Why Valve could be losing their way and how you can help [EDITED 3/12/2015]

3/12/2015 EDIT

What is this post about?

-The quality of Greenlight is questionable, but while not exactly Valve's problem, is something that should be dealt with.



-They are attempting to work on multiple new ideas and new directions, without trying to keep their games in check. This leads me and others

to believe they are no longer a gaming company, but are instead trying to be the new Microsoft.



to believe they are no longer a gaming company, but are instead trying to be the new Microsoft. http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/611696927908823285/ THIS.

-Problems with hackers, Vac response times and function is outdated and allow for hackers to spoil games in a regular basis.



-The focus on competitive gaming isn't the best direction considering how often CS:GO finds and bans hackers in major sporting events.

-Quickplay is killing Community servers



-Questions / concerns have been raised before but to no responses



-Updates slowly turning towards cash grabs / poor quality control



-Underestimation of the player base



-Lack of communication with the supporting base

Examples :

-The HLDS mailing list has raised their voices about Quickplay many times since it was implemented, only to never get a reply



-While the community blames ad plugins like Pinion for making community servers bad in the first place, Pinion was formed after Quickplay was developed.

-Not only that, Pinion was used by Valve, to host servers for Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and for a short while, Cs:Go. (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32478884&postcount=11 ,



http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3175628)



-Not only that, Pinion was used by Valve, to host servers for Left 4 Dead 1 and 2, and for a short while, Cs:Go. (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=32478884&postcount=11 , http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3175628) -Valve did not actively try and put it a stop to it until the damage was already done, instead supporting it and using it for their own servers as well.

The examples of cash grabbing and quality control.

-The EOTL update was initially shipped with missing items and with some items having body group issues and bugs, despite only having to put them in the game.



-The update also launched with the "Duck journal" which was 5 dollars for a pointless stat counter, after complaints, the advertisement was edited to say that profits go to the creators of the EOTL.

Originally posted by Wickedplayer494: wickedplayer494: The other part of the EOTL PR bomb was the ducks. The damn ducks.

wickedplayer494: A majority of the community thought it was cashing in on the meme that was spawned from Halloween. I would definitely agree.

wickedplayer494: It being bundled with EOTL was...unsettling, to say the least.

wickedplayer494: From a marketing perspective, it would be a good idea, loads of exposure.

wickedplayer494: From the perspective of the public, not so much. The update *was* supposed to be the second community-made update.

wickedplayer494: Valve had to screw it all up though by attempting to cash in with EOTL.

wickedplayer494: Originally, the big duck that terrorized the main menu for a month didn't have the "proceeds support the EOTL team".



...



wickedplayer494: There was an uproar, and understandably so, since technically, this was Valve hijacking what was supposed to be a community-made update.

wickedplayer494: After a couple of days, I ♥♥♥♥ you not, this is what was in the notes afterwards:

wickedplayer494: "Notes missed from the previous update:

- End of the Line Key, Duck Journal, and Duck Token sales support the End of the Line team"

-The item farming which has taken place every year during Halloween was replaced with only crate sales this year, the older items were given 3 hour long cool downs to prevent farming. The logic behind this was that some players didn't get as much as others last year. While almost no one got anything this year as a result. The items in question could no longer be opened via crates, and could be idled this year at no loss to Valve.

The examples of the underestimation of the player base

-The map that was supposed to ship with the EOTL update was considered too hard for new players despite not being that different from any other map.



-The example of Halloween was spun to assume the cut on idling was a good thing, despite it killing the desire for Halloween events from the 2014 Halloween period.

The examples of lack of communication with the supporting base.

-Ditto to the HLDS mailing list getting their concerns ignored.



-The rules for Quickplay have been vague, giving rough ideas on what is and is not allowed, with no warning system and a ban for those breaking the rules, proper documentation should have been a top priority.



-Valve talking to the community in general is considered rare, they even admit they don't spend a lot of their time reading the forums as it cuts into their programming time.

Why I feel they are trying to become the new Microsoft.

Originally posted by Rowedahelicon: I've been told this is a bit of a stretch, and I agree for the most part. Maybe they are not trying to be this way, but it still is a rather odd direction to take. I understand the point of SteamOS is to get players who are only used to consoles to get on the PC market, but the market trend for console games is surrounded with problems with developers and their games, as opposed to the consoles themselves.

Why are these things bad?

Originally posted by Wickedplayer494: wickedplayer494: Valve setting Quickplay to match to only Valve servers was controversial, but mostly to other server operators.

wickedplayer494: Months went by, and the posts of "TF2 is dying" start beginning to show up like crazy.

wickedplayer494: Including yours.

wickedplayer494: However, it's become obvious that there's a problem.

wickedplayer494: Some people have tried to say that "no, it's not, look at the player counts!".

wickedplayer494: TF2 smashing records is cool and all, but when a majority of those players are on Valve's own servers, something's wrong.

wickedplayer494: Especially since Valve didn't host their own servers until around the Uber Update.

wickedplayer494: It was all left up to the community.

wickedplayer494: The system worked.

wickedplayer494: Then Quickplay happened. Then Valve's hand was forced once with PoT. Then it was forced again with them setting it to match to Valve servers only.

wickedplayer494: Quickplay in reality is a can of worms if left unchecked, which it turned into.

How else is Valve to blame?

Originally posted by Fletcher Dunn: In fact, my guess --- although I don't really have any

> data to back this up --- is that directing the noobs towards the Valve

> servers actually gives them a disadvantage.

So what are some possible solutions to these issues?

How do we get them to listen?

Valve almost never communicates with the community, communtity servers in TF2 are being killed because of Quickplay despite the complaints of many server operators on the HLDS mailing list, but Valve doesn't seem to care. CS:Go is full of problems with the competitive community and rampant hackers, and now recently Dota has been hit with questionable decisions regarding its yearly event.This post here, a bit of irony in the mix.This is a short version of an explanation on why Valve could be losing their way, these are the reasons I feel this way. My first attempt was more of a rant without much information, so I've provided this list here.[Steam][Cs:Go][Dota II][Team Fortress 2]This list seems small, but it has a lot of explanation to it. Which I can't really sum up without going too in-depth into detail. The real problem is a lack of communication between the community and Valve. The fault lies on both sides,but Valve isn't stepping up as hard as it should. http://i.imgur.com/ypC49t4.jpg Original advertisement http://i.imgur.com/z0TVQKt.jpg later updated advertisement(Sub notes, the creator of the EOTL video also mentioned the focus of the update was non cosmetic items (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USfSQDfMj6w) , the update featured only cosmetic items and one weapon re-skin.)Steam -> GFWL / Xbox Live MarketSteambox >- XboxSteamOS -> WindowsMusic Player -> Windows Media Player (A stretch I know, mind you it is still in beta.)Applications / Tv & Movies -> Windows App Market (http://www.tomshardware.com/news/steam-valve-tv-movies-music,27428.html) Microsoft also had a similar problem internally, at least in their case the concern was raised inside the company. http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/2007/01/10/jim-allchins-mac-message-the-full-text/ While this isn't a bad thing per say, it's a concern among a tower of concerns. The biggest concern is when it comes to the community and the lack of communication. But as I mentioned, it isn't necessarily all of Valve's fault. I feel that Valve may not know how to talk to the community, where to even start.The Quickplay situation for example, I personally feel it should be removed entirely, and go back to just having the server browser. But not everyone feels the same way, so a portion of the conversations turn into suggestions on a better system, and then into arguments. It's easy to see why they may not want to try and understand it, but that doesn't help anyone.The matter with Quickplay is the biggest issue, Quickplay has been destroying community servers since it came into effect. It has been funneling the player base into Valve servers, which receive little moderation and are highly subjectto hackers and pubstompers. The lack of a proper community leads to new players not understanding anything about the game, joining what they may think is the only server for them, getting rolled and not wanting to play anymore.It also goes against Valve's long time running culture of freely accepting mods. Modding has kept their games alive, and have spawned games of their own. So to see community servers and community mods get the shaft when it comes to where the players are told to play, it sets a bad precedent that they are going to go back on their ideals for ... what exactly?EDIT : http://www.pcgamer.com/gabe-newell-pc-gaming-communities-are-keeping-games-alive/ Some people argue that Team Fortress 2 still has a great number of players, but as I and Wickedplayer494 (Admin of Subreddits like r/tf2 and r/valve) suggest, this isn't a valid argument to go off on.By letting something like this go unchecked, what is to stop them from doing things to other games? By letting this issue fester without recourse, we are basically telling Valve you can do whatever you want because we'll follow you regardless!Even if it means straying off the path you worked so hard to make and we helped support. Cs:Go has already had issues with a modding community, which wouldn't be so bad if the reason the game was made for, competitive play, wasn't full of it's own slew of issues.Page 35 of this document, but page 52 of the handbook.Valve themselves say something they're bad at is passing around information internally. This means they also don't communicate well with each other. This could explain a lot of issues, such as the Hatred incident (http://www.vg247.com/2014/12/17/gabe-newell-apologises-for-pulling-hatred-from-steam-greenlight/) Someone on the inside, HenryG, also mentions here (http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/864969953572102601/#c864969953745925033) that Valve has no PR people or Community managers, and that spending time on the forums takes away from development time. Valve themselves admits this is a problem that goes on, and until recently, it hasn't been too much of an issue. But now it is, and it needs to change.[EDIT - 2/19/2015]Fletcher Dunn, a valve employee stated in an email sent out in 2011, a month after Quickplay was implemented in TF2 that...Showing that even Valve (Or at least one person at Valve) knew that it could be an issue sending new players towards Valve servers.[END OF EDIT]One thing mentioned in the employee handbook is another problem they have, finding and hiring people in completely new disciplies. "e.g. economists!".Well, they did that. http://blogs.valvesoftware.com/economics/it-all-began-with-a-strange-email/ So there is no reason why they can't get a community manager now as well.First and foremost, Valve needs a community manager, or several, perhaps one for each major game or tool or something. People who are tasked with just reading the forums, reading the Subreddits, reading the discussions, anything. Just to see what people are talking about, complaining about, suggesting, etc. What could happen next is some brief discussion or a planning process of how to tackle issues that come up the most. What could happen next?Surveys! Valve has used them before to gauge an idea of what kind of hardware people use. Maybe you could join a steam group, and every few weeks for being in said Steam group you could get a survey talking about an important issue, getting your input using multiple suggestions that appear in the community's banter.What would motivate people? Give them XP for their profile, in the forum of a handy Steam badge or something similar.This would be a quick and clean way to help bring down some of the mess, in addition, a CM could also discuss issues amongst groups of concerned individuals and help get some communication that way.The long story short here, is that Valve needs to address their community if they want them to remain loyal fans in the coming years, soon we are entering the 3rd decade of Valve, with enough effort and focus, we can enter that decade on a strong understanding between user and developer. Thank you for taking the time to read this, I hope it was easier to follow as opposed to my original statement.Email them. Post on forums, post on discussions, tell your friends and share this info. Knowledge is power, and by awareness of the issue, we'll create a louder voice. They won't listen to our emails, we have tried, but eventually they will listen when enough people have stepped up in unison. http://kotaku.com/5381575/the-left-4-dead-2-boycott-is-dead It happened at least once.==Thank you all for the constructive criticism, hopefully this is written better to everyone's standards.Full interview with Wickedplayer494 : http://pastebin.com/ksbYsvhg A group formed to raise awareness of fixing Quickplay : http://steamcommunity.com/groups/fixquickplay Valve almost never communicates with the community, communtity servers in TF2 are being killed because of Quickplay despite the complaints of many server operators on the HLDS mailing list, but Valve doesn't seem to care. In addition to Tf2, they are going off the path of games and trying to become Microsoft.