Kinda lame right?
Looking at the new privacy page, they didn't actually change much. The only real difference is that you can now hide time played separate from info such as owned/wishlisted games.
... and of course making it all hidden by default, that seems more like a jab at Steam Spy than anything else. It's a real shame.
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It's because new privacy law coming in effect affecting EU customers, requiring opt-ins for sharing personal data (like gaming preferences).
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Oh, interesting.
I guess it makes sense but like most things EU, this seems a bit heavy handed in execution.
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See here for more details. It only seems heavy handed in this case as a games library isn't something most people would think to apply it. In addition to that, in regards to Steam the changes are mostly insignificant as the options were mostly already there. As madjoki noted it's mostly just changing from opt out to opt in.
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The law is a blunt object. The most benign rule/regulation can seem heavy-handed in the wrong circumstance
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If it were because of privacy law, there's other, more important personal details that should be private by default but aren't. Like real name & country.
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Those are already opt-in. You don't have to provide those and most importantly Valve does not automatically fill those.
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Looks like you need to set "Game Detail" in the Steam privacy settings to "Public" in order for SG to sync your owned games, wishlist, etc.
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This. Thanks for this, I was wondering why steamgifts was showing games I already owned.
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aw that sucks.... it was the only way to know the number of copies sold for games on Steam.
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+1
Whenever I feel down, I check Steamspy to see how terrible Metal Gear Survive sells.
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I doubt the numbers they had were very accurate though.
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Actually I've heard a few developers say speamspy was surprisingly very accurate.
vgchartz on the other hand is wildly unreliable.
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They were though. If you read their developers blog, they go into detail how their data is calculated.
It actually makes perfect sense.
They use statistical tools to give you results, and to tell you how much is the error margin of said results.
The more people own the game, the more accurate the result. (this is why on games with little owners, their numbers sometimes show negatives)
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Steamspy is actually pretty accurate. Vgchartz instead, is basically making up numbers.
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Nah, lacks any mention of GDPR forcing Valve do this
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Wouldn't be that sure, reading this part of interview with SSpy creator makes me feel this is more like usual "finally, we have an excuse to fuck somebody" (just like Valve's "Ruble went down in value, so people in South America can't gift people in Europe"):
- Sergey Galyonkin
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Not totally true, usually at least someone complains about it in reviews or the forums, but SteamSpy with Enhanced Steam made it possible to determine it with a glance.
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I'd say Number of owners has nothing to do with players, it doesn't matter if there's 1 million owners, if no one plays it. SteamCharts is much more useful for this and it isn't dying.
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I beg to differ.
MMO games and open world time sinks, are heavily favored here, over games that are story-rich and you only play once-twice.
It doesn't make them less good games.
TWD is a better game than H1Z1 IMO, but of course H1Z1 will have gazillion players on SteamCharts, while TWD will only have a few.
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And for single players it doesn't really matter that much if game is dead or not.
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Stats on the number of players are still available from the Steam API, i.e. http://steamcharts.com/top.
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Option missing: no, it's a good thing people can't siphon unaware users' data.
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This is a strange feature... Why would I want to hide my game library, if I could just hide my profile overall...
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You may want to display your "about box" and/or have comments, while still not disclosing the rest.
In a perfect world, all profile sections should have their own privacy setting. Like any proper social network does. Even Facebook does it, and yet they're not exactly cutting-edge on privacy...
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they should add the possibility to hide individual games and/or their playtime from the public also. I wouldn't want to use the current private hide your games setting but certainly would see a benefit if I could just hide the playtime of e.g. a software used through steam or a game I spent too much time with.
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Just changed my profile privacy so it looks like before. ¯\(ツ)/¯
Thanks for that hint!
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"To reiterate - it's not because of the new privacy settings. It's because Steam just made everyone's gaming library hidden by default (this wasn't in their blog post)."
-Steam Spy-
I think Steamgifts needs to make a new PSA for users to change it back to public, otherwise it won't be able to see whether a user owns the game they're entering a giveaway for.
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This should be reverted !
I am a software dev myself but this database should be public aka the number of copies sold ect !
This FB crap again, really people where the fuck all of you lived again , this is why I never was a fanatic for FB, nor gps location, nor google recommendations and all geolocation or cell location crap used to map you and you taste per say FFS !
Also I did put my game library on friends only for no damn reason LOL !
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"I am a software dev myself but this database should be public aka the number of copies sold ect !"
Why should sales data be public in the first place? Can you go to your local shop and ask them the complete details of their sales? Heck does Amazon even disclose sales data? Can you check anyone's Amazon profile and see all the stuff they bought? Why was Steam so "unprivate" in the first place?
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Because it will make a more relieble store and will eliminate the crap from the front pages !
It is a simple implementation !
They should partner with Steam spy or give them a secure connection to their API !
Amazon is not a digital market place so Amazon and local store comparison vs Steam is not a good one!
I remember my paper on Steam 2 years ago LOL !
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New EU privacy law (coming next month) forbids sharing user data by default. Valve can't legally partner with them.
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I am not talking about user data as Personal data, I am talking about meta data !
I bought a game and I am +1 for that game!
I played that game for x H something like this!
Make the option to keep it private or public but not private by default!
Even tho for example in Java Access Modifiers are set as private this is not the same thing :D !
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If EU law says it has to be private by default, then it has to be private by default. Valve can't change that.
But I agree that Steam should give access to game meta data to certain 3rd party services.
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But Valve still would've to obtain opt-in either from users whose data they share or publishers for sales numbers.
Valve will probably still give yearly top sellers and that's going to be as good as it gets.
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Hmmm interesting , as I suspected so that may be the case!
Well as I saw the news this politicias have zero clues about data protection !
They asked how does FB make money, damn old timer really now !
If they made the default as private they should have informed it to all users PERIOD and also the implications so does all the 3rd party sites !
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well just like in a court room they want it on record from FB. Its just like stating your name / swearing you would tell the truth and not lie / etc. It sounds stupid but they can use it later if Fb lie, etc as proof.
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There always two side of voice. The best balance is to let the Seller decide to disclose or not?
SteamSpy also never their data is accurate to 20% if not so difference?
But whether the data is lie or not (PR of certain game sold 100k, or 1 million), it up to their game to play the number, so there is Marketing and Journalism.
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Amazon is not a digital market place so Amazon and local store comparison vs Steam is not a good one!
I don't see how Amazon is not a digital market place. It's digital and it's a market place. The only difference between the 2 is their catalog. I was about to say Steam only sells games software, but that's not even true anymore.
The local store comparison is still valid anyway: you don't expect a store, be in online or not, to disclose your shopping history
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Steam is only selling game and 3 own house gadgets, Amazon is selling mostly hardware aka physical thing the store the same!
So as I have learned from E-business classes and I research on this subject the etiquette, laws and marketing are not the same !
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You don't need to show me I already bought a steam link and tomorrow I will have it :D !
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Not true. Amazon is so much more and is also considered a digital marketplace, since they're selling games, music, movies, they got their own appstore, etc... But Amazon is so much more than that, its also a cloud computing service, producer of its own movies, shows, audiobooks, etc etc etc.
You can't reduce Amazon to just "selling mostly hardware aka physical thing", neither can you deny it is a digital marketplace.
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Ok then I can say it is a mix seller and not a pure digital market !
It is an online store not a digital distributor like Steam :D !
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Anyhow, I don't see why you would have an expectation of privacy from Amazon while not having one from Steam. I don't see why you wouldn't have an expectation of privacy from any store in general. I don't even see why you wouldn't have an expectation of privacy from any business you're buying stuff from.
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We are talking of number of games , do you understand that ?
It is a simple meta data not Persona Information FFS !
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Great. Now the gaming reddits, including Steam one are in outrage due to this decision. What a sad day for us, Steam users. Hmm, seems more laws to screw up innocents as well as making information more private, which is more useful for asset flippers and scammers than others.
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"Boooh! The evil crypto-pedo-terrorists who dare value privacy! Let's hang them all!" 🙄🙄
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What about SteamGifts then ? It relies on a public Steam account, you have to Sync your data at least once in a week to be able to enter giveaways.
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I doesn't change much for websites who gather users' data with their consent: all they have to do is let the users know they must adapt their privacy settings. Like it's already done, only the wording needs to be updated:
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Yep, it's the same for the ones who just changed the privacy settings to Public. But since it's Private by default, I assume it will be a problem in a week, when thousands of members (and bots) who aren't aware of the change will have an incomplete sync :/
I don't know what notification (if there is one) you get when your profile is private and hence your data aren't sync and you can't enter giveaways any longer. In before many topics and a drop of entries in a week ?
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Filtering out bots wouldn't be a bad thing, and if people run into the issue of not being able to enter, they can look up that issue here. I don't see a problem here at all?
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not really in a week, as it changed already, now SG syncs once per day, as for actual problems it gives - SG has recorded data of games you own, so even with this sync list of your owned games remains in SG, but your wishlist is empty, so for example you are not able to search for wishlist GAs, also SGT uses actual, not recorded, data for SGFT checks, so anyone who don't change their settings will be marked as non-activator on SGT and will not be able to access GAs.
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While I don't see it as a bad change, I think that they shouldn't have made our game lists private as default. I made my game list public again, but I think I'll keep my playtime private, because people still can't understand what idlemaster is. :B
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I like, that I can finally able to hide my playtime even from friends. I just wish I could opt out giving that data to Valve. It's really none of their business when, how often or how long I play my games. Also, there's still spying disguised as achievements: basically it tells Valve (and everyone who's able to see your profile) when exactly you reached a certain stage in a game. I guess I'll just stick with blocking the client via firewall/offline mode.
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" Also a little thing for when you play multiplayer games, you know how people check your playtime and sometimes achievements to determine whether or not they want to play with you, or if they can find ways to insult your skill level based on hours played etc. ? yea, no more."
So... free reign for cheaters... yeah, that's a good thing! [/s]
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Next to no playtime > All achievements... Fairly easy indication you're dealing with a cheater.
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It's actually more common than yout think. Cheaters generally don't really care much for hiding their cheating, and seeing all their achievs unlocked and then not playing them will definitely make it more likely not to play with ingame cheaters aswell.
Just like having a private profile to hide behavior is a red flag in many games.
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depends on people's definition of cheater.
for me personally, as long as 'cheating' affects only you and your personal gaming expereience I see nothing wrong with it (someone may not want to grind XP in jRPG for 10 hours so will just cheat and gicve himself few levels, someone may suck at some genre, like ultra-fast shooters, but may still want to see the game story, because maybe it has great story, so he will play with godmode etc), only thing that defines someone as cheater for me is if their cheating is affecting other players in a negative way, do they cheat in multiplayer? do they get unfair advantage over other players? etc.
but there are a LOT of people who consider ANY kind of interferrence with a game, even purely singleplayer one, as the worst thing in the world, because you're supposed to 'git gud' instead of cheating. So for example these people were able to organize witchhunts on people using let's say Steam Achievement Manager to unlock achivs -'Yoiu dirty cheater! you only played 20 hours of this game, but getting this achiv requires at least 30h grind!' etc. With game data hidden, people will no longer be able to find these 'cheaters'.
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what sounds good to you? because I am talking about two totally opposed things ;p One being witchhunting people who use cheats in singleplayer games not affecting anyone besides themselves, other being people being free to cheat all they want as long as it's in single player game and not affecting anyone else gameplay ;)
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that it would be impossible/way harde to witchhunt people - that sounds like a good thing to me
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One being witchhunting people who use cheats in singleplayer games not affecting anyone besides themselves
But that's not true if they masturbate to their own illicit exploits by logging onto AStats or any other completion page, use a completion showcase, etc. Seems to be the majority of 'SAM completionists', who desire to show off with it.
With game data hidden, people will no longer be able to find these 'cheaters'.
Private profile or friends only visibility already prevented this in the past. No change.
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How does exactly other person stats affectr YOUR OWN game? Because I seem to miss thatt part. Is your GAME any different? Nope. Only whing that's different are some stats on THIRD PARTY website, and sorry, but it's not really concern here. Theorethically I could create a third party website that would rank users based on their avatar with having bunny avatar giving -1000 to stats - would you then pursue Steam banning all non-bunny avatars, because something that DOES NOT affect you on steam but on some third party website using Steam API makes you feel uncomfortable? I could understand outrage in cases Valve tried to pull in the past - Achievements affecting drops in multiplayer games, but if we are talking singleplayer games, it's really not your concern if anyone else decides to cheat or not.
As for 2nd paragraph - yes, but private profile was hiding all information, here you can still have your profile, show all your showcases and whatever you feel like, just hide game data. That's a big difference.
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but if we are talking singleplayer games, it's really not your concern if anyone else decides to cheat or not.
Single player games still have global leaderboards and global achievement completion percentages that are skewed by this. If you pay $60 for a game and your #1 top worldwide leaderboard slot is instead a #101 spot because there's 100 cheaters in front of you, I'd wager you get less than what you paid for.
People wouldn't even be doing it if it wasn't affecting others. Like unlocking achievements for a game instantly so that it looks like you're a CSGO pro. Of course that affects others.
Of course on the flip side, cheating in a single-player game without VAC, without achievements, without leaderboards, without Steam profile progress showcases, without any other interaction with human beings (see Dark Souls), and without taking and uploading 999 screenshots of cheated gains does indeed affect nobody else.
Re 2nd paragraph: Yes, showing the showcases with the SAM'd CSGO achievements that all have the same timestamp, while hiding the achievement unlock times...
So for example these people were able to organize witchhunts on people using let's say Steam Achievement Manager
The only time I've seen people "do that" is when people with illegitimate achievements attempted to sneak into groups where achievement legitimacy is a big thing (Playing Appreciated is a great example). I can't find any fault with that. If another person uses lies and deception in a Steam group, what's the rationale for wanting to help them remain undetected?
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Most of games don't have global scoreboards anymore, see the moment I said "as long as it does not interfere with other people"? That's it, if you cheat to get top1 score on leaderboard it's the same as cheating to win multiplayer match. But it will not be the case in 99% singleplayer games, which do not have scoreboards.
How does you looking like 'CSGO pro' affect others? Is me having more achievements makes me a better player and easier for me to defeat you? Nah, I'm still on the same noobish level of skill.
Only thing affectred is not your gameplay but your out-of-game perspective, and sorry not sorry, the same way like I said - your avatar may affect my steam experience, is this a reasonj to ban bunny avatars?
Going on - how does me unlocking achievement in a game affect YOUR GAMEPLAY? How does me making a screenshot and posting it on my activity feed affecting your gameplay? You seem to be trigger-happy to say all people what and how exactly they can do sth, and only in a way you seem right, who gave you that right? 'Cheater' p[aid the very same money for a game you did, if he wishes he has every right to go through this singleplayer campaign with godmode on and take as many screenshots as he like - it will not affect your game, and if it affects your puny little feelings outside of the game, it's not really anyone else's problem besides your own.
As for witchhunts - then you are lucky, cause I've seen quite a few 'you are a cheater, SAM'er, ,scum of the earth" calling outs on this very community forums, and long before Playing Appreciated existed, not to mention great dramas on Community boards for specific games, where there is no 'co calling out' rules. And as for Playing Appreciated - honestly, not our problem, their problem, they need to figure out system that will work for them, but it cannot be an excuse here - how big is the group? Few dozens members? Over a 100? So for the sake of 100+ users who 'need the data visible' all 80+ million of Steam ussers gotta have system changed, so just one small group can enforce their rules, rules which have nothing to do with Steam itself nor with any of these remaining 80 million people? I don't think so.
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Next to no playtime > All achievements... Fairly easy indication you're dealing with a cheater.
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Some will like the new privacy changes and others will not. ^^
When they\Valve removed the Steam gifts to Steam inventory feature it was a much worse day than this day.
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When they\Valve removed the Steam gifts to Steam inventory feature it was a much worse day than this day.
This privacy update is only a pebble that hits the water while the Steam gifts to inventory was a cinder block brick that hit the water.
For me the rule of thumb is that anyone can play whatever, however and whenever on their own Steam account and the same goes for the Steam options and privacy settings. ;-)
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"anyone can play whatever, however and whenever" - I'll add that as long as it's not affecting other's people play ;) Because it's a common argument among people who use hacks/cheats in multiplayer games - 'it's my own game, I paid for it, I can play it however I want' ;)
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Actions have consequences for sure but it's still an individual and personal decision to make. People should choose wisely but that's up to them.
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yes, I know, but the fact of these consequences existence contradicts your general statement ;) You cannot play howeven you want, because as a result you will not play at all ;p
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This reminds me of Newton’s III' law of motion that says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. :-)
One can cheat if one wishes to do so but this most probably will give you your change back, eventually.
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People who SGTools up their winners (which hopefully is everyone, but realistically isn't).
Support who now has to deal with tickets from above to check instead.
Users of Steamspy. Developers using Steamspy. Any and all sites who want to check ownership of a Steamgame using the Steam API.
Probably more.
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removed the Steam gifts to Steam inventory feature it was a much worse day than this day
For me the long term annoyance of this is higher than the very minor inconvenience of 99% using CD keys rather than Steam gifts to send/receive games to/from other people. But https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_... , eh.
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I guess it varies from person to person but for me it's the Steam gifts that has the greatest impact. I was used to using a large number of Steam keys for my bundled gifts so that hasn't changed but I used to really rely on Steam gifts for my unbundled gifts. Over 500 of those unbundled ones were actually steam gifts that I stored in my Steam inventory and could use whenever and however I wanted to.
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They are giving us more CHOICES. How can people be angry to have more CHOICES ??
Worst would be if they forced everyone to be on private/public. But here you just can chose, and I'm sorry but default being private is an excellent measure. People starting with Steam might not now how profile work, and it's better to think you visible while not being visible, that think your data is private and realize that every random stranger can actually read it.
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It's not because a choices,it's because of the end of SS and the bug on SG u.u
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Bug on SG ? It's not a bug, SG always required to have public profile. Steam changed your settings and you just have to set them back.
SS relied on spying on people maybe unaware that their data was taken and analyzed. They could choose to continue to do their job but on consenting people only this time.
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They can't tho, can they? You can't provide an accurate figure of how many people own a certain game with just the "consenting people" being analyzed. Also, all the people being overly dramatic that Steam Spy is "stealing" your information and invading your privacy - they literally see what everyone else could until now, the games you play and your play time. I don't see how that is even remotely sensitive information, like, at all.
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They named themselves SteamSpy... Of course people are more inclined to use word like "steal" and etc.
Facebook would be public by default, everybody would scream in horror. How are pictures of your cat more sensitive infos that the hobby you like and spend tons of hours on it ? It's not about sensitive, it's about having the right to have a little space where you can do what you want and no one can check it like that.
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Choices are not really given. It's a typical "we do our job to 50%" Valve thing...
Sure you have more privacy from few sites, but Valve has integrated many services like trackingpixels, trackingcookies, geodata, dumpfiles, hard/software, folderstructures, currency, purchasing power, ips and and lots of other stuff...mostly from and goes to third party sites which take your data on every siteclick/steam.
Nothing will change, new placebo-function or not. You have no privacy when using Steam or play any product there. Mostly every game comes along with software coupling and own integrated stuff which doesn't care about privacy.
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By more choices, I meant more options if you prefer. They didn't take away anything, you can still put the same level of visibility as before.
I think you misunderstood what kind of privacy I am talking about. There are data that the company know, and will use / transfer to other services for money, but still get in a limited number of hands. And there are data that everyone can find and see. To exaggerate: Yes I like to go to hotel, and I know that the hotel company will keep track of that. That doesn't mean that I plan to sleep in a room made of glass for everyone around to see.
You might consider it's the same, for me it's not. Ultimately, this doesn't change anything for you, and I find it better suited to me. I see it as a win win situation.
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because you don't need user data to determine it as it's displayed directly in Game's Community Hum ;) Go to any game in steam store, click Community Hub and at the very top you will have bright-green counter XYZ In-Game ^^
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I have mixed feelings. I'm in favor of privacy so the changes are good but at the same time I will miss a lot the "owners" feature of SteamSpy :(
I suppose we can't have everything unless Valve enables this data at API level.
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Valve's recent measures worses Steam more and more,I can not wait for this almost monopoly to end u.u
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hopefully some day they will remove everything and their client ends up like origin or gog <3
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Don't put gog and origin in the same category pls, I can actually appreciate gog. :3
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i would be more concerned with comparing gog to steam xD
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Uplay isn't horrible, I wouldn't use it as a storefront, but it has some benefits,, namely the whole challanges/rewards things.. Rather have the option to buy those things with currency you earn by playing, rather than being forced to pay real money for it.. Although at it's root that system is designed to get you to spend money at some point.. unless you do all the challanges for all your games..
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"Valve just made a change to their privacy settings, making games owned by Steam users hidden by default. Steam Spy relied on this information being visible by default and won't be able to operate anymore."
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