Posted September 01, 2014

v o i d | flower
Gloomy User
Registered: Mar 2010
From United States

thiagovscoelho
thiagovscoelho
Registered: Dec 2013
From Brazil
Posted September 01, 2014
Well, Steam hasn't really been curating anything recently, with so many games coming in. From the "The Indie Bubble Is Popping" article, which every game enthusiast should read:
"I have a private theory, that's really only in my own brain. It's this. Valve is full of really cool people, who truly love games. But, at some point, with Steam, these basically nice people suddenly found themselves in the position of deciding who lives and who dies. It's a stressful, miserable place, and they didn't like it. It just made it harder to get out of bed in the morning.
In the last few years, Steam workers were the ones who handed out the golden tickets. They gave one to me. (Everyone on Steam made a lot of money. Even niche-developer dingleberries like me. You could put Pong on the front page at $20 a copy and still make a fortune.) The guy next to me who didn't get the ticket? He was angry. At Steam, at me, at the world. But mostly Steam.
Steam found themselves in a position of being hated for something it could do nothing about. Not to mention the fact that the sort of curation they were doing was impossible in the long term. You shouldn't want the games you can buy to be controlled by some guy at a stand-up desk in Bellevue, WA. They aren't wizards. They can't tell what's going to be a hit any more than anyone else. The free market has to do that job.
So they stood aside and opened the floodgates. Supply shot up and demand stayed even, which means, by a certain law of economics (the first one, in fact), prices have to drop. Which brings us to the bundles."
—
As for GOG, well, it tries to make sure every developer gets attention and some time in the front page, and they do so by limiting releases of games inside here. They do this so all the developers get some time in the spotlight, avoiding the flooded market where thousands compete for pennies. They're curating, with sometimes skewed results. That's why so many games are rejected, resulting in people being angry that Thomas Was Alone or whatever didn't make it here while, say, Daikatana did. But more importantly than selecting the best games around, they're selecting only a few games at a time, which is enough for us to notice them and make money for the devs. That's a pretty big difference between GOG and other stores right now.
(My source for this is their "submit your game" page, and some thinking. Look at how they promise every single game a chance to shine, by being in the front page and in all their social media marketing! They can't do this if a thousand games are released every month.)
"I have a private theory, that's really only in my own brain. It's this. Valve is full of really cool people, who truly love games. But, at some point, with Steam, these basically nice people suddenly found themselves in the position of deciding who lives and who dies. It's a stressful, miserable place, and they didn't like it. It just made it harder to get out of bed in the morning.
In the last few years, Steam workers were the ones who handed out the golden tickets. They gave one to me. (Everyone on Steam made a lot of money. Even niche-developer dingleberries like me. You could put Pong on the front page at $20 a copy and still make a fortune.) The guy next to me who didn't get the ticket? He was angry. At Steam, at me, at the world. But mostly Steam.
Steam found themselves in a position of being hated for something it could do nothing about. Not to mention the fact that the sort of curation they were doing was impossible in the long term. You shouldn't want the games you can buy to be controlled by some guy at a stand-up desk in Bellevue, WA. They aren't wizards. They can't tell what's going to be a hit any more than anyone else. The free market has to do that job.
So they stood aside and opened the floodgates. Supply shot up and demand stayed even, which means, by a certain law of economics (the first one, in fact), prices have to drop. Which brings us to the bundles."
—
As for GOG, well, it tries to make sure every developer gets attention and some time in the front page, and they do so by limiting releases of games inside here. They do this so all the developers get some time in the spotlight, avoiding the flooded market where thousands compete for pennies. They're curating, with sometimes skewed results. That's why so many games are rejected, resulting in people being angry that Thomas Was Alone or whatever didn't make it here while, say, Daikatana did. But more importantly than selecting the best games around, they're selecting only a few games at a time, which is enough for us to notice them and make money for the devs. That's a pretty big difference between GOG and other stores right now.
(My source for this is their "submit your game" page, and some thinking. Look at how they promise every single game a chance to shine, by being in the front page and in all their social media marketing! They can't do this if a thousand games are released every month.)
Post edited September 01, 2014 by thiagovscoelho

RoloTony
Minis King Size?
Registered: Jul 2014
From United States
Posted September 02, 2014
I agree it sucks when GOG loses games, but Steam adds way too many games nowadays and is a mess to try to navigate.

micktiegs_8
Pre-Galaxy GOGizen
Registered: Sep 2010
From Australia
Posted September 03, 2014
Well Steam is doing what steam does. I mean steam that comes from hot water, floating away into the sky with nothing to bring it back to earth. Spreading over the place, leaving nothing of value from its own contribution in the wake.
Shit i sould stop drinking.
Shit i sould stop drinking.

Pheace
New User
Registered: Jul 2010
From Netherlands
Posted September 03, 2014
In their last Dev Days they explained that they simply weren't able to add many more games in the previous years, they've been expanding it every year to where we are now. That's why you see so many games making it onto Steam now. And yes, as a result they've been accepting more and more 'greenlight' style titles. In some cases that's allowed styles of games on Steam that weren't there before (like visual novels). Sadly it also means shovelware is there.
On top of that EA picked up immensely, and there's always *some* game in development, so they'll just get added to probably.
On top of that EA picked up immensely, and there's always *some* game in development, so they'll just get added to probably.
Post edited September 03, 2014 by Pheace

TheScorpion
Get over here!!
Registered: Apr 2013
From Argentina
Posted September 03, 2014
Less focused?? That's being extremely kind to them. Since the moment they allowed titles like The War Z to exist in their store, you can tell they no longer care 2 cents about selling quality.