Improvements for Steam

[Quirkymeister]

Hello,
Now we all love Valve's products, and we all love ludicrously cheap games, but I think we can admit that Steam is far from perfect, even if I'm probably going to wind up spending a lot of money during its current Steam Sale.
So, if you were Gabe Newell for the day, what changes would you make to Steam?

I, personally, would change the stated currency to whatever the local region is. I use Australian dollars, see, but the store shows everything in US dollars, so I have to sort of mentally consider how much money I'm ACTUALLY spending vs what it says I am. Not to mention that means that buying a $50 Steam Wallet top-up from EB games actually costs $63 Australian as a result, which is needlessly annoying, and such an issue wouldn't be difficult to fix.

Another might be showing how large the download of a game is before I buy it; I don't have the largest download cap, and if the game's gunna be huge, then I would like to know first without having to google steam forums to find out, because I wouldn't mind going out and getting a physical copy if the game is too big.

Anyway, what are your gripes about everyone's favourite digital distribution service?
-Quirky

 

[Aerosteam]

When I add funds to my wallet, everything in my basket disappears and I have to add all the games to it again.

If that didn't happen that would be lovely.

 

[Mutant1988]

Search exception functionality would be nice. If I could remove "Tower Defense" and "Free to Play" from every search I made on the store, I would be a much happier person for it.

That and maybe insisting that publishers and developers don't deceive customers during sales by increasing the standard prices beforehand.

 

[Politrukk]

Early access is shite and the fact that when I actually do get a refund the transaction takes them a week is kind of bad.

Proper tagging of games would be good.

If a game is genuinely considered broken and has a very vengeful playerbase, allow petitions to remove the game from the steam store (including possible refunds), Valve can claim legal action afterwards if they so please.

 

[freaper]

Seeing more original IP's from Valve would be great.

Barring that, more and better policing of the greenlight section would go a long way in elevating the quality of games on Steam.

 

[OneCatch]

1) Conclusively kill the whole Paid Mods thing. Just rule it out entirely.

2) Allow you to rename the title of games in your library. It gets especially annoying when a longstanding series like Tomb Raider or Hitman has about 5 different naming conventions, meaning that they're incorrectly ordered or all over the place.
Or alternatively just allow games to be re-ordered via drag and drop.

3) More control over privacy. For example I'd like people to be able to see my profile without knowing exactly how many hours I've played and when. I tend to alt-tab out of games to do other stuff which means some of my 'Steam Hours Played' are both embarrassingly high and completely wrong. (If anyone is aware that such customisation is already possible, please let me know!!)

4)When I add something to my basket, don't go to the checkout/basket page. Just leave me on the page I was on, and I'll navigate to the checkout when I'm done.

 

[Vigormortis]

Well, beyond a few nitpicky grievances with the Storefront, Library, and Client window, I have only one major gripe[footnote]Down from two, now that refunds are automatic.[/footnote]...

Valve, please, for the love of all things good and just in this world, FIX YOUR FUCKING STEAMWEBHELPER.EXE!!!!

It's buggy, broken, routinely opens at least half a dozen instances of itself (and fails to close any superfluous copies), and occasionally causes a memory leak.

It is in dire need of a re-code.

 

[megaflash]

With the ability to share your library with someone, I'd like to be able to only share 1 or 2 games at a time, instead of all 70+ at once.

It's not a major thing, but something I think would encourage more library sharing.

-On a side, what about doing what Origin and a couple other sites do, and give limited amount of hours for games you don't own?

 

[TristanBelmont]

"Connection time out
See Steam Suppourt forums for details"

Then you go there and can't find any suppourt for it.
Turns out all you have to do is keep retrying.
Over. And over. And over again. Because Valve refuses to fix their shit.

 

[Souplex]

A physical location I can go to, browse cheap used games, shoot the shit, and then grab a panini for lunch next-door.
I call it "Ice"!

 

[Ogami]

Hello,

I, personally, would change the stated currency to whatever the local region is. I use Australian dollars, see, but the store shows everything in US dollars, so I have to sort of mentally consider how much money I'm ACTUALLY spending vs what it says I am. Not to mention that means that buying a $50 Steam Wallet top-up from EB games actually costs $63 Australian as a result, which is needlessly annoying, and such an issue wouldn't be difficult to fix.

Another might be showing how large the download of a game is before I buy it; I don't have the largest download cap, and if the game's gunna be huge, then I would like to know first without having to google steam forums to find out, because I wouldn't mind going out and getting a physical copy if the game is too big.

-Quirky

1. Strange, here in Europe every country gets their price in Euro but they are all different depending on where you live.
So here in germany i see other euro prices as someone who lives in Greece for example.
Strange that they dont display games in Australian dollars over there.

2. Well, thats pretty much already there isnt it? If you look at the System Requirements, the last point is always "needs XX GB on HDD". Yes, sometimes the downloads are smaller then the final install but you still get a good orientation point that way.




What i would like to change about STEAM, hmm the Store is pretty much Nr 1 on my list. Still a terrible design, confusing and not very comfortable to navigate.
Also the forum moderation is really inconsistent. Some people can swear and insult others nonstop and never get a even a warning, others get suspensions for the smallest of infrictions (like calling someone "dumb"). They should really streamline that process.

 

[CrystalShadow]

Hello,

I, personally, would change the stated currency to whatever the local region is. I use Australian dollars, see, but the store shows everything in US dollars, so I have to sort of mentally consider how much money I'm ACTUALLY spending vs what it says I am. Not to mention that means that buying a $50 Steam Wallet top-up from EB games actually costs $63 Australian as a result, which is needlessly annoying, and such an issue wouldn't be difficult to fix.

Another might be showing how large the download of a game is before I buy it; I don't have the largest download cap, and if the game's gunna be huge, then I would like to know first without having to google steam forums to find out, because I wouldn't mind going out and getting a physical copy if the game is too big.

-Quirky

1. Strange, here in Europe every country gets their price in Euro but they are all different depending on where you live.
So here in germany i see other euro prices as someone who lives in Greece for example.
Strange that they dont display games in Australian dollars over there.

2. Well, thats pretty much already there isnt it? If you look at the System Requirements, the last point is always "needs XX GB on HDD". Yes, sometimes the downloads are smaller then the final install but you still get a good orientation point that way.




What i would like to change about STEAM, hmm the Store is pretty much Nr 1 on my list. Still a terrible design, confusing and not very comfortable to navigate.
Also the forum moderation is really inconsistent. Some people can swear and insult others nonstop and never get a even a warning, others get suspensions for the smallest of infrictions (like calling someone "dumb"). They should really streamline that process.

Hmmm. I remember in england the prices were in pounds. Then I moved, things got weird for a bit (currency kept changing). Then it was in Australian dollars, now it's in US dollars.

That's especially unhelpful, because, well... Both are 'dollars' >_<
So it's easy to be fooled by it.

 

[Quirkymeister]

Hello,

I, personally, would change the stated currency to whatever the local region is. I use Australian dollars, see, but the store shows everything in US dollars, so I have to sort of mentally consider how much money I'm ACTUALLY spending vs what it says I am. Not to mention that means that buying a $50 Steam Wallet top-up from EB games actually costs $63 Australian as a result, which is needlessly annoying, and such an issue wouldn't be difficult to fix.

Another might be showing how large the download of a game is before I buy it; I don't have the largest download cap, and if the game's gunna be huge, then I would like to know first without having to google steam forums to find out, because I wouldn't mind going out and getting a physical copy if the game is too big.

-Quirky

1. Strange, here in Europe every country gets their price in Euro but they are all different depending on where you live.
So here in germany i see other euro prices as someone who lives in Greece for example.
Strange that they dont display games in Australian dollars over there.

2. Well, thats pretty much already there isnt it? If you look at the System Requirements, the last point is always "needs XX GB on HDD". Yes, sometimes the downloads are smaller then the final install but you still get a good orientation point that way.




What i would like to change about STEAM, hmm the Store is pretty much Nr 1 on my list. Still a terrible design, confusing and not very comfortable to navigate.
Also the forum moderation is really inconsistent. Some people can swear and insult others nonstop and never get a even a warning, others get suspensions for the smallest of infrictions (like calling someone "dumb"). They should really streamline that process.

For the currency thing, did it change to euros automatically based on your region? Or did you need to go into your account or store settings and tell the store that you were in Germany? Because my steam catalogue's definitely in USD.

 

[bliebblob]

1) The ability to filter games by system requirement in the store.
Mostly for auto-ignoring games you can't run anyway of course, but it might also be handy to for example check what new venues would open up with this or that hardware upgrade.

2) Ways to earn trade cards and the other nick-nacks by playing the corresponding games rather than the market.
From what I can tell the system exists solely to sell more games and collect transaction fees. Fair enough I suppose, they're a store after all. But what it doesn't promote in the least is actually playing games, leading to these poignant scenarios where I've played my favourite games for sometimes over 1000 hours and am no closer to unlocking even an emoticon than I was after the first hour. Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying I have some kind of right to those doodads now, but what I am saying is that Uplay of all places does work this way and it's a lot more fun if you ask me.

3) More help on what exactly being below recommended specs but above minimum is going to mean.
This is more a comment on the industry in general, but since steam pretty much is the PC market... In the past this wasn't such an issue since you could just try the demo, borrow it from a friend, or rent it. With all three of those going the way of the dodo an alternative would be welcome.

 

[kris40k]

Make Big Picture mode touchscreen friendly. It seems like it should be with its design, but nope.

 

[Snotnarok]

Besides Big Picture mode being a bit wonky, I have no complaints about Steam, I'm not saying it's perfect but back in MY day when you wanted an update you'd have to check the dev website, download it, install it, if a game didn't work? Good luck! Or if you wanted to play a game with a friend? Bring up AIM or use a phone and call up voice chat? Well I never did that but eh.

Okay, okay I thought of something, pub/devs cannot force their DRM on steam, you can register it and use it on Origin/Uplay if you want but you don't have to boot Uplay for Ubisoft games. It's freaking stupid, I don't need 6 DRM checks and 2 clients to update to play 1 freakin' game. :|

 

[ryan_cs]

I, personally, would change the stated currency to whatever the local region is. I use Australian dollars, see, but the store shows everything in US dollars, so I have to sort of mentally consider how much money I'm ACTUALLY spending vs what it says I am. Not to mention that means that buying a $50 Steam Wallet top-up from EB games actually costs $63 Australian as a result, which is needlessly annoying, and such an issue wouldn't be difficult to fix.

I changed mine from Canadian dollars to the local currency manually a few days ago, you just have to change the store region (it should automatically detect it) and then purchase something, or you could contact Steam support.

Edit: I just went and looked at the price of a game at Steamdb and there's no Australian dollars listed, so this method might not work.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

Put Horror into the list of genres. I would also like to be able to filter my library by genre and tag.