Steam Tags
February 15, 2014 7:55 AM Subscribe
This past week the digital game distribution service Steam unveiled a new beta feature: user contributed tags for games. Unsurprisingly, the feature was quickly abused, leading to Steam introducing means to moderate tag usage. The plus side to all of this is that you can now play a game where you match Steam tags to the games they describe! Steam Tags: The Game
Cart Life is tagged with "The Death Of The American Dream". The fact that this is depressing, appropriate, and hilarious confuses and infurates us!
posted by LogicalDash at 8:07 AM on February 15, 2014
posted by LogicalDash at 8:07 AM on February 15, 2014
Which game matches these tags?
[0/10] [Franchise Killer] [dead franchise] [The failure of mankind] [Causes Cancer]
You chose:
Lost Planet 3
Which is correct!
posted by Iridic at 8:10 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
[0/10] [Franchise Killer] [dead franchise] [The failure of mankind] [Causes Cancer]
You chose:
Lost Planet 3
Which is correct!
posted by Iridic at 8:10 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Someone really got a kick out of adding "choo-choo!" tags to all the train simulators.
posted by NoraReed at 8:37 AM on February 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by NoraReed at 8:37 AM on February 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
I am waiting until next summer's sale when I will buy the Steam Tagging Game of the Year Edition which will include the Sexually Profane DLC and Scat Skin Pack.
posted by srboisvert at 8:45 AM on February 15, 2014
posted by srboisvert at 8:45 AM on February 15, 2014
This is pretty funny. I mean what did Valve expect to happen? But in general this is another example of the disease where companies expect their users to do work for free and then get upset when users do it wrong.
posted by 2bucksplus at 9:14 AM on February 15, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by 2bucksplus at 9:14 AM on February 15, 2014 [8 favorites]
This is pretty funny. I mean what did Valve expect to happen? But in general this is another example of the disease where companies expect their users to do work for free and then get upset when users do it wrong.
Does valve think that their users are doing it wrong? I'm not actually sure about that. It seems like another way to try and make steam feel like a community of PC Gamers, and not just a big catalog of things for sale. I mean, this is hardly scientific, but compare r/steam and r/amazon. The former seems to be a mash of reports about new features, pleas for new features, some requests for help, and memes about the service (including a mention of this very game.) The latter seems to mostly be complaints, and is a wall of text.
I'd argue that Valve has a vested interest as being seen as a kind of hub for the different communities of gamers who like different kinds of games. Farming Simulator, for instance, has a "Dubstep" tag. But those videos seemed like a happening for the community at the time and got the game some sales, That tag is probably useful for them as a way of signifying that they are part of a group.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:39 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
Does valve think that their users are doing it wrong? I'm not actually sure about that. It seems like another way to try and make steam feel like a community of PC Gamers, and not just a big catalog of things for sale. I mean, this is hardly scientific, but compare r/steam and r/amazon. The former seems to be a mash of reports about new features, pleas for new features, some requests for help, and memes about the service (including a mention of this very game.) The latter seems to mostly be complaints, and is a wall of text.
I'd argue that Valve has a vested interest as being seen as a kind of hub for the different communities of gamers who like different kinds of games. Farming Simulator, for instance, has a "Dubstep" tag. But those videos seemed like a happening for the community at the time and got the game some sales, That tag is probably useful for them as a way of signifying that they are part of a group.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:39 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
[Sports] [Skateboarding] [Remake] [So Here I Am] [Doing Everything I Can]
-Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater® HD
[Racing] [Sports] [Turn Left] ['Murica] [10/10 It's okay - IGN]
-NASCAR '14
posted by jinjo at 9:39 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
-Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater® HD
[Racing] [Sports] [Turn Left] ['Murica] [10/10 It's okay - IGN]
-NASCAR '14
posted by jinjo at 9:39 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm torn between feeling conflictedly bad/smug about doing so well guessing games I've never played and being amused/burnt that they had two Transformers games side by side with tags that could not possibly distinguish between one and the other.
What's interesting is it's a lot easier to blindly guess when the tags are objectively poorly chosen. Shitty folksonomy is a lot more descriptive in some ways.
posted by cortex at 9:42 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
What's interesting is it's a lot easier to blindly guess when the tags are objectively poorly chosen. Shitty folksonomy is a lot more descriptive in some ways.
posted by cortex at 9:42 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Point of order: There's a difference between "trolling" and "griefing".
posted by humboldt32 at 9:48 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by humboldt32 at 9:48 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Gamers gonna metagame.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
In the tags for Spelunky, roguelike is hyphenated, as "Rogue-like", by the service, and no amount of attempting to apply it without the hyphen will be accepted, it always substitutes the version with the hyphen. This annoys me.
FEZ's tags include such helpful entries as "Diva Dev" and "Overrated". Swell.
posted by JHarris at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2014
FEZ's tags include such helpful entries as "Diva Dev" and "Overrated". Swell.
posted by JHarris at 10:02 AM on February 15, 2014
That's undeniably how some people feel about the game though.
posted by ODiV at 10:05 AM on February 15, 2014
posted by ODiV at 10:05 AM on February 15, 2014
Half-Life 2: Episode 2
[Where's Part 3] [Low Hanging Fruit] [The Only Way To Win Is Not To Play]
posted by infinitewindow at 11:01 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
[Where's Part 3] [Low Hanging Fruit] [The Only Way To Win Is Not To Play]
posted by infinitewindow at 11:01 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
[Simulation] [Lesbians] [SPESS MAHREENS] [yaoi] [donkey kong]
- NBA 2K11
posted by Vortisaur at 11:29 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
- NBA 2K11
posted by Vortisaur at 11:29 AM on February 15, 2014 [3 favorites]
That Kotaku article was a little annoying to read, with the 'Expand' overlay obscuring the tag text in the screenshots.
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 11:36 AM on February 15, 2014
posted by reprise the theme song and roll the credits at 11:36 AM on February 15, 2014
I just checked FEZ, and even Diva Dev is gone from the popular tag list now - maybe the reporting system works. I guess people will just have to find some other way to taunt Phil Fish. They always do.
Or maybe they won't have to, if people have enough spite to outpace the reporting system. There's a seemingly endless supply of abusive tags for Gone Home, now including "White Girl Problems" and "check your privilege." The feminist tag is gone, which is likely a failure of the reporting system - enough people considered "feminist" to be an insult instead of a descriptor that they flagged it. Also, if I remember right, games were mass-tagged as feminist, rendering the label useless for browsing.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 11:50 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Or maybe they won't have to, if people have enough spite to outpace the reporting system. There's a seemingly endless supply of abusive tags for Gone Home, now including "White Girl Problems" and "check your privilege." The feminist tag is gone, which is likely a failure of the reporting system - enough people considered "feminist" to be an insult instead of a descriptor that they flagged it. Also, if I remember right, games were mass-tagged as feminist, rendering the label useless for browsing.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 11:50 AM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
2bucksplus: "This is pretty funny. I mean what did Valve expect to happen? But in general this is another example of the disease where companies expect their users to do work for free and then get upset when users do it wrong."
Actually, I find it an amusing example of where game companies fail to properly use gamification, and fails to learn the lessons of GWAP.
While Steam Tags: The Game uses a decent formulation for confirming inputs, it does not do a good job of gathering new tags. For that, you'd want something more like GWAP's input-agreement, where two players are randomly given similar or different games to tag, and they have to use only tags their teammate provides to decide whether or not they're tagging the same game.
Obviously this method is subject to a few obvious problems, so you'll want to customize to the problem domain by forbidding things like words in the title (or silently ignoring them), and by requiring users to have actually owned or played the games they get assigned.
posted by pwnguin at 12:14 PM on February 15, 2014
Actually, I find it an amusing example of where game companies fail to properly use gamification, and fails to learn the lessons of GWAP.
While Steam Tags: The Game uses a decent formulation for confirming inputs, it does not do a good job of gathering new tags. For that, you'd want something more like GWAP's input-agreement, where two players are randomly given similar or different games to tag, and they have to use only tags their teammate provides to decide whether or not they're tagging the same game.
Obviously this method is subject to a few obvious problems, so you'll want to customize to the problem domain by forbidding things like words in the title (or silently ignoring them), and by requiring users to have actually owned or played the games they get assigned.
posted by pwnguin at 12:14 PM on February 15, 2014
For clarity, Steam Tags: The Game is not something made by Valve. It's a random project by Steam community members Fiskie and xPaw. It's not intended to be used to label the games, though maybe it will let you know if a game has tags that you don't like.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:18 PM on February 15, 2014
posted by Going To Maine at 12:18 PM on February 15, 2014
Whatever ill may come of freestyle Steam tagging is completely eclipsed by the wonder that is this tag.
posted by The Bellman at 1:36 PM on February 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by The Bellman at 1:36 PM on February 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Big ups to the person/people who tagged Eversion with "f͢͠u̴͘n̷̷҉̛ ̡̕g҉̕a̡҉ḿ̵̴͢͞e҉̷̢͏" and "Ready! (To Die)"
posted by kagredon at 2:26 PM on February 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by kagredon at 2:26 PM on February 15, 2014 [4 favorites]
Try "female protagonist" since feminist is off-limits now.
Also, "choo choo!", has a really cool horse!" and "mom why?" Are a few of my favorite tags now.
posted by misha at 3:30 PM on February 15, 2014
Also, "choo choo!", has a really cool horse!" and "mom why?" Are a few of my favorite tags now.
posted by misha at 3:30 PM on February 15, 2014
"Female protagonist" is a useful tag - I was just kinda hoping for something that would screen out the Barbie Dreamhouses and Dead Islands.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 5:59 PM on February 15, 2014
posted by knuckle tattoos at 5:59 PM on February 15, 2014
I totally feel you on that! Huge difference between Barbie Fashion Glamour Hair stuff and actual strong female playable characters.
posted by misha at 6:06 PM on February 15, 2014
posted by misha at 6:06 PM on February 15, 2014
Does valve think that their users are doing it wrong?
Clearly not:
Q. What if I don't agree with a tag that has become popular for my game?
A. Tags can be a good indicator of when there is a mismatch between how you perceive your game, and how your game is perceived by customers. Often this is simply because there is some piece of information regarding the game that customers feel is missing from the store page.
posted by straight at 6:23 PM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
Clearly not:
Q. What if I don't agree with a tag that has become popular for my game?
A. Tags can be a good indicator of when there is a mismatch between how you perceive your game, and how your game is perceived by customers. Often this is simply because there is some piece of information regarding the game that customers feel is missing from the store page.
posted by straight at 6:23 PM on February 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
divabat: I have no idea. I don't even know how you would make your keyboard PRODUCE that tag. It's in the Kotaku article (with the comment "How is this even a tag?") and I just love it so much.
posted by The Bellman at 7:57 AM on February 16, 2014
posted by The Bellman at 7:57 AM on February 16, 2014
༼つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Short answer: DotA 2 players spammed this emoticon on social media when Valve canceled an anticipated Halloween event.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:49 AM on February 16, 2014
Short answer: DotA 2 players spammed this emoticon on social media when Valve canceled an anticipated Halloween event.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:49 AM on February 16, 2014
It looks to me like the tag's been nuked. You can mess with the URL to confirm that tags like "feminist" and "lesbians" are also invalid - contrast with "LGBT," which is in use, or "feminism" or "つ ◕_◕ ༽つ," which tell you not enough items are tagged with that yet.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:57 AM on February 16, 2014
posted by knuckle tattoos at 8:57 AM on February 16, 2014
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posted by NoraReed at 8:01 AM on February 15, 2014 [4 favorites]