Goodbye RPGMaker, hello Capybaras: Steam’s updated tag list is a headscratcher
Steam tags have long been a place for people to joke around rather than a tool meant to help inform potential buyers what the games they’re scoping out are about. Now, Steam is cutting down on some of the more meme-y tags and introducing new ones, though not all of them make a ton of sense. As announced by Valve today, Steam is removing 28 tags from the platform, primarily because the company has rarely removed tags and had to cut them in bulk. The removed tags include Warhammer 40K, America, Dungeons & Dragons, Drama, and LEGO, among others. RPGMaker has been cut, too. https://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 Image via Steam “The set that we’ve removed today are done so because they no longer serve a good purpose for establishing connections between games or describing unique and useful elements of content in the game,” Valve wrote, adding that IP-specific tags are irrelevant because the IPs are usually already clearly stated by the publisher, while some, like “Masterpiece,” were deemed too subjective to count. Other tags like “NSFW” overlap with more specific tags like “Violence” and “Sexual Content,” meaning they’re quite redundant in Valve’s eyes. Valve also added 17 new tags to supplement the store, and very interesting ones at that. “Capybaras” can now be put on games that feature these furballs, while “Samurai” can be used to denote the presence of Japan’s most elite soldiers. “Wolves,” and “Animals” are in there, too, as if Valve is anticipating an influx of Animal Crossing-style games and wants to make sure the whole kingdom is accounted for. The most interesting here is the “Bullet Heaven” tag, finally acknowledging Vampire Survivors‘ influence and saving us from having to use “Vampire Survivors-like” for it. Expanding tags in meaningful ways helps all of us, because I, for one, remember a time where every game that had a good chunk of Russians within its community would be slapped with the “Soviet Union” tag, even if the game had nothing to do with that failed state. We’ve also seen an uptick in tags like LGBTQ placed on games that are in the midst of a culture war on Twitter, so Valve still has a lot to do to make this feature as useful as it can be. 0 The post Goodbye RPGMaker, hello Capybaras: Steam’s updated tag list is a headscratcher appeared first on Destructoid.
As announced by Valve today, Steam is removing 28 tags from the platform, primarily because the company has rarely removed tags and had to cut them in bulk.
The removed tags include Warhammer 40K, America, Dungeons & Dragons, Drama, and LEGO, among others. RPGMaker has been cut, too.
https://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15
Image via Steam “The set that we’ve removed today are done so because they no longer serve a good purpose for establishing connections between games or describing unique and useful elements of content in the game,” Valve wrote, adding that IP-specific tags are irrelevant because the IPs are usually already clearly stated by the publisher, while some, like “Masterpiece,” were deemed too subjective to count. Other tags like “NSFW” overlap with more specific tags like “Violence” and “Sexual Content,” meaning they’re quite redundant in Valve’s eyes.
Valve also added 17 new tags to supplement the store, and very interesting ones at that. “Capybaras” can now be put on games that feature these furballs, while “Samurai” can be used to denote the presence of Japan’s most elite soldiers. “Wolves,” and “Animals” are in there, too, as if Valve is anticipating an influx of Animal Crossing-style games and wants to make sure the whole kingdom is accounted for.
The most interesting here is the “Bullet Heaven” tag, finally acknowledging Vampire Survivors‘ influence and saving us from having to use “Vampire Survivors-like” for it.
Expanding tags in meaningful ways helps all of us, because I, for one, remember a time where every game that had a good chunk of Russians within its community would be slapped with the “Soviet Union” tag, even if the game had nothing to do with that failed state.
We’ve also seen an uptick in tags like LGBTQ placed on games that are in the midst of a culture war on Twitter, so Valve still has a lot to do to make this feature as useful as it can be.
What's Your Reaction?