The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Peachcurl]

https://www.gamesradar.com/four-more-ubisoft-games-affected-by-delistings-on-steam/

"Only DLCs and online features will be affected by the upcoming decommissioning," Ubisoft elaborates. "Current owners of those games will still be able to access, play or redownload them. Our teams are working with our partners to update this information across all storefronts and are also assessing all available options for players who will be impacted when these games’ online services are decommissioned on September 1st, 2022."

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/group/35143931/view/5833861856894612379

Experiment 14: Discovery Queue Update
Making it even easier to discover games on Steam, from top-sellers to new titles

Today's new Steam Labs experiment launches an updated format for the Steam Discovery Queue, creating a more focused experience that makes it easier to explore the games that Steam recommends for you.

You can give the new queue experience a try right here, or you can always find it on the Steam Labs page.

Open The New Discovery Queue

What is the Steam Discovery Queue?
Originally launched in 2014, the Steam Discovery Queue gives players a way to step through a personalized set of recommended games one at a time. To date, 115 million players have used the Steam Discovery Queue, viewing a combined total of 18 billion game store pages.

What is new about this experiment?
Today's update makes it easier to see key details about each game, and to flip through a queue of games faster than before.

Here are the highlights from this update:

• Launch into the queue without leaving the page you are on
• Simplified presentation of key details about each game to give you a taste of what that game is about
• See why each game is being recommended specifically to you; maybe it's because you have friends who play it, or it's similar to other games you play, for example
• Add a game to your wishlist with the click of a button or view the game's full store page for a more in-depth view
• Ignore games that just aren't your jam. We'll make sure to hide them in the future.

This update brings a whole new presentation to the discovery queue, but we're not done yet. We're launching it in Steam Labs because we'd like your feedback to help shape this new format and the features it includes.

A couple of things still under way that we plan to roll out in the future:

• Coming soon... new queue display on the Steam homepage
• Coming soon... launch the new queue from any store page
• Coming soon... optimized for all screen sizes from desktop to mobile to tablet
• Coming soon... full support for gamepad UI on Steam Deck

Why now?
We've been working on updating various areas of Steam to work better across a growing range of devices including desktop, mobile, tablets, and now Steam Deck. For the Discovery Queue, we found that we needed a new approach to how it works so that it can be more easily navigated on a variety of devices and to make for a better experience overall.


About Steam Labs
Every year, we create new experiments around discoverability, video, machine learning, and more. You know who we thought might enjoy seeing them? Everyone.

With Steam Labs experiments, you can try, share, and break potential new features, while we figure out what to keep and what to scrap. Share your feedback with the developers and designers working on these features and help shape the future of Steam.

Check out all experiments on the Steam Labs page or drop us some feedback in the Steam Labs discussion boards

 

[somerandomdude]

I don't bother buying games directly from steam anymore, and buy keys off 3rd party websites and activate them on steam, because Valve doesn't get 1 cent from the transaction. Steam moderators are a bunch of pedophile scum, and I'd say that likely extends all the way up into Valve's upper management. They're a bunch of woke faggots based outside of Seattle. Valve can go to hell along with Facebook, Twitter, and all the other hyper woke tech companies.

 

[somerandomdude]

I finally decided to pull the plug on steam, and it's something I've considered doing for years now, so this wasn't a spontaneous/rash decision, but a well considered one. There's basically nothing in my library that I'd even care about replaying, it's all stuff that's one-and-done games.

 

[somerandomdude]

Anyone here who's "based" who has posted on steam already knows what the deal is, so it shouldn't need to be explained, but is for the browsing woke retards where I channel my inner Vatnik + Wumao.

(This is from way back in April)

Political discussions aren't supposed to be allowed, but it's OK to criticize woke politically approved groups without moderation, but the moment you challenge their bullshit, it's "inappropriate" and censored. The moderation on Steam is at least as bad as facebook, twitter, gamefaqs, youtube.

And this isn't just one case, I literally got dozens and dozens of examples of stuff like this. At first I was like fuck it, I don't care, I'll just stop buying stuff off the steam store, and get 3rd party keys (100% confirmed steam doesn't make a dime here), but eventually I started questioning whether I actually needed their services any longer. And maybe some of you should as well.

 

[Sentinel]

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/6232436041608114695

New Rules For Graphical Asset Capsules
What can and cannot be included on your graphical asset capsules in the Steam Store and Library
It's our goal to make it as clear and straightforward as possible for customers to find games to buy and play on Steam. Recently, we've noticed more text, award logos, and even review scores being included by game developers in their graphical asset images. This made us realize our guidelines haven't been as clear as they should be. As a result of not having clearly-defined rules, we've seen additions to graphical assets that are creating a confusing and sometimes even inaccurate experience for customers.

For example, some game logos themselves have become so small that it's hard for players to tell what the name of the game is. In other cases, graphical asset images are so cluttered with award logos and ratings that it is distracting and hard to read. Some capsules include review scores that are no longer accurate. We also see that in most cases this additional text on assets is presented in English language only, isolating much of the Steam audience that doesn't speak English.

We understand that developers want to communicate with their players about the quality of their games, and Steam already has spaces on game store pages to present most of this information. Press review quotes, press review scores, and special awards each have dedicated spaces on Steam store pages where it can be presented consistently and where customers can expect to find that information. You can check out our Store Page Accolades documentation for details.

We want to make sure our guidelines are as clear as possible for what should and shouldn't be presented on graphical assets, so today we're clarifying some existing rules and
adding some new rules that will go into effect Sept 1
. The complete rules can be found on our official Graphical Asset Rules page.

We've also included a copy of the rules here for your convenience:

Store Graphical Asset Rules
NEW!
Store graphical assets are the banner images (called 'Capsules' in Steamworks) that represent your game throughout the store. You can find detailed specifications and templates in our Store Graphical Assets documentation.

1. Content on base graphical asset capsules on Steam is limited to game artwork, the game name, and any official subtitle. For clarity, this means:
   1. No review scores
      of any kind, including Steam reviews or external news sources
   2. No award names
      , symbols, or logos
   3. No discount marketing copy
      (eg. no "On Sale Now" or "Up to 90% off" text)
   4. No text or imagery promoting a different product
      . This includes no marketing of sequels or other titles in the same franchise.
   5. No other miscellaneous text
      .
2. We understand that partners are excited to talk about large updates and seasonal events, and customers are often excited to see these reflected in the game capsules. While this content is not allowed in base capsule assets (see rule #1 above), we do support this use case through Capsule Artwork Overrides with the following constraints:
   1. Must use Artwork Overrides
      - When including text on a graphical asset, this MUST be uploaded as an Artwork Override with a length limit of one month.
   2. Must localize any text
      - Any text included on a graphical asset MUST be localized into at least the same set of languages supported by the game.
   3. Only to describe new content
      - The only acceptable additional text on a game capsule is words describing a major update to the game content, a new seasonal event, battle pass, DLC, or similar new content for the game.

Library Graphical Asset Rules
Library graphical assets are the set of images that represent your game within the Steam library. These are comprised of a vertical capsule, a hero image and a logo. You can find detailed specifications and templates in our Library Assets documentation. Each of these assets has slightly different content and uses:

1. Library Capsule
   - this image must include your game logo. It can also include your game's subtitle if appropriate. No other text should be present on this capsule.
2. Library Hero
   - this image should only contain artwork. There should be no words at all in this asset.
3. Library Logo
   - this image is only your game's logo on a transparent background. There should be no other words in this asset.

General Graphical Asset Rules
In addition to the above specific rules, all capsules on Steam must adhere to these basic rules:

1. Capsule images must contain a readable product logo/name and have accurate dimensions.
2. All capsule images (store and library) must have PG-13 appropriate artwork.

Example
What is appropriate use of text on store capsules? Tastefully promoting your recent update or new content is okay on store capsules, as long as you use a Temporary Artwork Override to do so and localize the text into languages supported by your game. See rules above for details.

Rules Effective Sept. 1, 2022
As a reminder, these new rules go into effect September 1, 2022and we ask that all game developers review their graphical assets and make any changes to bring them inline with these new rules.

You can review your set of graphical assets by visiting 'edit store' for your game and click the 'graphical assets' tab. Note: check if you have any active Artwork Overrides, as you may need to update those as well.

Any game not adhering to these rules may have limits to visibility within the Steam store and will be ineligible for featuring in official Steam sales and events.

 

[Syl]

New Rules For Graphical Asset Capsules

Great news. I was becoming increasingly annoyed with these shit game logos.

I never stop to be amazed by Steam for "doing the right thing", quite rare for such a big company in the current times.

 

[Spectacle]

Someone had a lot of fun making these :D

 

[Ezekiel]

It's so irritating that Steam has no way to remember VPN locations, so that when you switch from your country to another, you don't have to enter your password again. I don't even know my password. Too many passwords to remember nowadays, so I usually open a password-protected zip archive and copy them. Most platforms and websites don't disable the automatic sign-in when you switch locations.

 

[pakoito]

It's so irritating that Steam has no way to remember VPN locations, so that when you switch from your country to another, you don't have to enter your password again. I don't even know my password. Too many passwords to remember nowadays, so I usually open a password-protected zip archive and copy them. Most platforms and websites don't disable the automatic sign-in when you switch locations.

Real grognards use a password manager

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It's so irritating that Steam has no way to remember VPN locations, so that when you switch from your country to another, you don't have to enter your password again. I don't even know my password. Too many passwords to remember nowadays, so I usually open a password-protected zip archive and copy them. Most platforms and websites don't disable the automatic sign-in when you switch locations.

highly recommend you start using a password manager, not even just for remembering your password but so you never use the same one more than once. You just need to remember your master password.
https://keepassxc.org/ is a great one
not using a password manager is dangerous to security, but so is using a cloud-based one like lastpass or whatever. You can keep your password file from keepassxc backed up on a cloud service because it's encrypted btw.

 

[Alienman]

I have a small book I write in.

 

[Ezekiel]

It's so irritating that Steam has no way to remember VPN locations, so that when you switch from your country to another, you don't have to enter your password again. I don't even know my password. Too many passwords to remember nowadays, so I usually open a password-protected zip archive and copy them. Most platforms and websites don't disable the automatic sign-in when you switch locations.

highly recommend you start using a password manager, not even just for remembering your password but so you never use the same one more than once. You just need to remember your master password.
https://keepassxc.org/ is a great one
not using a password manager is dangerous to security, but so is using a cloud-based one like lastpass or whatever. You can keep your password file from keepassxc backed up on a cloud service because it's encrypted btw.

How does keeppassxc work with programs like Steam? I only see a place for a URL. Do you have to figure out the system path to the right Steam file and put it in the URL place?

 

[rusty_shackleford]

It's so irritating that Steam has no way to remember VPN locations, so that when you switch from your country to another, you don't have to enter your password again. I don't even know my password. Too many passwords to remember nowadays, so I usually open a password-protected zip archive and copy them. Most platforms and websites don't disable the automatic sign-in when you switch locations.

highly recommend you start using a password manager, not even just for remembering your password but so you never use the same one more than once. You just need to remember your master password.
https://keepassxc.org/ is a great one
not using a password manager is dangerous to security, but so is using a cloud-based one like lastpass or whatever. You can keep your password file from keepassxc backed up on a cloud service because it's encrypted btw.

How does keeppassxc work with programs like Steam? I only see a place for a URL. Do you have to figure out the system path to the right Steam file and put it in the URL place?

you just copy the password to your clipboard

it does more than passwords btw, it supports 2FA authorization which includes steamguard: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads/how-to-setup-2fa-on-your-desktop.139952/
since the last part about steamguard in the post I've added it to my keepassxc and it works fine

 

[Rahdulan]

Steam will no longer prompt an install after you add a free game to your library. Now you can just... add it.

 

[J_C]

I finally decided to pull the plug on steam, and it's something I've considered doing for years now, so this wasn't a spontaneous/rash decision, but a well considered one. There's basically nothing in my library that I'd even care about replaying, it's all stuff that's one-and-done games.

Manners maketh man.

 

[Infinitron]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/3335498663100828299

New Steam Mobile App in beta now
Today we’re starting a limited beta of the updated Steam Mobile App. We’ve rebuilt the app on a new framework and modernized the design. (2015 called and wanted their app back.) You’ll still be able to browse the store, get Steam Guard codes, and confirm trades, but now the app comes with QR code sign in, smarter notifications, an improved Library, and multi account support.

Why are you doing a beta?
The sooner we get your feedback on a product, the better. So when we’re far enough along, we ask invested Steam users to try something out and provide feedback. This helps us test our assumptions, learn what you like and don’t like, and find things that need to be fixed. This is especially important when the app can be used on so many different phones and devices.

Who should join the beta?
You should join the beta if you already use the Steam Mobile App and you’re willing to provide your feedback on the update. Join this Steam group for instructions on how to install the update and how to tell us what you think. Per Apple guidelines: iOS participants will be limited to 10,000 and will need to install TestFlight.

What if I can’t join the beta?
If the beta slots are full, you can still join the group and chime in. We’d like to hear from you!

What’s coming next?
We’ll continue adding people to the beta and improving features until we’re ready to push the update out to everyone.

 

[Infinitron]

We have new art from Half-Life 2: Episode 3, Half-Life 3, Let 4 Dead 3, and Stars of Blood, recovered from Valve's offices when they were moving from the largest collector of Valve memorabilia.

More information on this find will be published as soon as possible. If you are interested, feel free to subscribe to the channel. Thanks.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/8824...velopment-devs-ramping-up-projects/index.html

Valve has 'a lot of games in development,' devs ramping up projects
Valve is still very much making video games, and currently has 'a lot of games in development,' and a good portion of its employees are working on them.

Valve recently confirmed a new Steam Deck is in development, and that the system is multi-generational hardware. But it's not giving up on games any time soon either.

Valve is an interesting jack of all trades. The company not only runs the most popular PC gaming platform on the market, but it has released multiple iterations of new hardware including the innovative (but failed) PC-console Steam Machine hybrid, the innovative Index VR headset, controllers, and the PC-handheld Steam Deck hybrid. It also released Half-Life Alyx, it's first new game in many years. But Alyx won't be its last game; new projects are currently in development.

In a recent interview with Famitsu, Valve's Greg Coomer confirms that more Half-Life games are on the way and that new mystery titles are currently in the works behind Valve's steamy corridors. "We're not stopping making games at all. Valve has a lot of games in development. We will continue to release games," Coomer said.

"Game development is very important to Valve. I don't know the exact numbers, but the percentage of employees involved in game development is high. A lot of people are involved."

Will the next game be Half-Life 3? No one knows for sure, but Valve isn't giving up on the franchise. Far from it.

"The short answer is yes, there's more to say about the Half-Life world. Alyx is a sign that Valve has more to say about the world."

Coomer also says he would "like to make another Portal someday" and that the world deserves "further exploration."

 

[Sentinel]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/3091162528094367313

Personalized Shopping With New Tag, Genre, and Category Pages
Explore every niche of the Steam store with powerful new Store Hubs

Today's Steam update brings big updates to the various tag, genre, category, and theme browsing pages across the Steam store. Previously released as a Steam Labs experiment, these new store hubs have been tested and iterated upon with player feedback over the past few months. In fact, you've probably already seen these new hubs in action, as we've made use of them during the Summer Sale or various official themed sales.

As the catalog of titles available on Steam continues to grow, we're working to make it easier for you to find your next favorite game. This update improving the ways you can browse genres, tags, or themes, allowing you to dive deep into each area and narrow down to exactly what you're looking for.

Here's a look at what's new:

New hubs for all categories, themes, genres, and tags
These new pages now make it easy to explore all kinds of different niches within Steam. Whether you are looking for a general category like "Multiplayer", a theme like "Space" or a very specific tag like "Action Roguelike", these new hubs let you explore deep into that category. For many categories, we've hand-built an organization to surface the relevant sub-categories within. For example, the RPG store hub is organized into Action RPGs, Adventure RPGs, JRPGs, and more, so you can drill down to exactly the kind of game you are looking for.


Each hub is personalized for you
The contents of each hub is personalized based on your play history, network of friends, followed developers, and what you have on your wishlist.

Each hub starts with big, detailed recommendations
The carousel at the top of the page will show you games recommended for you, along with helpful metadata about why that game might be relevant for you.


Tailored with carefully picked categories
Our broadest hubs offer tabs to quickly drill down by logical themes and sub-genres. Each one is hand-built to showcase the most logical sub-categories for each hub. For example, you can find your way to just the Open World RPGs and Controller-Friendly Casual Games. Or some hubs are broken down by subgenre, as on this Real-time tab of our Strategy hub and this Arcade section of the Sports & Racing hub.

New For You: Surfacing recommended new releases and new games from followed devs
Each hub will recommend games based on what you've been playing and the developers you follow on Steam. Of course if you are looking at a category of games that you've never played before, Steam may not be able to generate many useful recommendations for you and will hide those sections.


Filter, sort, and find exactly what you're looking for
These hubs each contain a powerful list view that lets you use the filter controls to narrow down to exactly the segment of games you are looking for. We call this feature 'Faceted Browsing' and it also began life as a Steam Labs experiment.

Find recently updated games and games with upcoming events
Every section of the Steam store is now lit up with current events from related titles. Catch a seasonal event, big update, or other interesting news directly from the developers.

Keep an eye on what's next
The new hubs end with a dedicated section showcasing upcoming releases. Pre-purchase or wishlist anticipated titles to be notified as soon as they're released.


Finding Hubs Is Easy
Click on an individual tag from any game's store page and you'll find the hub for that tag. You can also easily discover the most popular hubs, or the hubs recommended for you right from the Steam store homepage.

Your Recommended Hubs
We've also added a new way to jump right into one of your favorite categories right from this colorful carousel on the Steam homepage. This section will recommend categories based on the games you've recently been playing so you can explore more similar games. Or you can always scroll to find some other categories that you maybe haven't played in a while.


Explore Popular Hubs
You can access the most popular destinations by hitting the "Categories" drop-down at the top of the Steam store.


About Steam Labs
Launched in July 2019, Steam Labs is a place where experimental new features can be introduced early in development, tested, and developed in conjunction with the community. For more information, please visit https://store.steampowered.com/labs/

 

[ferratilis]

Am I blind or is it impossible to disable updates for specific games anymore? I swear it used to be possible to disable them on per-game basis. Now if you have a heavily modded game, and there's an update out of nowhere, you're basically fucked?

 

[Modron]

Valve did away with that years ago unfortunately, a few select games let you play older versions through enabling something like play beta options but yeah everyonce in a while an old game will get a patch out of the blue and you have to hope long absent modders come out of the woodwork to update their mods.

 

[Bad Sector]

Supposedly you can use the download_depot command from the Steam console (run Steam with the -console parameter to enable it) to download any depot for any game you own, including old ones (use steamdb to find the depot ids). This downloads the depot files in a separate folder that then you can run directly. Steam might try to update it on the spot but you can modify a vcf file to trick it thinking it is the latest so it will let you run it.

Sadly the process is kinda convoluted, especially if a game is made up by multiple depots. There is also a separate downloader that can do that in an easier way, though i never tried it myself.

 

[ferratilis]

Since Valve is a small company that doesn't have time to improve basic features, this guy did it for them:

 

[somerandomdude]

Am I blind or is it impossible to disable updates for specific games anymore? I swear it used to be possible to disable them on per-game basis. Now if you have a heavily modded game, and there's an update out of nowhere, you're basically fucked?

Better off just getting DRM free versions on GoG, updates aren't forced. If it's steam only, and you don't want any more updates, ever, just download crack for the game, and move the game folder outside of steam's folder. With a little bit of technical know-how, it's possible to modify the game yourself to circumvent steam, if it has no other DRM. There's guides on the internet that tell you how to do it.