May 15, 2024 | Updated: 11:35 AM EDT
Apr 05, 2017 08:02 AM EDT
Valve is recruiting Steam Explorers who would play Steam Games. Their main task is to flag titles they find promising to curb the surge of low-quality games that hit Steam in recent years. If a game gets more flags from the explorers, it would be more visible on Valve’s Steam platform.
Flushing Fake Games Too
The plan would not only attempt to reduce low-quality Steam Games but also spot fake games. These are derivative, broken, and poorly made titles created by unscrupulous developers who want to get rich quickly. Jim Sterling and John Bain, prominent gaming YouTubers, were invited by Valve to its Bellevue headquarters to discuss the changes it would introduce to the platform, The Verge reports.
The two say the explorers would focus on Steam Games that are not selling well. It means they must sift through the vast catalog of Steam to ensure interesting titles would be prominent when Valve releases games. The explorer program is open to any Steam Game user who would get their own forum when they sign up.
Steam Curator System Gets Tweak
While rolling out the explorer program, Valve would also tweak its existing Steam Curator system. Current practice is for curators to list on the platform their favorite titles. Valve plans to add new features such as the ability to embed videos, create smaller but discrete lists, and sort game selections using different metrics.
Valve, besides developing great games such as “Portal” and “Half-Life,” sells the PC games of other developers and publishers online on its Steam platform. The firm created Steam Greenlight to provide smaller indie development teams an opportunity to gain better visibility using a voting system. However, it ended in cynical developers flooding the platform with titles of low-quality games, Geek reports.
Rather than replace the Greenlight submission program, Valve would require developers to pay a registration fee from $100 to $5,000, Tech Radar reports.
