Valve has just instituted what sounds like a good change for Steam. Ahead of a Steam Discovery Update 2.0, which will change the Steam storefront and hopefully make the digital distributor a better place, it instituted a change that will require developers and publishers listing titles to actually show accurate screenshots taken from a finished copy of the game. Which is what they should have been doing all along. Of course, some people haven’t, with Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky being one of the most recent and egregious offenders. In theory, this rule is a good thing.
In practice, does Valve actually think it can pull this off. Seriously? Does the company not realize all the problems Steam has, ones it isn’t always addressing, and think it’s going to manage to properly patrol listings and ensure the images shown are indicative of the product people will be buying?
I mean, let’s look at how Valve has handled some other issues happening on Steam. One is the whole idea of fraudulent reviews. Sometimes, developers and publishers get fake reviews on the store. They’re typically obvious. Instead of putting in some actual work and investigation, Valve went with a sweeping decision this year. Reviews written by people who obtained the game via a key don’t count toward the overall review score. You can still see them and read them, but they don’t count toward the average.
Valve says this is to stop people who were given a key for free from unjustly influencing a game and tainting the overall review average. Except it affects everyone. Most of my Steam games I’ve acquired via bundles, directly from developer sites, the Humble store, Amazon, or Green Man Gaming. None of the reviews I leave from those keys count toward the score. Instead of properly addressing the problem, Valve went with the easiest technical solution.
And what about the video game item gambling? Valve started going after them after the whole CSGOLotto debacle and receiving lawsuits against the company for creating an environment where illegal gambling could flourish. It began sending out notices to wipe out the gambling sites using the Steam trading system to engage in unlawful activities. Sounds good, right?
Well, it was, until the Washington State Gambling Commission went after Steam for facilitating such activities with the Steam trading system. Suddenly, instead of agreeing that something might be wrong and in need of a change, it started pushing back and saying it isn’t breaking laws. It noted it makes no money from the CSGO trading system and won’t let people “cash out” any money they make on skins. Except, it is technically making money, since it is turning quite a profit from people originally acquiring those skins in the first place and knows people will spend more cash if they know there is a market of sorts. It’s handling the whole gambling thing, but also not really.
Plus, we’ve got to go back to Steam support in general, if we’re going to talk about Valve’s competency in any way. It can take days to get a proper resolution if you’re having an issue with Steam. Where other sites and distributors, like Humble, GOG, and Amazon can get back to you within the day, if not within a few hours, Valve practically takes forever. I had a payment issue with Humble the other day. I reported it at about 10pm at night, and it was fixed before 10am the next morning. I had an issue with Amazon last year, and it was resolved within an hour.
Valve isn’t a company that’s exactly known for being on the ball with Steam. It promises change and improvements. Instead, what do we get? Quick fixes and lackluster support. While the idea of accurate product listings is nice, it makes you wonder if Valve has the capacity to actually keep up with it.