55 | users to filter to show only check-marked games.\r | |
56 | \r | |
57 | ** \r | |
58 | \r | |
59 | ** Re: (Score:1)\r | |
60 | (by Anonymous Coward)\r | |
61 | \r | |
62 | \r | |
63 | "Choices"???\r | |
64 | Thirty-five (35) games were released on Steam today alone .\r | |
65 | Go fuck yourself.\r | |
66 | \r | |
67 | \r | |
68 | \r | |
69 | ** Steam wants the garbage (Score:3)\r | |
70 | (by rsilvergun ( 571051 ))\r | |
71 | \r | |
72 | \r | |
73 | because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took away\r | |
74 | garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying goes, one\r | |
75 | man's trash is another's treasure.\r | |
76 | \r | |
77 | Plus, a lot of good devs get their start making trash.\r | |
78 | \r | |
79 | ** Re: (Score:3)\r | |
80 | (by AC-x ( 735297 ))\r | |
81 | \r | |
82 | \r | |
83 | > because there's no accounting for taste, and if you took\r | |
84 | > away garbage there'd be no Goat Simulator. As the saying\r | |
85 | > goes, one man's trash is another's treasure.\r | |
86 | I'm sorry, but anyone with a functioning brain would see\r | |
87 | that infinitely more effort and polish has been put in to\r | |
88 | games like Goat Simulator than any of those garbage "asset\r | |
89 | flips" that litter the Steam store.\r | |
90 | Yes the difference between a good and bad game is\r | |
91 | subjective, but broken zero effort trash is much easier to\r | |
92 | agree on...\r | |
93 | \r | |
94 | \r | |
95 | \r | |
96 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
97 | (by mentil ( 1748130 ))\r | |
98 | \r | |
99 | \r | |
100 | Will never happen. There are way too many games like PUBG\r | |
101 | that would've never become Steam hits if they had such a\r | |
102 | policy. It only needs to be enough to make the trolls miss\r | |
103 | it/lose out with their scams; $100 would likely be enough.\r | |
104 | \r | |
105 | \r | |
106 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
107 | (by Escogido ( 884359 ))\r | |
108 | \r | |
109 | \r | |
110 | Either would shut a lot of starting indie games developers\r | |
111 | out of the system, thus preventing said developers and the\r | |
112 | gaming industry in general from making future hits.\r | |
113 | Basically, all new games are either essentially\r | |
114 | reskins/clones of existing games, or trying new mechanics\r | |
115 | and/or interactions, and sometimes (rarely) stories and\r | |
116 | characters. Given the typical indie level production values\r | |
117 | are garbage, in general, only the ones that try to innovate\r | |
118 | actually do have some value for the industry. However, first\r | |
119 | \r | |
120 | \r | |
121 | ** Best New Feature (Score:2)\r | |
122 | (by Kunedog ( 1033226 ))\r | |
123 | \r | |
124 | \r | |
125 | > A second set of changes was focused on improving how you can\r | |
126 | > ignore things you're not interested in. In the past you've been\r | |
127 | > able to ignore individual games or product types (like VR, or\r | |
128 | > Early Access) you didn't want to see again. But now we've added\r | |
129 | > ways for you to also easily ignore individual developers,\r | |
130 | > publishers, and curators.\r | |
131 | Imagine how much easier browsing Netflix would be if you could\r | |
132 | filter out whole franchises and showrunners. Of course, that\r | |
133 | might make it obvious how little on Netflix actually interests\r | |
134 | you.\r | |
135 | \r | |
136 | ** Re: (Score:2, Funny)\r | |
137 | (by Anonymous Coward)\r | |
138 | \r | |
139 | \r | |
140 | Then they could charge a fee to shows that don't want to be\r | |
141 | filtered by you\r | |
142 | \r | |
143 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
144 | (by Archfeld ( 6757 ))\r | |
145 | \r | |
146 | \r | |
147 | Sounds like Amazon, and the Kindle Library. No matter what\r | |
148 | you search, every 7th listing is a 'Sponsored' listing,\r | |
149 | and even if you specify a particular author or absolute\r | |
150 | title, you always get 10 or 12 additional 'bonus' items\r | |
151 | listed.\r | |
152 | \r | |
153 | \r | |
154 | \r | |
155 | ** Early Access Garbage and abandonment (Score:2)\r | |
156 | (by shendar ( 674986 ))\r | |
157 | \r | |
158 | \r | |
159 | How about if a developer starts a EA Project and walks away\r | |
160 | (takes forever with no progress) they are banned from further\r | |
161 | EA? How about if they are banned from the store entirely?\r | |
162 | \r | |
163 | ** Re: (Score:3)\r | |
164 | (by AC-x ( 735297 ))\r | |
165 | \r | |
166 | \r | |
167 | I'm sure the type of developer who does that would simply\r | |
168 | abandon their old label and create a new developer account to\r | |
169 | carry on.\r | |
170 | \r | |
171 | \r | |
172 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
173 | (by mentil ( 1748130 ))\r | |
174 | \r | |
175 | \r | |
176 | "I'm sick of development, so here's version '1.0'."\r | |
177 | Also define 'forever' in a timescale that doesn't apply to\r | |
178 | Notch, Rockstar or Valve.\r | |
179 | \r | |
180 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
181 | (by Calydor ( 739835 ))\r | |
182 | \r | |
183 | \r | |
184 | Wait. I see what you did there.\r | |
185 | You mentioned three developers.\r | |
186 | CONFIRMED: Half-Life 3 is being produced by Notch and\r | |
187 | Rockstar!\r | |
188 | \r | |
189 | \r | |
190 | \r | |
191 | ** Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:1)\r | |
192 | (by Crashmarik ( 635988 ))\r | |
193 | \r | |
194 | \r | |
195 | Already May well be the most overloaded operator in the English\r | |
196 | language. As it seems to mean anything anyone anywhere takes\r | |
197 | objection to, or otherwise makes them feel bad.\r | |
198 | \r | |
199 | ** Re: Great Yet Another Meaning For Troll (Score:2)\r | |
200 | (by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ))\r | |
201 | \r | |
202 | \r | |
203 | The troll in me wants to say that "nazi" probably has "troll"\r | |
204 | beat ;)\r | |
205 | \r | |
206 | \r | |
207 | ** \r | |
208 | \r | |
209 | ** Re: (Score:2)\r | |
210 | (by tepples ( 727027 ))\r | |
211 | \r | |
212 | \r | |
213 | Furthermore, unlike console and mobile platforms, Steam has\r | |
214 | very little switching cost. An end user can always just up\r | |
215 | and switch to Itch or Origin or GOG or Humble or wherever\r | |
216 | else.\r | |
217 | \r | |
218 | \r | |
219 | ** Steam's progression (Score:3)\r | |
220 | (by Luckyo ( 1726890 ))\r | |
221 | \r | |
222 | \r | |
223 | So Steam started as "shove it down their throats" Counter Strike\r | |
224 | 1.6 launcher. Evolved into highly curated game store over about\r | |
225 | a decade.\r | |
226 | Then decided to suddenly drop all curation and allow anything\r | |
227 | and everything on the platform. Got flooded with garbage. Added\r | |
228 | weird "meta gaming" shit like trading cards. Got games that\r | |
229 | literally existed just to allow people to get cards. Allowed\r | |
230 | some trading and other meta gaming of the system. Even got\r | |
231 | pressured by some SJW types to drop politically controversial\r | |
232 | games like Hatred and even had their recent porn games brouhaha.\r | |
233 | And now, they're doing this. I guess there's just too much\r | |
234 | pressure from all directions, and they really just decided that\r | |
235 | no, we're not bending to various pressure groups, and instead\r | |
236 | just making sure that asset flips and such are not on the store.\r | |
237 | If true, good on them.\r | |
238 | \r | |
239 | ** Early Access (Score:2)\r | |
240 | (by tylersoze ( 789256 ))\r | |
241 | \r | |
242 | \r | |
243 | Eh, all I really want from Valve is a filter that blocks all\r | |
244 | "Early Access" games from ever appearing, as I'm browsing for\r | |
245 | games on their web site.\r | |
246 | \r | |
247 | \r |