Some steam gripes

[Tyranicus]

First let me start by saying I think Steam is an excellent platform for PC and I own many games on Steam. Now then, over the course of the last few months i've been notice thing on Steam in general that have been driving me nuts...

1.Early Access games

Steam is a great place to get your project notice by the general pc gaming community. Greenlight is a great idea, But I'm seeing more and more early access games on the front page. Why all of a sudden does Valve seem to be pushing these "tech demos" more and more. Most are still in alpha. Some great games have come out of the early access process but alot these games the updates are few and far between. I know some of these games are being developed by a 1 or 2 man team, but Valve needs to set update time frames. Say if you have 1-3 people you should have your game update 3 times a month minimum, So the more people the more updates should be posted, so on and so forth.

2.The Forums
The forums that Steam provides for the games are nothing short of toxic. People bitchin about early access prices, people bitchin bout how this game doesnt live up to their ungodly standards, and people just trollin the shit out of the devs(who are taking their time to check the forums and respond questions and whatnot.) Are there any moderators who check these forums. Cause this shit happens day 1 of any game that just hit Steam. Early access or not.

Those are my 2 biggest complaints. I just wanted to say my peace and I await your thoughts, judgments, and comments escapist community.

 

[Terraniux]

I don't know anything about Steam Early Access, so I can't comment on that.

As for the forums... well, they seem to be rather lightly moderated. They do have moderators, as evidenced by the numerous closed trading threads I've seen, but outside of that, it doesn't seem like they close very many of the other ones.
I do agree that they constant stream of whining is ridiculous, but that's less a problem with Steam and more a problem with gamers and their expectations. Some complaints are legitimate--I visit the Chivalry forums frequently, and it seems a lot of threads are dedicated to complaining about balance or lag issues, which the game does have. Mostly the lag. Others, not so much, like the threads about how feinting is the most evil thing ever invented, and anyone who does it is a total scumbag piece of trash.
The problem is that these topics never seem to stay in one thread. Multiple threads about the exact same topic will be made, and since the Steam moderators are nowhere near as vigilant as our own handsome, intelligent, wonderful mods, it gets out of hand and looks much worse than it actually may be.

 

[synobal]

Huh usually I find the forums to be pretty helpful, as far as the early access stuff I dunno.

 

[Juste Goose]

The only time I go on the forums is when Google sends me there when one of my games won't launch.

I will chime in that "early access" thing is kind of strange. It'd be like going to a restaurant, having the waiter give you a head of lettuce, promising the chef will come out and check on it from time-to-time, and charging you for a salad.

That said, I did buy Minecraft when it was in alpha, so I guess I'd be a hypocrite if I said it was stupid to buy games early. I just don't want it to become the go-to way for developers to charge full price for a half finished game.

 

[JediMB]

Early Access games are Steam's response to successes like Minecraft and the Kickstarter platform, obviously.

I don't think Steam should be regulating update schedules or anything like that for the indie developers who go that route, but rather that we consumers have to think carefully about if we want to pay for an unfinished product. Is the idea good enough that you want to support it before it's done? What is the track record of the developers? How often have they updated the game so far?

I don't hit the forums very often, so my comments on those wouldn't matter much. The games for which I have looked up the forums have usually had pretty positive communities.

 

[loc978]

Regulating early access updates strikes me as a bad idea. All updates are not created equal. Under your system, Kerbal Space Program would have been axed before the truly massive 0.22 update hit, easily doubling the already released content. Not every developer can drip-feed.
I think that game alone is a great argument for the success of their early access system.

...only steam forum I've ever used was the linux beta section, to report UI bugs... so I've never seen this toxicity you speak of.

 

[Gennadios]

The only early access purchase I've been burned by is War for the Overworld, a Dungeon Keeper clone that 6 months later doesn't have any playable levels, incomplete monster animations, and about 6 rooms.

But then I also bought the sandbox neo-samurai game Kenshi and am 120 hours into that...

I'd say it's definitely a buyer beware subset of Steam and they really shouldn't be advertising early access games on the same page as finished products.

Valve should instead set some minimum standards for playability before even allowing a game on early access, but they don't even playtest their finished products, it's too much to ask.

 

[Vivi22]

I don't see any reason why Steam shouldn't offer early access, nor any reason why they should impose update schedules on the developer. Valve aren't their publisher or their babysitters. Same goes for the consumers as well. If someone pays for early access it is prominently displayed that the games are unfinished and you take the risks that go along with paying for something that's unfinished.