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Valve policy change: All games allowed on Steam
After much discussion on what games Valve should allow and forbid from Steam, they have decided that they should not be the ones making the decisions for you:
"If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself"
Following this ideology, Valve has decided to allow all games on Steam as long as it's not illegal or "straight up trolling".
This new change means that they plan to allow all controversial topics without limitation as long as it's not illegal or straight up trolling. It wasn't confirmed but presumably this means we'll also see explicit sex games on Steam.
In their blog Valve also indicated that they're going to allow the developers release anything without Valve making decisions on "what level of quality is appropriate before something can be released", or " what even constitutes a game". This looks like Valve is giving their approval to devs that release one low quality asset flip after another.
Before the policy changes are going into effect, Valve will implement us better and more tools so that we can choose what content we - or our kids - will see on Steam.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1666776116200553082
"If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself"
Following this ideology, Valve has decided to allow all games on Steam as long as it's not illegal or "straight up trolling".
This new change means that they plan to allow all controversial topics without limitation as long as it's not illegal or straight up trolling. It wasn't confirmed but presumably this means we'll also see explicit sex games on Steam.
In their blog Valve also indicated that they're going to allow the developers release anything without Valve making decisions on "what level of quality is appropriate before something can be released", or " what even constitutes a game". This looks like Valve is giving their approval to devs that release one low quality asset flip after another.
Before the policy changes are going into effect, Valve will implement us better and more tools so that we can choose what content we - or our kids - will see on Steam.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1666776116200553082
Comments
Valve gets hit with a massive drama because one "school shooting simulator" game appears on the store, and decides to just drop any quality standards altogether.
It's too hard to remove controversial games from Steam so let's just not deal with it and let our profit cuts roll in. meh
Well, good news for other gaming store platforms, Twitch/Amazon with their push on a gaming shop platform competing with steam should really take advantage of Valve derps to give them some needed proper competition by providing a platform that requires more from the games that are added to its library.
That policy will face more front-on clashes, because anyone could more easily scam the platform "legally", especially by making releases with post-release promises on a title that gets abandoned shortly after, people get pissed at Valve because at the same time they wash their hands of any responsibility they still profit from those situations.
It is pretty simple really, this means anyone can create a cash grab, or any other piece of junk grab your money and run with no repercussions.
As far as Valve "not being mommy or daddy" you are correct, they are not nor have they ever been a security blanket, however, that point is far from being pertinent in this conversation. The real point is as @Cheyane pointed out this is a cash grab/CYA situation instead of doing the right thing.
Definitely not a good turn of events, however, I do hope all the other game hosting sites do take advantage. Steam/Valve has been around too long as it is, and it is definitely time for a new sheriff. I have, for a long time now, been disenchanted with Valve over various policies and changes hopefully this is the beginning of the end for them or at least the opportunity for another service to rise in their place.
If you want a new idea, go read an old book.
In order to be insulted, I must first value your opinion.
I agree with Steam allowing more content types.
I strongly disagree with Steam washing their hands on quality control and definitions. This is a straight up money grab at the customer's expense.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
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Yup, exactly the type of behavior that we've seen more frequent in the store.
One can argue "oh the gamer has the choice!" but the problem is developers decieving people into buying in, and after the money rolls in and the steam policies shield the developer, it's too late.
One is that people want "big daddy" to tell them what they should and shouldn't buy, because they can't be bothered with being responsible consumers and research what they are purchasing themselves.
The other one is that people believe stores should be censoring and policing what they sell to fit what they think is politically correct.
" In addition, Valve is not a small company - we're not a homogeneous group. The online debates around these topics play out inside Valve as well. We don't all agree on what deserves to be on the Store. So when we say there's no way to avoid making a bunch of people mad when making decisions in this space, we're including our own employees, their families and their communities in that.
So we ended up going back to one of the principles in the forefront of our minds when we started Steam, and more recently as we worked on Steam Direct to open up the Store to many more developers: Valve shouldn't be the ones deciding this. If you're a player, we shouldn't be choosing for you what content you can or can't buy. If you're a developer, we shouldn't be choosing what content you're allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable. "
i love freedom of choice an this is the first step to stop censoring games because the masses who love to judge assume only pedophile/murder/kids play games and must be controlled or they will break and destroy society.
a good example is Saya no Uta it is a hentai VN, it has a really good dark story but when first playing it you assume it's a game about sleeping with what looks like a child and calling it a day, burn in hell you pervert.
if you play the game Thu an don't just judge the pictures it goes very deep has different endings depending on the path you take an pushes a madness of what is really right or wrong to the edge. if your open minded it worth a read but would not exist if those that deem what right or wrong could burn it.
Why not a "Gas Chamber Simulator - The Jews Edition" game?
The argument of freedom of choice doesn't really compute with me because it will make us go as low as having no standards to what is acceptable.
Sriously? Im kinda new to steam. I know about it only because of my brother. And seeing all this @!&* really confuses me.
Who tf is Valve?
Its just small company that made small mediocre games back in days. And because there was no games back then, they have been praised by the kids that still waiting HL3. lolz
WFT is steam?
Why every (like 90%) game must be relesed on it? Why every developers/publishers do that? Seriously alot of people like to hate publishers EA/Trion/Aeriagames etc. because they are greedy, but atleast they are somehow involved. Valve just gets percentage from every game on steam for nothing. LOLZ. They dont even need to make games anymore. And thats why there are bazillion games that looks worse that made for mobiles. Early access , no more regional prices etc.
And their marketplace. Its pure scam. Seriously. AFAIK selling gold or items for real money is illegal. But these simply allow you to sell cards, wallpapers, emoticons, skins for REAL MONEY. And thats ok. How is it possible that stupid pixels cost more than big new game on steam?
Also isnt thats the reason why Dota and CSGO so popular?
Also I agree you can't tell the difference at times between a crook and a genuine seller, but here's the thing, why should the crook be shielded by the policies of the store after he does a cash grab on the store platform? Cashgrabs and other abuses do not specifically are illegal hence it really is up to the store to be proactive about it.
I'm sorry you feel like you need to be shepard in life. Now be a good little sheep and join the herd.
Valve is a multi-billion dollar company that has produced the most beloved FPS of all time and following that the most successful digital platform of all time.
Steam is a marketplace owned by Valve to buy licenses to digital games that appear in your library and allow you to play them limitless under the umbrella of Steam's DRM system.
The trading card system/skin system under steam is used to gain Steam Dollars, Steam Dollars is equal to the US Dollar, but is not exchangeable for "real money". To make "real money" you need to use a third party to cash out. So they are perfectly legal to operate the way they have been.
Anything has a value in life, if people pay for that value then it becomes a product. Skins are popular and people are willing to pay that's how it is possible.
Do a bit of research into economics, I think it might help you.
Can't wait to see:
All while Steam does this:
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This debate is always huge. The reactions when Valve even brought up potentially taking down games that had nudity or sex, was insane. People freaked the hell out about that. But then there was the other side that was happy about it. It's just always some huge debate as to what should be done about games on steam.
People decide what they buy. It's on you if you bought some cash grab or some crap game. Do a shred of research before purchase and you will usually know if something is good or not, or an asset flip. Click on the company, if they only have that one game and it looks too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true.
The only situation in which I think things shouldn't be allowed on the platform is if they are not actual games. There was the situation where one of the games on steam got approved, but had no EXE file for the game, so when you tried to launch it nothing happened. Once enough people complained the developer released an actual game, but it wasn't even possible to beat the first 30 seconds.
These games currently exist on the platform and come out every day. While Valve could hire people (which is what I think they should do) to monitor incoming games to the store, it would be hard to deem what is and is not good for the platform.
If Valve is in fact making this decision and it's final, they need to have tools in place that actually make searching easier, and seeing new titles easier. Right now the flood of asset flips and general garbage games tend to take up a lot of the new section, so if there was a better way to filter out games, or a better way to see what I want to see then I think it should be fine. Or at least a way for users to flag games as scams or asset flips. Then at least you could filter out those.
We have groups that stand the freedom of speech and ideals and so forth to openly support things that the vast majority would consider despicable, so if Valve drops standards to allow games there independent of content as long it's not illegal and so...
...then I don't think anything will stop the usage of a platform to publish games that would easily fall on pushing extreme political ideologies into a widespread gaming platform as Steam is, a side of just offensive stuff that usually aims at religion/race.
For now we see situations such as the school shooting simulator that would fall more on trolling, but I think that certain groups will see this platform without moderation as one opportunity to politicize things, as it's been so common these days.
Society is so strange, I grew up in a no fucks given era to only view an every fucks given era. The swing in attitude is so fascinating.
It's like Steam is going Walmart.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Unless you think gaming is immune to the whole political agendas being pushed everywhere through the online sphere.
But to me, it is not, in fact many extreme ideology groups struggle a lot to promote themselves because their message is not allowed in many places, but let's put a Steam without moderation of games in the context, if I put myself on their place, it would be a great opportunity to push a political agenda such as that with more exposure by creating a controversial game ending up all over the news.
As for cashgrab, according to some people, Steam is already full of them. It is not the job of the store to tell you if a game is worth buying or not. If you can't decided by just looking at the store page, people's comments along the 2 hours before refund time that a game isn't what you want, I suggest you let your mom/dad or friends buy stuff for you in the future.