Community MetaSteam | November 2024 - Cheeki Breeki Intensifies

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,847
26,508
113
I hope Rebirth loses just to make Derrick angry.

In the end I really don't care who wins, well, that's a lie, I have a little bit of hope on Balatro, imagine a card game winning goty, it's a masterpiece of a game, but the audience isn't ready for Balatro to win goty.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,052
19,546
113
I think Erdtree being allowed is fine in principle, but then this needs to apply to all similarly sized DLC as well, now and in the future.
(Of course, then someone has to define/decide "similarly sized")
In general, I don't care about any of these awards at this point.

Been replaying Phantom Brave through the excellent PS5 release + the PC update and I'm confused about one thing on Steam Deck OLED. It seems to run perfectly handheld and docked on my monitor at 90fps outside of the hub. That seems to not go above 86ish regardless of what resolution or settings I use. I feel like I'm missing something here. Any idea Durante ?
We are currently looking into some Steam Deck reports. The problem might be related to the fact that this port uses OpenGL (and old OpenGL at that), which might not work remotely as well as it should on the Deck.
 

edin

Coffee, Controllers, etc
Sep 30, 2024
95
412
53
I think Erdtree being allowed is fine in principle, but then this needs to apply to all similarly sized DLC as well, now and in the future.
(Of course, then someone has to define/decide "similarly sized")
In general, I don't care about any of these awards at this point.

We are currently looking into some Steam Deck reports. The problem might be related to the fact that this port uses OpenGL (and old OpenGL at that), which might not work remotely as well as it should on the Deck.
Thanks for that. I'll keep it in mind when I cover the Deck version soon.
 

QFNS

Plays too many card games
Nov 18, 2018
1,290
3,121
113
The Erdtree DLC was clear lock IMO. No surprise there.

Everything else is completely as expected. Kinda surprised they didn't shoehorn in Dragon Age over Metaphor, but I'll take these results.
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
2,768
7,737
113
Mt. Whatever
But the DLC is a whole ass game.
Would anything change if it was a seperate .exe you download?
Well call me a cynical asshole then. Cuz I can't see it as anything but a re-skin and polishing up of the base games cut content.

Every single one tbh, I have been messing with settings for like 10 games in the past two weeks and I have been doing that more instead of playing
This too I guess. Call me an asshole again but this isn't a PC gaming problem, this is a you problem. You say you want to just boot up a game and go, but find yourself tinkering with EVERYTHING?

Not only that, but it's taking more time to tinker than to play? In what world? Game settings auto-detect so much nowadays too...

You're contradicting yourself or allowing your brain to be controlled by impulse.
 

Gelf

Junior Member
Apr 22, 2019
125
357
63
If people think any new content released in a given year as good enough to be nominated then I see no reason not to allow it. We're always going disagree on what's good anyway.

I haven't even bought the DLC yet but I kinda want it to win now for the amusement factor as it'll bother those who take these awards way too seriously the most.
 
OP
lashman

lashman

Dead & Forgotten
Sep 5, 2018
32,110
90,440
113

Steam is 'an unsafe place for teens and young adults': US senator warns Gabe Newell of 'more intense scrutiny' from the government if Valve doesn't take action against extremist content

US Senator Mark Warner comes less than a week after an ADL report accusing Steam of "normalizing hate and extremism in the gaming community."

Less than a week after the release of an ADL report accusing Steam of "normalizing hate and extremism in the gaming community," US Senator Mark Warren has sent a letter to Valve boss Gabe Newell asking what the company is doing to combat the rise of extremist content on the platform, and warning of further "scrutiny" from the government if Valve doesn't play ball.

"It has been brought to your attention before that extremist ideologies seem to find a home on Steam," Warner wrote in his letter (via The Verge). "In 2022, Valve received a Senate letter identifying nearly identical activity on your platform, and yet two years later it appears that Valve has chosen to continue a 'hands off'-type approach to content moderation that favors allowing some users to engage in sustained bouts of disturbing and violent rhetoric rather than ensure that all of its users can find a welcoming and safe environment across your platform."

The 2022 Senate letter referenced by Warner, written by US Senator Maggie Hassan, said Steam has "a significant presence of users displaying and espousing neo-Nazi, extremist, racial supremacist, misogynistic, and other hateful sentiments," and requested a detailed report on what Valve is doing about it. Warner's letter is quite similar in that regard, acknowledging that Steam does have an online conduct policy and subscriber agreement, but questioning how committed Valve is to actually enforcing it.

"As Black Friday and the holiday buying season approaches, the American public should know that not only is Steam an unsafe place for teens and young adults to purchase and play online games, but also that, absent a change in Valve's approach to user moderation and the type of behavior that it welcomes on its platform, Steam is playing a clear role in allowing harmful ideologies to spread and take root among the next generation," Warner wrote.
Warner also warned, somewhat ominously, that if Valve does not adopt industry-standard moderation practices—whatever that means—it will "face more intense scrutiny from the federal government for its complicity in allowing hate groups to congregate and engage in activities that undoubtedly puts Americans at risk."

There's an aspect of irony to the complaint: Elon Musk turned Twitter into a haven for racism and far-right rhetoric, after all, and he's being rewarded with a high seat in the incoming US government. It's also not clear what the US government could do to force Valve's hand: "Hate speech" in the US is broadly protected under the First Amendment, and as a privately held company Valve is not subject to pressure from external shareholders who might not be comfortable with its permissive attitude.

At the same time, questions about Valve's content moderation policies have persisted over the years, and it does sometimes seem inclined to let the monkeys run the circus. We said in a 2018 report on Valve's "hate group problem" that Steam's problem isn't so much the absence of rules as the failure to enforce them; Valve updated Steam's community rules in 2023 with a more detailed breakdown of what is and isn't allowed, but enforcement (or lack thereof) remains an issue.

Warner's letter concludes with a series of 10 questions, several of them multi-part, covering broad topics like enforcement practices to more granular stuff including internal definitions of terms, the number of content moderators working at Steam, and what commitments it will make "to ensure that it has meaningfully curbed white supremacist, antisemitic, terroristic, Nazi, homophobic, transphobic, misogynist, and hateful content by November 15, 2025."

The Senator has asked for a response by December 13. I've reached out to Valve for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,052
19,546
113
KUNITSU GAMI MENTIONED!!

I feel like i'm the only person that has played this game

A friend of mine IRL played it.
I think this is the only game in the past year that I discussed more in person than online :p

Well call me a cynical asshole then. Cuz I can't see it as anything but a re-skin and polishing up of the base games cut content.
But it has more content than the majority of $60 (70? 80? whatever) games. I generally don't see "more content" as something to aspire to for games in most circumstances (see: Atlus), but "content" is not a coherent argument not to allow Erdtree.
 

Arc

MetaMember
Sep 19, 2020
2,981
11,244
113
KUNITSU GAMI MENTIONED!!

I feel like i'm the only person that has played this game

I played it and it would make my top 10 list for the year. Shame it flopped, but the gameplay and setting are super niche so I'm not surprised. Also I played it on Game Pass but would have bought it on Steam so :shrugblob:
 
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Madventure

The Angel of Deaf
Nov 17, 2018
1,669
5,752
113
I mean, my understanding for all of the forums was if it's for a game moderation was entirely in the hands of the developer and not in hands of valve and they only stepped in if things got wildly out of hand (IE like mass reports whatever)

With like groups or user pages if no one actually reports them or if they fit into the arbitrary "What's allowed" guidelines then it just gets left alone, the "WOKE DETECTORS" or whatever pages were all going to get shut down but trimmed away like 95% of their stuff besides what was deemed least offensive which is why they're still around

On the otherhand when you only have like 2 interns looking at like 50,000 reports coming inevery 30 minutes it's kind of a duh statement that their system isn't really that great for steam
 
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kio

MetaMember
Apr 19, 2019
1,614
5,170
113
I don't care who wins as long as FF7 loses.

Unlike last year, I'm not invested in any game or genre represented. The closest thing to a game I like would be Erdtree but a) didn't play it; b) I'm super fatigued of the genre; c) not really sure how I feel about dlc being eligible, no matter how big or how good it is.

edit: on second thought I'll be rooting for Balatro
 

Durante

I <3 Pixels
Oct 21, 2018
4,052
19,546
113
I have the game so I assume I can invite more people, I need to check how to actually do that though

EDIT: done, you should receive it on Steam
Thanks a lot!

(In case anyone else runs into this: I didn't get a notification in the client, I also did not get an email. However, by going directly to
Code:
https://store.steampowered.com/account/playtestinvites
I was able to see / access the invite)
 

Hektor

Autobahnraser
Nov 1, 2018
5,980
16,587
113
I played it and it would make my top 10 list for the year. Shame it flopped, but the gameplay and setting are super niche so I'm not surprised. Also I played it on Game Pass but would have bought it on Steam so :shrugblob:
I like you :HappyKawakami:

A friend of mine IRL played it.
I think this is the only game in the past year that I discussed more in person than online :p
I hope you appreciate them the way they deserve

Ekelhaft
 

Lashley

My ho ho hoes 🎅


Hype for the demo! This will probably be the final puzzle piece for me to decide getting the game day 1 or not :blobeyes:
PC gets a demo too?
 

QFNS

Plays too many card games
Nov 18, 2018
1,290
3,121
113
I don't care who wins as long as FF7 loses.

Unlike last year, I'm not invested in any game or genre represented. The closest thing to a game I like would be Erdtree but a) didn't play it; b) I'm super fatigued of the genre; c) not really sure how I feel about dlc being eligible, no matter how big or how good it is.

edit: on second thought I'll be rooting for Balatro
Balatro winning would cause a meltdown among a certain type of "gamer" so I would love to see it.

I mean Balatro is going to be ranked pretty damn high on my personal list so I'd be happy seeing it rewarded with mass acceptance but I feel like the Doritos awards aren't gonna ever give that award to a small game like Balatro. (Vampire Survivors was robbed, is what I'm saying)
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,289
11,736
113
Yeah not sure how to feel about expansions being nominated for GOTY. Ongoing sure, best expansion sure and so on, but GOTY is about celebrating the best new game.

Since I arrange the GOTY voting here, will people mad at me if erdtree isn't elligble?


  • it is a failure of the AAA games industry that they don't have enough quality games every year that anyone who would even think about adding DLC's or Remasters would get laughed out of the room
  • it is a failure of the Gaming Press and Dorito Pope, that they don't care enough about quality smaller games to add them to the GOTY category.
 

yuraya

MetaMember
May 4, 2019
2,727
6,348
113
Swen and Larian must be so pissed they couldn't/didn't make a large BG3 expansion.

That shit would have easily won goty lol.

Honestly I hope this Keighley change pushes more devs to work on big expansions.

Never been a fan of devs abandoning games so early even if it is financially the correct thing to do.

A small handful of devs out there like CDPR, FromSoft and Bethesda have proven time n time again how important big expansions are to games. And how supporting them for years after launch is the right thing to do. I mean even some indie devs out there still do it too. This year have had some banger Stardew and Vampire Survivor updates. Even small changes to popular indie games make a giant difference long after release.
 
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Derrick01

MetaMember
Oct 6, 2018
1,214
3,399
113
The only surprise I had with TGA was wukong which I can't help but feel was cynically done to get china to tune in more. It's the lowest rated game ever to be nominated and when you look at the media reviews for it it's a ton of average scores. I have NO idea how it got nominated if it was legit.

The DLC would have surprised me a month ago but they basically ran damage control by "reminding" everyone that it's eligible. Funny how they never did that for any other expansion in any other year. Phantom Liberty and the xenoblade 3 DLC can eat shit I guess, or hire Miyazaki to attach his name to them next time.

Anyway I'm happy to see rebirth tied for most nominations. I don't think it will win goty (still think astro will) but it has a great shot at music and performance (briana is a saint and deserves it)
 
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Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
1,017
4,739
113
It’s interesting to see the debate over DLC and GOTY qualification.

I’ve always had an extremely lax attitude on the subject in that the best experiences released each year come in all shapes & sizes.

Hell even Early Access releases find their way into my Top 10 lists with surprising regularity.

There’s an EA title I’m strongly considering for personal GOTY this time out for example. Along with a couple others I can’t imagine ignoring as well.

That’s just me though. I understand that more pro outlets are obliged to more rigorous rulesets.
 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,289
11,736
113
EA wants me to resub to SWTOR so that I could save my character name from being possibly taken over.

On one hand, I haven't subbed for the game since it came out
On the other hand, IT'S MINE!
On one foot, hats down to anyone claiming my unique username.