Seems the big Chinese surge on Steam is over - Steam Survey for April 2023

I haven’t gotten a Steam survey in over 2 years. Maybe Valve should use the actual login and playtime data vs some random survey.

I say this because every month these stats come out and gaming sites use them as gospel in the state of Linux gaming.

I'm glad to see this, though I expected it as it appears this time around the actually gave the survey to Linux users! I actually saw it and was able to submit mine, it makes a change because it's so rare for me to get it. It must have been a good couple of years since I last saw it.


Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 2 May 2023 at 4:53 pm UTC

I got my Steam survey sunday when came back home. I have not seen it for over a year I think popping up.

Quoting: t3gI haven’t gotten a Steam survey in over 2 years. Maybe Valve should use the actual login and playtime data vs some random survey.

I say this because every month these stats come out and gaming sites use them as gospel in the state of Linux gaming.

If you close steam
run this command  
sed -i -e '/SurveyDate/ s/"[0-9].*"/"'$(date +%Y-%m-%d -d "1 year ago")'"/' ~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf
Then reopen steam
You will get a steam survey.

I would prefer the login and playtime data as well. Hit me up Valve; I can make this happen for you.

I've never once had the survey, and have had steam since October 2003 ( and over 900 games so I use it regularly on multiple pcs), it doesn't seem like it is likely to be that accurate, they have to be polling very small numbers one would assume.

Quoting: t3gI haven’t gotten a Steam survey in over 2 years. Maybe Valve should use the actual login and playtime data vs some random survey.

I say this because every month these stats come out and gaming sites use them as gospel in the state of Linux gaming.

I got it last month or so, which made me realize I hadn't seen it like two years either. I used to get it fairly often several years ago.

Quoting: t3gI haven’t gotten a Steam survey in over 2 years.

Quoting: BlackBloodRumIt must have been a good couple of years since I last saw it.

Quoting: LomkeyI have not seen it for over a year I think popping up.

Quoting: PhiladelphusI got it last month or so, which made me realize I hadn't seen it like two years either. I used to get it fairly often several years ago.

I've only ever had the survey once. Mind you, my account's only about a year-and-a-half old, but it did take about six or so months for me to ever get one at all (at which point I got it on two of my main three machines), and I didn't get it this time, unfortunately.

Quoting: GuestThat's it, the Steam survey is definitely skewed against Linux users: out of the ~120 million monthly active users on Steam, 7 (seven) of them commented on gamingonlinux.com lamenting they never, or very rarely, received a survey.
Clearly, this should be a priority for Valve and fixed ASAP!

6 of them. I gave instructions for making sure a survey would occur. No need for "lamenting" when you are the one finding the solution.

Quoting: Highball

Quoting: GuestThat's it, the Steam survey is definitely skewed against Linux users: out of the ~120 million monthly active users on Steam, 7 (seven) of them commented on gamingonlinux.com lamenting they never, or very rarely, received a survey.
Clearly, this should be a priority for Valve and fixed ASAP!

6 of them. I gave instructions for making sure a survey would occur. No need for "lamenting" when you are the one finding the solution.

I don't know if you're solving anything or just messing with the system.

I got the survey yesterday by the way, if that's relevant to someone.

The thing some forget is that it’s a survey, you’re not supposed to get it often and some people won’t ever see it. That’s by design, it’s sampling, a survey, not a full statistic.

Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: Highball

Quoting: GuestThat's it, the Steam survey is definitely skewed against Linux users: out of the ~120 million monthly active users on Steam, 7 (seven) of them commented on gamingonlinux.com lamenting they never, or very rarely, received a survey.
Clearly, this should be a priority for Valve and fixed ASAP!

6 of them. I gave instructions for making sure a survey would occur. No need for "lamenting" when you are the one finding the solution.

I don't know if you're solving anything or just messing with the system.

The mere fact that the system is that easy to mess with makes me wonder anew about its accuracy.

Quoting: GuestThat's it, the Steam survey is definitely skewed against Linux users: out of the ~120 million monthly active users on Steam, 7 (seven) of them commented on gamingonlinux.com lamenting they never, or very rarely, received a survey.
Clearly, this should be a priority for Valve and fixed ASAP!

Haha, I wasn't lamenting it, just making an observation because several others also had. This made me laugh a bunch, so have a Like.

Nice to see various distros of Linux continuing to grow in usage on Steam.

You could say...... *puts on glasses*...... They ran out of steam..... YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Quoting: Pengling

Quoting: GuestThat's it, the Steam survey is definitely skewed against Linux users: out of the ~120 million monthly active users on Steam, 7 (seven) of them commented on gamingonlinux.com lamenting they never, or very rarely, received a survey.
Clearly, this should be a priority for Valve and fixed ASAP!

Haha, I wasn't lamenting it, just making an observation because several others also had. This made me laugh a bunch, so have a Like.

Yeah, I wasn't lamenting either, just pointing out my experience. I used to care about it more, but over time I've mellowed out. I almost added an addendum about how humans sometimes find true randomness "less random" than a pseudo-randomness that smooths out weird things like one person getting the survey every month for a year and another not getting it for two years, but didn't have time.

Like, you can flip a fair coin and get 10 heads in a row. It's quite a small probability to happen, but it's technically just as random an outcome as getting 5 heads and 5 tails, or 10 tails. But people tend not to see the extreme cases as random, even if they really did happen randomly. (One problem, of course, is that you can't ever really prove something did happen randomly.)


Last edited by Philadelphus on 3 May 2023 at 5:16 am UTC

Quoting: HighballIf you close steam
run this command  
sed -i -e '/SurveyDate/ s/"[0-9].*"/"'$(date +%Y-%m-%d -d "1 year ago")'"/' ~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf
Then reopen steam
You will get a steam survey.

I would prefer the login and playtime data as well. Hit me up Valve; I can make this happen for you.

Yeah, this works -- even though I'm using steam in a container. I wish they could just do it every three months -- at least for Linux users. I think that's a reasonable time between distro-hopping and stuff, so that the Linux distro division remains fresh.


Last edited by fenglengshun on 3 May 2023 at 5:43 am UTC

Quoting: PhiladelphusLike, you can flip a fair coin and get 10 heads in a row. It's quite a small probability to happen, but it's technically just as random an outcome as getting 5 heads and 5 tails

Nnnno.

Getting HHHHHHHHHH is as likely as getting HHTHTTTHTH, but there's many more versions of 5 heads 5 tails.

I can't believe i got the survey 12 months after the last one. The previous time was when I got my Deck in March 22. Now on my desktop a few days ago. Before my Deck it used to pop up every 2 or 3 years, I mean, my account is 19 years old and in the last 10 years I've taken the survey no more than 5 times, counting these two I got recently.

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: PhiladelphusLike, you can flip a fair coin and get 10 heads in a row. It's quite a small probability to happen, but it's technically just as random an outcome as getting 5 heads and 5 tails

Nnnno.

Getting HHHHHHHHHH is as likely as getting HHTHTTTHTH, but there's many more versions of 5 heads 5 tails.

He didn't say just as likely, only just as random.

Quoting: Purple Library Guy

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: PhiladelphusLike, you can flip a fair coin and get 10 heads in a row. It's quite a small probability to happen, but it's technically just as random an outcome as getting 5 heads and 5 tails

Nnnno.

Getting HHHHHHHHHH is as likely as getting HHTHTTTHTH, but there's many more versions of 5 heads 5 tails.

He didn't say just as likely, only just as random.

This. Getting 5 heads and 5 tails is the most likely result, probabilistically. But all results are equally random. But getting 10 heads doesn't feel random, even when it actually is.

And if you have millions of people flipping coins, statistically a non-negligible number of them will get 10 heads…then go online to point out how non-random their results are.