What Is Trolling? Steam Cracks Down on Troll Games

[Guest]

Valve updated Steam to make it easier to find or block specific content. It also defined what a troll game is and why it tries to keep them off Steam.

What Is Trolling? Steam Cracks Down on Troll Games : Read more

 

[jcaulley_74]

All these fancy features and Steam still can't remember my birthday after I've told it 200+ times.

 

[TJ Hooker]

All these fancy features and Steam still can't remember my birthday after I've told it 200+ times.

https://i.redd.it/8deappdvcik11.png

 

[bit_user]

Maybe they should just have a refund policy. It could be indexed to the amount of time since your first install. So, like 100% refund after 1 hour, 90% within 3 hours, 75% within 6 hours, 50% within 12 hours. If you re-purchase something after returning it, then the refund timescale is halved. This would be so that you could try an updated version claiming to fix a problem you previously experienced. So, you could test the "fix" with relatively little risk.

I feel like, between refunds, ratings, and comments, the system should be fairly self-moderating. There would be so little for a developer to gain by publishing bad games that most wouldn't even bother.

 

[BaRoMeTrIc]

All these fancy features and Steam still can't remember my birthday after I've told it 200+ times.

Why the hell does it always default to January 1st (current year). Are newborns regularly trying to download "dark souls?"
My finger gets tired scrolling to 1984 every times

 

[BulkZerker]

@bit_user steam does have a refund policy. It's full paid price back if you have played for less than 4hrs within 2 weeks of the purchase.

That's not what this is about though. This is about letting games on steam that hurt people's feelings. Having a game about shooting up a school is verboten! Having a game that shows bare breasts is verboten!
Think of the children.

 

[bigdragon]

First, I'm uncomfortable with this effort to define troll games because people can define it so differently. I think Valve is trying to go after barely-functional asset flips capitalizing on recent events, but their user community is going to target things they don't agree with. I thought curation was supposed to take care of this. Instead, it seems like mob rule may be getting an even bigger influence on Steam. This is not good. The next step is to police objectionable content. I don't want to see this snowball get rolling and hit that point.

FOR EXAMPLE, a fully functional, fandom-pleasing MLP fighting game will be attacked by the greater Steam community, but the bug-laden, RNG-fest Vermintide 2 gets a pass. The former actually works the way it was intended (although induces cringe), but the latter has no shortage of rage-induced flaming reddit posts about unobtainable items and duplicates due to terrible RNG.

Second, I'd like to see Steam's refund policy improved. There should be a time threshold set by the pricing of the game. The current time threshold is 2 hours (USA) regardless of price. Geometry Wars (inexpensive, instant action) is treated the same as Monster Hunter World (expensive, heavily cutscene-padded). That's not right. The refund mechanism really should be 1 hour for every $10 in price (round up). So Geometry wars would have a 1 hour refund period while MHW has a 6 to 7 hour refund period.

 

[caustin582]

Maybe they should just have a refund policy. It could be indexed to the amount of time since your first install. So, like 100% refund after 1 hour, 90% within 3 hours, 75% within 6 hours, 50% within 12 hours. If you re-purchase something after returning it, then the refund timescale is halved. This would be so that you could try an updated version claiming to fix a problem you previously experienced. So, you could test the "fix" with relatively little risk.

I feel like, between refunds, ratings, and comments, the system should be fairly self-moderating. There would be so little for a developer to gain by publishing bad games that most wouldn't even bother.

They already have a rather lenient refund policy; less than 2 hours of game time, or within 14 days of purchase.

 

[caustin582]

All these fancy features and Steam still can't remember my birthday after I've told it 200+ times.

Why the hell does it always default to January 1st (current year). Are newborns regularly trying to download "dark souls?"
My finger gets tired scrolling to 1984 every times

You only need to scroll down to 2000.

 

[Mr5oh]

My finger gets tired scrolling to 1984 every times

You only need to scroll down to 2000.

You guys are picking the same year every time, or an accurate year? I just fling the wheel, or touch screen and pick a year. Wherever it stops is good. One screen it could be 1915, the next it could be 1958. There is no consistency to it.

 

[aquielisunari]

Valve updated Steam to make it easier to find or block specific content. It also defined what a troll game is and why it tries to keep them off Steam.

What Is Trolling? Steam Cracks Down on Troll Games : Read more

We used to be able to go to a site and get the content we want. Now we have video players automatically gobbling our data, opening a smaller player even after we stop the first one that can't be closed. I don't want to play "close that popup if you can" just to read an article!!! Bills....

And now the beginner developer will have more scrutiny because of the 1% that are (censoreds). The 1% is sure different in the PC world and have just as much control. Cheaters have lost in court recently too.

 

[shrikecurse]

Dear Nathaniel - Steam and Valve have no right or business defining words of the english language - what is the point of your article? Steam and Valve can call anyone and anything trolling - why are you writing about Valves opinion of what is what? Are you their servant, spokeperson, PR guy, pushing the Valve idea of what a troll is, what trolling is, what the behaviour is etc etc etc! Where did you read its up to Valve to decide or weigh in????!!!! How did you come to the conclusion that their opinion is worth reporting, articles etc! And also why?

 

[aquielisunari]

Dear Nathaniel - Steam and Valve have no right or business defining words of the english language - what is the point of your article? Steam and Valve can call anyone and anything trolling - why are you writing about Valves opinion of what is what? Are you their servant, spokeperson, PR guy, pushing the Valve idea of what a troll is, what trolling is, what the behaviour is etc etc etc! Where did you read its up to Valve to decide or weigh in????!!!! How did you come to the conclusion that their opinion is worth reporting, articles etc! And also why?

A business has the right to refuse service to anybody. The word and actions that define troll is relevant to them. They are telling us but one definition of the word. One word that is relevant to the way they conduct business. Do they own the word troll? Nope. Are the trolls under the bridge affected by Steam defining what their trolls do? Nope. They defined but one definition of troll that is relevant to their business. Do you think Steam just decided to define a word? No. Gabe, who is the $1.5B Captain of this behemoth of a ship, was obviously affected by these trolls and decided to stop this.

Steam is worth over $4B and therefore changes that they make are substantial and their consumers need to be informed. Tom's understands this so they act accordingly.

The point is Steam has changed the way they do business and that will affect millions of consumers. A number of Tom's readers are also gamers so this change will affect the way they make decisions. Should Tom's and Anandtech stay quiet about such a substantial change to a $4,000,000,000 company? No. The fact that you feel otherwise indicates many things.

 

[Brian28]

Dear Nathaniel - Steam and Valve have no right or business defining words of the english language - what is the point of your article? Steam and Valve can call anyone and anything trolling - why are you writing about Valves opinion of what is what? Are you their servant, spokeperson, PR guy, pushing the Valve idea of what a troll is, what trolling is, what the behaviour is etc etc etc! Where did you read its up to Valve to decide or weigh in????!!!! How did you come to the conclusion that their opinion is worth reporting, articles etc! And also why?

They are not defining the word for anyone else. They are defining how they will enforce a business policy designed to prevent a particular problem. When dealing with a business, it's always good to know what is and is not allowed in their policy, so that any enforcement they have to do is applied in a fair and equitable manner.
Since many of us are gamers, and many gamers use Steam, it is relevant news worth reporting if Steam changes their policy to address an issue.

 

[derekullo]

Dear Nathaniel - Steam and Valve have no right or business defining words of the english language - what is the point of your article? Steam and Valve can call anyone and anything trolling - why are you writing about Valves opinion of what is what? Are you their servant, spokeperson, PR guy, pushing the Valve idea of what a troll is, what trolling is, what the behaviour is etc etc etc! Where did you read its up to Valve to decide or weigh in????!!!! How did you come to the conclusion that their opinion is worth reporting, articles etc! And also why?

A business has the right to refuse service to anybody. The word and actions that define troll is relevant to them. They are telling us but one definition of the word. One word that is relevant to the way they conduct business. Do they own the word troll? Nope. Are the trolls under the bridge affected by Steam defining what their trolls do? Nope. They defined but one definition of troll that is relevant to their business. Do you think Steam just decided to define a word? No. Gabe, who is the $1.5B Captain of this behemoth of a ship, was obviously affected by these trolls and decided to stop this.

Steam is worth over $4B and therefore changes that they make are substantial and their consumers need to be informed. Tom's understands this so they act accordingly.

The point is Steam has changed the way they do business and that will affect millions of consumers. A number of Tom's readers are also gamers so this change will affect the way they make decisions. Should Tom's and Anandtech stay quiet about such a substantial change to a $4,000,000,000 company? No. The fact that you feel otherwise indicates many things.

I believe you were just trolled on an article to define / crack down on trolls.

shrikecurse = troll