Why I Advocate Steam Quality Control

[VulpineTaco 525]

As anyone who knows me may know, I have a deep disdain for the fact that Steam releases unfinished, broken games on the store to the point that it actually bothers me, which makes me greatly advocate quality control (and, naturally, an improved refund policy) on the Steam storefront. Some people, however, deeply disagree, and say that not allowing such unfinished games is censorship, and therefore wrong. This is a completely irrational thought process, and is harmful to the economy of Steam, and to consumers in general. Imagine this; you buy a board game from a shop, and it only comes with half the pieces and a shitty hand-drawn board. What would you do? You'd most definitely ask for a refund, and if they don't give it to you, you'd never shop there again and probably post a bad review on Yelp, which would make the shop either change its business practices or go out of business. Yet somehow, Steam gets away with it, and that's because we let them get away with it. The bottom line is, they sell unfinished shit on their store because we let them. We make up excuses as to why it's okay to sell broken games with no refund policy because we're so blinded by the great GabeN to see that Steam is pulling shit that's not okay at all. Until we come out and speak out against this, they're going to keep putting these games up, because they'll make a profit off of them anyways, even if they don't sell well, and there's always a chance that the developer will censor criticism and reviews to trick people into buying something that's broken. I'm not saying that bad games shouldn't be released. Whether a game is good or bad is completely subjective. However, at least the game has to work, and if it doesn't, it shouldn't be released at all on Steam.

 

This was on Steam for $5 (U.S). We should feel ashamed for letting this happen.

 

There was once a time that Steam heavily controlled its storefront, and this resulted in fewer great indie games being released. I'm not saying we need to go back to those times. I'm simply saying that Steam needs to do a minimum of quality checking, such as making sure the game will start, run properly, and doesn't use stolen assets, a problem that has run rampant the past few years. Off of the top of my head, I can name Air Control, The Slaughtering Grounds, Lex Mortis, and really most things released through Steam Greenlight, which brings me to my next point in Steam quality control. Steam Greenlight, for those who don't know, is a service Steam provides that allows indie developers to put their games up to be voted on by the community as to whether it gets on Steam or not. The issue is that Steam doesn't make sure that the games that get Greenlit work and don't use stolen assets. Now, any rational person would think "if it doesn't look good, don't vote for it." We're not dealing with rational people here. We're dealing with the internet, so many devs offer Steam keys in exchange for Greenlight votes, and many broken games have been Greenlit due to this slimy business practice. And let's not forget the plethora of faked trailers that plague even the AAA industry.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6s0Wpn1zmU

The attitude of many of these developers doesn't help, either.

 

Steam has a cancer of broken games. If we leave this unchecked, it will spread. I'm not saying it will kill Steam, but it will most definitely hurt it, and, in the end, the people who get burned the hardest are the consumers.

[Twilight Dirac 721]

I have learned to stop purchasing early access games on steam for this reason.  Generally speaking though, you have to treat Steam sort of like eBay, you can generally acquire things cheaper but at greater risk. If you exercise caution you will generally come out ahead.

 

My real problem with Steam is you must go through their client to run any of the games you purchase on their marketplace, and a great many that you purchase in stores or even on other sites like GamersGate.  Thus far this has not proven to be a problem as Steam is generally well run, but the potential for abuse is always there.

[VulpineTaco 525]

I have learned to stop purchasing early access games on steam for this reason.  Generally speaking though, you have to treat Steam sort of like eBay, you can generally acquire things cheaper but at greater risk. If you exercise caution you will generally come out ahead.

Steam is not like eBay. It is a storefront that can be easily monitored by Valve. God knows they have the money and the staff.