State of Steam

[Low Standards]

I started my forum use a few month ago when Starfield came out. What I noticed was insane. The forum community is openly hostile to anything considered negative. The moderators are even worse and almost border on insanity. It is a rough place to be. I been a Steam user since 2011 or early. I have over 400 games there and enjoy it. I am worried about the forum community though and I wonder if an almost perfect monopoly on the gaming community is why in 2024?

Does anyone else have a similar opinion? Maybe it is just me. How do you feel about a company who is beyond repercussion?

But more importantly how is this community?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

It depends how negative you want to be. If youre talking specifically about Starfield, there are some here who are playing it and liking it. No one here is going to ban you for an opinion especially a contructive one, but some might disagree and defend something they like. Community rules here, and we stick to them.

If you want to know how this community is, read through some threads and join in if you feel like it.

December 2023 General Discussion Thread

Store Sale Dates Steam: Steam VR Fest: Dec 4-11, Winter Sale: Dec 21 until Jan 4 Epic: The Game Awards Sale: Dec 7 to Dec 9, Holiday Sale: Dec 14 to Jan 4 GoG: Who knows? But here's a link to a PC Gamer article with GoG coupon codes for December Coming to Game Pass Spirit of the North (Cloud...

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December 2023 PCG Article Links and Discussion

https://www.pcgamer.com/the-25-most-wanted-games-as-revealed-today-in-pc-gaming-show-most-wanted/ Haven't read it yet. Just making the thread.

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I hardly ever post in Steam, so I couldnt tell you if its worse or the same. I would imagine it depends on the community around each game a lot.

 

[Low Standards]

Thank you. I was looking for people who may have experienced what I do there, but thank you anyway. I just wish this community was more active.

 

[Zloth]

I started my forum use a few month ago when Starfield came out. What I noticed was insane. The forum community is openly hostile to anything considered negative.

It all depends on the game and who's playing them. Time matters, too - they always get more toxic once sales show up.

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

I just wish this community was more active.

There aren't many places which successfully combine quantity and quality. Once a place gets big, it tends to attract the toxic troubadours who seek to destroy it.

Our forums here are new, almost 3 years old now, and growing slowly and steadily. We zap low quality posts and suspect posters as soon as we see them, which seems to work to keep rubbish and toxics out of the discussions.

How do you feel about a company who is beyond repercussion?

I'm well aware of the medium-term dangers of a de-facto monopoly, but most people prefer to have their games in one launcher, and also of course, the Steam store and client are far ahead of the competition at the moment. However, I don't think this is related to the experience you've had in their forums, I've seen toxic stuff in small forums and good stuff in large ones.

I read Steam posts whenever they show up in a search. My queries are almost never about the recent hyped games, so I don't see much trash.

Anyway, stick around and make us more active

 

[Low Standards]

Welcome to the forum



There aren't many places which successfully combine quantity and quality. Once a place gets big, it tends to attract the toxic troubadours who seek to destroy it.

Our forums here are new, almost 3 years old now, and growing slowly and steadily. We zap low quality posts and suspect posters as soon as we see them, which seems to work to keep rubbish and toxics out of the discussions.



I'm well aware of the medium-term dangers of a de-facto monopoly, but most people prefer to have their games in one launcher, and also of course, the Steam store and client are far ahead of the competition at the moment. However, I don't think this is related to the experience you've had in their forums, I've seen toxic stuff in small forums and good stuff in large ones.

I read Steam posts whenever they show up in a search. My queries are almost never about the recent hyped games, so I don't see much trash.

Anyway, syick around and make us more active

Nobody on this forum has attacked me yet with gotchas, or tried to goat me into an argument for me to get banned. Nobody name called me yet either. I don't understand. I am almost scared at this point. Is this a trick?

 

[Brian Boru]

Is this a trick?

Nope, just a place with Low Standards

 

[DXCHASE]

I don't understand. I am almost scared at this point.

What @Brian Boru was trying to say is that this forum gets spam bots posting very easily noticeable click-bait posts, clogging up the feed from posts made by you and I so we have an active mod community that jumps on them pretty quickly to keep these forums useful, unlike a lot of steam ones that you were mentioning. So dont worry, your post is gonna stay!

About steams forums and communities i have 0 interest in them or invested in them. Ill pop into the discussion sections to solve some of my questions, but i rarely, if ever, use forums on steam.

 

[Zloth]

I use them a bunch, for both getting and giving help - and just chatting about a game. One real nice thing about those forums is that there are always people around that are currently playing the game. (Well, unless it's a really old and unpopular one.)

 

[mjs warlord]

Looks like all the regulars are taking part in this thread so i might as well join you.
I have been a steam user for 20 years and have around 100 games in my account.
I dont take part in discussions anymore unless i know the answer to a question because it has become very toxic.

You regulars know i have a lifetime ban from satisfactory , 1 hr ban because somebody claimed i was abusive , a 1 day ban for talking about the first ban and then a lifetime ban because somebody claimed i was flaming. I tried to get the ban removed but got no result , steam say the games devs banned me and the devs say steam banned me. What really annoys me is the fact that i still look at the discussions page and see a certain bunch of players dishing out abuse that is very toxic and they get away with it , it seems like if your buddy buddy with the moderators you are immune from punishment.

I look at discussions pages when i plan on buying a new game and the things that some players say to each other are unbelievable and they get away with it so how can somebody ban you for talking about a ban.

I helped an indie guy debug a game and we sorted the last bug right at the end. I then did a complete run through right to the end and as it was late at night i know i was the first person to complete it. That said , lots of players reported bugs , missing items , tagged it unplayable. I posted that i had completed it and that i had help the indie guy. The abuse i got was not expected.

My rig only has a gtx 1080 in it and i have seen posts of players with better pc's than mine saying constant crashes , unplayable etc i will say do you want to know how it ends cos i done it. Thats when s**t comes my way.

If its a multi player game you can guarantee the abuse carries over to the games chat boxes

They are commonly known as KEYBOARD HEROS

 

[Inspireless Llama]

I really never use the steam forums, but the games that I play that do have an active community just gets post like "WHY DID I GET BANNED FROM THIS GAME" , or exactly the same question but then in Russian.

For questions and stuff I google alot, but for some reason I always end up on Reddit rather than on the steam forums. I don't know if they're better, but they hold all the answers as well.

If I ever end up on Steam, or on Reddit , I never post questions though. I"m just looking at posts from others to see if my question is in there. So I can't talk about how toxic they would be towards me . Even a google search like 'this and this sucks" will yield reddit results.

 

[ZedClampet]

I started my forum use a few month ago when Starfield came out. What I noticed was insane. The forum community is openly hostile to anything considered negative. The moderators are even worse and almost border on insanity. It is a rough place to be. I been a Steam user since 2011 or early. I have over 400 games there and enjoy it. I am worried about the forum community though and I wonder if an almost perfect monopoly on the gaming community is why in 2024?

Does anyone else have a similar opinion? Maybe it is just me. How do you feel about a company who is beyond repercussion?

But more importantly how is this community?

You likely know this, but the moderators on Steam are from the developers, not Valve. Valve only checks posts if someone reports them, and I think you get a message from Valve in your in-box.

But Steam forums can be good just depending on the game. In Starfield's case, apparently the people there are tired of the negativity surrounding the game, most of it over-the-top. I usually play non-AAA games, and the conversations are mostly pretty helpful and non-toxic. I just think there may be a lot of strong feelings surrounding Starfield.

As for Steam being a near monopoly, it really isn't. On PC you have the Windows store, which is actually used by about the same number of people as Steam and which sells tons of games. I know people who only buy games there. Then you have PC Game Pass, also by Microsoft. You have Epic, of course, which they claim is growing and has 15 percent of digital PC game sales (I doubt it, but that's what they say). And then you have the fact that a decent portion of the people on Steam actually bought the game they are playing somewhere else.

As for forums, there's always reddit. Of course, reddit is famous for being rather toxic. But there are a lot of people who use it.

Anyway, this is an example of how we disagree with each other here. Glad you found us, though. Hope you'll stick around and post more.

 

[Zloth]

Valve only checks posts if someone reports them, and I think you get a message from Valve in your in-box.

Yeah, eventually. Depending on how many moderators they have, it can be a long time before anyone looks at anything reported. It will take at least a few days, more likely a few weeks, and can even take months.

The staff they would need to pay to properly moderate Steam would be massive.