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Valve’s (almost) ‘anything goes’ content policy devalues Steam and harms developers

Jetboogieman

Jetboogieman

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Valve’s recent brush with obscene and harmful content is the latest incident that exposes one of Steam’s key weaknesses. Abdicating its responsibility as a content host has led the market leader to alienate developers and damage its own brand.

Steam’s content policy has been a regular source of confusion, coming to a boil in mid-2018. The company issued delisting warnings to developers of visual novels aimed at an adult audience and featuring nudity.

The storefront ultimately relaxed its warnings, but had already tipped off a series of questions about its ambiguous definitions of what is acceptable on Steam. The result was a reaffirmation that Valve is willing to take money from almost any developer, provided the content isn’t deemed by Valve to be “illegal or straight up trolling.”

A few months later, Steam permitted the first uncensored adult game, leaning on filters to weed out sexual content. While PIN-protected family accounts might safeguard minors, they don’t shield developers who are caught in the blast zone when Steam lets a game like Hatredor the recently removed sexual violence fantasy Rape Day from developer Desk Plant come anywhere near its store.
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https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/18/18271380/valve-steam-content-policy-rape-day-report

Whether one wants to come at this from a free speech angle or vote with your dollar angle and let that sort it out... I can't disagree with much of what this article has to say.

Now, despite Epics Games Store picking up a few high profile exclusives as of late and offering a very alluring business proposition for many developers, Steam is here to stay at least for now, it is a more complete package in terms of features and Epic continues to make certain decisions and people have found dodgy things the program has done that has created privacy concerns.

But from a pure business angle Valve is ****ing up here, big time, forget about controversy about Rape Day or School Shooter Simulator... There is some content that has launched without even an executable file that I have seen, if that's the level of nonchalant care they take in ensuring product integrity that goes on their storefront... I dunno what to tell them and that doesn't even begin to cover the myriad of broken asset flips that are barely playable that have proliferated throughout the store.

But Valves approach to this entire situation is asking for trouble, they are asking to be continually pulled into an entirely avoidable situation that is baffling because there isn't really any need for it, I don't see what you're really getting out of it to allow things like this to happen in the first place.

But what do you think?
 
Well, on the other end of the spectrum are the Steam users that would exit in a rage at the first whiff that Steam was actively "Mom'ing" them.

Can't speak to your "no executable" example with out more details but that does sound pretty bad unless it was an Early Access title.

Early Access opens up Steam's large market to indie game makers, with some impressive wins and fails along the way. There aren't a ton of platforms that cater to small development houses, and that's where most of the really strange one-off games come from.

So I view this controversy as a consequence of Steam disrupting the marketplace, more than anything.

I'm comfortable with the status quo, myself. Steam can squash the ones that cause enough of an uproar (or suffer the consequences) and customers have access to a wider range of games that include some really strange indie stuff that sometimes crosses the line for some people.
 
Valve is making a choice that will force their customers to also make a choice. From all these 'early alpha' access games still with a cost to content with no execution file (in the traditional sense) to questionable content games we are seeing the boundaries pushed where clearly there are plenty within Valve saying keep going, it will be the reaction that validates the risk or tells them to reverse course.

I think they are making a mistake, one that will be difficult to recover from.
 
Steam in general seems like its run by people who aren't interested in market dominance, just focusing on a really good platform and that's that. There's good and bad with that. Not all developers think big picture. If they stay more agnostic and just provide portal...maybe that's best. Comparing it to nearly every other model with big companies crapping all over everything...is this better or worse? I feel better. I don't know how fair their developer model is, but at least it's not Apple :)

You do have to be more selective these days. But I can tell you personally, I have felt burned more from playing a high budget, ****ty platform port to PC, or some boring theme-park AAA title that looks great but is crap, than I do with early access.
I got burned early on with early access, but after a few of those, I'm more selective. I still get a few duds, but with 60+ hours on a "dud", I rarely feel suckered or that I didn't get a decent value. The reviews and videos and screen caps, that's usually sufficient. You can often watch Twitch too. Hard to imagine having all that and getting completely blind-sided unless it's just being lazy (which I understand!).
 
Valve needs to to far selective with what it allows on its platform. They must regulate themselves before someone else tries to regulate them by force. Until then they will continue to lose market share and events like this will keep happening. It has become like shopping on Alibaba, sometimes there are some good deals but the vast majority is poor quality and often illegal.
 
I might be in the minority here, but maybe games like that can serve a positive purpose. It's far better than to rape a live human being, is it not? So maybe something like that is exactly what sickos need so they can get their "fix" while keeping their hands off actual living people. At least until we can figure out what's wrong with their brain and develop some sort of cure for them.

How many of us have shot and killed a digital person in a video game? Objectively, is it really that much different or worse to rape a digital person?

You could say it might encourage people to do things in real-life they wouldn't otherwise do. But violence in video games has been under scrutiny for at least two decades, yet there's still very little evidence to suggest that it compels people to become more violent in real-life.
 
Too much of anything isn't good. No need to ban or censor anything.
With great power comes great responsibility. Just be smarter when making the games. The game's gotta be good so they're learning what's good...and what's just too much.
 
I only use Steam for Counterstrike. :mrgreen:
 
You'll pry my pigeon dating simulator from my cold, dead hands, you goddamn fascists!
 
Yea, Steam demonstrated it's low bar standards by allowing "Goat Simulator" om their platform..yes a real "game".

Steam has nothing to worry about though. They are the 800 pound gorilla in the digital delivery market. GOG is a distant second.

With regard to sexual content, well, there are parental controls available. Strange how parents are fine with their kids viewing graphic violence, but sex is off limits...:roll:

There are a lot of crappy games, but that's what reviews are for.
 
beancounter said:
Yea, Steam demonstrated it's low bar standards by allowing "Goat Simulator" om their platform..yes a real "game".

Steam has nothing to worry about though. They are the 800 pound gorilla in the digital delivery market. GOG is a distant second.

With regard to sexual content, well, there are parental controls available. Strange how parents are fine with their kids viewing graphic violence, but sex is off limits...:roll:

There are a lot of crappy games, but that's what reviews are for.
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Goat Simulator is nowhere near the worst thing on Steam(or the Apple app store, or Google Play, or anyplace else you can get it). There are AAA titles that are buggier, less visually appealing, and less fun.

Any threat to Steam is not going to come from GOG(though GOG is pretty great), but from Epic. The combination of a bunch of top of the line titles exclusive to the Epic store(for example, Satisfactory, the next game from the company that did Goat Simulator, and which is freaking awesome so far in early access), sending more money back to game developers, and a general willingness to spend a ton of money make it a potential thread, though only if they manage to get some of the user friendliness of Steam.
 
Redress said:
Goat Simulator is nowhere near the worst thing on Steam(or the Apple app store, or Google Play, or anyplace else you can get it). There are AAA titles that are buggier, less visually appealing, and less fun.

Any threat to Steam is not going to come from GOG(though GOG is pretty great), but from Epic. The combination of a bunch of top of the line titles exclusive to the Epic store(for example, Satisfactory, the next game from the company that did Goat Simulator, and which is freaking awesome so far in early access), sending more money back to game developers, and a general willingness to spend a ton of money make it a potential thread, though only if they manage to get some of the user friendliness of Steam.
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I never said Goat simulator was the worst thing. I said it demonstrated Steam's low bar standard.

I never heard of Satisfactory, so I took a look at the trailer. The graphics, game play and interface are reminiscent of Subnautica. Seems like a niche product for PvPers (e.g. Fortnite).

If that's the best Epic has, IMO, it won't be a threat to Steam's market dominance.
 
Jetboogieman said:


Valve’s content policy devalues Steam and harms developers - Polygon

Whether one wants to come at this from a free speech angle or vote with your dollar angle and let that sort it out... I can't disagree with much of what this article has to say.

Now, despite Epics Games Store picking up a few high profile exclusives as of late and offering a very alluring business proposition for many developers, Steam is here to stay at least for now, it is a more complete package in terms of features and Epic continues to make certain decisions and people have found dodgy things the program has done that has created privacy concerns.

But from a pure business angle Valve is ****ing up here, big time, forget about controversy about Rape Day or School Shooter Simulator... There is some content that has launched without even an executable file that I have seen, if that's the level of nonchalant care they take in ensuring product integrity that goes on their storefront... I dunno what to tell them and that doesn't even begin to cover the myriad of broken asset flips that are barely playable that have proliferated throughout the store.

But Valves approach to this entire situation is asking for trouble, they are asking to be continually pulled into an entirely avoidable situation that is baffling because there isn't really any need for it, I don't see what you're really getting out of it to allow things like this to happen in the first place.

But what do you think?
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sounds like it is the atari disaster all over again.
 
beancounter said:
I never said Goat simulator was the worst thing. I said it demonstrated Steam's low bar standard.
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Valve does not have a quality standard, nor should they.
I never heard of Satisfactory, so I took a look at the trailer. The graphics, game play and interface are reminiscent of Subnautica. Seems like a niche product for PvPers (e.g. Fortnite).
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It is Subnautica meets Factorio, and has a ****ton of buzz. It is not PvP at all. It is also a ton of fun.

If that's the best Epic has, IMO, it won't be a threat to Steam's market dominance.
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That is far from all they have, it is the only one I personally have gotten, which is why I mentioned it. Borderlands 3 will be Epic store exclusive. A partial list of exclusives: Anno 1800, Close To The Sun, Heavy Rain, Industries of Titan, The Outer Worlds, Phoenix Point, Unreal Tournament(yes, a new one). If those are too niche for you, you might have heard of The Division and Fortnight.

I like Steam. I am used to it, it works, it is convenient. I do not want to have to go to another source to get games. But there are a fair number of must have games coming up that I can only get from them, and that list is likely to expand. Epic games won't kill Steam, but they will quite likely, for a period of time, snatch away a fair chunk of gamer money that would have gone to Steam.
 
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