Valve is looking for new ways to highlight good games on Steam and send low quality releases to the deepest depths of the store, a kind of cheap development that they now call "Fake games." They are thinking of three actions, according to YouTubers Jim Sterling and John "TotalBiscuit" Bain, that were invited by Valve to the offices recently.
There are new algorithms in the works that punish asset flips and lazily developed games, but sometimes good games might be overlooked, and that's why they will recruit "Steam Explorers." Every user will be able to play hidden games and flag it as good, and the more recommendations it gets, the better it's treated by the system. Explorers will also have one refund per week.
The role of the Curator will be more important. Valve is planning on giving them more tools such as video embedding, the ability to create top lists and analytics tools, and are even thinking on paying them. There will be also changes to how companies offer review codes to avoid key reselling on G2A.
Finally, a new round of user page customisation is approaching to let us decide what algorithms to block. Transparence is coming to Steam too, so we will see more data like traffic through a game page, reasons for a game to be shown, and so on. The company want to demonstrate that these "Fake games" shouldn't be displayed.
Do you think these measures will be effective?
Thanks, Kotaku.