Back in 2017, Valve rolled out a small change to the wishlist feature on Steam that quite a few people still don't know about.
We previously posted about this when the change happened but as always, things get lost and people forget. If you head to this page (click your username -> Preferences) on Steam when you're logged in, scroll to the bottom and you will see this:
The box above doesn't mention it, but this allows developers to see wishlists from a single ticked platform. Why is it important? Well, we speak to a huge amount of game developers and a very common issue we've come across since this was implemented was a very low volume of wishlists from Linux.
A lot lower than you would expect, some of which is naturally due to our lower market share (of course) but also because so many people just don't know this feature even exists. We've also ended up reminding a lot of our readers and followers on this, with a surprising amount of people having no idea it's even a thing.
Since it's a manual process (and only works if you tick just one platform), if you don't go and do it yourself your wishlist entries on Steam don't show up as being for Linux. So it's a feature that sounds good on paper and is well meaning but doesn't work that great in practice.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Using the Steam client you can reach this option by
- Click on your name in the top right, then "Account Details"
- Click on "Preferences" in the side menu
- Scroll to the bottom and you will find the "Platform Preferences" section.
- Click on your name in the top right, then "Account Details"
- Click on "Preferences" in the side menu
- Scroll to the bottom and you will find the "Platform Preferences" section.
14 Likes, Who?
Schattenspiegel Feb 22, 2019
One could question why the wording of the option does in no way reflect what it actually does.(I always wondered why I was shown windows titles regardless of that setting)
One could also question why if an account does have a Linux or Mac client associated it is not automatically flagged as having interest in a Linux or Mac version of games. Even if a person uses multiple operating systems the moment they have a client on that OS they clearly are interested in gaming on that platform.
One could also question why if an account does have a Linux or Mac client associated it is not automatically flagged as having interest in a Linux or Mac version of games. Even if a person uses multiple operating systems the moment they have a client on that OS they clearly are interested in gaming on that platform.
3 Likes, Who?
I generally only wishlist games that have a Linux version. I don't want to explain to everyone who may buy me games not to buy any games off my wishlist that don't have a Linux version yet. They'll just forget or get confused.
6 Likes, Who?
While i knew about this option, i wish it was more obvious as its very well hidden and easy to miss.
Would be nice to have the selection on top of the webpage somewhere near your profile icon or better yet, automatic. If you wishlist from native steam client or browser using Linux it should wishlist it as Linux.
edit: the other thing is that wishlisting windows games will make you wishlist huge. I would like to see sorting option there, to list Available Linux games and not yet Available. And don't fucking email me about sale when its not available for Linux yet
Last edited by Xpander on 22 February 2019 at 11:11 am UTC
Would be nice to have the selection on top of the webpage somewhere near your profile icon or better yet, automatic. If you wishlist from native steam client or browser using Linux it should wishlist it as Linux.
edit: the other thing is that wishlisting windows games will make you wishlist huge. I would like to see sorting option there, to list Available Linux games and not yet Available. And don't fucking email me about sale when its not available for Linux yet
Last edited by Xpander on 22 February 2019 at 11:11 am UTC
4 Likes, Who?
wintermute Feb 22, 2019
I removed all my non-Linux wishlisted games the other week, I was fed up receiving emails about Windows-only games. Valve needs to come up with a better solution.
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I removed all my non-Linux wishlisted games the other week, I was fed up receiving emails about Windows-only games. Valve needs to come up with a better solution.
I switched off the emails instead.
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Will I still get informed about that game being on sale even if it only has Windows version?
Don't think so. I sometimes pragmatically buy a game on sale that I want to play even when it has only a Windows version.
So on one hand I'd like to inform the devs and publishers that I'm actually interested in a native Linux version, but not getting informed when it is on sale and (currently) has no Linux version is a no go for me.
Don't think so. I sometimes pragmatically buy a game on sale that I want to play even when it has only a Windows version.
So on one hand I'd like to inform the devs and publishers that I'm actually interested in a native Linux version, but not getting informed when it is on sale and (currently) has no Linux version is a no go for me.
1 Likes, Who?
The thing is, if you only choose Linux you won't get Windows-only games shown to you at all in your discovery queue or sales/discount emails whereas I want to see them. Maybe I'll try with proton, or even boot to Win7 just for that game.
I want a way to signal "I'd like to see this game on Linux and I'd pay for it" without making all the Windows stuff disappear and so far Steam doesn't seem to allow that.
Last edited by callcifer on 22 February 2019 at 12:11 pm UTC
I want a way to signal "I'd like to see this game on Linux and I'd pay for it" without making all the Windows stuff disappear and so far Steam doesn't seem to allow that.
Last edited by callcifer on 22 February 2019 at 12:11 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
wintermute Feb 22, 2019
I switched off the emails instead.
I want the emails when they refer to Linux games.
Will I still get informed about that game being on sale even if it only has Windows version?
Yes you will, this is precisely the problem I have with the system.
Last edited by wintermute on 22 February 2019 at 12:15 pm UTC
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I obviously had this set already since I quite like having of the Steam lists filtered for Linux games only. Mostly, win games still appear in "Special offers" and the endless recommendation list at the bottom of the front page. But tagging Windows games on my wishlist just because I might want to see them on Linux is too much of an intrusion on its primary function.
If there was a special list/tag that would not pollute the wishlist when you only wish for the platform, I'd be all over it.
If there was a special list/tag that would not pollute the wishlist when you only wish for the platform, I'd be all over it.
2 Likes, Who?
I switched off the emails instead.
I want the emails when they refer to Linux games.
Will I still get informed about that game being on sale even if it only has Windows version?
Yes you will, this is precisely the problem I have with the system.
That seems to contradict what callcifer says.
So what's the case actually?
0 Likes
With Proton ; that is basically useless , at least for my use case.
1 Likes, Who?
I switched off the emails instead.
I want the emails when they refer to Linux games.
Will I still get informed about that game being on sale even if it only has Windows version?
Yes you will, this is precisely the problem I have with the system.
That seems to contradict what callcifer says.
So what's the case actually?
The thing is, if you only choose Linux you won't get Windows-only games shown to you at all in your discovery queue or sales/discount emails whereas I want to see them. Maybe I'll try with proton, or even boot to Win7 just for that game.
AFAIK, that's true for the discovery queue but wrong for the sales mails.
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wintermute Feb 22, 2019
That seems to contradict what callcifer says.
Callcifer didn't say anything about emails that I can see.
0 Likes
That seems to contradict what callcifer says.
Callcifer didn't say anything about emails that I can see.
I did say sales emails, but maybe I was wrong about that. It's been a long time since I last tried going Linux only on that checkbox. Still, discovery queue alone is reason enough for me to not uncheck Windows.
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The description I've seen of this feature before, and even in this article, don't seem to match up to the actual description on Steam to me. It sounded like a way to let developers know you wanted were wishlisting a game to play on Linux, but the actual description just looks like it simply hides games for other platforms from you as you browse. Is this for your benefit only, or can developers see that you have this option ticked?
0 Likes
The description I've seen of this feature before, and even in this article, don't seem to match up to the actual description on Steam to me. It sounded like a way to let developers know you wanted were wishlisting a game to play on Linux, but the actual description just looks like it simply hides games for other platforms from you as you browse. Is this for your benefit only, or can developers see that you have this option ticked?Developers see Linux wishlists, that is the point made in the article.
Edit: Made a minor text adjustment to make that much clearer.
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 22 February 2019 at 1:32 pm UTC
0 Likes
The description I've seen of this feature before, and even in this article, don't seem to match up to the actual description on Steam to me. It sounded like a way to let developers know you wanted were wishlisting a game to play on Linux, but the actual description just looks like it simply hides games for other platforms from you as you browse. Is this for your benefit only, or can developers see that you have this option ticked?
It does both. The filtering, if you like it or not, and showing Linux specific wishlist entries to the respective developer. You cann see the developer view at the second image on this page:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1475356649450732547
Last edited by Eike on 26 February 2019 at 12:07 pm UTC
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