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2022-02-09, 02:50 AM (ISO 8601)
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#1291
Re: Warhammer 40K Tabletop Thread XLII: The Dice Make Fools of Us All
![Quote](images/sand/misc/quote_icon.png)
Originally Posted by
Forum Explorer
How so?
Two main things, and I appreciate this is off topic:
- Discoverability on steam is pretty bad. If nobody's heard of you, and you can't wrangle a big marketing campaign or some kind of streamer or something, nobody will ever hear of you - you're just buried under the shovelware and porn games. This is largely because of valve's determination to do things algorithmically rather than in person - if you don't know the secret words to play the algorithm, Hentai Clicker 2000 does, and will always beat you, regardless of comparitive quality.
- The constant sale cycle devalues games significantly. If there is always a sale coming up soon, why would you ever pay full price for a game? It's good for the consumers I guess, but means that games make less profit, meaning that the margins are more trim, meaning that companies get caught in an unhappy cycle of either crunching, delaying, or compromising - none of which make for a better game or industry. I saw "i'll wait for the sale" comments on a £7 game, for god's sake - were they really telling me they could afford £4 but not £7? Or does the constant string of sales teach people that actually, the correct price for a game is always 33% off?
It's better than Epic, Gamer Pass, PS+ etc, which get people used to the idea that the correct price for a game is literally free*, but they're just responding to a landscape that steam created.
*Yes I know the developers get paid when their games are on this kind of thing - but everyone loses out from this devaluing, and it creates a definite have/have not situation that'll end up with some Microsoft/Sony/Tencent suit deciding which games everyone has, and which games nobody has.