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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Chronarius Feb 24, 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.
Set Linux only, enter "Fallout" in the search. Does it only show games which supports Linux already?
Maybe. I don't know and don't care. Valve can do a better job.
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Maybe. I don't know and don't care. Valve can do a better job.
Without Valve, I would still be playing on Windows (while doing everything else on Linux for decades).
Valve maybe could do even better - but they could do lots worse. Like not supporting Steam for Linux at all.
3 Likes, Who?
Chronarius Feb 24, 2019
Maybe. I don't know and don't care. Valve can do a better job.
Without Valve, I would still be playing on Windows (while doing everything else on Linux for decades).
Valve maybe could do even better - but they could do lots worse. Like not supporting Steam for Linux at all.
Can you stay on topic please? We are talking about the wishlist here.
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Maybe. I don't know and don't care. Valve can do a better job.
Without Valve, I would still be playing on Windows (while doing everything else on Linux for decades).
Valve maybe could do even better - but they could do lots worse. Like not supporting Steam for Linux at all.
Can you stay on topic please? We are talking about the wishlist here.
In fact, the article is about the wish list in combination with the OS filter - which you explicitly said you don't care about how it really works.
Well..
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I'm pretty sure Chronarius only didn't care how search works with the wish list, because search isn't the problem anyone has been pointing out. You seem to be consistently replying to people who have problems with other things related to the wishlist OS setting thing by saying "No, search isn't a problem". No doubt it isn't, but that's not relevant if what people were complaining about is something else.Maybe. I don't know and don't care. Valve can do a better job.
Without Valve, I would still be playing on Windows (while doing everything else on Linux for decades).
Valve maybe could do even better - but they could do lots worse. Like not supporting Steam for Linux at all.
Can you stay on topic please? We are talking about the wishlist here.
In fact, the article is about the wish list in combination with the OS filter - which you explicitly said you don't care about how it really works.
Well..
1 Likes, Who?
I'm pretty sure Chronarius only didn't care how search works with the wish list, because search isn't the problem anyone has been pointing out. You seem to be consistently replying to people who have problems with other things related to the wishlist OS setting thing by saying "No, search isn't a problem". No doubt it isn't, but that's not relevant if what people were complaining about is something else.
I keep pointing out that search works because people keep missing this point. Chronarius thought that Steam wouldn't display Windows-only games anymore, which is true for some parts (e.g. discovery queue) and wrong for other parts (e.g. search, publisher weekend lists). The global search helps me because I get information about gaming from other sources and then lookup the game on Steam to see if it supports Linux. If it helps him depends on what he's looking for, but it's always better to know more than to know less.
g000h, which you are probably referring to as well, wanted to see Windows deals. If this works or not also depends on his approach: When wishlisting Windows only games, it works, if you want to see Windows only sales on the store page, the filter is hindering him (which is probably the case, I give you that).
I want people to know what works and what doesn't to make an informed decision, not an "I don't know and I don't care" kind of decision.
I want to add one more thing: I see that Linux gamers don't like this feature too much and I understand why. But seen from the other side, it makes more sense: If you're buying Windows only games anyway if there's no Linux version, the feature wouldn't send a strong message. Now it's of the "Do a Linux version or lose x customers" kind. People who want to see Windows games as well send a message more like "I want a Linux game! But if you don't do it, nevermind, I'll buy anway..."
2 Likes, Who?
Just for the record, for me in particular it's probably a perfectly fine feature because the Windows-only games I'm remotely interested in are few and far between. GalCiv III maybe--but that's not a lot to keep track of and I haven't even put it on my wishlist.I'm pretty sure Chronarius only didn't care how search works with the wish list, because search isn't the problem anyone has been pointing out. You seem to be consistently replying to people who have problems with other things related to the wishlist OS setting thing by saying "No, search isn't a problem". No doubt it isn't, but that's not relevant if what people were complaining about is something else.
I keep pointing out that search works because people keep missing this point. Chronarius thought that Steam wouldn't display Windows-only games anymore, which is true for some parts (e.g. discovery queue) and wrong for other parts (e.g. search, publisher weekend lists). The global search helps me because I get information about gaming from other sources and then lookup the game on Steam to see if it supports Linux. If it helps him depends on what he's looking for, but it's always better to know more than to know less.
g000h, which you are probably referring to as well, wanted to see Windows deals. If this works or not also depends on his approach: When wishlisting Windows only games, it works, if you want to see Windows only sales on the store page, the filter is hindering him (which is probably the case, I give you that).
I want people to know what works and what doesn't to make an informed decision, not an "I don't know and I don't care" kind of decision.
I want to add one more thing: I see that Linux gamers don't like this feature too much and I understand why. But seen from the other side, it makes more sense: If you're buying Windows only games anyway if there's no Linux version, the feature wouldn't send a strong message. Now it's of the "Do a Linux version or lose x customers" kind. People who want to see Windows games as well send a message more like "I want a Linux game! But if you don't do it, nevermind, I'll buy anway..."
But for some people it seems like it would have definite problems.
1 Likes, Who?
Man thanks for the tip, i didn't know that, i imagine how many linux users don't know that either.
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