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Steam might be one of the big name in PC digital distribution, but as many have found out their customer service has found to be at times… lacking. Most recently there has even been a post on the /r/steam Reddit about someone willing to seek legal action for the lack of response to their support ticket about a compromised account that had been left untouched for half a YEAR. Ouch.
Fortunately, it seems that Valve have recognised that work needs to be done.
“We started by realising we had a lot of software to write to build a new support system,” says Valve’s Erik Johnson in an interview. “The first feature that came of that was the ability to get refunds of purchases made on Steam. If a customer buys something they don’t like, they can get their money back in a pretty transparent way. We think that’s a good feature, but we don’t think it was the fix for support. It had a lot more work behind it that was long-term thinking than just refunds.”
Next step has been working on account security and theft, with updates coming to the mobile app and two-step authentication being put in place to try and help. They’ve also tried bringing in third-party companies to help, but found that because they were more focused on their numbers Valve have opted to instead provide better in-house training and solutions.
“It’s a function of training up more and more people answer customer issues,” explains Johnson. “We’re not there yet. It’s getting better internally; it’s just that it hasn’t yet translated to great support for users. We’re gonna get there, though.”
Owners of Macs found out when they bought some of Valve’s new hardware that their computers couldn’t make either the Steam Link or the Steam Controller work. Despite them having been advertised to work.
Valve are sending out apology emails now to all affected, hoping to make up for the oversights. They have cited the cause as “temporary software issues” and say they will probably last a few weeks before they can be fixed.
“We want to apologise for the delays in providing full functionality for the Mac platform. We’re doing everything we can to resolve the issues. For the latest fixes and functionality, we recommend that you opt in to the Steam client beta.”
An upcoming update will add support for Macs so that you can use the Link to stream from them, as well as adding support for video,audio and controller input. Gamepad emulation will also be supported on Macs for the Steam Controller.
Until then, Valve are adding the Valve Complete Pack to the Steam accounts of affected customers, giving access to them for all Valve games; past, present and future. It’s free and can be kept even if the customer opts to get a refund on their hardware. The returns policy has also been extended to 60 days and Steam will also cover postage for those wanting a refund.
Up until today, I hadn’t realised that I haven’t seen a tricked out car bouncing about on its lowered hydraulics on the television for quite some while. Guess it was something that quietly was left behind when things moved on. Now though Rockstar are planning to revive some of that car-dancing magic in GTA V with the next expansion to the game.
GTA Online: Lowriders will bring lowriders to the virtual streets, as well as a new customs shop in downtown Strawberry. Benny’s Original Motor Works is the location for a whole set of new vehicular customisations.
“Deck out your engine block with covers and air filters, coat your interiors with velour, leather and patterns, choose custom colors and designs for your dials, or add a new steering wheel and custom shift levers. Give your ride lift with hydraulics – the more powerful the pumps, the higher you can bounce. And boost your stereo’s performance with new speakers and subs in the back.”
There’s also new interactions added for opening the doors, bonnet and boot of the cars you drive around in now, so you can simulate a pimped-out car gathering with your friends in GTA Online! At least, until another player shows up in a helicopter and kamikazes into you all that is. There will also be new Lamar missions added, a forth residence to buy and new clothing, hair and accessories for your avatar.
GTA Online: Lowriders arrives on PC as an automatic update on Tuesday, October 20.
Firstly Dracucat has reached its target now with 12 days to go, so expect that game to be available at some point in the future; while Home Free has reached and passed the Dockland stretch goal and is very close to getting the Cat stretch goal met too. Aberford unfortunately is way off target with less than 3 days to go, so another method will need to be found to fund that game if Sketchy Panda decide to go ahead with it.
Every one of the four games covered last week still have quite a while to go yet and none are too close to their targets as of yet. However we know that the last few days of a Kickstarter can bring surges so this isn’t to say that they will fail, and we’ll update you as the weeks go by.
Starting us off with the sole card game this week, and I chose this one because not only does it sound quite silly; it’s another team based card game and I do enjoy some co-op play.
The game is an 12+ (normal deck) or 18+ (NSFW deck) game for 2-6 players, although there needs to be an even number to make the two teams balanced. The aim is simply to be the team who conquers 25 of the territories, and play is conducted through 3 assaults. The team who wins the best of 3 using their held damage cards get the territory.
GOAT ARMY currently has 36 days to go and has made €1,301 of its €2,000 goal, so I dare say this one will meet target.
This is a 2D adventure game with RPG elements set in a sci-fi future, using pixel graphics and a hand painted feel setting. Sounds promising.
The story follows a convict who awakes his deep sleep to find the orbital prison facility he was being held in has crashed on an abandoned Earth. With the aid of a ragtag group he finds himself trekking the wasteland of the planet to try and locate the nine cell blocks now scattered about the planet, braving the harsh environments as well as dangers both animal and sentient. The game is also on Steam Greenlight, so if you’re interested you might want to go find it to vote it up there too.
Wanderer has made $15,686 of its $70,000 goal so far with 26 days still to go.
This game’s a puzzler that might seem familiar at first, but this game has a neat little twist to turn it around. Literally.
Quatros is like a graphically updated Tetris. Except whenever a piece is placed the ‘board’ will rotate 90s degrees, changing the stacks and lines to keep you on your toes and alert. Each turn could mess up or make easier your task as you keep stacking blocks to form the lines to make them vanish and score your points. It’s simple but if you’re a fan of simple puzzle games, this one might be for you.
Quatros Origins has a target of €15,000 of which it has made only €515 so far with 26 more days to go.
Finishing our round-up today is a game with graphics that consist of school-book scribbles, which is a unique draw to say the least.
Scribbled Arena is a twin-stick shooter where everything looks like the pen doodles that you used to draw on or in your school books during class. It has both a singleplayer and a multiplayer mode, with customisation of armours and weaponry available. It’s already been successful on Android and is now halfway through development for the PC version and the Kickstarter page has a planned schedule of objectives and when they aim to be working on them which inspires a little confidence in backers if they want to know when they can expect to see certain things.
Scribbled Arena has made $1,178 of the $25,000 goal and has 27 days to go.
A post that isn’t a review? Yep, time for a good old fashioned opinion piece, allow me to go all White Goodman on you fine readers and hit you with some knowledge.
OK that sounded stupid. (just a little 😛 ~Lone)
A thought struck me recently: Why do we get so up in arms about sequels? In fact not just sequels; remakes, reboots and franchising in general.
Immediate Answer: Well we as fans of entertainment, don’t like to think of our favourite films/characters/heroes/intellectual properties being used solely for profit. We want new and original content and not just the same things rehashed and reused every so often.
OK, that’s fair enough. New ideas should be sought after and praised, of course they should. Humanity probably wouldn’t have gotten very far if we didn’t take advantage of new and exciting ideas (Christ knows where we’d be if the wheel hadn’t caught on), and don’t get me wrong, I am all for new ideas in films and entertainment but if I like that new idea why is it so bad that I want more? I’m always the first to ask for seconds and thirds at the dinner table when pasta is being served.
This train of thought really struck me when I saw a news article about Disney and how they’re going to extend the life of the Frozen Brand (Yes I know it’s a giant film and you probably can’t escape it, yes I know Let It Go is everyone’s favourite song right now, yes I can understand how so many people find the film overrated, just hear me out). The comments on the link to the article were what you’d expect,
“They’re just trying to make as much money as possible”
“Why can’t they come up with anything original?”
“Frozen was overrated anyway”
“Hey everyone, lets all just Let It Go”
Yet all I could find myself thinking was, “You’re all surprised? This is Disney we’re talking about”
This is the company that bought Marvel because they were raking in so much dough with all of their really, really good adaptations of their superheroes and we’re all surprised that they want to make more money of their most successful animated film ever? But I’m not here to talk about Frozen, not when I already did for my dissertation, (it made me enjoy the film even more).
Look I believe you can make a good film out of anything, if that means I get to return to Arendelle or fight some more Xenos then sweet, bring it on says I. BUT, having said that, I can completely understand why sequels/remakes etc etc are frowned upon. We all know why, say it with me everyone, “They’re never as good as the original”
Now that phrase is as subjective as it gets, how could it not be? But as for sequels never being as good as the originals? What about Aliens, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Die Hard with A Vengeance, Hot Shots Part Deux, Blade 2, Empire Strikes Back, Shrek 2, Desperado, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, Revenge of the Sith (Don’t give me that look), Spider-man 2, Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn, Superman II, Back to the Future Part II, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior or X-Men 2. We can probably agree that each of those are superior to their predecessors or at least on par with them.
But of course those are only a few, and a debatable few at that. But still proof that it can be done, it just majorly sucks that not many people took notice of how a good sequel is made, and more of how much money they brought in. Foul play indeed I think we can all agree. But saying that, we still shouldn’t be surprised (trust me I’m especially not trying to put myself on a pedestal here, I am as guilty of bitching about sequels and money grubbing studios as the next person), last time I checked the whole point of Hollywood was to make money wasn’t it? That’s why Film Studios have marketing divisions and accountants isn’t it?
In fact going back to Disney, people are annoyed that they’re going to be franchising Frozen right? Well why are we angry at that and not the Marvel Franchise? That’s one of the biggest franchises out there at the moment yet when Captain America 3 or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 gets announces nobody says a thing. Well that’s because the Marvel Franchise is praised as unanimously good of course. But so is Frozen, at the very least people thought it was good when they saw it, that’s half the reason it was so well received (aside from all the money it made of course).
In fact if you are so sick of a certain franchise, why not just stop giving it your attention? Turn the radio station over next time you hear Let It Go or turn it off altogether, this is sadly more difficult for parents since their kids are the target audience, sorry parents everywhere.
So when a large studio decides to make money off something popular we collectively smack our foreheads and bemoan it. Yet when they’re in the midst of franchising the shit out of something else that’s very popular…we all clam up? I guess I’m just yelling at a larger beast here, after all I’m just one person with a keyboard, hardly going to make a difference right?
I wish we would stop committing the above offence. Sequels and franchising are not inherently bad, it’s their execution that can be viewed as bad. But hey, this is all amazingly subjective and I’m sure a lot of people disagree with me on this. Do you disagree? If so I’d love to hear how. (Politely, mind you this isn’t YouTube.)
The best summation I can give is this, if you don’t like the look of something, be it a sequel, remake or whatever, just don’t give it your time of day, you’ve undoubtedly got better things to be doing.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
