Over time Steam continues to grow as much more than just a games store, and Valve are showing how today with their next Steam Labs experiment to let you get your news.
Steam Labs Experiment 009 announced here is an addition to the News Hub, which is now hooked up with the Steam Curator system. Valve said it's now nearing completion and it's a big step towards the full launch. This will presumably replace the old Steam news feed.
So now curators, like us and many others, can have their news posted directly to Steam. It's a useful system, and it opens things up to smaller sites as Steam has traditionally only pulled sources from a few bigger names. The whole idea is just to give users more choice.
Thankfully, there's new options to come with it and nothing is forced. You can follow curators individually, mute them and even block out all curator posts if you wish. It's all up to you.
Valve invited us to be a part of this early, and we've given them feedback on it as we've tested parts of it. Articles tagged as "Steam" here on GOL now will show up in our own news section on our Steam Curator. You can also visit the GOL Steam News Hub directly. Now that it's up and properly online, news should flow into it in the correct order. We're happy to give you another option to keep up with our tips, news and reviews.
Most of my gaming purchases are more related to reading GoL and talking to people, can't think of a single time a curator recommendation has influenced that.
I generally haven't found following curators to be all that useful, tbh. Maybe I'm just not seeing the right way to utilize the feature?
Most of my gaming purchases are more related to reading GoL and talking to people, can't think of a single time a curator recommendation has influenced that.
The only thing I've found mildly useful has been curators about special features. For instance, there is one that rates games on if they support ultrawide resolutions, which is not something that is generally covered in reviews.
The only thing I've found mildly useful has been curators about special features.
Agreed; some I've found useful: "Proton Compatible", "Broken Linux Promises", "Powered by DOSBox", "Powered by ScummVM", and "icculus.org".
The only thing I've found mildly useful has been curators about special features.
Agreed; some I've found useful: "Proton Compatible", "Broken Linux Promises", "Powered by DOSBox", "Powered by ScummVM", and "icculus.org".
You made me curious so I just searched for Proton Compatible and followed them. Then viewed their recommendations and noticed it lets you view recommendations by 'Recent', 'Top Sellers', 'New Releases' and 'Discounts'. And now if I look at a store page for a game that Proton Compatible has reviewed, their review appears right at the top below the screenshots and description.
That's VERY handy, thanks!
Last edited by gradyvuckovic on 22 September 2020 at 2:48 am UTC
I generally haven't found following curators to be all that useful, tbh. Maybe I'm just not seeing the right way to utilize the feature?
Most of my gaming purchases are more related to reading GoL and talking to people, can't think of a single time a curator recommendation has influenced that.
I kind of like how it shows a section in the store only with games that were reviewed by sources I follow - GoL and a few blogs/channels specifically about strategy games. But yeah, it's all games I heard about somewhere - more of a filter than anything: "steam, show me only games that were covered by GoL" xD.
On the other hand, for articles like in this experiment, I would pretty much always see it first on the original location. I don't see Steam as a good aggregator.
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