Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[Column] General: Steam Plagued with Problems for RPG Gamers
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Sometimes, you just want a new game. You’ve made your way through your backlog or scrolled through and found nothing that strikes your fancy. So, you turn to Steam, hit that RPG button and hope to find the next undiscovered gem. Except, it almost never happens like that. You’re hit with a wall of DLC; a torrent of 16-bit nightmares; and then you notice that even the featured games are mostly hybrids or completely misplaced in the genre. With an ecosystem so big, why is Steam so bad?
Read more of Christopher Coke's The RPG Files: Steam Plagued with Problems for RPG Gamers.
)
Comments
Agreed. Valve's hands off policy is extremely detrimental for the customers. Going through my queue statistics on Steam, I have 12 games on my wishlist and 100+ that I've ignored. Of those ignored, maybe 10-15 I would consider polished games I am just not interested in, the rest look like "alpha stage cash grabs" that will never see any type of updating.
Boogie from youtube talks about this a number of times. I remember watching one vid of his where he discusses the mirroring between the video game crash in the 80's to what's happening currently. He placed a lot of the responsibility on the shoulders of Steam and their hands off approach to developers/publishers putting games up for sale on steam. Responsibility also lies with consumers actually purchasing crap games.
It's actually a very frustrating time to be a gamer. The vast majority of games are bland and unfinished, and the few gems we find are then copied by many others so we become flooded with virtually the same game. Then we also have to deal with the annual game releases which update the core gameplay itself very little and add about as much content as a DLC pack, but for the price of $60+premium access+DLC+Season Pass+now paid for modding, etc. It's all a huge money grab anymore with very little innovation anymore.
Every tags are used i don't see it as a problem really.MY thought it that Steam used to be a tad bit more restrictive but now MANY unfinished games are hitting the market.If you should around though,you will usually find a real bargain on a game maybe only 6 months-1 yr old.
I used to 100% despise what Steam stands for,they basically claim and hold rights to software YOU OWN,but you really don't own it,more like renting at near ownership costs.However over time i accept it and use it a lot,i guess since i pretty much only bug bargains,i won't feel a real hit if Steam ever tries to pull a fast one and go bankrupt under some government number,then starts up again under another business #.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
This a problem I've seen with Steam for a while. I go on, try to find a good RPG... And just can't. It's getting better with games like Pillar of Eternity and now the Witcher 3 coming out soon, but there really aren't many good RPGs on Steam.
I am with the author when it comes with 16-bit games. Most of the time they aren't even RPGs but rogues, which I don't enjoy, or 2D side-scrolling platform games, which I also don't like. I feel like developers are making way too many "nostalgia" based games lately. They're all well and good, but at a certain point you expect some progress and would like to see some RPGs that really can wow you, not just story wise, but graphically too.
Also, hopefully the eventual bloat that early access games has created will eventually go away when players realize that a lot of it is just trash, plain and simple.
Smile
I see Steam they way I see a distributor. They move product and make it easy to get it into my hands. I want steam to have a broad selection, even if I do not purchase a given item, I like having the option to.
Buyer Beware is the name of the game, and it always has been. If there are issues, you take it up with the developers/manufacturers, not the distributors unless it was a distribution error. Steam allows user reviews, thankfully, which will give you a better idea of what it is. This, combined with the developers having social media and websites, as well as the ability to get looks at it through Youtube mean that most folks have the opportunity to see what they're getting to a greater extent than ever before.
I am ticked about how much paid DLC, Season Pass, Premium Access, etc there is, but there's a way to fix that: Vote with your dollar. That's the one thing they understand, use it well.
I mean, wow. Pot calling the kettle black eh?
I don't particularly care that this site reviews all sorts of games, more power to you guys, but el oh el. The things that get called MMO's and even RPG's on this site is hilarious, but then you say that about Steam. Pardon me while I go die of laughter.
Exactly.
My first thought after reading the bulk of the article was... "I seriously cannot believe any editor in his right mind greenlit this article. Forget Steam's greenlight program."
As Rusque said, I don't mind you guys covering games other than MMORPGs. However, you, many times, fail to even make a distinction between an MMORPG and simply a multiplayer RPG. Yet you felt that writing a feature scolding Steam for including games that aren't strictly RPGs in its genre search was appropriate?
I've never taken any issue with an article posted on this site, but the amount of ignorance required to have posted this has me shedding some respect for those in charge of MMORPG.com's content.
An article on mmorpg.com whining about the RPG-sorting on steam is a mess..while of course this site's gameforums are 100% sorted and it's genre definitions are 100% clear... *cough*
I like Steam, but this article is spot on. Valve needs to overhaul the whole sorting system. I find going through the Greenlight section even worse. DLCs should only appear for you if you specifically search for them or have bought the base game they attach too, and have a special page just for DLCs. Same with "collections" or "special editions" sometimes I won't see those until I go to the game's store page and you can't put THOSE on your wishlist either, you have to put everything on your wishlist a la carte.
Also, they need more demo options for all games, including ones "in development". Just downloaded a few games to see if having them in my wishlist is worth it, being as I"ll spend money on them when a sale hits, and found that about 3/4 on my list aren't worth playing past one play session. I'll give 2 examples. Subnautica was one I thought might be good, but very glad I got a chance to "demo" it via other means. Immediately took it off my wishlist. Company of Heroes though, downloaded via other means and immediately after one play session bought it off of Steam as it's a great game, which led me to put all the rest of the series and some clones onto my wishlist as well. See how "demo" helps me decide what games I want and what ones I don't and won't feel guilty for purchasing? Already been burned by Civ: Starships and the Van Helsing games, not gonna do that anymore.
I rarely buy anything from steam when I can buy it from Greenmangaming for much less than download it from steam
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
you really need to run a article about how greedy steam is now and how they now allow mod makers to charge for mods to games as long as steam gets a cut in the profits. Pretty pathetic company that if I didnt own so many games on steam it would never ever be on any of my computers again.
Cause mod makers should just give away their creations for free....sounds cool to someone
"This may hurt a little, but it's something you'll get used to. Relax....."
Does this site sell games? No.
I agree.
Steam has degenerated over the years and has many sorting issues. The "everything is in the RPG category" complaint is valid and has been a pet-peeve of mine for quite a while and Valve has stubbornly resisted the requests by many users to provide advanced filter toggles to weed out items you don't want to see in your search like "early releases," DLC, etc.
It'd be so easy to write those filters that their refusal to provide them can't be anything but purposeful.
Every time I start Steam these days I feel like I'm looking at self-inflicted spamming.
And speaking of filtering... I sure hope the new mmorpg.com site at least makes an effort to categorize the games it covers. I don't have any problem with the range of games that are not mmorpgs covered by the site - I actually enjoy the variety - but there should be MOBA sections, single player RPG sections, etc., instead of just dumping everything into the same front page.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
modding has always been free and a avenue for older games to continue to have new life pumped into them when devs abandon them or move onto other projects. Valve is not in any way shape or form falling on hard times and needs to make money. This kinda crap just leads the way for people who mod and anyone who thinks they can mod to try and charge for things that should be free assets etc. Not to mention this company has time and time again proven to skirt the grey spots in the law over early assess and abandon ware EA games continuing to sell these abandoned titles and EA games knowing full well they are not getting updated or even into beta. Valve proves time and time again they will go to any lengths to make a buck regardless of who gets screwed in the end. Also lets face it whos going to stand up to them when they own 30 plus games in their library to go to war with them and lose all those games they paid for? Not many people and they control the market in this way. This company leads the way with unethical business practices almost daily and BADLY needs to get sued for it.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
There is enough search options and the steam plattform is also no review site. I rather keep this big diversity with lots of "shit" games (my opinion) than a plattforma that offers the same 5 tripple A titles like everyone elese. Without steam i would never have bought The Legend of Heroes:Trails in the Sky.
Review pages like this one are where you find out about games, steam offers the easy plattform to buy them