Valve’s makes an attempt to establish ‘fake’ games on Steam by automated metrics might have backfired, hurting the builders of some glorious games within the course of. As introduced up by Wandersong developer Greg Lobanov on Twitter yesterday, the well-reviewed, multi-award-winning game was flagged as an unknown amount on the shop. Until Steam in some way learnt extra in regards to the game by customers interactions with it, it wouldn’t be eligible for full Steam retailer perks equivalent to providing buying and selling playing cards, however nothing appeared to be budging even months after launch.
After elevating consciousness of the difficulty on Twitter, Lobanov has since been contacted directly by Valve, who say that this was a bug that Wandersong and “many other games” had been completely restricted by, and that the issue is just now being addressed 5 months later. Wandersong is now freed from restrictions, another games seem caught on this weird ‘not quite real’ limbo state.
UPDATE: Valve emailed us on to say that this was truly a bug, and that us and plenty of different games had been perma-restricted by mistake. as a result of we introduced consideration to it, they’re now fixing it! hooray! https://t.co/GWqszcdj4N
— WANDERSONG (out now!!!) (@Wandersong_game) January 9, 2019
Wandersong’s sonorously squeaky wheel obtained the grease and is now accurately thought of actual, however others are nonetheless caught in limbo. One of my personal top games of 2018, Lucah: Born Of A Dream nonetheless has that ‘Steam is learning about this game’ mark on it. Much as its developer would really like, it’s restricted from including buying and selling playing cards, being counted in direction of international achievement scores and even being counted as a game in individuals’s library whole. So, Valve, in case you’re studying this: Yes, Lucah is an actual game. It is a really gamey Souls-like game, even. You can cease “learning” about it now.
On his private Twitter account, Wandersong developer Greg Lobanov additionally mentions that he had submitted support tickets over this issue before, solely to be informed that all the pieces was working as supposed. Only after the story obtained picked up by bigger websites like Kotaku and Polygon did Valve acknowledge that an issue existed, and even then solely by immediately contacting Lobanov. A fast go searching reveals that the also-excellent (if very bizarre) Pig Eat Ball additionally carries the “still learning” mark on Steam. While unusual, it’s very a lot actual, and from a widely known veteran developer.
Other games seem like caught in an much more complicated state. Clever little semi-roguelike shmup (and a private early entry choose) The Void Rains Upon Her Heart entered early entry earlier than the ‘learning about this game’ tag got here into use. The excellent news is that – according to its developer on Twitter – the game doesn’t have any limits on achievements. The unhealthy information is that different restrictions do apply, and there’s no indication on the shop itself that they’re affecting it. I can solely surprise what number of extra games have been hit by this. Other builders have mentioned they obtained restrictions lifted by pushing hard with support tickets and complaints, however that actually shouldn’t be obligatory.
I’m dropping hope that steam will ever acknowledge my little game as a “real game” in order that I can lastly put steam playing cards in it. I’m simply tremendous fortunate that I launched the game earlier than the achievement limits. https://t.co/f82mWKucMJ
— Veyerals (@VeyeralGames) January 9, 2019
I really feel this is only one extra instance of Valve trying to unravel issues by automation the place a human may resolve it in minutes. Wandersong’s glowing evaluate rating was clearly not being inflated by bots. Neither was its protection by websites and magazines. I implore you, Valve – rent extra people to your monumental, extremely worthwhile retailer. Even with the current inflow of releases, there’s not that many new games to look at every day.
In the meantime, try the Steam pages for Wandersong, Lucah: Born of A Dream, Pig Eat Ball, The Void Rains Upon Her Heart, and share any others equally affected under. You must also learn Giada Gavarise’s positively joyful Wandersong review.
