Steam now identifies reviews that come from Steam Deck players
Steam now identifies reviews that come from Steam Deck players
If the majority of a users playtime at the time of review was from playing on Deck, the review will have a Deck icon next to it.
The game in the screenshot is SAND LAND. You can view the reviews here to easily see some examples of this new icon.
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to filter reviews to show Deck reviews only.
It should also show icons for the OS as well. Since games can have dramatically different issues and performance depending on the OS sometimes. Having an icon showing a review is from a Linux machine compared to Windows for instance can help figure out if your system might be affected by reviews mentioning something that all seems to be from one type of OS.
Heck, I'd even take it a step further and have it include basic system specs for each review since Steam already gets that info.
Right, in my experience AMD vs Nvidia graphics can make a difference in whether a game runs or not.
ProtonDB is currently the best resource for this, but I would appreciate some of this info being built into steam as well.
I like the idea, but with Linux, that could be tricky. Unless it's an immutable distro, the end user could have modifications causing issues from some borked config, library, or package.
It probably wouldn't be especially useful info for end users, since ymmv, and Valve already knows what hardware and setups people are using via system scans.
ProtonDB is far more useful and already exists, because it includes system info and fixes people have tried that did/n't work.
I was referring more to just like Windows, Linux, MacOS icons. Not specific distros. As a Windows user for instance, Linux issues from any distro probably don't matter to me.
Could have yeah, but I already find looking at distros and specs to be super helpful on ProtonDB. Of course it isn’t going to be 100%, but if every person who has a problem with a game is using a certain GPU or distro it’s usually safe to assume that something about that is causing the issue
On the other hand, you have to keep your system specs up to date manually on protondb. I don't know how many people keep their kernel and video driver versions up to date. Steam could pull the latest system configuration when I submit a review.
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I can understand why they don’t put a Linux-specific icon, because there is such a variety of builds and hardware permutations that people could start complaining “it said it could run on Linux but it doesn’t run on my Linux.“
Steam already indicates which games will run on Linux, without any distro or configuration caveats. There's literally an entire section of the store for "SteamOS & Linux" games, and games that support multiple platforms have the system requirements listed for each of those supported platforms.
We're just talking about putting the icon for the platform they used on the review, to help you filter reviews that may be more or less relevant. Linux users complaining about Linux related issues aren't relevant to Windows users for instance, and vice versa. Same goes for the 15 or so MacOS gamers I guess too.
Steam provides it's own linux userspace runtime. The game developers just target that to avoid the problem you describe.
Heck, I’d even take it a step further and have it include basic system specs for each review since Steam already gets that info.
That would get complex for games that are played for lengthy periods of time and across different builds. Basic specs as of the review would be cool though.
Just have another option for multiple devices or types used beyond a certain threshold. Just like here they're using a majority of time spent playing on a Deck to show that icon.
Neat!
If this is to give more context to reviews that give poor reviews for the performance of a game, why don't they just have the user's full system specs visible somewhere? They do already collect that info.
I mean what if they use something like the ROG Ally?
I agree good. Idea. its like when people watch a movie on their iphone and then say it wasnt that good. You'll enjoy a game more on a big screen running high fps
I'm not the biggest fan of having system specs by default listed for every review in Steam game reviews.
why don’t they just have the user’s full system specs visible somewhere?
First, Steam does not have the information about each user. Secondly, it could be harmful too. Imagine years from now, games get updated, drivers get updated, hardware changes. Not only the system spec information would be outdated and no longer useful, it would be also counter productive.
Also on a minor level, I would not want to write reviews if my system specs get leaked every time. I just want to write my opinion, that's all. So at the very least, this would be an optional feature. And at the moment, nobody is stopped from writing relevant system specs in the review manually. There is a reason why most people don't bother with specs; because it's not that helpful as you might imagine. Maybe in certain cases it might be helpful, but often it is misleading; like: "oh he has problems because its a low end hardware", when in reality it is not the cause of the problems (maybe forgotten gpu driver update or a game bug).
They do already collect that info.
No, they they don't. Otherwise it would make no sense to have the optional opt-in Steam survey. Steam does not collect information about your system without your knowledge. Otherwise it would be classified as spyware.
Games have specs on steam. We could easily get a performance percentage for gamers with less than optimal setups without blasting their systems. I personally have a good one yet may struggle during forced windows updates or when my ssd is getting heavy loads from my other apps. That would not be caught by such ratings.
How the heck are people writing reviews on the Steamdeck? Are they plugging in a keyboard?
I can barely form sentences on the virtual kb and tagged keyboard only games so I can play them at my gaming PC.
You can write the reviews from your PC still, and it will tag it as a steam deck review if most of your playtime is on deck.
As for typing on the deck, the OLED has a much more responsive touchscreen and typing is better on it. On the LCD deck I would stick to track pad typing though.