The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread

[Morenatsu.]

He must have misspoke, there's no way that isn't Antonov's style.

 

[Gandalf]

Ice gun footage is really cool in that document. Create ledges and walls to hide from the bulelts. Very creative. The blob enemy looked kind of weird.

 

[Zariusz]

https://www.half-life.com/en/halflife2/20th
HL2 anniversary update and 2 hour documentary

1:20:56
Lol apparently Gaben was able to do tuvan throat singing like some Mongol.

 

[ferratilis]

I always thought they were scumbags for trying to lure that German kid to come overseas, just to be nabbed by the FBI at the airport. But after watching this and learning that Gabe's livelihood was on the line, it kind of makes sense. Still a bitch move, just keep your network safe, nigga.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

I always thought they were scumbags for trying to lure that German kid to come overseas, just to be nabbed by the FBI at the airport. But after watching this and learning that Gabe's livelihood was on the line, it kind of makes sense. Still a bitch move, just keep your network safe, nigga.

Nah, the guy was career criminal and on top of that sounds like absolute douchebag in interviews, pure narcissist.

"It was soon after this that Gembe awoke to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun. He got dressed and headed downstairs, escorted by the armed policemen squeezed into the small hallways of his father's house. "Can I get something to eat before we leave?" asked Gembe. "No problem," said one of the policemen. Gembe reached for a kitchen knife to cut some bread. "Every policeman in the room raised his rifle at me," he says. After drinking a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette, Gembe climbed into the back of a van and was driven to the local police station."

And then everybody clapped.

 

[Necrensha]

This ain't good news...

 

[Morgoth]

Valve must address swastikas and other hate on Steam, writes US senator in a letter to Gabe Newell​

Improve moderation now, says politician, or face "intense scrutiny"


News by Brendan Caldwell Former Features Editor
Published on Nov. 18, 2024


A senator for the US government has urged Valve to answer complaints about the amount of racist, sexist and otherwise hateful posts and imagery shared by users on Steam. The digital store was the subject of a report by the Anti-Defamation League last week, which claimed to find millions of examples of "hateful or extremist" language and images hosted on Steam's community. These include things like Nazi symbols in profile pictures, white supremacist slogans in group names, and yet more discriminatory spew in user posts. The senator has noticed this report, and now writes directly to Gabe Newell, demanding that Valve "bring its content moderation practices in line with industry standards" or risk "intense scrutiny" from the government.

In the letter, Democrat senator Mark Warner argues that Valve's content moderation doesn't meet industry standards, and says he wants Valve to "crack down on the rampant proliferation of hate-based content".

The exact hateful stuff he's talking about was highlighted in that report by the Anti-Defamation League last week. Its many findings include swastikas in profile pictures, antisemitic images such as the "happy merchant", and instances of Pepe the frog, a meme appropriated by the far right that - let's be honest - has never washed the stink off. Steam is "inundated with hate" as a result of these findings, say the anti-discrimination group.

While the simmering bubbles of fascism won't be news to the average Steam user (or average internet user, to be frank) that doesn't mean we ought to get complacent about them. It's proof, says senator Warner, that Valve is lacking good moderation.

"Until now, Steam has largely not received its due attention as a de facto major social network where its users engage in many of the same activities expected of a social media platform,” said Warner. "It is reasonable to question how committed Valve is to effectively implement and enforce Valve’s own, self-created Conduct Policy for its users," said the senator.

It's true that Steam does have a conduct policy but (as the original report from the ADL notes) it's limited to things like unlawful behaviour, sexually explicit content, copyright violations, and threatening or abusive language. The ADL make clear their desires, saying they want Steam to adopt an explicit anti-extremist and anti-hate policy of some kind, and to enforce that policy properly.

"The wide breadth and sheer volume of hateful and antisemitic content on Steam is mind-boggling," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. "Steam’s parent company, Valve, needs to make significant changes in terms of policy and practice to address this shocking proliferation of hate."

The searching for hateful content was done using help from an AI tool called "HateVision", which scanned the groups and user profiles on Steam for specific hatestuff, including "39 key potentially extremist and antisemitic symbols". The ADL has written up a methodology for how the findings were compiled, if you like to read that sort of thing.

Meanwhile, the senator's letter claims that the US Senate has previously complained about this back in 2022, but says that Valve didn't respond adequately back then. According to Warner, the games company has continued with "a ‘hands off’-type approach to content moderation that favors allowing some users to engage in sustained bouts of disturbing and violent rhetoric..."

"As Black Friday and the holiday buying season approaches, the American public should know that not only is Steam an unsafe place for teens and young adults to purchase and play online games, but also that, absent a change in Valve’s approach to user moderation and the type of behavior that it welcomes on its platform, Steam is playing a clear role in allowing harmful ideologies to spread and take root among the next generation," says Warner.

His letter also includes a set of questions designed to hold Valve's feet to the fire about all this. He asks how many human content moderators work on the Steam community, for example. He also asks how many complaints Valve have received over the last ten years which fall under a breach of the conduct policy. And what the company intends to do over the next year to improve their moderation. He wants an answer by December 13th.

Gabe: "How much, Senator?"

 

[Ezekiel]

I don't know why Valve has not yet made the store viewable with your games list on the left side. I rarely go to the store. It's such an obvious improvement. No, I don't need to always see my hours played, achievements, the community hub, guides and which of my "friends" is playing the game. You can place the store over all that.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I don't know why Valve has not yet made the store viewable with your games list on the left side. I rarely go to the store. It's such an obvious improvement. No, I don't need to always see my hours played, achievements, the community hub, guides and which of my "friends" is playing the game. You can place the store over all that.

Quit trying to get a job at Valve. GabeN doesn't read the Codex. But he should.

 

[Just Locus]

 

[Rahdulan]

Good move, but I'll wait to see how it pans out. At some point Steam started enforcing "actual game screenshots only" which didn't stop newly announced games from still posting promo material, for example.

 

[Alienman]

Does that go for Half-Life 3 as well?

 

[PlayerEmers]

 

[Elttharion]

 

[ghardy]

You’ll never have to use the 2K Launcher for Steam games again

[Emphasis added]
As part of a growing trend among publishers, 2K Games has removed its launcher from “every game that used it” on Steam and Epic.

2K announced the change on a support page last month, and the launcher was removed on November 18. An update was pushed out on Monday to ensure it’s gone, so if you want to hop into a 2K game on Steam or Epic, you’ll no longer have to deal with the extra step of going through a launcher.

There are a couple of exceptions. Players will still have the option to launch XCOM 2 from a launcher on account of mod support. According to a support page, there will be four ways to get into the game, including two versions of the mod launcher. If players want to hop into Mafia: Definitive Edition Trilogy, they’ll have to disable the launcher first. This change also won’t apply to any of the Grand Theft Auto games, as Rockstar has its own launcher. Civilization VI had its launcher removed on Steam earlier this year, but now the change applies to Epic players.

Otherwise, you can just boot up a 2K game — Bioshock Remastered, Bioshock 2 Remastered, Bioshock Infinite, The Quarry, and Marvel’s Midnight Suns — and play it immediately. Game saves shouldn’t be affected either, so you can pick up where you left off. All you have to do is restart Steam or Epic to apply the most recent update.

Video game players have often criticized major studios for using launchers for their games. While they can be used for cloud saves, updates, and account syncing, many players find them to be a nuisance, whether they have to wait for an extra step to start a game, have to log into an account to just open the game at all, encounter extra bugs, or run into compatibility issues with devices like the Steam Deck. Launchers can often take up extra PC bandwidth, which poses a problem for players with limited processing power to begin with.

While there hasn’t been a mass exodus of PC launchers just yet, some major publishers are pulling back on the idea. EA announced that Dragon Age: The Veilguard wouldn’t launch through EA Play when it released on Steam, while Ubisoft is now releasing games on Steam day one instead of through the Ubisoft Connect launcher platform.

 

[PlayerEmers]

Steam machines 2? Steam "console"?

 

[Caim]

Steam turns PCs into consoles and Microsoft turns Xboxes into PCs.

Mayhaps they can work together.

 

[Konjad]

 

[Alienman]

Konjad I used your Dungeon Siege guide to install the Ultima games. It was good

 

[markec]

 

[Caim]

Like I said: Valve is turning to (handheld) consoles and Xbox is turning to PCs, so maybe they can learn from one another.

 

[Infinitron]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/593110/view/4696782040345941641

New Settings for Game Updates - In Beta
New options give you more control over how Steam delivers updates to your games

Today's Steam Client Beta update includes a few improvements that give you more control over when Steam will download updates for your installed games.

When downloading game updates, Steam continues to try to strike a balance between keeping your games ready to play and efficiently using your bandwidth. For games you recently played, Steam will download game updates shortly after they are released. For games that you haven't played in a while, Steam might wait a few days to bundle multiple updates together or choose to download the update while you are asleep.

While this default behavior works in most cases, there are times when you need more control of when updates are applied. Some users might want to delay updating a 200GB game until they are ready to play it again in a few months, especially if they are on metered connections or have monthly bandwidth caps. For others who play the same game every night, they might want updates downloaded as soon as they are available.

What's new?​

We've added a new section to control the default behavior for when game updates are applied, under "Downloads" in the Steam Client settings. You can set the default to: let Steam decide when to update the game (based on factors like when you last played the game, bandwidth availability, etc.) or wait to update until the game is launched.

To set specific game overrides, go to Library > Game> Game Properties (the gear icon). The options remain the same, with cleaned up descriptions.

To see which games have specific overrides, head back to the Steam Client "Downloads" settings and click "Manage Exceptions".

Looking for even more control?​

These new settings join a robust set of existing download options that can be found under "Downloads" in the Steam Client settings. Head there to limit your download speed, pause downloads while you play or stream a game, and more. If there is a setting you would like to see and can't find, please let us know!.

Learn how to opt into the Steam Client Beta to help test new features like these.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

you late 1 week with that info kek.

 

[ferratilis]

you late 1 week with that info kek.

He always is. Carrier pigeons in WW1 used to bring news from the front faster than Infinitron can copy/paste from another browser tab.

 

[mediocrepoet]

you late 1 week with that info kek.

He always is. Carrier pigeons in WW1 used to bring news from the front faster than Infinitron can copy/paste from another browser tab.

You guys could post updates.