Author Topic: Steam sells an empty folder  (Read 2496 times)

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Offline karajorma

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Steam sells an empty folder

I thought this was pretty funny. Especially when you consider that given it's Steam you don't even actually own the empty folder.
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Offline wookieejedi

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
Haha Sounds like buying games from Steam is actually becoming like a big loot box. The customer buys a folder and it may or may not have the game, or the game you want.  :lol:

 

Offline 0rph3u5

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
A new entry in the saga of "Steam is a terrible store" ... granted it is a new level of either a scam or a bug that "got past" their lacking oversight...

Someone needs to make a riff on the situation using footage from "Der Tartortreiniger", Season 3 Episode 3*, I think

*if you don't get the reference: "Der Tartortreiniger" (translates to "The Crime Scene Clearner") is a german comedy show with a dry sense of humor and more than little satire in the mix; the set-up is that we are following the work days of a blue collar man working for a special cleaning service that among other things cleans up murder scenes after the investigators are through, and on every crime scene he meets some rather unique personalities ... I don't know if the humor translates well 'cause of some perculiarities (like the wink and nod at the "Tatort"-crime serieal which has been a staple for Sunday TV evenings, esspecially now that you can be hipster-ironic about it)

Season 3, Episode 3 see the protagonist having to work inside the parody of administration building because a senior offical died at his desk (due to heartattack) and his colleagues didn't bother to notice for two weeks
« Last Edit: March 08, 2018, 09:55:20 am by 0rph3u5 »
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==================

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Offline The E

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
You'd think testing something like that would be easy to automate....
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Offline Spoon

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
With all the absurd amounts of money that Valve is hoarding through steam, you'd think just hiring a couple of people to manually check each release for **** like this, wouldn't be that absurd of an idea.
Valve has become an incredibly ****ty greedy corperation that seems completely averse to even doing the most basic check on what people they do business with.
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Offline Novachen

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
I would say, better paid some over 1$ for an empty folder instead of 60$ for a DVD-Case that has only a DVD with a PDF on it, with shows nothing more than the game key you have to enter in Steam  :rolleyes:
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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
With all the absurd amounts of money that Valve is hoarding through steam, you'd think just hiring a couple of people to manually check each release for **** like this, wouldn't be that absurd of an idea.
Valve has become an incredibly ****ty greedy corperation that seems completely averse to even doing the most basic check on what people they do business with.

And if they do remove things, it's often... dumb

 

Offline Spoon

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
And if they do remove things, it's often... dumb
Look at all that dirty ASCII art, someone please think of the childeren  :shaking:

Of all the dumb **** Steam is doing and not doing, its also being inconsistent and dumb about 18+ material. There seem to be no clear guideline what is or isn't allowed. And what isn't allowed is often seemingly easily circumvented with patches and/or modding. So whats the point of not allowing it in the first place? Just make a mature section on steam instead?
Valve should get its **** in order. But evidence of the past few years seems to paint a picture of that not happening. ever.
Urutorahappī!!

[02:42] <@Axem> spoon somethings wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> critically wrong
[02:42] <@Axem> im happy with these missions now
[02:44] <@Axem> well
[02:44] <@Axem> with 2 of them

 
Re: Steam sells an empty folder
With all the absurd amounts of money that Valve is hoarding through steam, you'd think just hiring a couple of people to manually check each release for **** like this, wouldn't be that absurd of an idea.
Valve has become an incredibly ****ty greedy corperation that seems completely averse to even doing the most basic check on what people they do business with.

And if they do remove things, it's often... dumb

lol @ the extremely stereotypical RPS axegrinding in the latter part of the article
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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
With all the absurd amounts of money that Valve is hoarding through steam, you'd think just hiring a couple of people to manually check each release for **** like this, wouldn't be that absurd of an idea.
Valve has become an incredibly ****ty greedy corperation that seems completely averse to even doing the most basic check on what people they do business with.

Including not releasing the Half Life 2: Episode 3, when they kept promising and never lived up their word :hopping:
Requiescat in pace

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
Apparently they've added the executable back. The game did not improve.

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Offline Snarks

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
So I've released a game on Steam myself, and I can confirm that they do actually try to launch the game to verify its content, as they try to make sure everything advertised on the store page is accurate. The issue is that the developer is allowed to upload a new build after the review is over, which doesn't get checked at all.

That said, this means there is in fact someone on the other end booting up a game and at least getting to the menu screen. And this means a real person is actually sampling all the shovelware that gets put on Steam.

  
Re: Steam sells an empty folder
So I've released a game on Steam myself, and I can confirm that they do actually try to launch the game to verify its content, as they try to make sure everything advertised on the store page is accurate. The issue is that the developer is allowed to upload a new build after the review is over, which doesn't get checked at all.

That said, this means there is in fact someone on the other end booting up a game and at least getting to the menu screen. And this means a real person is actually sampling all the shovelware that gets put on Steam.

Did you release it the normal way, or though Steam Direct?

(also, you have a link for your game?)

 

Offline Snarks

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
I released on Early Access through Steam Direct. Here's my game:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/666820/

Steam requires developers to upload a build and set up the store page, then request a review. Just for reference, my game has 3 game modes, which are advertised under the store page. On the first review attempt, I failed the process because I had removed the button for one of the game modes after having left a message citing that it was not yet ready for public play. I later received approval after re-enabling access to that mode. Since the game mode selection requires a little bit of navigating through the menu, this means whoever was reviewing the build of my game had to do more than just launch the game. We've also seen games with quite frankly horrible looking menus. But I think so long as the game has everything that's promised on the store page, it'll pass, even if it looks like it was put together in 5 minutes.

I also continued to upload new builds after the review process prior to release, and it didn't require a new review. I suspect the issue with at least some of the missing executable or missing files/folders games is related to developers not properly uploading a build to Steam, perhaps having a faulty directory path in their Steam uploader/builder scripts.
« Last Edit: March 20, 2018, 05:35:08 am by Snarks »

 

Offline karajorma

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
Have you watched the video I posted? You mean to say someone actually played the game for more than 10 seconds and then decided that it was okay to be on Steam? That's even worse than assuming this was a cock up due to everything being automated!
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Offline Snarks

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Re: Steam sells an empty folder
Have you watched the video I posted? You mean to say someone actually played the game for more than 10 seconds and then decided that it was okay to be on Steam? That's even worse than assuming this was a cock up due to everything being automated!

I've watched it. And yes, that is the horrifying conclusion that I have come to terms with. It might be the case that Valve only checks X% of games submitted for review, or that its reviewers are horribly inconsistent when it comes to evaluating a game. Either way, it seems the only metric they care about is that the store page is not lying about what it is offering, and I use the term "offering" loosely.