Valve Will Let Gamers Pick Games To Appear On Steam 129
Valve has announced a new system called Greenlight, which will allow the gaming community to select which games get chosen for distribution via Steam. Developers will post information about their games — this can be screenshots and videos, or even concepts and potential game mechanics for titles still in development. Once posted, the Steam community will be able to vote on which ones are the best. This will prioritize which games become available on Steam first. Greenlight is Valve's attempt to solve what they call an "intractable problem" — figuring out ahead of time what games players will like. They also hope to facilitate the development of interesting games. "We think it's going to encourage this virtuous development cycle. The problem we had of, how do we encourage somebody when they're not done developing yet? This we think will work. We think a bunch of people will be looking at it going, 'oh my gosh, I want that.'"
Okay then (Score:5, Insightful)
I pick Episode 3.
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I pick Episode 3.
The developer has to submit it first...
(besides, Valve can't count to 3)
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I pick Episode 3.
The developer has to submit it first...
(besides, Valve can't count to 3)
Well, alright, then. I pick Episode Many.
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This * 10000
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Does the developer have to submit it for vote or is Value going to be proactive in putting games up to vote? I know the developer has to actually make arrangements for the game to actually be sold but I don't see why they need to be included in the vote. I think such a system could actually encourage developers to sell their games on steam when they might not otherwise do so. If they know they are highly sought and already have a huge customer base on Steam, why wouldn't they put their games on Steam?
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Per TFA:
You'll need a valid and non-limited Steam account (yes, that means you'll need to own a game on Steam). Then, you'll need to fill out the submission form, including some information about you and your game. The submission will require:
A square branding image (similar to a box cover) to represent your game in lists and search
At least 1 video showing off your game or presenting your concept
At least 4 screenshots or
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If they know they are highly sought and already have a huge customer base on Steam, why wouldn't they put their games on Steam?
Because they're competing with Steam?
I can predict what the results would be if they tried putting up any game for vote. Battlefield 3 and all the other Origin-only games. Followed by Minecraft and the "Games for Windows"-only titles.
Minecraft sells itself - it doesn't use any "stores", because given how frequently they used to update, no store in their right mind would take them. And now they've found they can sell it themselves without much difficulty.
The others are because the parent corporation (EA and
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The others are because the parent corporation (EA and Microsoft) have their own, competing platforms, and either flat-out refuse to put their games on Steam (Microsoft)
Erm, microsoft *do* list games on Steam, as Microsoft Flight's on, as are a couple of other titles. But it's entirely their choice whether they go on steam or not, as you say.
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Similar experience here. EA's DLC system for the ME/DA games is awful. I still haven't managed to get non-broken archives of the two largest DLC for ME2. I don't have problems with large downloads from anyone else. That's on top of the huge hassle their site is to navigate (whoever designed it should never ever be allowed to design a user interface again) and their stupid "points" you have to purchase to buy things.
Their DLC portal is shit, Origin is shit, and both seem designed to make giving them mone
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Minecraft sells itself - it doesn't use any "stores", because given how frequently they used to update, no store in their right mind would take them.
How often is that? Team Fortress 2 (not just a Steam game, but a Valve game) in general updates 1 or more times a week, every week.
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BTW OT but anybody know when the big summer sale starts? My youngest has been saving up for it and I swear every other question is "Has it started yet?" so knowing the date and time would be nice, thanks.
Not sure when it starts, but the game list was leaked all over yesterday if that helps at all - http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/07/09/possible-steam-summer-sale-details-arise/ [pcgamer.com]
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Valve (Steam) gives me the option to TURN OFF ADS! And their UI doesn't look like it was designed by a grade 12 comp sci. final project.
LEGO Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (Score:2)
I pick Episode 3.
I thought LEGO Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith was already on Steam, as part of the VI-pack [steampowered.com].
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This could be good. (Score:1)
Basing this on the fact that there are quite a few rather lame games on steam, I'd say this is welcome. I'd vote!
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I'd rather have it the other way around; how do I vote to get a game OFF Steam? I bought a game on retail DVD and missed the fine print on the spine that said Steam was required. The miserable thing had to go through a huge download despite the DVD and it always wants to be connected to log in to the Steam account to play in single player mode. Highly irritating!
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Two birds, one stone (Score:2)
1) Kickstarter effect, developers can see what the fans are craving and can use it to get funding.
2) "Hey, don't blame us. You picked it!"
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Valve wants to squeeze the absolute maximum money from steam users. Don't forget.
Re:Two birds, one stone (Score:4, Insightful)
If they're doing that by helping to promote games people want... what's the problem?
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I wasn't saying there was a problem, I was saying things not being popular isn't something they can deflect by blaming the users. If the users pick a loser, that's a problem for valve.
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Define "loser" in this context. A game that doesn't live up to what the users expected, or what?
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From Valve's point of view, as a company, if it makes money or not.
Desura (Score:2)
3- Try to limit the Desura success with all those indie games and alpha-funding projects. It it grows too much, it might eat some of the steam market
for me Desura already own my loyalty, they build the linux support first and have many fun games and have a open source client...
aahhh!!, what competition can do! everyone wins!! :)
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They already have that genre, it's called JRPG/MMO.
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Featuring busty protagonists who find the skimpiest possible clothing to wear, even in what would normally be a formal situation.
I'd take that idea to Hollywood - it'll be a goldmine.
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Seems like this is just advertising. Go watch ads and tell us which ones are good. It's not as if there is a limit to what can be released or when.
I'm old and jaded though. I stick to free roguelikes and muds.
Of course there is a limit. It takes resources to convert a game to play on the steam platform and show up in thier store. Since these resources are limited, the number of games released is limited.
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What's to convert? We're talking about new games here. If the developer would like them to one day be distributed on Steam, they're certainly going to design them with Steam in mind. Single-player games need little or no work to be usable on Steam. The Steam client already has a wrapper to let you use the Steam overlays (chat, etc.) within arbitrary games if you use Steam as the launcher. The little bit of actual work would be to throw in some dumb "achievements" and allow games to be saved on the Steam se
Intractable Problem? (Score:2)
What makes their problem intractable? What is the marginal cost of publishing a game on Steam, once that game is fully produced and (presumably) ready to be sold on a DVD/BD? If their business process or technology makes it's very expensive to publish via Steam such that they have to go through an editorial process to insure highly salable content, then I think the problem is not with the editorial process but the underlying publishing technology/process.
Perhaps I don't understand the intricacies; how is
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Publishing angry birds onto the Apple store is easy because apple has a dedicated team to sift through the crap from the cream. This also leads to Apple favouritism in apps and makes publishing very luck of the draw. Valve wants the neat, tidy, clean environment Apple products have, but without all the politics and costs. Even the Google play store has a minimal approval process. Valve does not want to hire a team, lest that be another expense and essentially hold them liable for review and what makes it.
So
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The filtering that Apple is doing is simply to prevent malware and pornography from entering the App Store. They aren't selecting Angry Birds in favor of Contented Birds because the latter is a shitty, boring game that no one will buy.
This Greenlight idea won't prevent malware from entering the Steam marketplace (Valve still needs to do a QA check for that), and if anything it will increase the pornographic games available.
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Apple absolutely claim they will reject apps because they're shit. They in fact do reject apps that are just websites loaded in a webview, or that are nothing but marketing material, or are inferior clones of apps of a type that are already numerous in the store (the way they put it is something like "we have enough fart apps, thank you"). They also reject apps with obvious bugs, or that just work very poorly.
That's not to say there aren't examples of all of those things that make it through, but if you t
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Publishing angry birds onto the Apple store is easy because apple has a dedicated team to sift through the crap from the cream. This also leads to Apple favouritism in apps and makes publishing very luck of the draw. Valve wants the neat, tidy, clean environment Apple products have, but without all the politics and costs. Even the Google play store has a minimal approval process. Valve does not want to hire a team, lest that be another expense and essentially hold them liable for review and what makes it.
So they developed an intelligent solution: they don't have to hire a team that sifts through and decide what looks good, the users do. They aren't liable for what makes it on their, its up to the developer. They aren't directing games, they aren't influencing game production, its straight on just being a conduit between gamers and developers, for a smaller cost than hiring people to manage that connection.
Valve does have a team for this, and they still will (since the community is most certainly not 100% reliable). I'm still slightly uncertain what the point of Greenlight is, but I imagine Valve probably got contacted by angry developers/fans screaming "why is x game not on Steam?!?!?" This helps to solve that issue. Now they can point to Greenlight and say "well, it either isn't on there or doesn't have enough people who want it on Steam. You want it on Steam? Fix those problems." Boom, problem solved for V
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(And if all the cards and moons align just right I can take that s
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They don't "feel" evil, and that feeling goes a very long way in w
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Linux (Score:4, Interesting)
Can we vote to prioritize Linux versions? I'm sure the Apple guys would like a button to prioritize games (that already exist on steam) to get OSX versions as well.
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Part of the requirement of being on Greenlight is that your game must support Windows. If you want to make it a selling point that it also supports Max OS (and linux once steam adds that) you are free to do so.
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Popularity=quality for reals, yo! (Score:3)
I look forward to seeing the first games featuring Pedobear and/or Goatse.
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I think where this process could really shine is with older back catalog games. I'd bet plenty of publishers would love to release older games and milk them a little longer, but there's a good chance the cost of doin
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Hint: I wasn't being literal. I was pointing out that what's most popular tends to be the lowest common denominator. Look at top 40 radio if you need further evidence.
4 words on the Wisdom of the Crowd (Score:1)
Why (Score:1)
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Why not let everyone sell through steam? (Score:1)
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Boycotting? (Score:1)
No time to explain. (Score:2)
It's about damn time... My first vote goes for No Time to Explain. [tinybuildgames.com]
Which is a Kickstarter funded game that's better in quality and humour than many games on Steam, but was rejected for some unknown reason -- I can only assume the Steam folks are intractable morons: This game is awesome, and I know of many indie devs with the same story, "Everyone likes my game, except Steam reviewers." I've met folks who only buy games if they are on Steam, I've also met folks who only shop at Walmart... Neither situat
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This game is awesome, and I know of many indie devs with the same story, "Everyone likes my game, except Steam reviewers."
The mother is not always the best judge of the child.
I'd like to see... (Score:1)
Vendetta Online!!!!
3d first person space combat(a la freelancer/xwing series/etc) MMO that runs on windows, mac, linux, and android tablets? Heck yeah.
Great Idea (Score:1)
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if its on steam, chances are its better than the alternatives (origins, blizzard's always online thing, etc).
Bioware had "leave the dvd in" if you played Dragon Age, but now that a lot of people are using laptops and dvd drives may be disappearing in the forseeable future (see: retina mbp, mb air), an online option is desirable. (they even were relatively reasonable on selling used copies - just that you wouldn't get some DLC which was desirable)
Good luck with your not buying into DRM - its not going to wit
Re:don't buy into DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
it continues to amaze me that they become such sheep when Steam is mentioned.
I'm not sure sheep is really the right word here. Fairly certain most, if not everyone, on /. who uses Steam (myself included) are well aware that it is DRM. Hypocrite would seem to be a better word, though even then I would have to disagree. Finding some instances of DRM to be deplorable but other forms to be acceptable does not a hypocrite make.
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You might be surprised. Not so much here, but on a few game forums I frequent, it's head-deskingly painful how often someone will decry Steam's DRM and get a slew of "it's not REALLY DRM" excuses, plus the new Diablo III favorite "Get a real internet connection, looser[sic]!"
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the new Diablo III favorite "Get a real internet connection, looser[sic]!"
This is my favorite, because it is very suburban/urban centered, and is easily argued against by pointing out that not everyone lives in urban areas. It is my favorite, because that line of conversation invariably leads to my second favorite pearl of wisdom, "WELL, if you don't like crappy internet, move out of the country."
It's as if people don't understand where food comes from, that the people who make that food also enjoy/have a use for technology, and that the countryside isn't actually full of castles
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I'm not certain it's hypocrisy, as much as acknowledging DRM done well (not right, just well). -- at least this way I can trade a game or play offline if I want to!
As a side note, I'm not excited that this is the way the world is going, because I live in BFE, and my internet connection is T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E. at best, and suicide inducing at worst.
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The three last games I bought (DVDs) just installed Steam on insertion.. I'm not sure if they're even playable without Steam (Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Dirt 3 ).
Also, I use wine and most tutorials are Steam-centric..
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Btw, buying the same games on Steam costs 10% of the DVDs..
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Re:don't buy into DRM (Score:5, Informative)
Because Steam DRM is "consumer-friendly".
It doesn't encrypt anything except unreleased, pre-loaded content (which is decrypted when the game is actually released). .exe - I copied the DLC files from my Steam install of Oblivion to my retail install of Oblivion with no problems (it was cheaper to buy the "Deluxe" all-DLC-included version on Steam than to buy all the DRM alone).
It allows you to go into offline mode, and to back up your games to DVD.
It doesn't itself restrict anything except the
It includes a notice on any game that includes additional DRM
It doesn't do any spying other than the opt-in Steam Hardware Survey
It tries to be a beneficial service, including chat and modding features
It hosts, for free and without DRM, user-created mods for several games
It supports OS X, and is expected to shortly support Linux
It does not in practice restrict what you can do with your data (the ban on sharing, trading or selling accounts is not strictly enforced)
Valve has pledged to, should they go out of business, release a DRM-remover for any games they legally can. (and Steam is easily broken, if you wish to)
So given a choice between "not getting the game at all", "pirating the game", "buying it on Steam" or "buying it on some far more DRM-encumbered platform", is it really a wonder that people choose "buy on Steam"?
Yes, in theory, everyone should boycott DRM. But this is the Real World, and out here, you have to make compromises. Steam is the best compromise solution - it eliminates or ameliorates the problems with DRM, but still placates the corporations' concerns about digital distribution and "piracy".
Customer-centric (Score:1)
Indeed. When you look at a lot of the "other" gaming companies out there, Steam/Valve seems to generally be the most customer-centric. They make a lot of effort into providing useful services to their customers.
Other companies' foray in the world of DRM has met with broken CD-ROM drives, unplayable games, and a generally lousy customer experience.
Steam is making inroads to embrace a wider market and is quite supportive of indie-style games. IMHO, others seem to have opted for a poor parody of the Steam plat
Re:Customer-centric (Score:4, Informative)
My only real complain with steam is that all games are locked to a single account on a single PC (e.g. I can't have two games across one account active on two different systems).
Offline mode. I use it regularly for LAN gaming.
Start Steam on one computer, go into offline mode. Repeat for all (n - 1) remaining computers. Last one can stay in online mode. Start up a local server on any of them, have the rest join. Bam. LAN party on (n) computers with 1 copy of the game.
The only thing offline mode really stops you from doing is updating, chatting or using the server browser (IIRC, you can still directly connect to internet servers). So for single-player games or for LAN, it works perfectly (at least until one of them updates and gets out of synch).
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You can only do it if one of them is in offline mode (in which case you can't play Steam-integrated multiplayer games). Otherwise, as soon as you log in on one machine, it logs you out on another.
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My only real complain with steam is that all games are locked to a single account on a single PC (e.g. I can't have two games across one account active on two different systems).
As mentioned by others, Offline mode can be used to bypass this... except for the online components of games, for obvious reasons.
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You forgot that the DRM is mostly in furtherance of the primary benefit to consumers, namely that it allows you to redownload your games anywhere you want, as quickly as your internet will go. Without DRM, it's effectively a free-for-all, since Steam works by basically allowing anybody to get the files, but not be able to use them unless the account is authorized. A friend can log into your machine with his account, download and play one of his games, and it'll still show up in the list on your machine, but
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I've owned many Steam games for years. I have never had any problem at all with them. While what you say is technically true, experience has shown me that it's more of a conspiracy theory than anything substantial to worry about.
Valve is no EA, they're no Ubisoft, they're no Activision/Blizzard. I trust Valve. And I think Valve knows that a lot of their company is built on goodwill and trust from gamers.
Until I see Valve treat their customers like shit, I'm going to keep buying games on Steam in prefere
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Forget it. When you've got a minority viewpoint (e.g. not trusting Steam) it's extremely hard to get anyone to listen and those that do already have their mind set and would rather joke about you "missing out" rather than seriously consider your words. There's something about games that gets even Slashdotters to forget their anti-DRM principles - as if they can't non-DRM games from somewhere else legally, but they chose not to because they can't handle not having the latest regenerating-health shooter.
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From your post, (I will never purchase another game via Steam), it sounds like you had a bad experience with Steam. What was it?
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I strongly disagree. You don't have to buy with Steam - why not GOG.com? They won't have quite the selection sure, but are you honestly going to tell me you have the time available to play all the games you want anywa
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Weird, I distinctly remember opting into it. And a bit of Googling brings up the same results.
It actually doesn't even give everyone a chance to opt-in - when they do a new survey, they randomly select people to have a chance to participate. So no, it does not default to spying on you.
Picking which Nutjob will kill you (Score:3)
The thing about Steams DRM/Platform is its not all that bad
1 they are semi cool about redownloading games
2 they include a patching service
3 it works well and does not trash most systems in the process
4 you buy in some cases multiplatform versions (i think some games if you buy the windows version but log into a Mac system it will download the Mac Version)
in cases where a publisher does not ADD DRM on top (or otherwise futz with things) it looks to be the best setup around for DRM Platforms.
So Steam is like
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1 they are semi cool about redownloading games
Unless there are problems I've not heard about, Valve are more than "semi-cool". Every game I've bought is still showing in the list and I've redownloaded my whole library more than once without so much as a single email to Valve.
.exes were also mentioned further up. Depending on the game, a simple no-cd crack is all that's needed to de-Steam them.
What puzzles me is how users are expected to sift the crap without already having bought the game from somewhere else; if they have then why would they vote to a
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Why would I want the best games incumbered by Steams DRM? I refuse to buy any game with this DRM, and if enough people did then DRM would wither and die. Most of the /. community seems to understand the evils of DRM, it continues to amaze me that they become such sheep when Steam is mentioned.
I guess one man's flamebait is another man's insightful. I do like Steam and have a few games on it, but the consolation I had to make when getting those games is that one day they'll suddenly disappear.
I have the same concern that the original poster has about us getting lured in with candy. It's worthy of discussion, therefore not flamebait.
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I guess one man's flamebait is another man's insightful.
True, but bandying words like "sheep" does tend to tip the balance for some people. If someone makes an insightful point but does it in such a way as to sound like a hot-headed ass then obviously they're less likely to get the +1 they deserve. (Not a comment on the parent, BTW, just in general.)
Incidentally, if you trust Gabe the last thing Valve will do before going bust will be to release a master key or something to remove the DRM on games. Mind you, I think he said that before 3rd party games were sold
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