I've rarely read an EA banner which didn't make it clear the game wasn't done yet. And you've only seen 1? Which are all these other games that are so unclear about the state of the game?

Ok, how long has that banner been there? Because that's exactly what I was saying that should be there at least, and I'm reasonably sure it didn't use to be there. It's true that I've neglected steam a lot as of late, but I would swear the banner wasn't there a few months ago.

And stuff like the daily deal, you can add to the cart without stopping on the detail page. I'm sure there were other positions where they make it easy to add it without checking the main game page too, during checkout maybe?


EDIT: I don't see the banner on the space base daily deal, not in the client and not on a normal browser. WTF?

Oh yes, no one can think for themselves argument...

As an interesting experiment, it would be fun to let some people who do not know about this business model compare Steams EA page and Desura's AlphaFunding page. I wonder which of them would make it clearer to understand the principle.

http://www.desura.com/groups/desura/news/alphafunding-for-indie-games
For quite some time. At the beginning there where complaints that the main page did not show the banner, so Steam added it. Seems like they missed on channel, though.

to get to checkout, you first need to add the game to Cart. AFAIK this can only been done at the Daily Deal thingy and the game page. Both has EA banners Not sure if it possible to get to checkout any other way? I think the visibility of EA games are getting there, and it becomes difficult to accidentally buy one.

Indeed, Desura's page is a lot clearer and better explained. I can't really run the experiment again with the same people as I've now explained to my better half what Early Access is, but yes, I'd be interested to know if non-core gamers get a better impression of it from that.

The problem with using Desura as an example though is this: Steam is already an obscure enough term among non-PC gamers - many don't know what it is. And even most PC gamers don't know what Desura is (without Googling it and being told what it is)

No, just the "people have better things to do" argument...

Of course, you can come back with the "Valve/Steam can do no wrong..." argument that you kept regurgitating in the "saviour" thread and extend it to any developer that publishes on Steam.

Well apparently Steam started with early access around march 20th 2013 and this page from a couple of days later already had the banner.
I'm guessing the developer has to put it into the early access program itself though, so there could be games that don't feature the banner.

mm. but you would not test to see if they know the store or not, but whether the stores makes it clear what they are selling, Therefore any preexisting knowledge of the stores are irrelevant. The only thing that matter, is whether the subjects have any knowledge of the alpha business model or not.
I think it is an automated process. The devs flag a game as EA, and the banners are added automatically on all pages. There is a split second lag on the banner appearing on a game or not, so I guess a flag is cheeked.

My point was more that people who buy from Desura are generally going to be the sort of people who are more intimately familiar with the development process. You rarely see people on the comments boards of games on Desura that don't know what they're talking about.

Steam, on the other hand, is the default port of call for a lot of 'less knowledgeable' gamers simply by virtue of the fact that they don't know any differently. Many think that Steam is the only place to buy games from - they're the ones that think GOG is selling abandonware and that Desura is a scam site.

Comparing the clientele of these two sites is like comparing apples and oranges.

Which is what I said, I doubt the devs have to use HTML and CSS on their product pages.
Most likely it's all done via a friendly form, so partially automated.

I liked Gnomoria more anyway. Yes, I'm aware that contributes nothing to the conversation.

Well it's probably related to the low sales, so at least it's marginally related to the topic.

I just don't see those banners myself. Anywhere. I honestly don't know why, but the banners could have been there for years and I wouldn't have seen them. I see the DLC purple banner, but not the early access blue one.

I guess this invalidates a big chunk of my complaint: it's not that the warning isn't there, it's that I don't see it and so it has never existed for me. This begs the question of why I don't see it, some kind of browser incompatibility? But no matter if it's Firefox, Chrome, or steam's own client, the blue banner just isn't there on my PC. On either one of my 2 laptops, I should say. And it shouldn't be a country thing either, because I travel around a lot and so I've seen the store from many different countries. It seriously puzzles me.

Do you have to activate some option to see it, maybe?

Not using AdBlock Plus or similar by any chance? It's possible that they're being interpreted as ads....

That's strange.... I do use the enhanced steam addon. Maybe it is that? Let me check.


edit - no, the only option there is to hide EA games completely.

I guess the banner image is blocked on your computer, as this is added after the store page load (there is a slight lag), while the DLC banner is part of the picture. I think it is this way, as a DLC will always be a DLC, but a EA game may go out of EA at some point, and it is therefore no need to get new icons?