Steam now has a form of platform-specific wishlisting, to help developers see demand

Remember that if you are worried about friends buying you a gift that's Windows only, it is possible to not accept it and it should be returned. But I know, it's flawed and I see another flaws people mentioned here. It's a good sign, but I really hope it will be improved! Right now I set my preferences to Linux only (had all the platforms before), and re-added a few key games there anyway, glad Valve are at least trying!

Exciting news at face value, but they do need to give it more thought. Hopefully they'll look at the feedback and come up with something that makes more sense for all use cases.

Although I could imagine that they don't care to count people who already own the games from other platforms, since those won't need to repurchase the game and won't help make ports profitable.

I'm with @leopard
Time to wishlist some games I really want but aren't available on good ol' linux

- Nier Automata
- Trails in the Sky
- PUBG
- Rise of Tomb Raider (maybe, haven't even finished normal Tomb Raider yet)
- Street Fighter V (wasn't this supposed to be a thing?)

The main big drawback is that every time there's a sale, I'll get emailed about games I don't really want to get until there is a port.

Do I get this right? To show my demand, I should set my filter to show Linux only games, and then put games on my wishlist that aren't on Linux yet and I won't see anymore due to the filter?
So I would have to explicitly search for the game in the store and the put it on my wishlist?
Sounds a bit too complicated to me.

I like to have no filter, to see all games available advertised on the store front page. How should I else know about it, if not seen somewhere else.

I think it would be a better idea, to use either the platform you are on, when wishlisting. Or being able to explicitly set it through a checkbox...

Linux: 2

Well, that's going to feed the Windows fanboys old saying "there are only x number of people using linux in the world" :D

I feel a bit more guilty for dual booting now; I only filter out OS X, so stuff on my wishlist won't show up as Linux-specific wishes. On the other hand, they won't show up as wind0ze-specific wishes either; but still....

If I enable this, would I (still) be able to receive games with no Linux port as gifts?

Would the only things that change be that (i) games that have no Linux port just wouldn't show in the store, when I'm logged in, and that (ii) I'd help show demand for Linux ports?


Last edited by s8as8a on 7 December 2017 at 7:33 am UTC

I thought the publishers already had such data.

But I can't start adding games to the wishlist without knowing there's at least some talk about it coming to Linux. My list would be insanely long then...

Wow, that was the first news in the "Steam for Linux" group since "Portal 2 Beta
for Linux released" on 25. Feb. 2014! :D
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/allnews/

I'm in the same group as some others: I'm using the wishlist as... *drums* *silence*
whishlist! I gave it e. g. to my wife so she could use it for a Chistmas present. Meh.


Last edited by Eike on 7 December 2017 at 12:46 pm UTC

And here I just did my yearly purging of my wishlist...

Quoting: g000hThere is one BIG problem with this though. Not all Linux gamers are going to want to set their Account Preferences to only show Linux/SteamOS games in Search Results. I like to see all the games on Steam, and not just the Linux ones - even though I might favour the purchase of Linux games 99% of the time, there will be a tiny bit of interest in games available on other platforms.

So, the whole point of "this will show how keen Linux gamers are on our game" is completely lost. It only shows the really hardcore Linux players, who have deliberately made this setting active.

Personally I hope the developers realise how flawed this statistic actually is!!!

It does not do that. It only means if you select your preference and wishlist a game, you will show up in their stats as a wishlister who uses linux. Otherwise windows games still show up when you open your library or the store.

I for one would appreciate another option that filtered out all non-linux games if set, so i don't have to do it every time i'm browsing on the store.

(Or is it maybe only my account being broken, i have had this setting ticked for a while, but most times i enter the shop i have to filter out windows only games)

I keep editing this post, but this seems a way better solution than some random devs inviting some people on random forums (such as this or twittwer) to some random steam discussion to ask for linux support. (And you know the haterz will appear on every such discussion.)

As for discovering games, windows games and AAA titles are ubiquitous so you will most likely know about them before any linux release even if you do not search for them, as 99% of gaming/popular computing sites/content is windows only.


Last edited by dvd on 7 December 2017 at 8:53 am UTC

I wonder when they are going to show platform support on games on the wishlist. The problem with adding non-linux games to wishlist is that when you look at the wishlist you have to open the store page of the game before you see if it has linux port or not.

I don't think this solves anything. It might even make things worse, if publishers/devs are stupid enough to think these numbers are a direct indication of interest.

Even if I was in the habit of wishlisting games not available or at least confirmed for Linux, I'd still ignore most of them. And while I've had the filtering option set since it became available, many of you do not (which is fine), and thus do not count as Linux wishlisters.

Quoting: BeamboomBut I can't start adding games to the wishlist without knowing there's at least some talk about it coming to Linux. My list would be insanely long then...

It could be that there won't be a talk about coming to Linux without a previous wishlist with enough interests on it... We are creating a vicious circle that might end up on a spiral of death and destruction xD

However its a bit late for Steam; still its a new way to show developers how much our demand is for linux port/client
and still thanks to Steam employees.

A quote dump from what I wrote on Twitter:

I like the idea of this existing, but I feel like rolling it into the wishlist is a bad idea.

My wishlist is already messy and neigh unusable with 200+ games on it and no way to keep it organized. Now I'm supposed to wishlist Windows-only stuff, making it even more laborious?

I mean, the wishlist entries don't even show the platform. So I have to double-check that before buying lest I accidentally buy a game I can't play.

Or get excited upon seeing a game on my wishlist while looking through it and getting disappointed a few seconds later.

Before this is in any way usable, I need a way to organize my wishlist. Creating sublists, filter options, fine control over sales notifications, ...

A single flat list is just an unwieldy mess when there's more than a dozen items on it.

Sorry for being so negative. I'm just not happy with the wishlist in general and I feel this exasperates my issues with it.

Especially since I feel I now *have* to do it to get my want for ports registered :/

--

Another point I only thought about later: this also means is that people might gift me a Windows-only game (I have been gifted games from my wishlist by some lovely people). Which would be unfortunate.

TL;DR: I don't think this particular implementation is all that great, sadly.

Interesting. I've had a few non-Linux games on my wishlist for a while, which I go check whenever they go on sale; I think there was one earlier this year that actually had been ported to Linux since I added it without me being aware of the fact, though I can't remember what it was now (it might not have actually been on my wishlist and was just one I was interested in, though).

Quoting: WorMzyI only wishlist games that are on Linux, since my less-techy friends and family often buy me birthday/Christmas gifts from it (it's either that or socks!).

Your less-techy friends and relations use your Steam wishlist? Jeez. :'( Wish I had a single friend or family member who was techy enough to realize I have one, let alone buy my something from it. :(

(Ok, my little brothers might be, but as minors sans credit card… :))

Quoting: DrMcCoyMy wishlist is already messy and neigh unusable with 200+ games on it and no way to keep it organized.

I've got the opposite: My list is well-tended and I'd be happy to buy or get gifted any single game on it. (I only "follow" the other games I might also be interested in.) I fear those times are over now...

Yeah, I do have a bit of a problem where I think "Oh, this looks neat. I'm gonna wishlist it!" quite often. Then during sales, I buy a bunch of them, but somehow always less than I added in the meantime.

And then I only seldom find time to play them.

Heck, there's even some games I bought full-price on release day that I still need to play.

Quoting: EikeWow, that was the first news in the "Steam for Linux" group since "Portal 2 Beta
for Linux released" on 25. Feb. 2014! :D
http://steamcommunity.com/app/221410/allnews/

I'm in the same group as some others: I'm using the wishlist as... *drums* *silence*
whishlist! I gave it e. g. to my wife so she could use it for a Chistmas present. Meh.

Yeah... Maybe they should had a category in the wishlist to classify games. Something like "Interrested in but not available on my OS".

Edit: Still I think it's a good starting point. Better than nothing, imo.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 7 December 2017 at 1:45 pm UTC