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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And if I have a dual boot, can I have selected the two systems, Windows and Liux? Would my desired games appear for Linux?
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And if I have a dual boot, can I have selected the two systems, Windows and Liux? Would my desired games appear for Linux?
Not if you don't have two steam accounts.
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I don't think this feature will ever catch on among Linux users. My wishlist of native games is already too long and unmanageable, I don't want to receive emails about releases and sales of Windows games, and I don't want to have to explain to friends and family that they need to check the platform of a game before buying me something from my wishlist. Without 100% adaptation, it's also a mostly useless metric for game developers.
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Wait, this is already set on my Steam client (I don't remember manually setting it before, so it must have done so automatically), and yet I am able to go search for a Windows game that I've heard is good and works on Proton, put it on my wishlist, and still receive sale emails about it. Pretty sure I've received sale emails about No Man's Sky, for instance. Am I imagining all that?
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Wait, this is already set on my Steam client (I don't remember manually setting it before, so it must have done so automatically), and yet I am able to go search for a Windows game that I've heard is good and works on Proton, put it on my wishlist, and still receive sale emails about it. Pretty sure I've received sale emails about No Man's Sky, for instance. Am I imagining all that?
No, that's exactly how it works. Search still is fully functional.
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I can see that this is reasonably beneficial in (a) Allowing gamers to filter the game selection on views in Steam client, and (b) Allowing developers to see interest from Linux/SteamOS gamers.
AND..
I personally want all the games I play to have native Linux versions and I actively buy native Linux and mostly discount Windows titles.
BUT..
If there is a Windows title that is seriously tempting and is low cost, e.g. 90% discount, and I check that it is running nicely on Linux via ProtonDB database... Then... I want to know about it and I might actually buy it. And if I do, then it still counts as a Linux purchase and the developers can see me playing it on Linux (via Proton) for purposes of evaluating marketshare.
As such, I haven't enabled this OS filtering in Steam client myself.
AND..
I personally want all the games I play to have native Linux versions and I actively buy native Linux and mostly discount Windows titles.
BUT..
If there is a Windows title that is seriously tempting and is low cost, e.g. 90% discount, and I check that it is running nicely on Linux via ProtonDB database... Then... I want to know about it and I might actually buy it. And if I do, then it still counts as a Linux purchase and the developers can see me playing it on Linux (via Proton) for purposes of evaluating marketshare.
As such, I haven't enabled this OS filtering in Steam client myself.
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As such, I haven't enabled this OS filtering in Steam client myself.
I didn't see the part you cannot do with having the filter set...
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This just reminds me what a mess the Steam client's UI is: two menu bars, and two menu items relating to your account. It's a wonder anyone can ever find anything.
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no_information_here Feb 22, 2019
Since it's a manual process (and only works if you tick one platform), if you don't go and do it yourself your wishlist entries on Steam don't show up as being for Linux.Hmm. Make a hidden setting and need it to be manually changed, then base the success of Linux visibility (for devs) on this setting. Sounds like a brilliant plan. What could go wrong?
Liam, I appreciate your valiant effort to notify people, but this is doomed from the start.
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GeoGalvanic Feb 22, 2019
Part of the issue is that I don't know about/care about games that don't already have a linux version or some commitment to make one... which means I won't be wishlisting them.
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I actually use this feature, there is a bunch of Windows games that are on my wishlist just in case they someday get a port. But I think this just highlights how badly the wishlist works, and how poorly thought this feature is.
You have a single wishlist, so you can't separate the games that you plan to buy, the games other people might gift you, the games you want to be notified about sales, the games that you are waiting to come out of early access, and the games you wish were ported to Linux. It also becomes a huge mess to navigate your wishlist, as it gets way too full and there is no way of creating sub-lists.
The system requires you to opt out of Windows games recommendation or you won't count, which is counter-synergistic with SteamPlay (you now can get Windows games, and they even count as Linux sales, right?)... and more importantly, with itself. You have to add non-Windows games to your wishlist for it to work, but you have to stop seeing Windows games for it to work. If you only want to play Linux games, you probably don't want to add Windows games to your wishlist (unless you don't use the whishlist for anything else already).
You have a single wishlist, so you can't separate the games that you plan to buy, the games other people might gift you, the games you want to be notified about sales, the games that you are waiting to come out of early access, and the games you wish were ported to Linux. It also becomes a huge mess to navigate your wishlist, as it gets way too full and there is no way of creating sub-lists.
The system requires you to opt out of Windows games recommendation or you won't count, which is counter-synergistic with SteamPlay (you now can get Windows games, and they even count as Linux sales, right?)... and more importantly, with itself. You have to add non-Windows games to your wishlist for it to work, but you have to stop seeing Windows games for it to work. If you only want to play Linux games, you probably don't want to add Windows games to your wishlist (unless you don't use the whishlist for anything else already).
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Wish we can wishlist games that we already bought on Windows.
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As such, I haven't enabled this OS filtering in Steam client myself.
I didn't see the part you cannot do with having the filter set...
I haven't enabled it because it would exclude me from seeing deals on Windows-only titles. When enabled though, I can see it would potentially benefit Linux gaming from a visibility perspective. I thought these details were implied by my post.
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I haven't enabled it because it would exclude me from seeing deals on Windows-only titles. When enabled though, I can see it would potentially benefit Linux gaming from a visibility perspective. I thought these details were implied by my post.
You still an see the Windows titles if you search for them. So it depends on where you'Re getting your infos from. If it's Steam, the filter would be bad. If you're reading elsewhere about a game, the filter doesn't change anything: You go to Steam, search for the game and do whatever you want with it.
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g000h was saying they only buy Windows games when they are notified of a (pretty serious) sale. I can't see going around regularly searching for Windows titles that you're keeping in the back of your mind (instead of on your wishlist) on the off chance of a sale.I haven't enabled it because it would exclude me from seeing deals on Windows-only titles. When enabled though, I can see it would potentially benefit Linux gaming from a visibility perspective. I thought these details were implied by my post.
You still an see the Windows titles if you search for them. So it depends on where you'Re getting your infos from. If it's Steam, the filter would be bad. If you're reading elsewhere about a game, the filter doesn't change anything: You go to Steam, search for the game and do whatever you want with it.
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Philadelphus Feb 22, 2019
Yep, I've been making use of this feature since it was first brought up here. :) I stick all the non-Linux games at the bottom so they don't mess up my ordered list of games I really want at the top. Of course in my case, the only two people likely to ever actually buy me something from my wishlist are my brothers who are gamers and know about things like "platform exclusivity", and just because it works alright in my specific circumstances doesn't mean that it can't be improved!
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Chronarius Feb 23, 2019
Problem with this setting is, as you can also see in your picture:
Only show me games which support one of these operating systems
Which renders it useless for the wishlist, as it only shows games which supports Linux already.
Why not making it way easier? I run the client on Linux and if I wishlist the game then it counts for Linux.
Only show me games which support one of these operating systems
Which renders it useless for the wishlist, as it only shows games which supports Linux already.
Why not making it way easier? I run the client on Linux and if I wishlist the game then it counts for Linux.
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Problem with this setting is, as you can also see in your picture:
Only show me games which support one of these operating systems
Which renders it useless for the wishlist, as it only shows games which supports Linux already.
Set Linux only, enter "Fallout" in the search. Does it only show games which supports Linux already?
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This feature seems a well intentioned waste of time, specially since the introduction of Proton. Maybe this made sense for people that didn't bother with WINE, but with Proton all it's really doing is obscuring Windows games that we might want to play that we now can with little to no hassle. As long as you quit dual booting and run all your new Windows titles through Steamplay it counts as a Linux sale which accomplishes what this was intended for, unless I'm missing something.
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This feature seems a well intentioned waste of time, specially since the introduction of Proton. Maybe this made sense for people that didn't bother with WINE, but with Proton all it's really doing is obscuring Windows games that we might want to play that we now can with little to no hassle. As long as you quit dual booting and run all your new Windows titles through Steamplay it counts as a Linux sale which accomplishes what this was intended for, unless I'm missing something.
The choice of games officially supported games might actually be a result of this feature...
I still use it, as I'm using neither WINE nor Proton.
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