Valve is rolling out a new feature for Steam called “tags”. It’s a new feature for Steam, but not for the internet; look above this text and you’ll see tags for this story, which let us collect and sort posts of a similar nature. Which is exactly what they’re going to do for Steam.
The idea is that users can tag games with stuff they think is appropriate. So Skyrim would be tagged “RPG”, Call of Duty “shooter”, etc. Clicking on those tags would display every game on Steam that was an RPG or shooter. But because users are doing the tagging, there’s scope for way more detail.
Mods. Indies. Musical. Nordic. Hand-Drawn. 4x. Grand Strategy. Pirates. Sex. You could use more specific tags to group and discover games that were right up your alley.
I’m trying the feature out now and it’s pretty great. Steam has recommended a few key tags already based on my library – strategy, indie, open world – but a further click presents me with more, like “female protagonist”, “viking” and “turn-based”.
Seeing as Steam’s library now consists of thousands of games, and new ones are coming in too quickly to keep track of, this seemingly harmless little feature is actually going to be a powerful tool to help people discover awesome games they may have otherwise missed.
Unless, of course, people find a way to troll it…
Hahaha The Sims 3 is under the horror tag on @steam_games.
— Alιce (@itsALICEduh) February 12, 2014
I am laughing my arse off at this so hard right now: Popular #Sworcery Steam tags! #greatsoundtrack #hipstergarbage pic.twitter.com/2axBaQ54Zt
— Nathan Vella (@Capy_Nathan) February 13, 2014
Steam Tags [Valve]
Comments
19 responses to “How Steam Is Going To Help You Find The Perfect Games”
Dark Souls is already tagged as “casual”.
#tryjumping
LoL
Steam recommends I buy games on my Wishlist
Of course they are “recommended”
If I didn’t want to play them, I wouldnt have put them in my “wishlist” :oP
As long as the tags are written by Valve and not gamers otherwise we’ll end up with similar tags of genres like in my music player. I’ve ended up with dozens of types of Black or Death Metal when all I want it to be is nice and simple
They’re user submitted, and unmoderated at that.
It’s only a matter of time before games are tagged with spoilers.
awwwww crap
YouareherfatherYoudieintheendYourmentorisactuallyavampireandfinalbossJust checked out Half Life 2 Ep 2 for the inevitable HL3 tags for shits n giggles and sure as eggs is eggs, spoiler tag
I just looked it up as well, some of those tags are just awful… Unless there is a major overhaul this tagging system will never be useful.
User-created? This experiment failed before it started. “action” “Action” “action-FPS” etc.
Can’t wait to start tagging things with “shit”.
the’re amusing to go through, at the moment COD ghosts is tagged “garbage” “dog” and “fish ai”
more highlights. some you’ll need to bring up the panel for
secret of the magic crystals
fez
most of the tombraider games
really big sky
abes exodus
jet set radio
human revolution directors cut
Is Tomb Raider “boobies”? I’d be disappointed if not.
that and moaning simulator
Simple yet smart move on Steam’s part. I can definitely see this being used.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/214950/?snr=1_7_15__13
“Rome wasn’t patched in a day”. A most useful tag that all my games will find themselves under now 😀
Still waiting for the addition of refunds Valve.
This is the worst thing ever. I’m sure developers aren’t going to want their game tagged with “awful game”, “do not buy”, “waste of money”. Unmoderated, publically viewable tags is going to end up with more retail companies moving to Origin. Theres already a ton of damning tags on the Call of Duty titles, anyone placing bets at how quick Activision pulls the plug on Steam?
Who’ll be laughing at all the silly giggle tags then?
My favorites so far are:
‘murder simulator’
‘old shit’
and ‘bag throwing simulator’ (payday 2)