davidsgallant

Someone care to explain to me what criteria makes one game "deserve" visibility over another?

I blogged about what Valve thinks games should be back in 2015: http://itwasnevermspaint.tumblr.com/post/122735206503/on-what-valve-thinks-a-game-should-be Of course Valve doesn't deny such games to be on their service. Their policies and infrastructures don't recognize them easily as games and makes it harder for them to thrive.

Hey folks. This is my first post on the Idle Forums, so please forgive me if I mess up some conventions for this space. The fact that Valve refers to any games internally as "fake games" is pretty chilling. Valve already has very limited categorizations for games (notice how they foisted improving categories onto their users, just as they plan to do with the Explorers program). Asset Flips are not "fake games". They may not be well-produced games, they may be cynical cash-ins designed to get cheap trading card producers into people's Steam libraries, they may be a solo developer's first project, a game made by students, etc. They're still games; the quality of their production never renders them "fake" in any regard. Not to Valve, though, who have a very limited idea of what a game should be. Remember, this is the Valve who believes a game should be longer than at least two hours (lest your customers finish it in less time and get a refund on it). This is the Valve who intends to charge developers at least $100 (at most $5000!!!) for each release, a fee that won't be recoupable by inexpensive or outright free products. This is the Valve that has no backend method of allowing devs to categorize a release as "experimental" or "narrative", other than to put it in the genre "indie" (yeah, "indie" is a genre on Steam). The list of games clyde provided as examples that might be declared "fake games" by Steam Explorers - some of their devs are already afraid that might happen. Depression Quest was made primarily by a woman who is still the target of a hate mob. Dominique Pamplemousse 2, which is already out, won't be seeking a Steam release thanks to the proposed implementations of Steam Direct and Steam Explorers. The only feedback Valve has sought on this new program are from two white cis males in positions of privilege. Both have experience with being the targets of online hate, but their privilege still protects them from what more marginalized devs already experience being on Steam. So, yeah. "Fake games" is bullshit. Valve continues to make Steam a hostile place for smaller developers. Buy your games from itch.io instead.