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[Steam] April showers bring May Birthdays

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Posts

  • XeddicusXeddicus Registered User regular
    From the high to the low: the job offer may be rescinded. They cannot confirm my education. Without it, there is nothing left for me to do.

    They cannot as in the school exploded with all records inside or someone/something is dropping the ball and they're sitting somewhere ready to be confirmed but aren't being?

  • jclastjclast Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    I want someone to dig deep on that engineering response. I certainly don't see any GitHub links there. What are the chances said code is actually on GitHub?

    Also just because something is open source doesn't automatically make it okay for you to do it.
    We use a tracking pixel (tracking.js) for our Support-A-Creator program so we can pay creators. We also track page statistics.

    No idea why they didn't link it, but you can read up on tracking.js (assuming there aren't multiple projects by that name.
    The launcher sends a hardware survey (CPU, GPU, and the like) at a regular interval as outlined in our privacy policy(see the “Information We Collect or Receive” section). You can find the code here.

    I mean, it's feasible that a thing could be designed this way, but how often is the average user updating their hardware? Once a year? Twice? While I prefer Steam's method of asking if it's cool for them to do a hardware survey I can't fault Epic for making it automatic and putting the terms in the EULA. I don't like it, but I understand it.
    The UDP traffic highlighted in this post is a launcher feature for communication with the Unreal Editor. The source of the underlying system is available on github.

    There's a lot of stuff on github. Without a link to a specific project this response had may as well be "yo, we totally got a really, really smart dev to write our stuff. I promise."
    The majority of the launcher UI is implemented using web technology that is being rendered by Chromium (which is open source). The root certificate and cookie access mentioned above is a result of normal web browser start up.

    I, too, like to pad things out with unnecessary sections. While Chromium is open source, that isn't terribly relevant here. Lots of bad stuff is open source. Lots of good stuff is open source. And the fact that it's open source means that Epic may very well have forked the project and are running their own version.
    The launcher scans your active processes to prevent updating games that are currently running. This information is not sent to Epic.

    I believe the first part (Steam seems to do this, too though their version seems to be to not update anything if a game is running but let the user override on a case-by-case basis. I don't believe the second part. Knowing what else their users are running seems like exactly the sort of telemetry somebody running a new storefront would want - especially if they eventually get to say "less than X% of our users actively run Steam side-by-side with the Epic client!"
    We only import your Steam friends with your explicit permission. The launcher makes an encrypted local copy of your localconfig.vdf Steam file. However information from this file is only sent to Epic if you choose to import your Steam friends, and then only hashed ids of your friends are sent and no other information from the file.

    I believe that this is how they do it but I have no idea why they would do it this way when there are easier API hooks out there for it. Also, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what Epic would want with hashed friend ids. The fact that they're hashed should make them useless to anybody but Valve/Steam.
    Epic is controlled by Tim Sweeney. We have lots of external shareholders, none of whom have access to customer data.

    I struggle to see the relevance of this bit as well. It is and should be standard that shareholders don't have access to customer data. Just because I hold stock in a prior employer doesn't mean that I get to look through their internal records; it just means that I'm allowed to sell their stock when I decide it's worth the hassle to do so.
    Daniel Vogel
    VP of Engineering
    Epic Games Inc.

    I'm not sure who else I'd want to reassure me that the Epic Games Launcher isn't spyware, but I don't feel great about this VP's response. It feels very much like it was written if not by lawyers then with a swarm of them wordsmithing after the fact.

    camo_sig2.png
  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    I don't want a company that is 40% owned by Tencent to have access to any of my data whatsoever.

  • TeeManTeeMan BrainSpoon Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    @jclast

    Edit: hmm hope that image is attached to this, posting from my phone so I apologise if it's wonky :smile:

    TeeMan on
    steam_sig.png
  • SpoitSpoit *twitch twitch* Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Backlog Challenge week 2 bonuses:
    • Something Old: finish your oldest (unfinished (finish-able)) game (2 points)
    • Something New: finish your most recent (finish-able) game
    • Something Gifted: finish a game that was gifted to you by someone else
    • Something Blu: take a screenshot of a dozen(s) of something (that isn't just a number in your inventory)
    • Pixie Approved: take a picture of something pink and/or pixie-ish
    • https://twitter.com/CanYouPetTheDog : pet the dog (or other animal)
    • Good water in this game: take a picture of (good) water

    EDIT: oldest/newest by acquisition date, not by release date
    EDIT2: skipping those that are disqualified by the other rules

    Spoit on
    steam_sig.png
  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    I finished the oldest unfinished game in my backlog a few days ago. It just felt right to do it. Sweet!

  • GuildNavGuildNav Registered User regular
    Antoshka wrote: »
    Just throwing my two cents (Kiwibucks, they're called) in here, but as a developer - the user interface for DF may be appalling, but the underlying mechanisms of the game itself are complete insanity. It's absurdly complex - and the systems work together in some of the most odd ways - but they consistently work together. In what other game does the patch note
    Cats dying for no reason - alcohol poisoning?
    come up, and it turns out the reason is that the Dwarfs were spilling beer in the bar, the cats were licking themselves, getting drunk, and have their alcohol tolerance for body weight set too low, and end up dying as a result?

    I agree completely. For all the insanity of their depth, things are logical once you suss out how and why it works.

    That doesn't change the fact that Squad Management is so badly designed, I think if you hired a team to conceptualize how Squad Management could be done in the most cumbersome manner possible without being impossible - they'd still fail to invent something as awful as Toady's solution.

    That's fine for a game running off donations off your website. Releasing it on Steam and charging for it? Eh... as many fortresses as I've been though, I'd still give it a qualified thumbs down. It's just not something I would recommend to anyone who isn't a hardcore fan of colony management sims.

  • KetarKetar Come on upstairs we're having a partyRegistered User regular
    It was literally the third game that I purchased after the Orange Box, and I bought it exactly 10 years ago as of tomorrow.

    Which is probably the best possible indication that I will never overcome the backlog. But it feels good to make a big dent here and there.

  • EvmaAlsarEvmaAlsar Birmingham, EnglandRegistered User regular
    Julian Gollop sent out an announcement to pledges of his new x-com type game Phoenix Point this week that it will exclusively be hosted on the Epic storefront for the entire first year of release, and that pledges will get DLC for free for this first year.

    Also that if anyone is disappointed by this they will be issuing refunds.

    I mean, it's Julian Gollop, and he's making a newer, betterer X-COM type game, which is easily my favourite game franchise ever.

    But I get several automated emails each week from Epic asking me to input my 2-step authentication code after I've tried to log in from a different part of the world in the middle of the night. Again.

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    Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
    Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    EvmaAlsar wrote: »
    Julian Gollop sent out an announcement to pledges of his new x-com type game Phoenix Point this week that it will exclusively be hosted on the Epic storefront for the entire first year of release, and that pledges will get DLC for free for this first year.

    Also that if anyone is disappointed by this they will be issuing refunds.

    I mean, it's Julian Gollop, and he's making a newer, betterer X-COM type game, which is easily my favourite game franchise ever.

    But I get several automated emails each week from Epic asking me to input my 2-step authentication code after I've tried to log in from a different part of the world in the middle of the night. Again.

    Frustration about this situation is being compounded by the fact that I don't seem to be receiving their communication about it. :(

    Lt. Iolo's First Day
    Steam profile.
    Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
  • -Loki--Loki- Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining. Registered User regular
    I ended up deleting my Epic account. Backers and people who pre ordered will still get their Steam/GoG game of choice after the 1 year. It's fucking frustrating that the people that got them to the point where Epic was interested in them are being cast aside, but it is what it is. If you want the game and don't want the Epic launcher, it's still the best deal to wait the year out. The game will very likely launch at full price on Steam/GoG, and you get the DLC they make year 1 for free if you wait it out.

    The biggest issue I had was a Snapshot staff basically saying 'well every single backer and pre orderer could issue a refund and we'd still be in the black so nyah'. It wasn't a great move if they want to foster some trust and good will in a new community.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Even more justification that I have a self imposed price limit, and am a subscriber to r/patientgamers

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

  • jclastjclast Registered User regular
    TeeMan wrote: »
    @jclast

    Edit: hmm hope that image is attached to this, posting from my phone so I apologise if it's wonky :smile:

    Works for me, and thank you very much! :)

    camo_sig2.png
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    Spoit wrote: »
    Backlog Challenge week 2 bonuses:

    What a wonderful Twitter account.

  • KalnaurKalnaur I See Rain . . . Centralia, WARegistered User regular
    Jazz wrote: »
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

    Every time someone says a phrase like this and I have zero idea who they are, I have to go look them up. Turns out the reason I don't know him is because I didn't play more than 20 minutes of the original X-Com, and the only other game I've played that he's worked on is Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

    It feels a little odd not knowing who (________) is when you folks talk about them, but then again, when their entire library of developed games only overlap my interests at one or two points, it makes it easier.

    I make art things! deviantART: Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
  • HiT BiTHiT BiT 🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man's Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Jiminy fucking Christmas
    Developing: Epic Games Launcher appears to collect your steam friends & play history

    ...

    But I tried to replicate those and found out that Epic Games Launcher on start up searches for Steam install
    and proceeds to get list of files in your Steam Cloud (this includes mostly game saves for every user that has logged in on your PC)

    Steam Cloud is stored under userdata\[account id]\ if you wanna check

    It will also create encrypted copy of config\localconfig.vdf.
    This file contains your steam friends, their name history (groups you're part of, are considered "friends").

    It seems friends might be used for friends suggestions, but I don't even use that feature and it collects more than that.
    A member from another forum I hang around, with far higher technical knowledge than I will ever have, checked this on his PC. He found out that the Epic Launcher would look for files once every 1 minute. Within a time frame of just 4 minutes, the launcher performed more than 2 milion actions:

    pLNstyb.jpg

    Most if those actions were either data deliveries or reads of files which would include the "Steam" key word. That included files from a game he is planning to release on Steam or files from the web browser in case he had previously visited Steam.

    HiT BiT on
  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Kalnaur wrote: »
    Jazz wrote: »
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

    Every time someone says a phrase like this and I have zero idea who they are, I have to go look them up. Turns out the reason I don't know him is because I didn't play more than 20 minutes of the original X-Com, and the only other game I've played that he's worked on is Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

    It feels a little odd not knowing who (________) is when you folks talk about them, but then again, when their entire library of developed games only overlap my interests at one or two points, it makes it easier.

    That's fair enough. I have some similar examples :)

    He does have quite a legacy; he pretty much single-handedly revolutionised turn-based strategy games multiple times. Rebelstar, Laser Squad and X-COM were milestones. Obviously the latter is the most famous one.

    Laser Squad is actually still my fave of his. I loved that game back in the day.

    Jazz on
  • KalnaurKalnaur I See Rain . . . Centralia, WARegistered User regular
    HiT BiT wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Jiminy fucking Christmas
    Developing: Epic Games Launcher appears to collect your steam friends & play history

    ...

    But I tried to replicate those and found out that Epic Games Launcher on start up searches for Steam install
    and proceeds to get list of files in your Steam Cloud (this includes mostly game saves for every user that has logged in on your PC)

    Steam Cloud is stored under userdata\[account id]\ if you wanna check

    It will also create encrypted copy of config\localconfig.vdf.
    This file contains your steam friends, their name history (groups you're part of, are considered "friends").

    It seems friends might be used for friends suggestions, but I don't even use that feature and it collects more than that.
    A member from another forum I hang around, with far higher technical knowledge than I will ever have, checked this on his PC. He found out that the Epic Launcher would look fo files once every 1 minute. Within a time frame of just 4 minutes, the launcher performed more than 2 milion actions:

    pLNstyb.jpg

    Most if those actions were either data deliveries or reads of files which would include the "Steam" key word. That included files from a game he is planning to release on Steam or files from the web browser in case he had visited Steam.

    Getting a "Single White Female" vibe off Epic's obsession with Steam . . .

    I make art things! deviantART: Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
  • KarozKaroz Registered User regular
    Jazz wrote: »
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

    In the end, if given the chance, we all just turn into Mr. Krabbs.

  • Steel AngelSteel Angel Registered User regular
    Kalnaur wrote: »
    Jazz wrote: »
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

    Every time someone says a phrase like this and I have zero idea who they are, I have to go look them up. Turns out the reason I don't know him is because I didn't play more than 20 minutes of the original X-Com, and the only other game I've played that he's worked on is Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

    It feels a little odd not knowing who (________) is when you folks talk about them, but then again, when their entire library of developed games only overlap my interests at one or two points, it makes it easier.

    To be fair a lot of of the folks that get name dropped have had long periods where they didn't have big hits. Gollop doesn't have much that is venerated after the original X-Com/UFO.

    There are also some folks that made classic games that then transitioned to non-development/design positions for a while e.g. Brian Fargo becoming a producer of PC RPGs for a while after having had a more hands on role for Bard's Tale and Wasteland.

    I only know some of these names because I read about some of their games in gaming magazines back when i was still mostly a console gamer in my early teens or my older stepbrother was a fan of some of the classic PC games while I was still too young to really get into them.

    Big Dookie wrote: »
    I found that tilting it doesn't work very well, and once I started jerking it, I got much better results.

    Steam Profile
    3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    Kalnaur wrote: »
    HiT BiT wrote: »
    Raiden333 wrote: »
    Jiminy fucking Christmas
    Developing: Epic Games Launcher appears to collect your steam friends & play history

    ...

    But I tried to replicate those and found out that Epic Games Launcher on start up searches for Steam install
    and proceeds to get list of files in your Steam Cloud (this includes mostly game saves for every user that has logged in on your PC)

    Steam Cloud is stored under userdata\[account id]\ if you wanna check

    It will also create encrypted copy of config\localconfig.vdf.
    This file contains your steam friends, their name history (groups you're part of, are considered "friends").

    It seems friends might be used for friends suggestions, but I don't even use that feature and it collects more than that.
    A member from another forum I hang around, with far higher technical knowledge than I will ever have, checked this on his PC. He found out that the Epic Launcher would look fo files once every 1 minute. Within a time frame of just 4 minutes, the launcher performed more than 2 milion actions:

    pLNstyb.jpg

    Most if those actions were either data deliveries or reads of files which would include the "Steam" key word. That included files from a game he is planning to release on Steam or files from the web browser in case he had visited Steam.

    Getting a "Single White Female" vibe off Epic's obsession with Steam . . .

    Yep, I think this is the nail for me. I love Unreal Engine and using it to mess around with development, but Unity is just as good and I really don't need the Epic Launcher installed anymore. That the Engineering Dev came out and said 'None of this info is sent to Epic' is unbelievable, and not in a hyperbolic way. Like I don't think there's a single logical explanation for me to believe that statement after seeing all the evidence against it.

  • bloodatonementbloodatonement Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    bloodatonement on
    Zdy0pmg.jpg
    Steam ID: Good Life
  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    I mean they hired the guy who made Steam Spy

    I did not know that, that makes this all hilariously transparent.

  • MugsleyMugsley DelawareRegistered User regular
    Hoooooly Shiiiiit
    Exapunks is $14.99 at Chrono.gg today.

    #temptation

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Kalnaur wrote: »
    Jazz wrote: »
    It makes it even sadder when it's a legendary dev like Julian Gollop. Sigh.

    Every time someone says a phrase like this and I have zero idea who they are, I have to go look them up. Turns out the reason I don't know him is because I didn't play more than 20 minutes of the original X-Com, and the only other game I've played that he's worked on is Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

    It feels a little odd not knowing who (________) is when you folks talk about them, but then again, when their entire library of developed games only overlap my interests at one or two points, it makes it easier.

    To be fair a lot of of the folks that get name dropped have had long periods where they didn't have big hits. Gollop doesn't have much that is venerated after the original X-Com/UFO.

    There are also some folks that made classic games that then transitioned to non-development/design positions for a while e.g. Brian Fargo becoming a producer of PC RPGs for a while after having had a more hands on role for Bard's Tale and Wasteland.

    I only know some of these names because I read about some of their games in gaming magazines back when i was still mostly a console gamer in my early teens or my older stepbrother was a fan of some of the classic PC games while I was still too young to really get into them.

    Your first two paragraphs I totally agree with. A lot of those guys are still in the industry but aren't the leads on defining modern classics any more.

    I only make that disclaimer about your first two paragraphs because my own experience was probably a little closer to your older stepbrother's. :)

  • CoffeyCoffey Terre Haute, IndianaRegistered User regular
    Just wanted y'all to know, that Two Point Hospital is free to play this weekend if you want to check it out.

    76561197967491341.png
  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    This is his revenge against Valve.

    He's gonna get that damn info. One way or another.

    Pokemon GO: 7113 6338 6875/ FF14: Buckle Landrunner /Steam Profile
  • IsornIsorn Registered User regular
    I was talking in chat about having bought a new car. It made my bank account a little sad but this somehow led to chat conspiring against me.
    x4hnz8eg6b04.png

    Thank you so much @destroyah87. Hellblade looks really good. <3<3

  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    Destroyah is a brave man, lesser people have been killed by trying to gaze into the abyss of Isorn's game list.

    Steam: Stormwatcher | PSN: Stormwatcher33 | Switch: 5961-4777-3491
    camo_sig2.png
  • Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    I beat the first game of the challenge! @spoit!

    Far Cry 5! What an ending, not sure how I feel on that one right now to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed the game but it sits well in my "open-world-Ubisoft-formula" schtick so there was little doubt I would enjoy it. Sure the stupid capture mechanics were annoying me a little but they were thankfully few and far between. I can see myself playing this for a while yet with side missions here and there to clear up and collectibles still to find. Not to mention the DLC stuff to begin yet. That will have to wait as I gotta finish other games first.

    I have no idea how to submit it for the challenge but it's about 50 hours long and I should get another 50 bonus points for the fucking ending. :P

  • FawstFawst The road to awe.Registered User regular
    Mugsley wrote: »
    Hoooooly Shiiiiit
    Exapunks is $14.99 at Chrono.gg today.

    #temptation

    It's sooooo goooood! I got it for a dollar more during the Winter Sale, and it was worth it (even if I got stuck and haven't gone back since). I should probably jump back into it, because it's really great.

  • IsornIsorn Registered User regular
    https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1808664240333155775
    User Reviews Revisited

    Some time ago we made some changes to how we presented the User Reviews for games, and their resulting Review Score. We talked about those changes in this blog post. As we describe in that post, we want to ensure that players who've played a game can voice their opinions about why other people should or shouldn't buy the game, and that our summary of those opinions into a single Review Score should represent the likelihood that a future purchaser will be happy with their purchase.

    Since that post, we've continued to listen to feedback from both players and developers. It's clear to us that players value reviews highly, and want us to ensure they're accurate and trustworthy. Developers understand that they're valuable to players, but want to feel like they're being treated fairly. We've also spent a bunch of time building analysis tools to help us better understand what's happening in the reviews across all titles on Steam. With that feedback and data in hand, we think we're ready to make another change.

    That change can be described easily: we're going to identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score.


    But while easy to say, it raises a bunch of questions, so let's dig into the details. First, what do we mean by an off-topic review bomb? As we defined back in our original post, a review bomb is where players post a large number of reviews in a short period of time, aimed at lowering the Review Score of a game. We define an off-topic review bomb as one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game, and hence not something that should be added to the Review Score.

    Obviously, there's a grey area here, because there's a wide range of things that players care about. So how will we identify these off-topic review bombs? The first step is a tool we've built that identifies any anomalous review activity on all games on Steam in as close to real-time as possible. It doesn't know why a given game is receiving anomalous review activity, and it doesn't even try to figure that out. Instead, it notifies a team of people at Valve, who'll then go and investigate. We've already run our tool across the entire history of reviews on Steam, identifying many reasons why games have seen periods of anomalous review activity, and off-topic review bombs appear to only be a small number of them.

    Once our team has identified that the anomalous activity is an off-topic review bomb, we'll mark the time period it encompasses and notify the developer. The reviews within that time period will then be removed from the Review Score calculation. As before, the reviews themselves are left untouched - if you want to dig into them to see if they're relevant to you, you'll still be able to do so. To help you do that, we've made it clear when you're looking at a store page where we've removed some reviews by default, and we've further improved the UI around anomalous review periods.


    Finally, we've also enabled you to opt out of this entirely, if that's your preference - there's now a checkbox in your Steam Store options where you can choose to have off-topic review bombs still included in all the Review Scores you see.

    While we're working on some other features around User Reviews, we thought this one was worth shipping by itself. As always, if you have thoughts or concerns, feel free to voice them in the comments below.

  • KoopahTroopahKoopahTroopah The koopas, the troopas. Philadelphia, PARegistered User regular
    Curating games, bad.
    Curating reviews, good.

    Gabe, what drugs are you on buddy? Granted I like (really like) this change, I would think that curating the actual store is more important.

  • Undead ScottsmanUndead Scottsman Registered User regular
    edited March 2019
    Instead, it notifies a team of people at Valve, who'll then go and investigate.

    Holy fucking shit, that took Valve 16 years to figure out. :razz:

    Undead Scottsman on
  • Dr. ChaosDr. Chaos Post nuclear nuisance Registered User regular
    Big Classy wrote: »
    I beat the first game of the challenge! @spoit!

    Far Cry 5! What an ending, not sure how I feel on that one right now to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed the game but it sits well in my "open-world-Ubisoft-formula" schtick so there was little doubt I would enjoy it. Sure the stupid capture mechanics were annoying me a little but they were thankfully few and far between. I can see myself playing this for a while yet with side missions here and there to clear up and collectibles still to find. Not to mention the DLC stuff to begin yet. That will have to wait as I gotta finish other games first.

    I have no idea how to submit it for the challenge but it's about 50 hours long and I should get another 50 bonus points for the fucking ending. :P
    Hey now, you're not done yet.

    *motions to New Dawn*

    Pokemon GO: 7113 6338 6875/ FF14: Buckle Landrunner /Steam Profile
  • Big ClassyBig Classy Registered User regular
    Dr. Chaos wrote: »
    Big Classy wrote: »
    I beat the first game of the challenge! @spoit!

    Far Cry 5! What an ending, not sure how I feel on that one right now to be honest. I thoroughly enjoyed the game but it sits well in my "open-world-Ubisoft-formula" schtick so there was little doubt I would enjoy it. Sure the stupid capture mechanics were annoying me a little but they were thankfully few and far between. I can see myself playing this for a while yet with side missions here and there to clear up and collectibles still to find. Not to mention the DLC stuff to begin yet. That will have to wait as I gotta finish other games first.

    I have no idea how to submit it for the challenge but it's about 50 hours long and I should get another 50 bonus points for the fucking ending. :P
    Hey now, you're not done yet.

    *motions to New Dawn*

    Don't own it yet. But I am excited to see how that ties in to this, I know of the two main characters ties.

  • IoloIolo iolo Registered User regular
    Instead, it notifies a team of people at Valve, who'll then go and investigate.

    Holy fucking shit, that took Valve 16 years to figure out. :razz:

    I probably would have started with, "Notifies team of people at Valve when game with 'Rape' in title is uploaded to store," but, hey, I guess you have to take progress where you can.

    Lt. Iolo's First Day
    Steam profile.
    Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
  • vamenvamen Registered User regular
    Stop making me want to play FC5, I never even finished 3 or played 4!

    I saw some complaint about it earlier where
    you get automatically abducted and you have to escape your kidnappers
    in a "worst levels of 2018" video (which I almost 100% disagreed with). And that part made me want to play it all the more.

  • KalnaurKalnaur I See Rain . . . Centralia, WARegistered User regular
    Isorn wrote: »
    https://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/1808664240333155775
    User Reviews Revisited

    Some time ago we made some changes to how we presented the User Reviews for games, and their resulting Review Score. We talked about those changes in this blog post. As we describe in that post, we want to ensure that players who've played a game can voice their opinions about why other people should or shouldn't buy the game, and that our summary of those opinions into a single Review Score should represent the likelihood that a future purchaser will be happy with their purchase.

    Since that post, we've continued to listen to feedback from both players and developers. It's clear to us that players value reviews highly, and want us to ensure they're accurate and trustworthy. Developers understand that they're valuable to players, but want to feel like they're being treated fairly. We've also spent a bunch of time building analysis tools to help us better understand what's happening in the reviews across all titles on Steam. With that feedback and data in hand, we think we're ready to make another change.

    That change can be described easily: we're going to identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score.


    But while easy to say, it raises a bunch of questions, so let's dig into the details. First, what do we mean by an off-topic review bomb? As we defined back in our original post, a review bomb is where players post a large number of reviews in a short period of time, aimed at lowering the Review Score of a game. We define an off-topic review bomb as one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game, and hence not something that should be added to the Review Score.

    Obviously, there's a grey area here, because there's a wide range of things that players care about. So how will we identify these off-topic review bombs? The first step is a tool we've built that identifies any anomalous review activity on all games on Steam in as close to real-time as possible. It doesn't know why a given game is receiving anomalous review activity, and it doesn't even try to figure that out. Instead, it notifies a team of people at Valve, who'll then go and investigate. We've already run our tool across the entire history of reviews on Steam, identifying many reasons why games have seen periods of anomalous review activity, and off-topic review bombs appear to only be a small number of them.

    Once our team has identified that the anomalous activity is an off-topic review bomb, we'll mark the time period it encompasses and notify the developer. The reviews within that time period will then be removed from the Review Score calculation. As before, the reviews themselves are left untouched - if you want to dig into them to see if they're relevant to you, you'll still be able to do so. To help you do that, we've made it clear when you're looking at a store page where we've removed some reviews by default, and we've further improved the UI around anomalous review periods.


    Finally, we've also enabled you to opt out of this entirely, if that's your preference - there's now a checkbox in your Steam Store options where you can choose to have off-topic review bombs still included in all the Review Scores you see.

    While we're working on some other features around User Reviews, we thought this one was worth shipping by itself. As always, if you have thoughts or concerns, feel free to voice them in the comments below.

    Man, they need to watch the fuck out, 'cause this sounds like curation and that might just raise some fucking expectations . . .

    I make art things! deviantART: Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
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