Valve have made adjustments to Steam’s neighborhood awards system to discourage folks from posting daft and indignant posts with the intention to farm Steam factors. You’ll, actually, not be capable of obtain Steam factors from different customers once they offer you awards. Including insult to harm, there is a new set of awards which are explicitly designed to unfold goodwill. Filth!
For context, Steam neighborhood awards are these emoji stickers folks slap on critiques to point a wealthy spectrum of human feelings – all the way in which from spitting contempt to utterly brainless enthusiasm. With neighborhood awards hitherto being a supply of Steam factors (used to purchase stuff like profile footage and backgrounds) there has lengthy been a tradition of posting rubbish to draw a couple of dozen clownface emojis.
Now not! Now, all you’ll get in return for frightening the hatred of the commons is an image of a flaming chilli pepper. This being considered one of 12 new neighborhood awards Valve have created, which change the present designs. They aren’t solely nugatory as a method of monetising cringe – they’re meant to “maintain the vibes optimistic”. Yeah, good luck with that.
“Simply as earlier than, you should purchase these awards utilizing your Steam Factors (earned by shopping for video games), and use them in Steam Neighborhood to point out your appreciation for issues like consumer critiques, discussion board posts, guides, screenshots, paintings, Workshop mods, and even straight in your buddy’s Steam profile,” notes the Steam weblog in query (thanks, Aerothorn).
“After we initially created Steam Neighborhood Awards, the thought was for them to not solely look cool however to additionally grant a small variety of Steam Factors to the recipient, which means they could possibly be used as a tip of types for individuals who create and share wonderful content material with the Steam Neighborhood,” it goes on. “Nonetheless, we discovered that this inspired and rewarded a slender set of attention-grabbing content material and did not permit the main target to be as a lot on a broader pool of considerate, well-considered inventive content material.
“Due to this, we’re refocusing the system: The Second Version of Steam Neighborhood Awards will not switch factors. As an alternative, the objectives of the system will probably be solely about conveying the appreciation of the viewer to the content material creator, and as a sign to others that somebody appreciated the piece of content material.”
The brand new awards all price 500 Steam factors apiece, and are a mixture of flavourless and awfully saccharine. Significantly, if anyone ever reacts to something I’ve posted with an image of a bouncing life preserver, take me outdoors and gun me down like a rabid canine. Nonetheless, we will relaxation assured that Steam customers will twist their which means. Give it a couple of weeks, and that bouncing life preserver will in all probability really be the Steam consumer equal of gunning any individual down like a rabid canine.
We will additionally relaxation assured that Valve will deliver again the OG neighborhood award designs sooner or later, as soon as the canine of nostalgia is sufficiently rabid and prepared for the gunning. I’ll give up with this analogy now.
If we had a neighborhood award system for RPS feedback, what designs ought to we embody? Apart from a rock, a chunk of paper and a shotgun, in fact.
