Steam in general

[ricky]

I feel haven's reception on steam could go well, especially if they don't monetize it through steam. Several games on steam are free, yet still have avenues for players to purchase/subscribe to content (see planetside 2 and realm of the mad God). Some players will hate the game, some will love it. At the end of the day, if 10000 people try haven, and only 1000 stick, that's still 1000 new members.

The one main problem I see with releasing haven on steam is the default client. It's come leaps and bounds this past year, but it's still sub optimal for the general population, especially as the introductory client to new players. Devs always say "why bother updating our client when the people use custom? We'd rather devote our time to content". While this is a perfectly understandable frame of mind, the default client is the first impression made on every new player of the game, and having an accessible, user friendly client is more important than having loads of content or activities. You simply can't access all the content a game has to offer if you don't know how

[shubla]

don't monetize it through steam

Do you understand that this is not an option?
If you put your game on steam, valve wants their cut of income.
That means your game must have some methods of players paying money via steam so valve can get their %.

[shubla]

I feel haven's reception on steam could go well, especially if they don't monetize it through steam. Several games on steam are free, yet still have avenues for players to purchase/subscribe to content (see planetside 2 and realm of the mad God). Some players will hate the game, some will love it. At the end of the day, if 10000 people try haven, and only 1000 stick, that's still 1000 new members.

The one main problem I see with releasing haven on steam is the default client. It's come leaps and bounds this past year, but it's still sub optimal for the general population, especially as the introductory client to new players. Devs always say "why bother updating our client when the people use custom? We'd rather devote our time to content". While this is a perfectly understandable frame of mind, the default client is the first impression made on every new player of the game, and having an accessible, user friendly client is more important than having loads of content or activities. You simply can't access all the content a game has to offer if you don't know how

Also I think that 10% of players sticking with the game like HnH is way too optimistic

[jorb]

I'm not sure I see how negative reviews on Steam matter. Worst case we'd get zero extra players from Steam, but so what?

I'm not in any rush to go there at present. Just sayin'.

[shubla]

Worst case we'd get zero extra players from Steam, but so what?

Then opportunities from steam would be long gone.
No second chance really.

[CTheRain]

I'm not sure I see how negative reviews on Steam matter. Worst case we'd get zero extra players from Steam, but so what?

I'm not in any rush to go there at present. Just sayin'.

People on steam including myself look directly at the reviews. Bad reviews will make the game get looked over. Most people won't even TRY the game out if its not positive.

yeah exactly what I thought ...
You have no clue.
stop being a noob and do some quests

Its not about being a noob. I did 3. I'd rather kms than do another quest. Its fucking boring. Walk 10 light years and talk to said tree that wants you to raid an ant hill. Nice now go talk to this other tree and give him marble. Now talk to another tree that's really far away who will tell you to talk to the other 2 trees and come back and tell him about your exploits. I couldn't even get a horse because I messed up my LP spending. (Can't see clovers) My fault entirely of course.

[jorb]

People on steam including myself look directly at the reviews. Bad reviews will make the game get looked over. Most people won't even TRY the game out if its not positive.

Point being that right now you can't even read bad reviews. The game has zero presence there, which 100% guarantees that it will get looked over. No one could even accidentally push the play button.

[MagicManICT]

I'm not sure I see how negative reviews on Steam matter. Worst case we'd get zero extra players from Steam, but so what?

People on steam including myself look directly at the reviews. Bad reviews will make the game get looked over. Most people won't even TRY the game out if its not positive.

The binary nature of ratings on Steam is total ass. Worst system ever. I'd rather at least have a "love," "hate," or "I don't care." When everyone and their dog ends up posting shit reviews just to put in their vote just adds to the spam.

[CTheRain]

I'm not sure I see how negative reviews on Steam matter. Worst case we'd get zero extra players from Steam, but so what?

People on steam including myself look directly at the reviews. Bad reviews will make the game get looked over. Most people won't even TRY the game out if its not positive.

The binary nature of ratings on Steam is total ass. Worst system ever. I'd rather at least have a "love," "hate," or "I don't care." When everyone and their dog ends up posting shit reviews just to put in their vote just adds to the spam.

We have the love, hate and IDC voting system. Its positive, negative and didn't vote. I do agree about the spam though. Someone with .1 hours played writes a review about how shitty the game is because the game client wasn't working or the servers were down. It will happen. Especially when the game is released on steam the influx of players will be pretty huge. Especially since some of us will be spamming it on reddit and 4chan.

[MagicManICT]

But there's no way to express that opinion. When you look at a 5 star system, most people will usually vote 1, 4, or 5 stars if they're not a professional journalist, which is more or less why Steam went with this method. However, there is a fairly good number of people that do use 2 and 3 stars in such a system as things aren't always a black and white, yes/no system. Many people realize they just had a bad experience and maybe someone will like what is being offered.

Thus, my suggestion to simplify it to 3 points. "Hate it, "Like it," "I don't care" or "I didn't like, but not horrible, either." Instead, if I do write a review for anyone to read, especially for anyone I have on my Steam friends list, what do I vote if I didn't care for the game but think they might enjoy it?

Then again, people have been saying this on Steam for years, so who am I to offer any better reasons as to why it is changed? I suppose the only solution would be to do something like boycott Steam for better distributors (like maybe GOG.com?) But them DRMs....