My first discussion topic is the PC digital game distributor, Steam. Owned by Valve, whether you love them or hate them, they are undeniably the largest PC game distributor that sells games worldwide. I am not here to sing praise for or shred Steam to pieces, since all of that has been done plenty times before. Rather I will just talk about some features that are unique to Steam and what they do right and what could be improved upon. (Keep in mind I am not going into ALL the features of Steam, at least for now)
Greenlight Perhaps the most well known feature of Steam is its Greenlight system. Through this, developers pay a fee of 100 dollars to be allowed to submit their game through the process. Once that is approved, they must submit a page that includes the game's name, trailer or intro video, box art, at least 4 screenshots or artwork, and a description that should be as detailed as possible. Users of Steam vote on whether they would buy the game on Steam, and the more positive votes a submission receives, the closer it gets to becoming "greenlit", or earning Valve's stamp of approval. This helps out developers in that the lesser known and even first time developers have a crack at greatness, bringing them plenty of publicity. It also saves them the hassle of needing to find a publisher like Sega or EA to bring their game to Steam in exchange for revenue shares. Finally, it helps Steam in bolstering their storefront and reputation as the biggest PC digital game distribution worldwide (though even without Greenlight, they would still have dozens of publishers and developers hoping to bring their games to the acclaimed platform). On the other hand, there are many downfalls and loopholes of the Greenlight system. The biggest problem that plagues this feature is the lack of quality control of the submitted titles. While Valve will definitely step in and remove those submissions that are obvious rip-offs or do not follow the minimum requirements, there is a lot of leeway on what is allowed. Therefore we often find game art that seemed to be made with little thought and with minimum descriptions. Second, vote manipulation is a problem. While many games gain votes legitimately through Kickstarter, third party purchases, or simply for having the page up, there are still those developers who promise keys for simply voting. This practice is an unethical practice, and while Steam has reiterated that they won't necessarily approve the games with the most votes at any given time, the practice does not see an end in sight. Finally, Greenlight is not a guarantee of a game release. Even though a game may be greenlit, the development might lose interest or run out of funds. Other cases may be that the game would bypass having to be greenlit by latching onto a publisher. In all of these instances, the customers would unfortunately not have a chance to experience the game they voted for either in the exact way they were promised or even not at all. I like the greenlight system, but with all its flaws I feel like this may be the weakest link of Steam. Curation System Another feature that Steam offers is the curation system. With this, developers and users alike can create a list of games they themselves or collectively with others believe are noteworthy. In order to create a curated game list, a group needs to be created, either one that already exists or is made for that purpose. Any game that is listed in the Steam store may be placed on the list, whether it be a free to play game such as TF2 (Team Fortress 2) or an unreleased game such as Mighty No. 9. The benefit to this list rather than individual wishlists is that the prices aren't listed so that all games are treated equally. Lesser known games may be added to the list that the individual may have never heard of, but the group as a whole have seen or played. In addition, these curated lists may help influence what type of games you lean toward buying or wanting to see on Steam. On the other hand, a similar problem to Greenlight plagues the curation system. The biggest problem is that the big names will have the most visible curation lists. For example, Totalbiscuit and Jesse Cox may have tens of thousands of followers of their lists, while your best friend may be lucky to have ten. The other unavoidable downfall is that many people have similar favorite games. There are plenty of roguelike fans out there, so there are bound to be many lists with Risk of Rain, The Binding of Isaac Rebirth, and Rogue Legacy on them. Likewise, since people don't want to have huge curation lists, they may often just list the best and most well known rather than go for the niche titles, which sort of destroys the point of curator lists. For me, I didn't have high hopes for this feature, so it worked just as well as I expected. These are just a few of the many features that Steam has to offer. I will wrap it up by saying that regardless of what you feel about Steam, it is a platform that is essential to PC gaming. That is all I have for now. Please leave comments and let me know if you want to see more of these write-ups, where I should emphasize on more, and if I should go into other sites such as Groupees and IndieGameStand. For those of you who have been following my post, I am SORRY that I haven't written anything since mid April. There are several reasons why. One was that I was simply too busy/lazy, and the other reason was that I was having writer's block. Now that I have taken a while off, I feel like my brain is refreshed and ready to dive into this blog.
As you may already know by my "about me" blurb, I go by letsmaybeLP92 on the Internet. That is also how you will find me on Twitter, Steam, as well as several gaming sites such as Groupees and IndieGameStand (more into those later). I am an avid PC game collector, having amassed over 2,000 games between my major gaming platforms Steam, Desura, and GOG. While I will collect and try any game that I feel like is worthy of my collection (and within my budget), my focus is on Indie games. Among my top 5 favorite games, 4 of them are Indies (if you were wondering, the top 5 are The Binding Of Isaac, Civilization V, BattleBlock Theater, Puzzle Quest, and Retro City Rampage). My motto is: try as many games as possible, but only go back to those I really would enjoy. Therefore, I have a majority of my games with at least 1 minute of gameplay, but much fewer with even an hour. Here is my tentative blog schedule: Monday: Let's Talk About... (A spotlight series on gaming sites such as Groupees, Steam, IndieGameStand, etc..) Wednesday: Let's Maybe Play... (A review of a game of my choice or yours) Friday: Gaming Deals of the Week (Bundles, IndieGameStand, Steam, etc...) Sunday: Random Thoughts (and I do mean random) Any suggestions? Also you guys can suggest me to play games from my libraries: Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/letsmaybeLP92/games Desura: http://www.desura.com/members/letsmaybelp92/games GOG: ask me what games I have, and I may list them Others: I have plenty of DRM-free games on Groupees and Humble that I may cover. NOTE: Must be within my specs: Windows 8.1 64-bit Intel Core i5 4200U @ 1.60 GHz 4 GB Ram Intel HD Graphics 4400 128 GB SSD Well that's me in a nutshell (for now). I will see you on Monday (I hope)! |
About MeHi, I go by letsmaybeLP92 on many sites on the Internet. I enjoy reading and testing out the newest and oldest games out there, as well as sharing my passion with others. Archives
March 2023
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