Opinion Do you think Valve should pre-check storepages before they go up?

[Chairmanchuck]

So guys. Some other game on Steam just got a storepage.:


Ofc it uses unlicenced music, unlicenced images of stars, Clown Pepe Meme, defaming content etc.
I directly reported it.

But its not the first time that happens. It seems to happen every few weeks and some games with questionable content are even sold there. There is a game called Kamimachi Site, a hentai game which, compared to games with anime artstyles, has a clearly young teen that you can have sex with. Its being sold.

I personally think they should employ at least someone wading through the trash before a storepage gets online. That game I linked shouldnt even get a storepage. Stuff like Rape Day shouldnt get a storepage and stuff like Kamimachi Site should not be sold.

I am asking for a minimum of curation so that such hateful games wont even get any form of recognition.

 

[lashman]

yes

 

[Kthulhu]

It looks like on average 21 games were released on Steam per day in 2017. Assuming that hasn't gone up too high I don't think it's too much to ask for them to do a simple look over what the page says and tell the devs to change it.

Source for the average:

 

[Deleted member 113]

Yeah, I think they should have someone make a quick check before a game's page is published on the shop.

I'm all for giving developer's all the freedom and tools they can have, but unfortunately, as it became clear, there's always people who abuse this freedom.
And this just makes everyone look bad, including the platform and its users.

I'm not saying a particularly aggressive check, just a quick check to see if nothing too "gratuitously offensive" is featured.

 

[MJunioR]

Here's what Valve said regarding about this back when Rape Day happened:

There’s this issue that happens that we’re working to correct now where a developer or publisher will sign up for something, they’ll make a [store] page and that’ll go live, and then the code comes through and there’s an evaluation for the code—for the game itself. So there’s this step where the sign goes up—’coming soon,’ so to speak—and then there’s this process of actually looking at the game. We’re working to correct that now so that everything gets reviewed before anything goes up.

I think that this is a change that needs to come sooner than later. Hell, it's pretty bad that it hasn't been implemented yet - at least as far as we know.

It looks like on average 21 games were released on Steam per day in 2017. Assuming that hasn't gone up too high I don't think it's too much to ask for them to do a simple look over what the page says and tell the devs to change it.

Source for the average:

According to Valve themselves, this number increased a bit - here's what they said back in June last year. Thing is, as you said, even with that increase, we aren't asking much from them to do a review of titles that are submitted. Let's suppose that this cause a delay of one, two days to store pages go up - I think that this would be a price worthy paying in order to never see things like 'LGBTQ+ Test'.

 

[Nahkapukki]

Yeah. I'd like to see some curation. I hate the low effort money grabbing porno games almost as much as I hate the low effort money grabbing "funny title" games.

I love indie games and I think this is detrimental for the presentation of the good games. I missed ADOM release 'cause the main storepage was filled with drivel.

 

[Kthulhu]

Yeah. I'd like to see some curation. I hate the low effort money grabbing porno games almost as much as I hate the low effort money grabbing "funny title" games.

I love indie games and I think this is detrimental for the presentation of the good games. I missed ADOM release 'cause the main storepage was filled with drivel.

Hopefully the new experimental features can help some indie devs get some better exposure.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Absolutely. I think Valve should probably have a team of community managers that check out new games to make sure they're appropriate for Steam and be the primary people who interact with the community but it's not going to happen.

 

[uraizen]

Assuming it doesn't delay a game then I would be all for it. Picking out the obvious troll games wouldn't be hard ... I'd hope.

 

[Spamlynguist]

I'm all for it.

 

[gabbo]

Assuming it doesn't delay a game then I would be all for it. Picking out the obvious troll games wouldn't be hard ... I'd hope.

Even if it does delay a game, so be it. Yes, this would affect smaller indie titles moreso than major AAA games, but if it keeps the crap like this from getting a store page at all, then its worth it.

 

[Alextended]

Can't say I care. I can see how it might be of use to the average user so sure, whatever, but it makes little difference to me, my brain auto filters it all by now.

 

[uraizen]

Even if it does delay a game, so be it. Yes, this would affect smaller indie titles moreso than major AAA games, but if it keeps the crap like this from getting a store page at all, then its worth it.

How about regulars get a free pass then?

 

[Ge0force]

Yes they should. It's useless to allow store pages for games that won't be allowed anyway. It's pissing of people and damaging Valve's reputation.

 

[Alexandros]

Yes, supposedly they're working on it.

 

[Dandy]

The answer is yes. Valve can easily afford to hire someone whose only job is to check these things before they go live.

 

[Eferis]

I mean there are several people in this forum alone that check every page going up on their own and in their spare time for free! It wouldn't take much for Valve, a multi billion dollar company, to hire someone to do it.

So yeah, they should.

I'm available, Gaben Mr. Newell.

 

[BernardoOne]

They already do. They've done so for quite a while. The issue is that they don't check edits. But I can imagine checking every single edit would be a ungodly drain on resources.

 

[gabbo]

They already do. They've done so for quite a while. The issue is that they don't check edits. But I can imagine checking every single edit would be a ungodly drain on resources.

I'm sure there is a query they could run against their database and check against that and save time

 

[Swenhir]

21 a day seems like something that is doable with the kind of automation and tools Valve is known for. I'm all for it.

edit : I stand corrected, they already do. I wonder how many edits a day there are.

 

[RionaaM]

Yes, I agree. They should check for copyrighted or illegal materials, not quality. And they should always make sure devs upload the executables.