Steam Is Under Fire

Summary

The video discusses the challenges facing Steam, including a ban in Vietnam due to local publisher complaints and an EU investigation into anti-competitive practices in Poland. It also highlights positive developments, such as Warner Bros. reversing its decision to delist Adult Swim games, and a developer renaming his game to clarify its genre to users, addressing issues with Steam's user-generated tags misleading the audience.

Takeaways

• 🌍 Steam is facing a ban in Vietnam due to local publishers' complaints about unfair distribution of games without permission.
• 📚 The Polish government is investigating Steam for potential anti-competitive practices, which could have broader implications within the EU.
• 🛑 Valve may be under scrutiny for enforcing rules that restrict game sales on competing platforms and interfering with pricing policies.
• 🎮 The gaming community successfully pressured Warner Bros. to reverse the delisting of some Adult Swim games, preserving their availability.
• 🏷️ Steam's user-generated tags can sometimes misrepresent a game's genre, leading to consumer disappointment and negative reviews.
• 🛠️ Developer Toaz of 'Bulwark: Falconer Chronicles' changed the game's title on Steam to clarify its genre as a sandbox, not a strategy game.
• 🤖 Boot d/b News commends the AI chatbot of a sponsor, Boot.dev, for its unique approach to problem-solving and offering a 25% discount with a special code.
• 📈 Valve's strong position in the market is both a strength and a challenge, as it faces increased flak for its concentration of power.
• 🔄 Geoblocking and currency conversion issues on Steam are mentioned, showing how the platform adapts to regional requirements.
• 💡 The script highlights the importance of game genre expectations and how misalignment can affect a game's reception and developer's reputation.
• 🔑 Steam's recommendation engine is praised for its effectiveness, but the case of 'Bulwark: Falconer Chronicles' shows its potential pitfalls.

Q & A

Why is Steam facing a ban in one country and investigation in another?

Steam is being banned in Vietnam due to complaints from local publishers and developers, who claim it's distributing games without permission and not adhering to local content regulations. In Poland, it's being investigated for anti-competitive practices, including restrictions on game sales on competing platforms.

Outlines

00:00

🕹 Steam's Global Challenges and Developer Support

The video discusses the various challenges facing Steam, including being banned in Vietnam due to local publishers' complaints and an investigation in Poland for anti-competitive practices. Despite these issues, Steam's strong market position is highlighted, with big publishers needing to use the platform to succeed. The script also mentions positive news for developers, such as the reversal of The Adult Swim games catalog delisting and a developer's struggle with Steam's user-generated tags leading to his game being misclassified and sold to the wrong audience. The sponsor, Boot.dev, is introduced as a platform for learning backend web development with a unique, game-inspired approach and an AI chatbot for problem-solving.

05:00

🌐 Geopolitical Impacts on Steam's Operations

This paragraph delves into the geopolitical issues affecting Steam, such as the platform's ban in Vietnam, which is attributed to complaints from local publishers and the lack of compliance with local content regulations. The script contrasts this with Steam's practices in other regions, like China, where they have a modified platform to adhere to local laws. The discussion also touches on Steam's global availability and how it benefits Valve and customers, but also leads to conflicts with regional requirements and potential legal issues in the EU, as seen with the Polish government's investigation into anti-competitive practices.

10:01

🛑波兰政府对Steam的反垄断调查

波兰政府的竞争和消费者保护办公室开始对Steam及其他公司进行反垄断初步调查。调查的焦点是寻找市场主导者是否利用其地位实施反竞争规则的证据，例如限制在竞争平台或在线商店销售游戏和相关内容，干预游戏开发商和发行商的价格和折扣政策，或限制竞争平台和其他数字服务提供商的市场准入。这可能会对Valve构成压力，因为它们在其他地区也有类似的限制，这在美国和波兰都引起了法律问题。

15:02

🎮 Warner Bros对Adult Swim游戏的处理

Warner Bros曾计划从Steam下架来自Adult Swim标签的游戏，这一决定受到了开发者和游戏保护主义者的强烈反对。最终，Warner Bros决定将部分游戏的权利和Steam页面归还给开发者，这一决定被视为公共压力下的正确做法。然而，并非所有开发者都获得了这一宽恕，一些开发者明确表示他们没有得到同样的待遇。

20:04

🔍 玩家期望与游戏标签的冲突

开发者Toas的《Bulwark: Falconer Chronicles》因为Steam用户标签的误导而面临挑战。一些玩家期望这是一款策略游戏，但实际体验却是一款创造性的沙盒游戏。这种期望与实际游戏内容的不符导致了负面评价。Toas通过改变游戏标题来反映其实际游戏类型，尽管这在Steam上并不常见。这个案例突显了玩家反馈的重要性以及Steam推荐引擎的双刃剑特性。

📉 游戏标签与玩家体验的矛盾

视频最后讨论了游戏标签对于玩家体验的影响，以及开发者如何通过Steam的反馈来改进游戏。Toas通过改变游戏标题来解决玩家的误解，展示了开发者对玩家反馈的重视。同时，这也引发了关于游戏类型和玩家期望的更广泛讨论，以及Steam如何通过其推荐系统影响玩家对游戏的感知。

Keywords

💡Steam

Steam is a digital distribution platform developed by Valve Corporation, which offers digital rights management (DRM), multiplayer gaming, video streaming, and social networking services. In the video, it is discussed as facing a ban in Vietnam and an investigation in Poland for anti-competitive practices, highlighting its significant market influence and the challenges it faces in different regions.

💡Anti-competitive practices

Anti-competitive practices refer to actions by a company that harm competition in a marketplace. The video discusses how Steam is being investigated in Poland for such practices, which could include enforcing restrictions on game sales on competing platforms, affecting the diversity of the gaming market and consumer choice.

💡Market concentration

Market concentration is the degree to which a market is dominated by a few large players. The script mentions Steam's strong position in the market, indicating that its dominance is causing it to attract negative attention and scrutiny for potentially anti-competitive behaviors.

💡Delisting

Delisting refers to the removal of a product from a marketplace. The video script discusses the delisting of games from The Adult Swim label on Steam, which raised concerns about game preservation and the impact on small developers.

💡User-generated tags

User-generated tags are descriptors created by users to categorize and describe content, such as games on Steam. The script mentions issues a developer faced when user tags mischaracterized their game, leading to confusion and negative reviews from players expecting a different genre of game.

💡Sandbox game

A sandbox game is a type of video game that allows players considerable freedom to roam and explore the game world at their leisure, without a set path or goal. The video talks about 'Bulwark Falconer Chronicles' being mislabeled as a strategy game when it is actually a sandbox game, causing player disappointment.

💡Geoblocking

Geoblocking is the practice of restricting users from accessing certain content based on their geographical location. The script mentions Steam's geoblocking in certain regions, such as Germany, where certain content is restricted due to local laws and regulations.

💡Currency conversion

Currency conversion on platforms like Steam refers to the process of translating a user's local currency into the platform's base currency for the purpose of making a purchase. The video mentions how Steam's currency conversion system can affect users in different regions, such as those in Latin America.

💡EU antitrust law

EU antitrust law is designed to ensure fair competition within the European Union by preventing anti-competitive agreements and the abuse of a dominant market position. The script refers to Valve being in violation of this law in 2021, relating to geoblocking agreements with publishers.

💡Game preservation

Game preservation refers to the efforts to save and maintain access to video games, especially older or less popular titles, to prevent them from being lost. The video discusses the potential loss of certain games from The Adult Swim label due to delisting and the community's role in advocating for their preservation.

💡Recommendation engine

A recommendation engine is a software system that suggests items to users based on their preferences and behavior. In the context of the video, Steam's recommendation engine is highlighted as a strong feature that can sometimes mislead users due to incorrect tags or misunderstandings about a game's genre or content.

Highlights

Steam is facing a ban in Vietnam due to complaints from local publishers and developers, causing a potential headache for Valve.

Valve's strong market position is attracting scrutiny for potential anti-competitive practices.

The Adult Swim games catalog delisting issue has a positive update, with Warner Bros. reverting rights back to some developers.

One developer is combating Steam's user-generated tags that misrepresent his game, leading to a wrong audience and negative reviews.

Boots.dev is highlighted as a sponsor, offering backend web development courses with a unique gaming-inspired approach.

Steam's global platform is less global due to the ban in Vietnam, affecting local distributors.

Valve may not see enough financial incentive in Vietnam to comply with local regulations, unlike in China with Steam China.

Steam modifies its platform in various regions for compliance, such as in China and with geoblocking in Germany.

The Polish government is investigating Steam and Sony for anti-competitive practices, which could have EU-wide implications.

Valve's legal department may need to address potential policy changes that could affect Steam's global operations.

GOG (Good Old Games) could be particularly affected by the Polish investigation due to their ownership by CD Projekt.

Valve previously broke EU antitrust laws in 2021 regarding geoblocking agreements with publishers.

Developers and publishers benefit from Steam's recommendation engine and discoverability features, despite the platform's power.

The importance of managing player expectations and the role of user tags in genre misrepresentation on Steam.

Developer Tamaz 'toas' Salah changed the title of his game on Steam to clarify its genre, addressing user confusion and negative reviews.

Steam's refund policy is praised as a way to ensure players only pay for games they enjoy.

The video concludes with a reminder of the potential impact of the Polish investigation on the global digital market and consumer choices.

Transcripts

it's time for us to have a talk about

steam because quite a few stories are

going on with it steam is actually being

banned in one country it is being

investigated in another country for

anti-competitive practices and that's

the kind of thing that basically is just

going to be a headache for valve going

forward they have a really really strong

position in the market and all the big

Publishers know they have got to Port

their games onto PC to survive and to do

that well you basically have got to do

it in Steam and just that concentration

of power means they're going to catch

more Flack naturally so we'll talk about

that but also for devs who are already

on Steam there is some good news

actually on the story of The Adult Swim

games catalog and it's delisting that

really sucked and there's good news

there and also one developer has

basically had all that he can take of

steam user generated tags basically

selling his game to the wrong audience

and he's trying to fight back it's a

really weird story a case where dev's

made a real cool game but has absolutely

found himself in quite the pickle and we

would be in quite the pickle without the

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and let's roll okay the Banning of steam

of course as we've been reminded pretty

frequently over the last few weeks of

the whole PlayStation Network mess steam

is very much a global platform but

recently it's just got a little bit less

Global and that's because the whole

thing is gone in Vietnam now this has

been sourced all the way back to

VietNamNet which suggests that this may

have came because of complaints from

local Publishers and developers right so

they've basically got their government

to ban steam it's kind of crazy so

here's a quote for you steam is

blatantly Distributing games at Vietnam

including violent games and adult games

without asking for permission this is

unfair for domestic Distributors

management agencies need to tighten

control over the crossborder platform or

domestic game Distributors will die in

The Home Market so this is actually

where gets fascinating for us because

it's not really a problem we deal with

in most of our countries but for them it

kind of is different for example and

kind of similar to what goes on with the

Chinese version of steam loads of games

released in Vietnam are required to edit

out the blood right and violence can

only go so far unlike with China steam

have not built their own version of the

platform to be compliant in that region

so even though steam can sell games in

Vietnamese Dong they actually don't have

to play by the rules of the country and

then that immediately puts distributors

in the region at disadvantage because if

you're a Vietnamese game distributor

well tough luck right you've got to

comply with the government but if the

mighty network of Gabe new is all across

the world and supports your currency

then why is anyone going to go and get

the version of a game from you the local

Vietnamese distributor right so it's not

really a surprise that the regulator has

got loads of complaints and this is

actually similar to how they also got

Netflix challenged for offering their

games with no modification for that

market as well so one way of looking at

this story and it would be really easy

to do this is to say that valve were out

there challenging Regional censorship

and that for Vietnamese Gamers this was

was awesome because they were able to

get their video games without any you

know compromising things being done to

sell in the region and that is actually

the reality on the ground and was

awesome for them but of course the fact

is that steam do modify their platform

all the time in other regions the most

obvious is steam China existing but

steam actually do still geoblock certain

purchases for users in Germany based on

content um you know icons such as a um

certain Hindu symbol I believe um you

know pretty obvious reasons why but

what's interesting is the German law

about uh National Socialist iconography

that was lifted in the country in 2018

so even though that was lifted in

Germany actually some of that stuff is

still being applied by Steam and of

course if you buy a game in Russia and

well then of course it ends up getting

geolock to stop cheap key grifting you

know where games just end up on like key

reselling websites and then of course

depending on the region you're in you

actually can't use your local currency

to pay directly in steam instead you end

up using steam's own currency conversion

into well examples like meusd or latam

USD right so a funny little thing that

most people don't know this ends up

basically falling into the opposite

problem that Sony have got with

PlayStation Network steam is available

in every country to the benefit of

customers there and the benefit of valve

This Global revenue is awesome for

everybody involved but of course there

are the requirements of all of those

Global countries and if you're Global

first and you're only not Global if a

regional problem crops up then well for

valve it ends up in a situation like

this and if your bottom line is going to

be threatened as it was with some of the

stuff in China then you will end up

having an incentive to do something like

deploy steam China so realistically this

is far less a case of steam doing a like

righteous anti-censorship thing it's not

really that it's rather that they just

don't see enough money in Vietnam to

bother doing anything about it now

speaking of following the rules it

actually turns out the valve may be

facing some more scrutiny now this was

an interesting one it is the Polish

government taking on Steam and Sony and

being real with you Poland right it's a

country in the EU and the EU has been

able to swing its whatever about um

throw its weight around let's just say

on um anti-competitive matters right

like that's one of the reasons why

iPhones went to USBC lot of uh EU

pressure of course you've got the

digital markets act so being in the UK I

cannot use an alternate app uh like an

alternate App Store on my iPhone if I

just go across the border into the

Republic of Ireland uh which you know

technically is obviously in the EU

whereas Northern Ireland is in the UK

therefore is not in the EU then um I can

you know then then I could use an

alternative App Store so a bit of a

funny little situation point is though

this is happening with Poland Poland is

in the EU and I wonder if this is the

sort of thing that could end end up

spiraling right that maybe some other

countries in the EU may also make a bit

of an issue out of this so if you're inv

valves legal department this is

certainly something that will be across

your desk that you'll be thinking about

so this was spotted by Maru NL and Game

World Observer basically the Polish

office for competition and consumer

protection are starting a preliminary

investigation into companies operating

in the region for anti-competitive

practices right so that's what they've

said and this isn't the first we've

heard of this story this is more a major

new up in it because they had already

done a review of several developers and

Publishers like they even went to the

PlayStation regional office in Poland so

now what they're doing is they're

analyzing the evidence and what they're

saying they're looking for is this right

evidence of dominant players using their

position to enforce anti-competitive

rules and this is what they say it

includes applying restrictions on the

sale of games and ancillary content on

competing platforms or online stores

interfering with pricing and discount

policies of game developers and

Publishers or restrict ing Market access

to competing platforms and other digital

service providers and you may see that

and think why is a company saying hey

you can't sell your product in that

other store well I mean think about some

of the big deals that happen in regular

brick and mortar retailers like you

actually do have a lot of these big

companies with a lot of power playing

genuine godamn hard ball with each other

now in the case of valve and steam well

they actually do have a bunch of

restrictions on what you can do on other

stores stores so a lot of the times

somebody may say hey uh developer can I

not just like buy a DRM free version of

your game on your own website and more

of the money will go to you well in many

cases for the developer it's actually

better for them to lose the cut to valve

because a sale happening on Steam is

probably going to be useful to the steam

algorithm so it's actually better for

like a developer's bottom line that Gab

and Co get their fee because that will

just mean more spread and steam anyway

so this is something that valve actually

been facing in the USA as well and this

is the fact that they mandate that

prices on Steam can't be undercut on

other stores and then the other thing

which is the Restriction in the sale of

games PlayStation are actually facing a

consumer rights tribunal that is

relating to basically how they removed

the ability to purchase digital games on

third party platforms so in both cases

here these are things that have been

given enough consideration by the legal

system right involved in those countries

for it to move from that primary stage

to the secondary stage of basically what

could end up being a trial right so this

is actually pretty serious stuff and

again this is happening in Poland Poland

is an EU country look at what's going on

with the digital markets act and of

course there are differences like

obviously between the Apple App Store

and uh and steam right like they are

completely different platforms but still

this is the type of thing the EU are

taking real seriously um and I mean you

could totally see uh you you could see a

reality where the EU could end up saying

uh no you can't control that actually a

developer can sell a game for whatever

price on their own website you can't do

anything steam tough luck if you want to

operate in the EU and not be fine to

so that's the kind of thing that

obviously for us as consumers would be

positive for valve though obviously this

is something that they're probably going

to want to take very seriously in the

legal front now this could be

specifically relevant in Poland because

of Gog formerly known as good old games

uh of course they're owned by CD project

and uh if a developer lists their game

on Gog cheaper than steam then they lose

the ability to have their game on the

bigger platform so imagine CD project

rare doing a game like uh let's just say

The Witcher form if that was say 10%

cheaper on Gog because they own it then

they would not be able to sell in Steam

whatsoever right valve would boot them

off and of course you could say that

would be silly for valve to do think of

all the money that valve would make from

selling that game on Steam even if

people could get a better deal elsewhere

yes but the second valve does that once

well the whole Foundation would just

kind of crumble other devs would be like

uh hey um why can we not do what they're

doing so again this is all just putting

pressure on Val from a policy

perspective and that could impact all of

us because we buy games on Steam all of

this basically suggests then that the

whole Global digital Market the decline

of physical games that it's just making

all of this stuff be more important and

uh of course by default the incumbents

like valve and Sony they you know they

they do kind of benefit as things go

more and more digital it's interesting

stuff we don't know how this is going to

pan out but this actually wouldn't be

the first time that valve have had

trouble in the EU this decade because

they actually broke EU antitrust law

relating to Geo blocking agreements with

loads of Publishers in 2021 so that kind

of got cracked by the EU and then if

Poland decides in this case that it's in

line with those EU regulations then this

could really really impact things now of

course this would be bad for valve but

what it would mean is more options more

competition and of course competition is

ultimately good for consumers it's one

of those things I think of I mean is

valve like literally a monopoly no you

can buy and sell games in other places

is it true that valve has a humongous

amount of power like yeah absolutely it

is true now I think of all of the stores

right they do seem to be the most

benevolent like given their size they

are fairly Pro consumer um they do give

game developers a lot of really good

tools and they've actually built a

platform with such good discoverability

features that they are more than just a

storefront that's where it gets

interesting to me with valve they're

basically in a game Discovery and

matchmaking business because how many

people um go to the Epic gamees store

see something think oh that's new I'll

buy it they don't because the epic game

store doesn't really do those things

that Steam does so that's where it gets

interesting to me I do see Steam

obviously as a storefront but I also see

it as a recommendation engine and so as

a developer or publisher you do get pros

and you do get cons from Steam but that

recommendation engine my God it is

strong the next thing then is our

friends at Warner Bros who have finally

made a good decision um so I don't know

maybe that feels weird to them uh now of

course this is not about the suicide

squad kill the Justice League game no

this is where Warner Bros were just very

cruy and needlessly delisting games that

had came from The Adult Swim label and

that just meant that a lot of small

titles a lot of pretty love just cool

Niche things which is really the whole

Adult Swim like gist a lot of those just

risked being deleted from the internet

which would have sucked and it was all

because WB would rather delete the steam

Pages than do the very simple process on

the steam back end to transfer them

right like literally it would take

minutes for each game so what happened

is Warner Bros reached out to two of the

devs involved um this is with small

radios big televisions and Duck game

both being titles that have been spared

the ax and they will actually be

reverting all rights and the store Pages

back to the developers so this is really

good and this is again a great example

of comradeship uh activism stuff

actually working the devs of these games

said hey this is then a lot of

people who care about fair play a lot of

people who just think oh come on WB it

would take you so little effort to do

the right thing people who are

interested in game preservation people

actually banded together and look at

this the big faceless Corporation has

actually done the right thing because of

public pressure that is one of those

times where we have got an objective win

because people said hey big Corporation

no we don't like that that being said

it's not a total Victory people reached

out to polygon and they essentially

reported that not everybody has got this

reprieve some more developers have

explicitly said that Warner Bros are

explicitly being moved by the public

outcry against the decisions to be

honest I've got to imagine that is just

large corporations are stupid because

there are so many layers of approval

right it's a scale issue so hopefully

the outstanding devs actually do you

know have the right thing happen because

come on man if some corporate

just means that games no longer exist

that sucks for the medium the next thing

then bulwark and expectation cuz here's

the problem right right expectations

really frame everything you know um I

mean a random game may look like a

role-playing game but if it's more of an

arpg or you know is it a crpg is it

something a lot more esoteric I mean

recently lots of people they picked up

no rest for the wicked because they were

interested of course in another action

role playing game and they remember the

aie games being absolutely beautiful now

for me I hopped into that game and

immediately loved the souls like

Inspirations for other people that will

have felt like gravy sludge compared to

what they're used to so it's just one of

those things where expectations really

do matter steam kind of mitigates that

by doing user tags and user tags are

generally speaking pretty damn great

because you just get to see you know

vaguely what what are The Vibes in this

game and it does mean that if enough

people just declare that a game is in a

specific genre like steam will just show

that to fans of that genre but then the

thing is what if people are not

necessarily right what if there is a bit

of a disagreement between the players

and uh and the dev or some players in a

Dev what if a tag that people keep on

assigning to a game is actually not the

genre that the developer intended and

what if that tag actively overrides the

tags that the developer themselves has

set so that people understand what the

developer's game is that's where it gets

interesting and that is where the guy um

toass behind balark uh Falconer

Chronicles has um has basically done

something so this is what tamaz posted

right he said folks you made me do it

the full title of balark is now bulwark

Falconer Chronicles a bloody creative

sandbox not a strategy game

build some cool expect no endgame

cuz it's a Sandbox that's his post he

ended by saying there dot dot I hope

that finally clarifies it funny little

situation obviously that's not what it's

called in Steam on Steam it is called

ballark Falconer Chronicles a creative

building sandbox it almost reminds me of

how some books are listed on Amazon you

know that if you're like looking at a

book and it'll be like the title of the

book A and then basic basically

marketing like marketing copy or you

know now adapted to Netflix it's a bit

weird this is a really interesting game

and a little kind of interesting Sub sub

genre that's kind of playing around with

what you expect from uh from a game now

in recent reviews basically uh the dev

toas Salah has encountered people

leaving negative reviews because it

wasn't a strategy game with a sort of a

a campaign or like big long-term

complexity so a lot of people they went

in expecting that and the game did not

get them that and actually this is

something I can speak a little bit

personally to so our game the pale

Beyond is a um like it is a narrative

game uh like yes Resource Management

we're going more for taxing sort of EQ

um in times where a lot of things how

characters will respond whether you lose

or gain reputation with somebody a lot

of that is depending on the sort of the

character writing understanding of

characters like motives that sort of

social thing um but yeah it is narrative

first yes there are strategic role

playing uh elements little bit of you

know management gameplay but it is not a

game like frost Punk even though both

games are wintry or you know are set in

a cold place but one thing we found is a

lot of people are not it's not a

humongous amount of people but it is a

few people who purchased the game you

know they were like what is this why is

there a load of tax in this game I

thought this was like frost Punk and it

just turned out people said well hey if

you love The Vibes of frostpunk you'll

probably love our game and that's

actually true I really love our game and

I really love Frost buunk there's a lot

of shared Vibes even though they're very

different games but then for some users

that meant oh dear they've bought a game

they didn't like it and this is actually

a really good uh case for steam's entire

policy with refunds because I'd rather

that person refunds if they bought our

game thinking it's Frost Punk it's not

Frost punk you should have your money

back I don't want it you only want

somebody's money if they're going to you

know play and enjoy your game that's the

whole point that is basically what this

dev has ran into here people are being

served up a game by Steam and of course

its recommendations um they weren't

really reading a lot about the game

Beyond say the title and the footage and

then whenever they go and see the full

game experience they end up of course

leaving some negative reviews and that

does have a KnockOn effect in the steam

algorithm and toaz was speaking to PC

Gamer and he basically detailed his

whole prog process of finding out about

this I'll just read the quote it's

really interesting so me and the

producer at wire production spent a few

days trying to figure things out

literally changing all the story text

and all that until I finally saw the

tags and it all made sense that is when

my inner little devil came out and said

for sake let's just change the

title pretty sure that can't be changed

by anyone but me and so he went and he

did that now he did like in the

interview understand why people could be

disappointed like if steam serves you up

a strategy game in a strategy tag and

you play it and it's not that that's a

bad user experience even though it's not

really the developer's fault because it

was was made Fairly clear with this game

that it was more of a creative uh sort

of a creative sandbox but just real

interesting um obviously I I do think

that steam's recommendation engine is

one of the absolute just best uh you

know points of of value on the platform

I think it is awesome this is just an

interesting little Edge case of things

not going 100% right now toas did like

further comment uh cuz there is a there

is an obvious thing here where you could

say yeah but that's just player feed

back they just didn't like a bit of the

game he did say um he did say this on

Twitter following up for those thinking

I only swear someone left a positive

review tonight with a lot of very

specific feedback a few hours later

public beta has been updated with fixes

ready for testing Gamers that specify

their feedback are the best and I can

certainly say in our experience like a

lot of the times where we would get a

positive or A negative review but there

would really be just strong actionable

stuff a player saying like this thing

was the problem for me um you know be it

a bit of UI something not being clear

and that really that is awesome Every

Game Dev whether it's a positive or A

negative review Every Game Dev at least

should love that because it is so so

useful it's literally gold um so yeah

it's just an interesting little

situation I I think it's kind of

nobody's fault I suppose the thing is

though um because when you look at the

game right and I mean visually it's very

Stark the tldr right it's in the

falconer Universe by the way if you

remember the game Falconer so you are

kind of like building up your uh your

like settlement and um you know there

are light strategy mechanics you can be

attacked by pirate raids and stuff there

are other settlements I think for some

people they may be look at that and

think okay well you know we're going to

be having this sort of town versus Town

sort of regional uh smaller scale

conflicts of maybe a Manor Lords mixed

in with you know Base building and city

building and maybe thinking that it

because it is that but soft touch with

the focus mostly being on the building

Tech cuz when you look at the building

Tech and how the how the settlements

actually come together it's visually

stunning I mean it is absolutely

gorgeous and it seems to be very

inspired by I think it's called yeah

this game townscaper on Steam and this

game is overtly a toy it never got into

the same sort of problem with an

audience because it was always so

obviously a toy the idea though is um

the dev behind it just made really

really cool Tech that kind of

procedurally generate stuff and you

basically just paint where you want

things it's it's really just pretty

amazing so what toas has done is take

this kind of thing and then make a light

touch strategy game sort of creative

sandbox experience um so look I'd

recommend checking it out if it is the

sort of thing that's interesting to you

I'd certainly say like for my own

personal tastes I would far rather if

this was more a strategy game that being

said it is an early access and I suppose

as he continually hones and refines the

game um maybe it would end up being like

a little bit closer to the sort of thing

that I would be super interested in as

it is right now though like if it's on a

sale or if I just like catch a fancy

it's totally something I could see

myself buying and playing for a bit but

for it to be something I think I'd

really play for a long long time yeah

I'm probably in the camp of wanting more

strategy stuff but then again you know

I've always known what's up with this

game and it's not like I only found out

about it because I saw it in a steam tag

that really wasn't an accurate

representation of the game so anyway an

interesting thing there was a wider

conversation to have about genres it's

hard to make things fit into genres

sometimes but anyway I will leave you

with that I hope you found today's video

to be interesting um I know some of this

stuff won't feel like it could impact

your life but seriously that stuff going

on in Poland if that goes down in Poland

and then other countries start to think

about it and that kind of starts to

happen at the EU level you could be

looking at some pretty serious stuff

going down anyway we'll look out for

that I hope you've had a great day and I

will see you again tomorrow