Steam - Big Data, Crowdsourcing, Explorers, & Curators @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

Just Plain Mean
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Steam - Big Data, Crowdsourcing, Explorers, & Curators - Have you ever used Steam to shop for a new game, when you did not know exactly what you wanted to buy, and found its way of organizing and sharing information with you a bit archaic? Me too! John Bain, aka TotalBiscuit is Steam's top "curator," and he has some information on changes coming to Steam, hopefully soon.
 
Jim Sterling also went to Valve HQ to talk about the upcoming changes. His video is pretty entertaining considering what he just went through with Steam and a "fake game" publisher.

 
Funnily enough, the original curator update is what stopped me from casual browsing and impulse buying on Steam. I now only go directly to the store page of the game I know I want to buy and bypass all the bullshit infecting the rest of the store. So forgive me if I'm skeptical on how these updates will turn out.
 
Armenius said:
Funnily enough, the original curator update is what stopped me from casual browsing and impulse buying on Steam. I now only go directly to the store page of the game I know I want to buy and bypass all the bullshit infecting the rest of the store. So forgive me if I'm skeptical on how these updates will turn out.
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I think they are aware of experiences like yours and want to directly address that.
 
I hope they actually start recommending things I'd actually play. I don't have a problem with them advertising, I'm in their store, sales are good. I just don't want to see a bunch of crap I'll never buy being recommended to me. They obviously don't know how to make a recommendation.
 
Change the Steam UI make it simple if you want attention to a game with that has potential put in the extra effort to market it outside of steam it worked for Dark Age of Camelot sold at Walmart in 2001.
I'm now seeing a trance amount of boxed indie games on the shelves nothing I would pick up. You need to put in the effort for a AAA game or a AA game if you want the goods which means taking advantage of the latest and greatest in design. Curators are just parasites lol unless they are totally established.
 
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You are better served going to the Game makers website for DLC. I purchased DLC from Steam for the game Race-Room. Didn't get all the DLC but still spent $100.00 (everything would have been $134). The game maker sells everything for $70. Thank God that Steam honored a refund. When I purchased all the DLC from the game maker, it was only $57.00 (I already had some content). I will never purchase DLC from stream without checking the game maker's web site first.
 
Armenius said:
Funnily enough, the original curator update is what stopped me from casual browsing and impulse buying on Steam. I now only go directly to the store page of the game I know I want to buy and bypass all the bullshit infecting the rest of the store. So forgive me if I'm skeptical on how these updates will turn out.
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Exactly. I stopped buying anything on steam since that. Stopped even looking at the store. And since they did away with flash deals and daily deals as well I didn't buy anything even during holiday/summer sales.
 
Man - I can't even remember the last time I actually browsed through the Steam store. I used to open it every time I was using my computer and just see what was on sale, or what ended up on the main page. Now it's just an absolute cluttered mess.
 
xX326Xx said:
I hope they actually start recommending things I'd actually play. I don't have a problem with them advertising, I'm in their store, sales are good. I just don't want to see a bunch of crap I'll never buy being recommended to me. They obviously don't know how to make a recommendation.
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I'd also like to see Steam get genres right to make recommendations proper. I can see the general press mixing them up and publishers intentionally using terms which are not accurate, but I'd like Steam to have gamers who know what they are talking about refine the search.

For example, lets take "flight simulators". To the mainstream this includes everything from Ace Combat (flight shooter) to Elite Dangerous (space sim / RPG) to things with flight vehicle sections (Battlefield), including a few token flight simulators. I like all kinds of the games mentioned here, but don't throw Elite Dangerous or Battlefield into the flight category.

Same thing with tactical shooters. SWAT, first few Ghost Recon, older R6 games and ArmA. Please don't tell me Mass Effect is a tactical shooter, I'm not that dumb.

I'm sure a lot of others can chime in for other genres as well. But I'd like to see recommendations based on the real genre or gameplay type, not the marketing label.
 
As much as I don't want to say it Origin seems to have a better storefront. I hope they get it back to at least as useful as it once was.
 
Flogger23m said:
I'd also like to see Steam get genres right to make recommendations proper. I can see the general press mixing them up and publishers intentionally using terms which are not accurate, but I'd like Steam to have gamers who know what they are talking about refine the search.

For example, lets take "flight simulators". To the mainstream this includes everything from Ace Combat (flight shooter) to Elite Dangerous (space sim / RPG) to things with flight vehicle sections (Battlefield), including a few token flight simulators. I like all kinds of the games mentioned here, but don't throw Elite Dangerous or Battlefield into the flight category.

Same thing with tactical shooters. SWAT, first few Ghost Recon, older R6 games and ArmA. Please don't tell me Mass Effect is a tactical shooter, I'm not that dumb.

I'm sure a lot of others can chime in for other genres as well. But I'd like to see recommendations based on the real genre or gameplay type, not the marketing label.
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It's the same with movies. I ask for sci-fi and and get recommendations for family dramas such as Stranger things ffs

As for Steam, well, they managed to annoy a lot of people with their initial change. All these stupid cards, trading and whatnot. Who the fuck cares for this bullshit. And why?
 
I tried browsing steam after they claimed to have fixed it with you being able to edit page settings and all it did was hyper focus on shitty early access games tangentially related to what I like. Gave up on it. I just look at other review sites to find games I wnat now.
 
I'm in the same boat, I don't bother shopping on steam anymore. It's a clusterfuck mess and full of terrible crap.
 
dgz said:
It's the same with movies. I ask for sci-fi and and get recommendations for family dramas such as Stranger things ffs

As for Steam, well, they managed to annoy a lot of people with their initial change. All these stupid cards, trading and whatnot. Who the fuck cares for this bullshit. And why?
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Not that I'm judging but I broke down and watched Stranger things a couple weeks ago and good god it is sci-fi all the way. Closer to sci-fi horror really. Even the ending is pretty messed up. It's basically Half-Life in a small town. It was pretty freakin amazing.
 
Stranger Things?

Admittedly, Juggernaut is more fantasy than sci-fi. I guess one could argue existentialism.
 
piscian18 said:
I tried browsing steam after they claimed to have fixed it with you being able to edit page settings and all it did was hyper focus on shitty early access games tangentially related to what I like. Gave up on it. I just look at other review sites to find games I wnat now.
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Your fault for not turning them off.
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There are the AAA releases, the smaller releases from developers I have enjoyed previously, and "everything else".

I'll pick up from the first two categories if interested, maybe the third if there is A LOT of buzz, the rest... in sales if any interest.
Sales have turned shitty though.

I have never bothered with "curators" - just bullshit to me, a type of self-promotion, ie: why should someone's opinion matter to me when I can make my own?
 
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