The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Sentinel]

I can't tell if that "times" at the end was edited in from HL2 or if it was Shapiro himself delivering it flawlessly.

 

[Rahdulan]

Looks like they spilled over some Lab functionality to basic Search.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1714119088658959584

Search Updates
New search features, fresh out of Steam Labs!

We've just released new features designed to make Search more powerful and easier to use. With new filtering capabilities and quality of life improvements, Steam Search is now even better at helping you browse for new games, or narrow in on exactly what you're looking for.

Steam Labs

Today's changes to Search were made as part of Steam Labs, an initiative where we try out upcoming changes and gather feedback on their usefulness.

By developing new features in Labs we're able to experiment more, without impacting everyone who uses Steam. This means we can try things which might not work out, and can receive user feedback much earlier in the development process. Not everyone uses Steam the same way, so the feedback we receive in Steam Labs helps us serve a wider audience.

Our Search experiment started as an exploration of new ranking algorithms, but based upon user feedback it expanded to include the many quality of life improvements in today's release. While large features often get the most attention, smaller changes are essential for a smoother user experience.

What is Search, Anyway?

Steam Search does more than just looking up games; it's a powerful tool that drives many of our discoverability features, including Top Sellers and Specials pages. Today's features are available anywhere the Search tool is used across the store.

Narrow by Price and Special Offers

Search now supports setting a maximum price, and a filter to only see special offers. If you're looking for a game in your budget, or hoping to discover just the right thing during a sale, this control will help you find the games you want.

Include and Exclude by Tag

We've introduced new ways to leverage tags to find the games you'll love. Tags now show a preview of how many results will be returned, making it easier to see which are most relevant to your search. By popular demand, it's also possible to exclude tags from your search. If you're a fan of survival games, but not horror or zombies, you can now search to your exact taste.

Our 'sort by relevance' algorithm will also place heavier weight on tags you've requested, meaning you'll see more relevant results up front, making it easier to find compelling titles, independent of whether they're popular.

Hide Games You Already Know

We've heard from you that it can be frustrating to browse through search results that include a lot of games you already know about. Our new filters allow you to hide games that are ignored, wishlisted, or already in your library. These controls can be enabled or disabled without reloading your search, and their settings are preserved between searches.

Exclude VR-Only Games

Search is all about finding games that are relevant to you. If you don't own a VR headset, then seeing VR-only titles may not interest you. It's now possible to exclude these titles from your search, while still seeing VR-supported titles you can play without a headset.

Infinite Scroll

Rather than having to manually click through pages, we now automatically load more results when you scroll. Your search, and the position in it, will be remembered if you click on any result, and then return to the search page using your browser's back button.

For those who prefer the older paginated view, infinite scroll can be configured via your Store Preferences.

Find Games in Your Language

If you're using Search in a language other than English, then your language will be shown first in the language filter control, and that control will be moved to near the top of the search page.

Future Development

We've received a lot of amazing feedback during Search's time in Steam Labs, so this isn't the end of our Search improvements. If you would like to help us design and refine new features, head over to our Steam Labs page and try out the experiments that catch your interest. We'd love to hear from you!

Try the updated Search now!

 

[rusty_shackleford]

new search updates have been needed for a long time and they're great

 

[LESS T_T]

 

[Rahdulan]

Is anyone even using the new news hub?
https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/

You need to be logged in or use it from within the client itsef because it's apparently personalized.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

does anyone else use the discovery queue feature?

 

[Abu Antar]

does anyone else use the discovery queue feature?

VIEWED
34,392
Titles Viewed In Queue

The titles that you viewed and then hit 'next in queue'

 

[Modron]

does anyone else use the discovery queue feature?

Only at 4.1k, although I primarily only use it for trading cards at this point, since I generally keep on top of day to day releases using What's On Steam as my homepage.

 

[Jenkem]

only when it gives me cards during events

 

[toro]

Has anyone found a good game in the The Steam Game Festival?

40 games are free to play for 3 days ... unfortunately most of them are unfinished.

I've tried Roki, Eldest Souls and Elden Path of the Forgotten.

Needless to say I have 3 games less on my wishlist.

Edit: I see Operencia

 

[DalekFlay]

does anyone else use the discovery queue feature?

When I've been away from gaming for a while and haven't been paying attention it's a great way to discover under the radar stuff I missed. When I'm really into games and paying attention though, I've probably wishlisted it all already.

 

[Infinitron]

Hehe: https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam-review-refunded

Steam now shows when a reviewer has refunded a game

Steam reviews are everything at all times – great, awful, funny, and completely serious. It can be difficult to parse where any given reviewer is coming from, but Valve has just made it a bit easier. You can now see when a user who’s reviewed a game has also refunded that title, which should give you a bit more insight into whether that review is worth paying attention to.

A number of users across the internet have noted a “product refunded” tag on Steam reviews in the past week – here’s one example from somebody who didn’t like Doom Eternal’s cutscenes and scarce ammo. Steam’s return policy allows no-questions-asked refunds on pretty much any game you’ve spent less than two hours with, so the system can be easy to abuse.

Steam’s generous review policy has occasionally allowed additional users to jump into review bombing campaigns, and a clear identifier of refunded reviews would make it easier to tell when that’s happening. We asked Valve if that was part of the reasoning behind the added feature, but the company simply says “we just felt it was another valuable piece of data for customers when reading reviews.”

The Steam store has gotten another major update this week, as Steam Labs’ Interactive Recommender is now live. In theory, the update will more smartly recommend games based on machine learning algorithms, and it gives you some options to bias the recommendations toward more niche titles or popular games.

Check out some free Steam games if you’re looking for something to play this weekend – you definitely won’t need to refund them.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Steam’s return policy allows no-questions-asked refunds on pretty much any game you’ve spent less than two hours with, so the system can be easy to abuse.

abuse

corporate shill alert

review bombing campaigns,

Nobody has yet to give a good explanation as to why "review bombing" is bad.

 

[Sentinel]

Gaben on Epic Store - https://www.gamesradar.com/gabe-newell-epic-games-store/

"Competition in game stores is awesome for everybody. It keeps us honest, it keeps everybody else honest," Newell says, "But it's ugly in the short term. You're like, 'Argh, they're yelling, they're making us look bad' - but in the long term, everybody benefits from the discipline and the thoughtfulness it means you have to have about your business by having people come in and challenge you."

"We get a lot more freaked out not by competition, but by people trying to preclude competition," Newell continues, "If you ask us which is scarier, it's people falling in love with Apple's model of controlling everything and having faceless bureaucrats who get to keep your product from entering the market if they don't want it to, or designing a store in a way that minimises software's value-add to experience and stuff like that."

 

[rusty_shackleford]

His reference to Apple seems like it was actually a swipe directed at Epic.

 

[Sentinel]

Steam Breaks New Record With Over 21 Million Concurrent Online Users (6 days after breaking 20 million)

 

[karoliner]

Thank you Corona-chan!

 

[Silentstorm]

I would probably be playing SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays anyways, but it's nice having an excuse!

Still, wow, just as many places are getting hurt by this virus, online stores and indoor hobbies are getting more business than ever, haven't checked but i bet Netflix is also extremely happy, just a shame this happened because of fear and quarantine rather than more people starting to play games or just wanting to play games, after this is over, you can bet that even after the extreme amounts of extroversion that will happen after everything blows over, that the numbers will come back to what they were, unless there are people just really trying games for the first time and enjoying them immensely to a point they stick with it.

 

[Dexter]

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/fmfdsm/steam_breaks_another_record_with_22_million/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...gamers-urged-avoid-playing-working-hours.html

Video game players are urged to play at 'reasonable times' to avoid putting an extra strain on internet networks during the coronavirus outbreak

• A British video game expert asks online gamers to favour evening-time sessions
• Gaming can slow down internet speeds and frustrate people working from home
• Online gaming is 'the biggest threat to internet bandwidth' these next few weeks
• PC gaming platform Steam reported record numbers of gamers online this week
• Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?

By Jonathan Chadwick For Mailonline
Published: 19:04 GMT, 20 March 2020 | Updated: 08:23 GMT, 21 March 2020

Video game players have been urged to play at 'reasonable times' to avoid putting extra strain on internet networks during the coronavirus outbreak.

Social distancing measures to curb the spread of the virus has led to large numbers of people working from home or self-isolating, increasing daytime internet traffic.

But gamers have been asked to limit time online during working hours to ensure those in self-isolation trying to get work done aren't affected by slow speeds.

The issue could get worse in the UK as schools around the country have been forced to close due to the rapid spread of COVID-19, giving young gamers more time to kill.

UK-based video games expert Rik Henderson said people turning to games during isolation was inevitable, as a means of entertainment and social interaction, but he urged players to be aware of going online during working hours.

Online gamers who are trying to while away the hours in self-isolation during the day from Monday to Friday could be frustrating fellow network users who are trying to get work done

'While video streaming services, such as Netflix and YouTube, are committed to reducing their digital footprint during the coronavirus crisis, gaming is perhaps the biggest threat to internet bandwidth in the next few months,' he said.

PC gaming platform Steam revealed record numbers of gamers online in recent days, recording 20 million players online at once for the first time last weekend.

Live figures from the platform also show the platform breaking the 20 million mark regularly, according to its own data, which it attributes to coronavirus.

Online gaming platform Steam attributed a rise in online gaming numbers to people satuong at home during the coronavirus pandemic

Online gamers using Steam went past the 20 million mark again on Friday evening, 17:00 GMT, according to its live user tracker - a milestone it said it first reached last Sunday

'Some services have seen spikes in user activity already, including FIFA online play and Steam access, and that will only continue as people turn to their gaming devices to keep entertained during self-isolation,' said Henderson, who writes for Pocket-lint.

This is understandable as people find themselves forced to withdraw from physical social interaction for 12 weeks at least, he added.

Gaming provides social contact and friendship during the coronavirus crisis 'without the risk of infection'.

'Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and the like will, therefore, no doubt become even more popular as isolation continues.

'But we do all need to be aware of the impact on our country's network infrastructure and perhaps game at more reasonable times, in the evening, say, in order to avoid any impact on important services and work, as consumer internet connections are less robust than the usual business lines.'

Call of Duty: Warzone, the new free-to-play game from the popular warfare series, was released early last week and within five days had already amassed more than 15 million players.

Internet service providers have insisted they can handle already confirmed increases in daytime traffic.

Both BT and Virgin Media said on Friday that even though they are seeing an increase, traffic is still well within capacity limits.

Last week, an Italian telecoms company told analysts it had seen a 70 per cent increase in internet traffic.

Telecom Italia told analysts it believed the rise was due to a surge of online gaming as the country went into lockdown and schools closed.

In response to concerns over network capacities across Europe, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube have all confirmed they are limiting the image quality of videos to help ease levels of internet traffic.

It means standard definition videos on all three platforms are not as detailed or as sharp as high definition videos.

 

[LESS T_T]

Lock-down, social distancing, reduced disposable income. Backlog-chan, your time has finally come.

Actually wonder if Valve is seeing noticeable trends in backlog visits.

 

[Dexter]

Lock-down, social distancing, reduced disposable income. Backlog-chan, your time has finally come.

Actually wonder if Valve is seeing noticeable trends in backlog visits.

Imagine if anyone released an AAA post-apocalyptic game Digitally in the next 2-3 weeks like STALKER 2 or Fallout 5 or something and could capitalize on the situation.

 

[Rahdulan]

How's Epic doing, btw?

 

[Silentstorm]

Well, Doom Eternal came out at the perfect time, that's the big AAA game basically, Earth is also not in great shape in that game.

Bethesda is likely thanking God at this moment for having released that game yesterday.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Video game players are urged to play at 'reasonable times' to avoid putting an extra strain on internet networks during the coronavirus outbreak

fake news as fuck
Video games(other than downloading them) barely use any bandwidth whatsoever. You want people to stop putting extra strain on internet networks? Go have a talk with people streaming video.

 

[Gerrard]

controlling everything and having faceless bureaucrats who get to keep your product from entering the market if they don't want it to

Yeah, having SJW trash you hired in a delirious bout deciding that is so much better.