The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[LESS T_T]

Devil may cry.

#10 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
#9 - Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
#8 - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Year 4 Pass
#7 - IEM 2019 Katowice CS:GO Major Championship Viewer Pass
#6 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
#5 - Grand Theft Auto V
#4 - Devil May Cry 5
#3 - Dawn of Man
#2 - Devil May Cry 5
#1 - Devil May Cry 5

Devil vs. Ninja.

Also Factory Town is another indie hit.

#10 - Conan Exiles
#9 - Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Year 4 Pass
#8 - Factory Town
#7 - Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition
#6 - Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm
#5 - Total War: WARHAMMER II
#4 - Grand Theft Auto V
#3 - PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS
#2 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
#1 - Devil May Cry 5

 

[Infinitron]

"Don't die in the next five years."

 

[Infinitron]

lmaoooo

 

[unfairlight]

Didn't sound real to begin with since Gabe never uses emoticons in his emails.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

Tyler is such a punished individual.
Like the dog from Futurama but every few months someone comes and kicks him.

 

[Country_Gravy]

People look at Steam review scores?

I get all my gaming news from the Codex. Everyone else can eat a giant bag of dicks.

 

[Hirato]

well, tbh decent games getting review bombed because "add chinese translation" did strike my nerve and make searching what to buy more difficult

Thing is, those tend to come in gradually, rather than as one big flood.
This system will only work if it comes in as one massive flood.

 

[Poseidon00]

No surprise Steam wants to eliminate review scores that are bad because of retroactive monetization practices. Just making it easier to prey on the consumer. If only there was an alternative platform that wasn't worse.

 

[LESS T_T]

The new design officially revealed:

https://www.pcgamer.com/new-steam-design-2019/

After years of rumors and leaked mockup images, it's finally happening: Steam's library is getting a new look. This isn't a full-on redesign of Steam in its entirety, so the store and other parts of the interface aren't changing as far as we know. In its keynote at GDC on Thursday, Valve showed off the new library view, highlighting a redesigned page with large game thumbnails and more categorization around what's going on with your games.

"The biggest thing we're introducing is the Steam library homepage," said Valve's Alden Kroll. "This provides an opportunity for players to see 'what else is happening in the games that I play?'"

Some key elements of the new library view:

• The friends list is now integrated into a right-hand column
• The top module shows recent games you've been playing with a library view reminiscent of Plex or the Apple TV
• The rest of your collection is shown with nice vertical thumbnails that can be scaled to show larger icons or more games
• The left-hand games list has a new look but is fairly similar to the existing design

The biggest new feature for the library, at least in terms of functionality, is an extension of the tags Steam has been using on the store for several years. Those tags now carry over to the library page, and you can perform an advanced search using several tags to drill down through your games. The cool addition here is that you can save a tag search as a "collection" of similar games, like, say, "Ninja Action."

The library detail page for individual games (see image below) has also been reworked, with a cleaner layout prioritizing recent updates or livestreams for the game at the top of the page. Below that is an activity feed with recent actions from your friends list. The right-hand friends list carries over but will highlight any friends currently active in that game at the moment. Below your friends list are DLC, achievements, trading cards, and screenshots.

Valve didn't announce a release date for the new library view, but told me over email that it's aiming for a beta release this summer.

 

[raz3r]

I knew it was a conference aimed to developers but I am disappointed nonetheless, expecially if we consider what Epic came up with yesterday at the same exact event.

 

[Don Peste]

wtf I love epic now

The most simple things can bring the most happiness.

 

[LESS T_T]

The new design officially revealed:

Huh wait, Mirror's Edge Catalyst? Is EA back on Steam, amidst of the Epic war? It's sorted as "achievements earned" so it's not non-Steam game added manually.

 

[GrainWetski]

I knew it was a conference aimed to developers but I am disappointed nonetheless, expecially if we consider what Epic came up with yesterday at the same exact event.

What did Epic come up with?

 

[Anthedon]

The new design officially revealed:




https://www.pcgamer.com/new-steam-design-2019/

After years of rumors and leaked mockup images, it's finally happening: Steam's library is getting a new look. This isn't a full-on redesign of Steam in its entirety, so the store and other parts of the interface aren't changing as far as we know. In its keynote at GDC on Thursday, Valve showed off the new library view, highlighting a redesigned page with large game thumbnails and more categorization around what's going on with your games.

"The biggest thing we're introducing is the Steam library homepage," said Valve's Alden Kroll. "This provides an opportunity for players to see 'what else is happening in the games that I play?'"

Some key elements of the new library view:

• The friends list is now integrated into a right-hand column
• The top module shows recent games you've been playing with a library view reminiscent of Plex or the Apple TV
• The rest of your collection is shown with nice vertical thumbnails that can be scaled to show larger icons or more games
• The left-hand games list has a new look but is fairly similar to the existing design

The biggest new feature for the library, at least in terms of functionality, is an extension of the tags Steam has been using on the store for several years. Those tags now carry over to the library page, and you can perform an advanced search using several tags to drill down through your games. The cool addition here is that you can save a tag search as a "collection" of similar games, like, say, "Ninja Action."

The library detail page for individual games (see image below) has also been reworked, with a cleaner layout prioritizing recent updates or livestreams for the game at the top of the page. Below that is an activity feed with recent actions from your friends list. The right-hand friends list carries over but will highlight any friends currently active in that game at the moment. Below your friends list are DLC, achievements, trading cards, and screenshots.

Valve didn't announce a release date for the new library view, but told me over email that it's aiming for a beta release this summer.

I'll go ahead and quote myself:

The current interface is usable, the new one will, without a doubt, be shit.

Also, RPG Games.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Just use this instead of GUI -> https://github.com/berenm/steam-cli

 

[GrainWetski]

The most simple things can bring the most happiness.

I will never understand why people think this shit is acceptable on PC. I don't even want to touch that mess on my phone. Fuck huge tiles.

https://www.nhl.com/ used to have a really great site before they made it the complete and utter garbage it is now. The previous design worked great on both my phone and PC even though it wasn't "optimized" for phones.

Give me lists or give me death, fucking cunts.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I thought that was the STORE page but it's the goddamn library, that's a nightmare. Since there's an advanced button I'm hoping you can go back to the standard list of game titles because if I couldn't just start typing in the name of the game I want to play to reach it it'll make my library basically unusable. I do have hope it's optional though given there's a "Big dumb flashy" library mode already and has been for years.

 

[Infinitron]

Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I thought that was the STORE page but it's the goddamn library, that's a nightmare. Since there's an advanced button I'm hoping you can go back to the standard list of game titles because if I couldn't just start typing in the name of the game I want to play to reach it it'll make my library basically unusable. I do have hope it's optional though given there's a "Big dumb flashy" library mode already and has been for years.

What image are you referring to? The one in the post directly above you is from the Epic Store.

The Steam image seems to be showing a Library screen in which no particular game is selected, which is a state that doesn't exist in the current version.

 

[Turjan]

The most simple things can bring the most happiness.

I will never understand why people think this shit is acceptable on PC. I don't even want to touch that mess on my phone. Fuck huge tiles.

https://www.nhl.com/ used to have a really great site before they made it the complete and utter garbage it is now. The previous design worked great on both my phone and PC even though it wasn't "optimized" for phones.

Give me lists or give me death, fucking cunts.

At this moment, they need these big tiles, because that's all there is. Otherwise, there would just be empty space.

 

[Turjan]

Jesus tittyfucking Christ, I thought that was the STORE page but it's the goddamn library, that's a nightmare. Since there's an advanced button I'm hoping you can go back to the standard list of game titles because if I couldn't just start typing in the name of the game I want to play to reach it it'll make my library basically unusable. I do have hope it's optional though given there's a "Big dumb flashy" library mode already and has been for years.

Yup. At the moment there are three display options, and I hope that stays that way.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

What image are you referring to?

The Steam image. And that state doesn't exist, true, but it also means if that's the new default for the Steam library then it'll be a last resort for me and I'll either have to use right-clicking the systray icon (Not ideal because new games you buy/add to Steam end up there and override "Last played" games) or possibly shit up my desktop with icons again, rather than going to the library page and seeing the game I was last on.

Yup. At the moment there are three display options, and I hope that stays that way.

Certainly hope so. The only advantage to the other views is that "List view" tells me how long it's been since I've played some shit I've got installed, which... Now that I'm thinking about it I probably should take to heart and use to delete some crap. Haven't played Desktop Dungeons in 4 years, sure, but it's a small puzzle game and I might feel like it at some point. Crypt of the Necrodancer unplayed for 3 years however is a bit more iffy.

 

[Turjan]

The Steam image seems to be showing a Library screen in which no particular game is selected, which is a state that doesn't exist in the current version.

Well, the inspiration seems to be this current state:

Which is the worst of the three.

 

[Infinitron]

It still has the list on the left, though. I'm not sure what MHC is so upset about, especially since we don't know how it'll look once a game is selected.

 

[Country_Gravy]

The Steam image seems to be showing a Library screen in which no particular game is selected, which is a state that doesn't exist in the current version.

Well, the inspiration seems to be this current state:

Which is the worst of the three.

Should have had a game called Jack Shit.

 

[Dexter]

The new design officially revealed:

I'll be fabulously optimistic and say that it'll probably overall be an improvement over the current "Library" section, but then I've had a problem with the current Library section for a long while. With 1000+ titles it's basically unbrowsable and you have to create your own categories and collapse major ones like "Games" for it to be barely usable. Mostly if you're looking for a specific title under that many, the "Search" field would be useful. I already see a few things here that would seem useful, most of all the "Recent Games" bit, since often you just want to start up the last few games you've been playing again, and right now you have to go a-browsing for it. As it stands I actually use two categories, "Games to Play" and "Playing Now" or something for it to be somewhat useable and sortable.

It still has the list on the left, though. I'm not sure what MHC is so upset about, especially since we don't know how it'll look once a game is selected.

These other screens seem to indicate exactly that, for instance for "Counter Strike: Global Offensive", "Don't Starve Together" and "Slay The Spire":

I'm not sure I see this particular Screen design as a positive change. As it is now you see the title at the top, followed by your Playtime/Last Played/Muh Achievements featured prominently and a Recent News and Screenshots section:

I don't think I see their redesign as an improvement, it looks too cluttered with too much information. I'd bet most players couldn't give less of a shit about "Recent Events" for any particular game, nor particularly about the Recent "Activity" of their friends list, and I don't think bombarding people with "Workshop" and "Trading Card" items on this page is an improvement in any way. For some reason they seem to have also made Playtime and Muh Achievements less prominent than before.

This on the other hand looks like a positive change again, so far you had to use External Tools to be able to browse your own Library by Tags: https://www.lorenzostanco.com/lab/steam/

For instance say you're looking for a "Point & Click" Adventure or you're looking for a "Co-op" game to play with a friend, you had to either pre-sort your game Library into categories like "CoOp", "Multiplayer" or similar or you had to use above tools or External sites: https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php

That they already declared a base category called "VR", where they automatically added all VR-enabled titles was already a big improvement, I hope you can create entire categories from said Search results, so you can compose various more easily sortable Categories like "Adventures" (for "Point & Click" tag) or "RPGs" or "Turn-based" and similar.

Something else that should be much easier than it actually is, is browsing a list of all recently Played and/or Bought games, like a timeline to see what you've played last few months or year or to remember what you recently bought.