Why Steam Curators is a good thing.

I am writing this because I am tired of seeing complaints about every new feature Steam comes out with. A few months ago people were complaining that Steam felt outdated and clunky compared to other digital distribution platforms, in terms of the layout and graphics. They updated the UI in order to make Steam appear more modern and almost right away people were asking how to change it back, how to skin it, who they could complain to and so on and so forth. Now I am seeing almost as backlash against Steam Curators, a feature that in my own opinion, was strongly needed.

In 2013, Steam introduced its Greenlight and Early Access Programs. Previously in order to get on Steam you had to be a major publisher or get a sizable amount of recognition for your indie game to ever get noticed and put on Steam. Effectively Steam was already curating it's entire platform: showcasing popular new releases, advertising large updates and DLC, and highlighting what you saw on it's front page. With the advent of Greenlight, games that would have never gotten the visibility that Steam offers were able to make their way on to the platform. There has been a problem with quality control in the past year however because of the now low barrier to entry to get a game listed on Steam. So they started giving us tools.

Community tagging, community reviews, and now Steam Curators are all there to help you make the decision to purchase a game. In my own personal case, I always do research before buying a game. Usually I wait for a review from TotalBiscuit or read an article on Rock, Paper, Shotgun, now both of those things are built into Steam. Curators do not get paid (directly, but they may see increased views to their YouTube videos or websites indirectly). It is merely a tool for you to use. It isn't social media bs, they aren't going to show you what your friend Greg thinks of the game from his Google+ post, you pick whose opinion you care about.

tl;dr Steam Curators is nothing more than a tool for you to use or not use. Curators are not paid