Valve crowdsources gatekeepers with new service launching August 30, tasks users with selecting titles for publication.
Steam members will soon get a say in what games appear on the digital distribution service as part of Steam Greenlight. The system, which will allow developers to put up Kickstarter-like pitches to jockey for favorable ratings from users, is set to be implemented August 30.
"Making the call to publish or not publish a title isn't fun," said Valve's Anna Sweet in a press release. "Many times opinions vary and our internal jury is hung on a decision. But with the introduction of the Steam Workshop we realized an opportunity to enlist the community's help as we review certain titles and, hopefully, increase the volume and quality of creative submissions."
The new community service is a move to both increase exposure for the games and lessen the bottleneck for Steam listing approval. Those competing for listing can be playable builds or just concepts and will be selected not only by overall score but by relative interest from the user base. They must at least run on PC, have a video trailer and four screenshots, and "must not contain offensive material or violate copyright or intellectual property rights" to be considered.
This sounds fascinating, but I really have to see it in action before I can make a judgement about how good this is. Using the Steam workshop to gather popularity for up-and-coming indie games sounds like an excellent idea, but will Valve really listen to popular vote any more than if they would have googled the name of the submitted game? Furthermore, will games that are actually worthy take advantage of this service, or will we get a new wave of shovelware on Steam?
I'd just like to see what comes of this. At the very least, it sounds promising.
I'm having trouble imagining the circumstances under which any submission would NOT be approved by this system.
If people aren't interested in a product they're just not going to pay attention to it. The average score may still be high, because only the few people that ARE interested would be giving positive feedback, while everyone else gives none.
Negative feedback in terms of video games tends to come from invested fans who are disappointed by something they expected to love. We're not impartial like professional reviewers (should be). So yeah, more things than not will have overwhelmingly positive feedback, I suspect, provided it isn't controversial among an established fanbase.
I know it says "relative interest" but it's hard to tell precisely what that means just from the article.
@Frozensky Remember, items in the Steam workshop have a default rating of 2.5 stars out of 5. I don't know how much weight that score has by default, but if it's significantly high, the project in question is going to need to need advertizement and word-of-mouth awareness like mad if it ever hopes to get 4 stars or more. And if you've got that many people voting on your project, some of them are going to vote it down if they dislike it.
i like the idea a lot, could work well with kickstarter but i feel there needs to be some kind of test to pass before being allowed to cast a vote in something like this. there are A LOT of people out there that are too stupid to be allowed to make decisions
Have not been a PC gamer for many years now - but I have to say - this would be a fun way to be involved in the 'selection' process from a gamers perspective. Cool idea Steam, hope it works well.
In my opinion, this new service is nothing but a survey to determine a game selling potential. It does not shift the right to publish games to the customers. Just take Dark Souls as an example. People want it and it got ported to the PC. However, the one to call in the last shot is still the owner. Like FF7, we all have waited for a remake for a long time, but for an unknown reason, it didn't happen. So, in the end this may not be as promising as it appears to be.
@solid_snake1461 It's also a nice logo for them to shine, in the face of this new grass roots movement - from things like Kickstarter and that Endless Space "Vote with your money!" initiative. Like you said, it's not much more than a marketing research team with a personable face put on the front.
Excellent idea. If someone complains about the games being offered, Valve can now (Aug 30th anyways) turn around and say "Don't blame just me, it's what our customers wanted". I honestly think that this will go smoother than that though. It doesn't seem to be a "Metacritic" (no offense) type of system where you can just keep voting until you win/lose.
I want Shadow Complex. I want Age of Empires 3 and Age of Mythology. I want edutainment titles by The Learning Company. Hmm, what else? This requires some thought.
So far steam seems to have been doing things right from the beginning. If they think this will help with things then I support them 100% because even tho they want people's money they actually care about the consumers opinions. I wish some of the other publishing companies would follow suite in that.
well at least people will now have a chance to present to their minoritys which is why this is great. if someone makes a game and its just not for the person who is publishing it and they game could have sold and made a decent fanbase off its niche i think it at least deserves the chance
...And once AGAIN GB is harassing users by spamming THEIR comments rather than be brave enough to form one of his own. But of course that would require brainpower and critical thinking and GB doesn't really like to think!
@Gelugon_baat Even though I've noticed Gelugon being kind of a jerk at times in the past, Rarson really is the complete moron in this case, and Gelugon has a perfectly reasonable point.
Interesting. I wonder if you will have to put up real money (if the game meets its goal) like on Kickstarter. That could bring up questions about what happens if a game gets funded and receives money, but fails to ever launch a product (bankruptcy).
I just hope this leads to more creative and strategic games and less cookie-cutter FPS.
@Gelugon_baat Geez, why does ANYONE EVEN FREAKING CARE? Just stop reading comments and responses and go play a game. Enough of this trollish, pointless back-and-forth.
Well, well, well. It looks like either someone got cold feet and deleted their own comments, or Gamespot did it for them. Either way, I'm quite satisfied. Let this be a lesson to you in the future.
As for your accusations: prove it. I have no recollection of such incidents. But if it did happen, I apologize.
The immaturity of the other users was immediately obvious, but I had higher expectations for you. I guess it was too much to ask for you to be the bigger man and let it lie. And at least the other two didn't have to resort to outright swearing.
I cannot believe how immaturely you're acting. Despite the constant over-the-top intellectual facade you so often love to put out, behavior like this leads me to believe that perhaps rarson truly has hit the nail on the head regarding your age. Continue on with this kind of behavior, and I WILL continue to flag it.
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