Suggest improvements for Steam.

[AmberSword]

Since Steam does hold a gargantuan and I dare say close to complete market share of its particular business, I just thought I'd create a thread where people get to voice their disappointment at Steam ignoring important feature updates, but in a constructive way.

The idea is simple, just suggest something Steam should improve upon. Try to be objective, you know what I mean, avoid things like "scrap pre-orders/ early access".

I'll start with one of the most obvious ones, better library management. Seriously, the Steam library is one of the most pain in the arse digital libraries to manage of all time, even traditional libraries have it better than Steam in some ways. Sure... you get to create your own categories/ folders, and search games by name or category, unfortunately, everything good I have to say for it ends there.

Not only do you have to sort your games out one by one, there's also a lack of a drag and drop function, meaning each time you want to change a game's category, you have to right click it, click select category, actually select the category you want, then only will it work. Are we living in caves? This is one of the most basic functions any digital library should provide, even in real libraries you can carry and sort as many books as your hands allow at the same time.

Games are only allowed one category, so forget about categorizing games by genre and by publisher at the same time, or adding a separate category for your favourite games while maintaining genre sorting. Categories are also in fixed alphabetical order, so if you do happen to like sorting games by publisher, then cringe as you are forced to scroll through "Activition" and "EA" before getting to "Favourites". Yes I do realize there are simple ways around this, I'm just trying badly to be funny while making a point.

That's all for me. I'm quite interested to see what you guys think.
Captcha: thinking cap (lol)

 

[nesbitto]

A much better refund system/policy. As much as I dislike EA and Origin, Origin's refund procedure is straightforward and it works. That copy of Mass Effect I bought that wouldn't work on my setup? No problem, here's your money back. Mirrors Edge that I finished in ~5 hours and thought it was a waste of my time? Have your money back. Only thing Origin has over Steam.

 

[Alfador_VII]

The most obvious change is to HAVE a refund policy. Currently Steam will only refund pre-orders, and that took many years to be implemented, and then on rare occasions you might get another refund.

When the reviled EA's much hated Origin has a better refund policy than you, you are doing something very wrong.

It's a shame you limited me to ONE change, as I can suggest several more, the simplest being a toggle to hide all early access games on the front page, like already exists for DLC (I'm not suggesting removing early acces, just giving the option not to have the page clogged up with it)

 

[AmberSword]

The most obvious change is to HAVE a refund policy. Currently Steam will only refund pre-orders, and that took many years to be implemented, and then on rare occasions you might get another refund.

When the reviled EA's much hated Origin has a better refund policy than you, you are doing something very wrong.

It's a shame you limited me to ONE change, as I can suggest several more, the simplest being a toggle to hide all early access games on the front page, like already exists for DLC (I'm not suggesting removing early acces, just giving the option not to have the page clogged up with it)

Very true.

Alright I'll admit the one change part was pretty arbitrary, I figured people would probably ignore it anyway.

 

[Schadrach]

Simple one -- the ability to redeem product keys to steam inventory. I'd like to be able to cash in a product key, have it packaged in my inventory, and thus be able to gift/trade it using Steam. It would make things like the Steam key trading thread here much safer and easier.

 

[AmberSword]

Made some edits to my OP, now all of you can REALLY let loose.

I will admit though, as much as I hate EA, Origin is actually shaping up to be quite a good platform, their refund system is especially likeable. I think the only thing really holding it back now is their own name.

Of course, if Origin didn't have to compete with Steam, we'd probably get our shits stuffed back up our arses anyway. After all, they were the once claiming stuff like sales "cheapening intellectual property", only to give in without an ounce of shame after finally figuring out that sales.... discounts in price... work! Genius!

Simple one -- the ability to redeem product keys to steam inventory. I'd like to be able to cash in a product key, have it packaged in my inventory, and thus be able to gift/trade it using Steam. It would make things like the Steam key trading thread here much safer and easier.

I don't have any experience with Steam keys, in fact I can only vaguely understand what you're talking about, but if its about trading games and the like, then you're absolutely right I guess, I see people getting scammed and complaining all day.

 

[thatonedude11]

1) Refund policy. I know a lot of other people are saying this, but it bears repeating. If I buy a game and it doesn't work or isn't what was advertised, I should be able to get a refund. Hell, even only giving back store credit would be much better than the current system. This is the single most important feature that Steam could implement, and it's shameful that they haven't after all these years.

2) General consumer protection. If a game does not run at all reliably on the minimum specifications, there should be some consequence for the developer (even just a warning on the Steam page would do). More importantly, Valve should ensure that promotional material on the store page is representative of the product being sold. Obviously pre-rendered trailers are OK, but the page should contain accurate screenshots and product descriptions.

3) Give some disadvantage for a game in early access. Right now, there is no downside for being in early access; you can still be promoted on Steam sales, still be a featured game, and can deflect any criticism with 'it's not done yet.' I don't think this should be the case. There are a lot of completed games that could use the promotion more than these unfinished titles. I do think that, if people really wanted to, they should be able to buy these games, but I don't think they should be promoted to the same level as completed products.

4) Add more features to allow the discovery of good games that just aren't selling well for whatever reason. Maybe add a 'New and well rated' tab to the steam front page, showcasing games that came out in the last month or so that have a high percent of positive user reviews. In addition, the recommended games tab could be improved immensely, showcasing smaller, niche titles that the user might be interested in. Valve does need to do something though, because the amount of games on Steam has increased exponentially, while the systems for promoting smaller games is still the same crappy tools that they've had for years.

5) Have some way to differentiate new releases from games that are new to Steam. I shouldn't have to sift through some crappy publisher's shitty back catalog when I'm looking at new releases.


I'm sure I'll think of other things later, but I think this just about covers it. If Valve wants to have basically every game on Steam that's fine, but they should add more consumer protection and promotional tools as well.

Edit: How could I forget about customer support? While I personally haven't had to deal with Steam customer support, from what I've heard it takes far too long to do anything. Valve really needs to hire more dedicated support staff. There is just no excuse for the amount of time it takes to get support on Steam, not for a company that makes as much money as Valve.

 

[Aris Khandr]

A big one for me is a "game night" checklist. Go into your friends page, tick a box for who you want to play with, and Steam spits out a list of every game that all of you own. When some of us have over 500 games, it becomes exceedingly tedious to go through each one trying to make note of who has what. Steam already knows all of this information, there is no reason that they don't implement something like that.

 

[The Wykydtron]

It *could* start by not having a refund policy that is technically illegal in the UK. Y'know, just throwing that out there. Yes the shitty refund system is just that bad, it's actually criminal. Also the customer service helpline and stuff could be way better, my friend got his Steam account locked for months because of a Paypal problem. A problem that Paypal itself had sorted within a week.

Can Valve go back to actually making games again? Those were the days.

 

[Alfador_VII]

I already said my piece on refunds, but I'd like to expand on my earlier post about the front page, and early access.

The Store Front of Steam is a mess at the best of times. I'm not going to discuss how the whole page is replaced during sales with many features being removed, other than to say I feel sorry for any game that launches at full price while a sale is going on, it gets lost without trace.

For the standard front page, I want them to stop promoting Early Acess games in the main carousel, or if they insist on doing so, they should be clearly labelled as "Early Access", and not "Now Available"

As I said before I want more control of what gets shown on this front page, with toggles to not only hide DLC, as you can now, but also Early Access, non-gaming software, and re-releases of old games.

However Early Access is a very big problem for Steam, and sooner or later the whole thing is going to explode in Valve's face, resulting in reduced sales and other issues, but right now, they're still always up there in the top 10 best-sellers, along with pre-orders of games not due for many months, so there's no incentive for Valve to do anything while we keep throwing money at them!

 

[Schadrach]

Simple one -- the ability to redeem product keys to steam inventory. I'd like to be able to cash in a product key, have it packaged in my inventory, and thus be able to gift/trade it using Steam. It would make things like the Steam key trading thread here much safer and easier.

I don't have any experience with Steam keys, in fact I can only vaguely understand what you're talking about, but if its about trading games and the like, then you're absolutely right I guess, I see people getting scammed and complaining all day.

Basically, when you buy a game as a gift, one of the options is to have them give it to you as an inventory item which can then be given or traded using the built-in feature for trading games and items on Steam (you can use this with trading cards, games you've bought in 4-packs, TF2 items, etc all in the same interface).

If you buy the game from another storefront, that isn't an option.

You either get a special gift link, like this one for Hammerwatch: https://www.humblebundle.com/s?gift=ufKF4f6HP3qbewXy
Or a serial number like this one for Bastion, that you add through the "Activate a Product on Steam": B4K8Y-W8L9J-R28NH
Both or those were valid at the time of posting, if they haven't been used by now then feel free!

These can both be added to an account that doesn't have the game yet, but cannot be added to inventory. Which means that if you plan on trading with someone for it, you have to assume that they'll give you a valid key or link. As opposed to trading using the mechanism built into Steam.

It's a simple quality of life thing, and I have no idea why Steam care whether my 8th Hammerwatch license was bought through Steam or from Humble Bundle or wherever. Yes, 8th, they handed out a bunch of extra licenses as a bonus at the end of that bundle.

 

[AmberSword]

Snip

I had no idea what I was doing, trusted your Hammerwatch link fully and got a free game, thanks.
As for Bastion, that one's still up for grabs (as of this writing), I already have it.

I didn't know there was a market for cross-platform, I thought it was all steam.

I've heard of people circumventing their country price and buying games cross region/ gifting cross region for profits, and all the scamming associated with that, its quite sad really.

 

[RandV80]

Concerning a refund, how much of Valve not having one while EA does have to do with the fact that Origin is essentially a platform to sell EA games while Valve sells games from damn near everybody? I mean I can understand why people would want this but I have a hard time perceiving how it could actually be implemented without becoming a nightmare.

 

[Schadrach]

I had no idea what I was doing, trusted your Hammerwatch link fully and got a free game, thanks.

Your welcome, enjoy! If you'd like something else I have a decent pile of keys that I can't seem to trade for anything.

I didn't know there was a market for cross-platform, I thought it was all steam.

There are other sites that sell games, and provide the game as a serial number for Steam, or in some cases a link like the one you used. humblebundle.com, indiegala.com, indieroyale.com do that all the time, and sometimes Amazon does as well (depending on the title). I bought Murdered: Soul Suspect direct from Square-Enix with a coupon code from PAX East 2014, and Square-Enix sent me a Steam serial key.

 

[Rednog]

Refunds: Once in a life, considering how long this service has been around, is abysmal.

Actual Customer Service: Considering how obscenely big Steam is and how large the user base is, their customer service essentially is you sending an email to someone and them responding in 24-48+ hours is garbage. I've had issues that took over a week to resolve because there had to be back and forth emails with 1-2 days between responses. Getting an issue resolved shouldn't take me days.

Landscaping: Clean up the front page, clean up the client.
The client is still bulky and runs just as poorly as it did when it launched. Between now and when steam launched I've gotten through 3rd PC, yet even though technology has come leaps and bounds my computer is still brought to it's knees anytime steam has a cache of things to download/update. Why??? Seriously I don't have this problem with any other client.

Get some quality assurance for your customers: Make damn sure the game will at least launch/play before you throw it up on the store. Especially if you're going to throw that shit up in a daily sale, people shouldn't have to do research on a game to find out if the game even works.

 

[Rednog]

Concerning a refund, how much of Valve not having one while EA does have to do with the fact that Origin is essentially a platform to sell EA games while Valve sells games from damn near everybody? I mean I can understand why people would want this but I have a hard time perceiving how it could actually be implemented without becoming a nightmare.

Simple, have a short window where the game is refundable. The consumer has X time to check out the game and see if it works. Make it a reasonable say 7 days, the game can't reach past Y hours (avoid people zerg rushing stories and finishing). In this 7 day period the money doesn't go to anyone, it sits in limbo, once that X or Y time passes the game becomes non refundable and Valve hands over that cut to the publisher. I doubt this would be much of a hassle since it would be unlikely that valve hands over the cash to the developer after each transaction.

 

[Mocmocman]

There's a browser plugin call Enhanced Steam that adds a bunch of little features, but the one that stands out to me is this:

Spoiler

Do you know how cool it would be if that disclaimer was up and front, rather than mentioned at the very bottom of the system requirements, Steam?

Bastion

Radical, thanks!

 

[AmberSword]

snip

Thanks for the offer mate, but I'll pass. I may be a cheapskate, but I don't think I should get too greedy with stuff, 1 free game was more than enough.

snip

Wow! Too bad I still wouldn't be able to see that, since GFWL games are automatically missing from the store page for me.
I always use the steam app itself, I realize the browser version has lesser hiccups and is much more convenient, but I just got so used to the app that it became muscle memory to click on it.

Free trials. Most if not all Steam games are crap, think about it, any game that can only be found on steam is generally a very niche game. Not everyone is into flight simulators, some people LOVE them though. If I could just try the game out for a bit, I could find out if I hate it or love it.

I bought Visera Cleanup Detail on sale and was happy, if I played a demo I would have still bought it. All other steam purchases are total regrets.

Viscera is on my radar, it's the the only early access game I've ever considered buying, but I still won't give in.

Agreed about demos, every game should have one, seriously if something as plot and atmosphere heavy as Amnesia can have a demo, I don't see why others cant. Games where the main focus is actually the gameplay itself (most 4X games), have no excuse at all.