7 ms·

I'm reluctant to breathe a sigh of relief yet. I've been visiting the Steam Store a lot less since they opened the floodgates to any and every game under the su

I'm reluctant to breathe a sigh of relief yet. I've been visiting the Steam Store a lot less since they opened the floodgates to any and every game under the sun as I believe discoverability is now horribly broken and the queue and recommendations features both fail to mitigate the issue.

debaserab2 11y ago
Is that a problem with the catalog or a problem with the store? I've found steams interface for searching and finding new games is pretty bad.
- speeder 11y ago
  I am both a gamedev and a avid game player, of some niche and strange genres included. I found out that Steam catalog, despite "opening the floodgates" is quite limited on some genres, some niche genres have the nicest games don't even volunteer for steam (usually because the nicest games have perfectionist devs that don't want to be "another shitty early access", for example Starsector, the game has been being sold in pre-release form for years now, but the dev flat out absolutely refuses to get on Steam, because he thinks the game ins't ready for that), and even when they do, they don't get enough traction with the public to get through Greenlight or to skip Greenlight. On some other genres, you will see loads and loads of crap shoveled at you, but the good games still don't fill completely the recommended games section screen... The only thing I think Steam can do differently in their interface, is make the "order by public rating" easier (this feature actually exists already! But is mostly hidden, every time I need it, I google around until I stumble on it, and each time I end on it by a different path!), usually when you do that you see a list of actually great games, mixing both truly great AAA games and actual underdogs (example: last time I checked for some genres, I owned all games on the first page on the list, some of those games I know I am one of the few people that own them, because they are not widely known, while others are full blown 100 million marketing AAA).
  - jdcarter 11y ago
    So where do you go to discover non-Steam games? These days I only browse for new games on Steam, and I know I'm missing out on some great stuff, but I don't know where else to look.
    - speeder 11y ago
      Some genres have forums or sites dedicated to them (for example spacesimcentral.com) And there is a subreddit called gamingsuggestions that has great people over there to suggest stuff!
  - noxToken 11y ago
    >but the dev flat out absolutely refuses to get on Steam, because he thinks the game ins't ready for that I once read an article that said you only get one release. There are exceptions to this rule, but it seems to be true. If you choose to debut your game on Steam with the early-access model, it's usually your one shot to impress customers with your product. We all know that it isn't complete. However, the update tempo and promise tracking can easily tank your product if you fall behind. Taking an extended break, even with the early release model, is pretty much suicide. I can only think of a handful of titles that hyped their early release AND got a second round of hype on full release. For most, however, the first time you put your game on Steam will be the only major press that you get.
wnevets 11y ago
> I believe discoverability is now horribly broken and the queue and recommendations features both fail to mitigate the issue. I agree, my queue is littered with genres I have zero interest in. After the 10th anime dating sim I marked not interested in, it should prevent those games in the future.
- BookmarkSaver 11y ago
  Yeah, I mean, you dump 100 hours into one crappy anime dating sim and they never let you forget it...
- Semaphor 11y ago
  I stopped bothering clicking "not interested", it seems to have no influence on the games. All I want is the option to block some tags from showing up in my queue at all (action, fps, multiplayer, racing and anime).
  - cobaltblue 11y ago
    They have text somewhere explaining that clicking "not interested" just means that particular game won't show up again in your queue, and maybe on the home page too, I don't remember, but it doesn't actually affect their piss-poor recommendation system. I still click it, but considering the handful of games I haven't clicked it on yet also didn't click add to wishlist because they're the type of game I think "maybe I'll get it in a year or so when it's a better price but I'm not really committed, I wouldn't mind seeing it in the queue again sometime to remind me", I don't recall seeing a repeat on my queue despite going through many queues, so I'm also wondering what the value of "not interested" is. I agree I should be able to blacklist tags. What has surprised me is the sheer number of really basic "games" I have no interest in like the anime dating sims, walking sims, or choose-your-own-adventure sims. I wonder how much the average dev for those things make, makes me wish I had an anime artist friend to test the waters with in pumping out crap.
    - Semaphor 11y ago
      I frequent /r/GameDeals, quite some people really seem to like those dating sims. And now that you say it, I remember that about the not interested button.
brobinson 11y ago
I want a way to filter out indie games and DLC when searching.
- otakucode 11y ago
  A simple Bayesian filter trained on the tags and maybe short description text to rank games per-user would probably do everything most people want. Steams Web API is nearly useless though, so you'd have to build a whole site, and do loads of scraping, to offer that to people.

debaserab2 11y ago

Is that a problem with the catalog or a problem with the store? I've found steams interface for searching and finding new games is pretty bad.

speeder 11y ago
I am both a gamedev and a avid game player, of some niche and strange genres included. I found out that Steam catalog, despite "opening the floodgates" is quite limited on some genres, some niche genres have the nicest games don't even volunteer for steam (usually because the nicest games have perfectionist devs that don't want to be "another shitty early access", for example Starsector, the game has been being sold in pre-release form for years now, but the dev flat out absolutely refuses to get on Steam, because he thinks the game ins't ready for that), and even when they do, they don't get enough traction with the public to get through Greenlight or to skip Greenlight. On some other genres, you will see loads and loads of crap shoveled at you, but the good games still don't fill completely the recommended games section screen... The only thing I think Steam can do differently in their interface, is make the "order by public rating" easier (this feature actually exists already! But is mostly hidden, every time I need it, I google around until I stumble on it, and each time I end on it by a different path!), usually when you do that you see a list of actually great games, mixing both truly great AAA games and actual underdogs (example: last time I checked for some genres, I owned all games on the first page on the list, some of those games I know I am one of the few people that own them, because they are not widely known, while others are full blown 100 million marketing AAA).
- jdcarter 11y ago
  So where do you go to discover non-Steam games? These days I only browse for new games on Steam, and I know I'm missing out on some great stuff, but I don't know where else to look.
  - speeder 11y ago
    Some genres have forums or sites dedicated to them (for example spacesimcentral.com) And there is a subreddit called gamingsuggestions that has great people over there to suggest stuff!
- noxToken 11y ago
  >but the dev flat out absolutely refuses to get on Steam, because he thinks the game ins't ready for that I once read an article that said you only get one release. There are exceptions to this rule, but it seems to be true. If you choose to debut your game on Steam with the early-access model, it's usually your one shot to impress customers with your product. We all know that it isn't complete. However, the update tempo and promise tracking can easily tank your product if you fall behind. Taking an extended break, even with the early release model, is pretty much suicide. I can only think of a handful of titles that hyped their early release AND got a second round of hype on full release. For most, however, the first time you put your game on Steam will be the only major press that you get.

wnevets 11y ago

> I believe discoverability is now horribly broken and the queue and recommendations features both fail to mitigate the issue. I agree, my queue is littered with genres I have zero interest in. After the 10th anime dating sim I marked not interested in, it should prevent those games in the future.

BookmarkSaver 11y ago
Yeah, I mean, you dump 100 hours into one crappy anime dating sim and they never let you forget it...
Semaphor 11y ago
I stopped bothering clicking "not interested", it seems to have no influence on the games. All I want is the option to block some tags from showing up in my queue at all (action, fps, multiplayer, racing and anime).
- cobaltblue 11y ago
  They have text somewhere explaining that clicking "not interested" just means that particular game won't show up again in your queue, and maybe on the home page too, I don't remember, but it doesn't actually affect their piss-poor recommendation system. I still click it, but considering the handful of games I haven't clicked it on yet also didn't click add to wishlist because they're the type of game I think "maybe I'll get it in a year or so when it's a better price but I'm not really committed, I wouldn't mind seeing it in the queue again sometime to remind me", I don't recall seeing a repeat on my queue despite going through many queues, so I'm also wondering what the value of "not interested" is. I agree I should be able to blacklist tags. What has surprised me is the sheer number of really basic "games" I have no interest in like the anime dating sims, walking sims, or choose-your-own-adventure sims. I wonder how much the average dev for those things make, makes me wish I had an anime artist friend to test the waters with in pumping out crap.
  - Semaphor 11y ago
    I frequent /r/GameDeals, quite some people really seem to like those dating sims. And now that you say it, I remember that about the not interested button.

brobinson 11y ago

I want a way to filter out indie games and DLC when searching.

otakucode 11y ago
A simple Bayesian filter trained on the tags and maybe short description text to rank games per-user would probably do everything most people want. Steams Web API is nearly useless though, so you'd have to build a whole site, and do loads of scraping, to offer that to people.