I’ve mentioned this flippantly before, in The Rules, but really I’m beyond exasperated now. I demand – DEMAND I say – a single location for savegames to be agreed upon by all who make games, with a punishment of grisly, brutal death for any who fails to follow it. Below I’ve listed the locations for savegames for a bunch of the games I currently have installed.

I’m reminded of my rage this morning, as I settle down for a morning with the new Saints Row: The Third DLC. It turns out it doesn’t work with the press build of the original game I previously had, so I’ve had to install the release version. That means transferring my saves over. So where are they? After an appeal on Twitter I learn that they’re in:

C:\Steam\userdata\[my ID]\55230\remote

Oh, of course. 55230. Why didn’t that just immediately spring to my mind? But some may argue this is a failing of Steam, and not fair to blame on THQ/Volition. Well, let’s take a look at where we can find some other saves.

How about RPG classic, Dragon Age? Are they stored with the game? No no no, of course not. They’re in My Documents! Hidden inside the Characters folder.

C:\Users\John\Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Characters\Simon

Hmmm, I want access to my Trials 2 details. So are they in My Documents? No, they’re elsewhere. They’re here:

C:\Users\John\AppData\Local\Redlynx\Trials 2 SE\2.0\scores

It’s important to note that AppData (or Application Data pre Win 7) is a hidden folder. Using Windows without knowing your way around it, you’re not even going to see that the folder is on your hard drive, let alone think to look in there. Let alone know the difference between “Local”, LocalLow” and “Roaming”. Deliberately set to scare you away, Windows doesn’t like ordinary people fiddling in there. So that’s where most save games go?

So I’ll look there for Minecraft saves too, as I want them on my netbook. But they’re not in MyDocs nor \Local\! They’re here:

C:\Users\John\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\saves

In what appears to be the most deliberately hidden folder, ever.

Right, so Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. Any of those three? Nope.

C:\Users\John\Saved Games\Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood\SAVES

This one, despite being in the hidden “Users” folder, actually makes a modicum of sense. Sure, it’s a game on Steam, and not being stored in Steam’s numerical system for some reason. But it’s actually in a folder called “Saved Games”! Along with Minesweeper, and nothing else. It’s also somewhat confused by having this location too:

C:\Users\All Users\Ubisoft\Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

Which is completely empty.

And kudos to indie game Bust N Rush, for managing to be the only game I’ve ever seen in \LocalLow, with this catch location:

C:\Users\John\AppData\LocalLow\Techtonic Games Inc\BustNRush\SAVEDATA\13

Another Steam game, Skyrim, opts for somewhere else too. Back in My Documents now, but in a folder especially for “My Games”. Makes sense too, if it weren’t the only game in there.

C:\Users\John\Documents\My Games\Skyrim\Saves

It’s quite near to Cthulhu Saves The World’s saves, which have their own unique space in a dedicated folder for game saves, here:

C:\Users\John\Documents\SavedGames\CSTW\Cthulhu Saves the World\AllPlayers

In short, what I’m saying is: STOP IT! Just