basing CV valuation / devaluation on our wishlists

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I have an idea for changing the CV valuation / devaluation system. This idea is too raw to be a real suggestion to the mods at this point, so I'm posting for the community to respond.

The site knows our Wishlists -- that data is available. My suggestion is that the CV valuation is full for any game that appears in more than 10% of users' wishlists. Under 10% dials the value down one step, and under 1% the title's value goes to zero.

I'm using 10% and 1% as starting points for discussion. Perhaps other numbers would be better.

Cons:

TONS of work: Making the change would be a lot of work. This point can't be stressed enough.

Bots flagging everything: Bot Steam accounts can flag every game for their wishlists [ solution: ignore any wishlist with more than 1000 entries ] (if a real user genuinely has over 1000 games on their wishlist, then that user's interest in games is too watery / too easily piqued to be worthy of influencing the system.)

Unknowns remain unknown: 'Hidden gem'/underappreciated games are more likely to remain obscure. [ possible solution: use our Wishlist and Steam's Recommended lists ]

other cons that this discussion yields

Pros:

Less Mod work: No on-going work for the mods to set CV devaluations; games drop off of wishlists once the users have them in their library. If the community's want of a game is fully saturated, it will less often / no longer appear on wishlists automatically and the saturated game will drop in value automatically, and fewer users will choose to make GAs for them.

Less Arguing: The question 'why was this game devalued?' would have a clear unassailable answer: either almost everyone already has it, or almost no one wants it

Less Shovel-ware: It will be automatically devalued for lack of being on anyone's wishlist. When shovel-ware is devalued, it will appear less often in GAs.

Better User Experience: Users will have a better SG experience when the GAs better reflect the tastes of the community, and when games they want are given away more often.

No Bargain Hunting for Mods: There would be no need to search out +95% discounts from multiple online shops. Users 'exploiting' good deals to raise their Contributor Level is a non-issue when the offered games meet the want of the community. If the games are wanted by the community, then by all means let users raise their contributor level by offering them, regardless of what they paid. [The current system lets users inflate their CL with totally-unknown games that get full value from being unknown.]

Re-valuing: By basing the CV on the ever-changing current wishlists of the community, games can devalue and later revalue if their popularity rises again. Consider the Batman Arkham games. In our current CV devaluation system, only Knight gets full CV value. If a teen is only now allowed by their parents to play more aggressive games, the teen might prefer to start that series at the beginning. We might have 100 users with Arkham Asylum and / or Arkham City on their wishlists, but currently the SG community has a disincentive to make GAs for those titles.

Tweaks on the basic idea:

ignore any wishlist with more than 1000 entries
use our Wishlists AND Steam's Recommended lists for a broader base
only use the wishlists/recommended of Level 1+ members
add a view of most-wished-for titles
use regional percentages ( to support language preferences )

Your thoughts? Your Cons? Your potential exploits?

2 years ago

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Would this be better?

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Yes, definitely

Yes, but not enough to be worth the effort of making the changes

Maybe

71 Comments

xxxka

Don't think it would work, at page 800 I gave up. Not sure if that mess is made by people using script to add to wishlist every single game. Capping list on 1000 wishlisted games to prevent bots... I hardly believe on steamgifts are some real users tbh. Also if some game will be given free with limited keys, people will put it on wishlist to filter iteasily if they come to site when it is out of stock. Then comes people (can't call out concrete users), which proudly aclaim having 100+ email adresses just to abuse such giveaways. Now, would your system prevent exploit?
https://www.steamgifts.com/giveaways/wishlist/search?page=800

Better User Experience: Users will have a better SG experience when the GAs better reflect the tastes of the community, and when games they want are given away more often
That part make almost no sense for me, people usually gift bundle rests, other spare keys or trash from russia sites that is made only to exploit cv system. Considering most users are level 0, I doubt people use it as list of giveaway plan to do except some events. How exactly you mean games will be giveawayed more often?

2 years ago