Gamers Add Tags to Protest Ubisoft on Steam (Future of Steam Tags?)

[Something Amyss]

If you go to FarCry 4 or AC: Unity's Steam pages, you'll see a bunch of custom user tags. You'll see ones like "Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

That's really all there is to the story: people are unhappy with Ubisoft's practices and making it known.

I'm curious what people think about two elements of this:

1. Do you think it's a good thing people are doing this?

2. Do you think Steam Tags are going to end up being moderated or in some other way controlled after this?

My own answers:

1. I'm on the side that people should be using things to describe a game to the effect of describing their gripes. On the other hand, I can't help but wonder how other such tags would be received.

2. I'm surprised Steam Tags have been this open for this long. I do expect some sort of revision from Valve in the future, possibly spawned by this incident or similar.

But that's just me. I'm sort of curious as to what people think. And also a little curious as to how this plays out.

 

[Zhukov]

Eh, I hadn't even noticed. I had to open up Steam and have a look just to see what you were referring to.

Seems harmless enough. And potentially funny.

 

[shrekfan246]

The Steam tags were already moderated in something of a large swathe shortly after being implemented for the first time.

They even got rid of "Nanomachines, son", which is only the most relevant tag a game like Metal Gear Rising could ever have.

Frankly, I'm surprised new ones managed to pop up again in the first place. I stopped paying attention to them a few months ago, though, and I expect this new influx of non-standard tags will be suppressed in short order under the iron gauntlet of Valve and Steam. They can't curate their store-front, but you can be damn well sure they won't let you tag games with useful or humorous information.

 

[Asita]

Frankly, I find them annoyingly untrustworthy. "Glorious" tells me nothing about Half-Life 2 outside of the fact that somebody apparently liked it. No, users, Assassin's Creed III is not a sandbox title, and "Where is Charles Lee" is neither clever nor informative. And as amusing as it is for those familiar with the title to hear Team Fortress 2 referred to as a "Hat Simulator" that is NOT helpful for people looking at the title for the first time, nor is it something that anyone in their right mind would do a search string for. Nor are "Shepherd." and "Wrex." helpful tags for Mass Effect. And for all that there is some mechanical similarity between Darksiders and Ocarina of Time, it is not a "Zelda" title, nor is it a puzzle game.

Point being that user immaturity had long since compromised the potential benefit of user-defined tags and Steam would probably do well to drop the system.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

If a game requires an extra layer of DRM on top of steam, that should 100% be tagged. (We should also be able to filter out tags.) The other tags ya they don't fit.

 

[Windcaler]

I hadnt noticed myself but awhile back steam already took off a ton of tags. Many of them useful. For example Mighty quest for epic loot used to have the "Uplay required" tag. However steam took that off without any real input as to why. That particular tag was important because Uplay being required is a black mark for some consumers.

Many other tags were removed from many other games so I suspect this will happen again.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Don't seem like digs against the company, those are all legit problems with their shit, along with a key piece of information about the DRM that you would otherwise only spot at the very bottom of the page in grey text.

But the top user tags that I get on FC4 is "DLC","Pixel Graphics","Kawaii","Casual","peasantry"... now that shit is actually not helpful. And it is why I maintain user tags will remain a meme spam fest until properly implemented, not of much use until then.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

If you go to FarCry 4 or AC: Unity's Steam pages, you'll see a bunch of custom user tags. You'll see ones like "Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

That's really all there is to the story: people are unhappy with Ubisoft's practices and making it known.

I'm curious what people think about two elements of this:

1. Do you think it's a good thing people are doing this?

2. Do you think Steam Tags are going to end up being moderated or in some other way controlled after this?

1: Yes, especially the Uplay required tag for Ubisoft games.

2: The tags are moderated, but by the Devs and not by Valve.

 

[Emanuele Ciriachi]

Ride to Hell: Retribution tags include "Horror", "Comedy" and "Story Rich"

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Many tags for random games are very out of place. But, I think a lot of scathing tags for Far Cry 4 and AC: Unity are pretty accurate. Ubi has punched out poor PC ports and hasn't been nice to PC gamers for the past few years. These tags are a good way to protest those problems. (Whether or not Ubi listens depends on if they start thinking less about the non-existant 90% piracy rates and more about the quality of their games and the lack of quality of making us load uplay to play a game bought on Steam.)

 

[Doom972]

Depends of the tags. For example, knowing that a game requires Uplay is very important. I stopped buying Ubisoft games because of that (I'm glad South Park doesn't use it). "Remember Watchdogs" isn't that useful.

 

[Strazdas]

I think that "Uplay required" is a legitimate tag that should be official on store page.

Also if you browse games by tags, pixel graphics got all 3 latest ubisoft blunders in it.


Btw, this was organized by /r/PCMasterrace 3 days ago.

and it sure beats "kawaii" tag. unless you are from Japan.

 

[K-lusive]

"Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

Of these, only "UPlay Required" is useful. Steam should make that particular one (as wel as 'Origin required' or 'GFWL required' a standard tag for these kinds of games.
Tags that don't describe the game, no matter how witty, don't belong with the tags. Perhaps a comment/user-review section would be a good place for posting what kind of simulator you believe the game to be.

 

[L. Declis]

I love Ubisoft's games, and I think the tags should stay because they're potentially funny and the point of adding user tags is for user feedback.

And MGRising totally needs "Nanomachines, son" because that's both funny and accurate, and would probably make me more likely to buy it (if I hadn't already bought it on PS3)

 

[LobsterFeng]

The tag system is an even bigger joke than the review system. The ones that get the most attention are just people trying to be funny. I admittedly do like the idea of telling people that you need an additional service to run a game, I don't think that's out of line at all.

 

[Barbas]

If you go to FarCry 4 or AC: Unity's Steam pages, you'll see a bunch of custom user tags. You'll see ones like "Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

That's really all there is to the story: people are unhappy with Ubisoft's practices and making it known.

I'm curious what people think about two elements of this:

1. Do you think it's a good thing people are doing this?

2. Do you think Steam Tags are going to end up being moderated or in some other way controlled after this?

1: Yes, especially the Uplay required tag for Ubisoft games.

2: The tags are moderated, but by the Devs and not by Valve.

I'd agree with the tag in #1. #2 is some shitty news, though.

Sure, they get abused, but there should just be a check-box to have them disabled when you're searching for games. Most of them are pretty funny and provide user feedback that a lot of developers evidently need to be listening to.

EDIT: Surprised to see them back. I think they might go again about as quickly as they came.

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

steam tags are already moderated

you shoulve seen it when they first unveiled the system, i laughed the entire afternoon, it was glorious

i particulared liked the "diva dev" tag on FEZ

these kind of incidents while hilarious i shouldnt be, criticism isnt the purpose of steam tags, if you dont like a game, write a steam review about it

http://steamcommunity.com/id/nuclearkangaroo/recommended/220780/

 

[NuclearKangaroo]

If you go to FarCry 4 or AC: Unity's Steam pages, you'll see a bunch of custom user tags. You'll see ones like "Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

That's really all there is to the story: people are unhappy with Ubisoft's practices and making it known.

I'm curious what people think about two elements of this:

1. Do you think it's a good thing people are doing this?

2. Do you think Steam Tags are going to end up being moderated or in some other way controlled after this?

1: Yes, especially the Uplay required tag for Ubisoft games.

2: The tags are moderated, but by the Devs and not by Valve.

i thought the moderation was crowdsourced, i mean i can report tags and shit like that

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

If you go to FarCry 4 or AC: Unity's Steam pages, you'll see a bunch of custom user tags. You'll see ones like "Don't Preorder," "Remember watchdogs," and "Uplay required," along with some amusing ones (ACU has a tag that says "Walking Simulator").

That's really all there is to the story: people are unhappy with Ubisoft's practices and making it known.

I'm curious what people think about two elements of this:

1. Do you think it's a good thing people are doing this?

2. Do you think Steam Tags are going to end up being moderated or in some other way controlled after this?

1: Yes, especially the Uplay required tag for Ubisoft games.

2: The tags are moderated, but by the Devs and not by Valve.

i thought the moderation was crowdsourced, i mean i can report tags and shit like that

Its both crowdsourced and Dev moderated, otherwise actual helpful but otherwise negative tags like 'DRM' 'GFWL' and 'Uplay' would be active.