ValveSoftware / steam-for-linux

Issue tracking for the Steam for Linux beta client
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Sorting of 'New Releases' not according to linux release #389

Open slim-one opened 11 years ago

slim-one commented 11 years ago

The list at http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/ is sorted after date of original release of a game, not it's availibility for Linux. This makes it hard to find new games, because they appear way down the list or even on 2nd/3rd page (Eversion for instance).

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

Is this going to be looked into? I don't see how it's not a bug when it clearly doesn't work right.

mdaffin commented 11 years ago

@liamdawe It currently works as intended, sorts by when the game was released, so it is a feature request to be able to sort by when the game was released on a specific platform. The issue has not been closed so they are still considering it.

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

Well i guess it's just bad default behaviour then. If I go to a certain platform and select new releases i would expect it to be for that platform not for all platforms.

MrSchism commented 11 years ago

Actually, that's how the behavior SHOULD work; it works that way for most content providers who have a "release date" (or any analogous field). Just because it was released in linux on a given date does not mean the game was released on a given date.

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

I don't think it should work like that is it will completely bury newer games for Linux on Steam if they are ported from older games already on steam. Are you happy with games being buried?

slim-one commented 11 years ago

In the end with more new/recent games popping up in the list the problem will get more and more irrelevant, i guess, because even then one will miss one or another release and you have to search for a distinct game anyway. Tho it might be nice to have a 'sort by platform release date' i guess it's not that important atm (i'd prefer to let them keep on working on getting more games onto that list :-) )

TheSofox commented 11 years ago

I think this needs attention. It seems to be showing Half-Life (original) as the second highest game on this list so apparently the list isn't being sorted by original release date either. I'm not sure what it's being sorted by. Also, the purpose of "New Releases" is to give the purchaser the chance to see what things they can purchase now, that they couldn't purchase the last time they looked at the list. If new items are added that are not visible on the front of the list, then the purchaser may miss out on a game they may be interested in. Bad for the purchaser and a lost sale. It also may act as a disincentive for companies to port games to Linux if they feel they are not going to get the exposure.

MrSchism commented 11 years ago

You may need to click the "Released" sort filter if it isn't sorting by date.

On an aside, there is an issue with the game (Half-Life) and it's release date. It claims on the list that it was released both Feb 6, 2013 and Nov 8, 1998.

TheSofox commented 11 years ago

This is getting serious. Magical Diary is probably the most recent game to be ported to Linux (only a day or two ago I believe), but appears very far down the "New Released" list, the same with Frozen Synapse. I only found out about these games having Linux versions through the Steam Linux sale which has a radomised list of games. In order to see both of the above games in the "New Released" list, I had to keep scrolling past games that I'd seen in the list for weeks already, something few other people would do.

This isn't about a list that's technically arranged through a "Release date" value in some SQL database. This list is meant to help gamers and potential purchasers. They're asking the question "What's new?" and the list is meant to provide the answer. Even if the game was released months or even years ago on another platform, if it was released recently on Linux it should appear on the top of the Linux gaming list because it's new to Linux. Otherwise, how can they find out about recently ported games on Steam?

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

Exactly why I previously said it was a bug, even though I got shunted away by others saying it's working as expected, it's dumb behaviour.

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

Looks like this has been "fixed" to be exactly how we would expect it to now!

TheSofox commented 11 years ago

It's been fixed for Osmos and Spectraball, but Magical Diary is still pretty far down the list.

It seems like there is some system in place to put newly ported games at the top of the list, but it's not 100% reliable.

LiamDawe commented 11 years ago

Hmm it appears it only happens for some titles.

TheSofox commented 11 years ago

Today, the Linux ports of 3 games were released on Steam but are extremely hard to find on the New Releases part of http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux (which to remind everyone, is meant to be the "front page" of Linux Steam since it's where you go when you click on the Linux button on the top menu. On the New Releases scrolling list, Closure is on the 4th page, Tiny and Big is on the 5th page, and Wargame: European Escalation is on the 6th page. All were released today.

MrSchism commented 11 years ago

Frankly, I think that New Releases showing recent ports is essentially problematic because it appears to be OS agnostic. It can cause Windows users to have a reaction "Why the is in the new list? I've had it for <number> years..."</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/TheSofox"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3089525?v=4" />TheSofox</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>In the last few days, The Cave, Shank 2, Waking Mars and VVVVVV have all been ported to Linux.</p> <p>Shank 2 and Waking Mars, are at the top of the "New Releases" on the Linux page, apparently being sorted by their Linux release date. The Cave and VVVVVV, however, are sorted by their original release date and appear several pages down the "New Releases" list. Anyone who regularly browses the Linux Steam page would never know of their new availability.</p> <p>MrSchism: Windows users are unlikely to click to visit the Linux page, and if they do they'll generally understand that they're viewing the Linux version of Steam, not the Steam frontpage (where games are arranged by original release date regardless of platform). More to the point, some games on the Linux Steam page are already being arranged according to their Linux release date, others aren't. It's inconsistent behaviour, but more importantly, it seems to mean that whether a game developer gets that extra exposure when their game is released on Linux seems to be reliant on chance.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/MrSchism"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3085862?v=4" />MrSchism</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <blockquote> <p>MrSchism: Windows users are unlikely to click to visit the Linux page, and if they do they'll generally understand that they're viewing the Linux version of Steam, not the Steam frontpage (where games are arranged by original release date regardless of platform). More to the point, some games on the Linux Steam page are already being arranged according to their Linux release date, others aren't. It's inconsistent behaviour, but more importantly, it seems to mean that whether a game developer gets that extra exposure when their game is released on Linux seems to be reliant on chance.</p> </blockquote> <p>It uses their release date in the database. This is fine in the "Linux" main page. Part of the Windows issue is that the sort date is universal, so if you <em>search</em> and then sort by release date, your results will be incorrect.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/TheSofox"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3089525?v=4" />TheSofox</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>Today gives a perfect example of the problem persisting for some games, but not others: 10,000,000 and Shatter were both ported to Linux today. 10,000,000 was originally released 2 months ago, yet is at the top of the New Releases list on the Linux page and listed with the Linux port datewhich is exactly the behaviour that's expected. This is great because the developer benefits from the extra exposure and the Linux gamers benefit from keeping up to date on new games ported. This is the best scenario for everyone</p> <p>However, for some reason, Shatter isn't being sorted by it's Linux port date on that list, it's being sorted by it's original release date which was 2 years ago and so isn't showing up on the New Releases section at all.</p> <p>Looking things over, it seems that the nature of this bug has changed from inception. Clearly some games are being sorted by Linux release but not others. Therefore we should probably close this bug and replace it with a new one that says:</p> <p>"New Releases" on Linux page sorts some games by Linux release date, and others by original release date</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/LiamDawe"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/83223?v=4" />LiamDawe</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>I would like an answer on this one too, it's very annoying I had no idea Shatter had just been put up either.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/TheSofox"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3089525?v=4" />TheSofox</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>It's still happening, English Country Tune is the most recent game that failed to appear at the top of the "New Releases" in the Linux section (though Lugaru HD was unaffected by this bug).</p> <p>I was getting tired of this issue, and I really wanted to not miss new Linux releases, so I programmed my own page for displaying the most recent Linux games available on Steam: <a href="http://sofoxcentral.com/projects/LinuxSteamGamesList/list.php">http://sofoxcentral.com/projects/LinuxSteamGamesList/list.php</a> </p> <p>A background tasks runs every 30mins that scrapes the Steam Linux game pages, sees what Linux games are on display and if it finds a game that isn't on the program's list already, it puts it at the top of the list along with the date it was added.</p> <p>I've just wrote it, so it may be buggy, but I just want to be reliably informed of new games released on Steam for Linux, regardless of how long they've been out for other platforms.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/TheSofox"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3089525?v=4" />TheSofox</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>The bug is still persisting, according to my script and the Humble Bundle, both Mark of the Ninja and Fez were released on Linux yesterday for the first time, however the Steam Linux front page ( <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/">http://store.steampowered.com/browse/linux/</a> ) doesn't show either of them near the top of the New Releases list (incidentally same thing happened to Analogue: A Hate Story). They should appear at the top, just under Superfrog HD.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/TheSofox"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3089525?v=4" />TheSofox</a> commented <strong> 11 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>Fortix 2 was just released for Linux yesterday, but is nowhere on the "New Releases" of the Linux front page. </p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/LiamDawe"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/83223?v=4" />LiamDawe</a> commented <strong> 10 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>Eldritch has been released on Linux recently and didn't show up in the new releases either.</p> </div> </div> <div class="comment"> <div class="user"> <a rel="noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://github.com/higuita"><img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/987180?v=4" />higuita</a> commented <strong> 10 years ago</strong> </div> <div class="markdown-body"> <p>+1 !!! It's very annoying to find about some good game only months after it was ported to linux, just because it was a hidden release. By doing this Valve is also saying to developers "release first to windows, because if you release first to linux or mac, no one will see your game"</p> </div> </div> <div class="page-bar-simple"> </div> <div class="footer"> <ul class="body"> <li>© <script> document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) </script> Githubissues.</li> <li>Githubissues is a development platform for aggregating issues.</li> </ul> </div> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/jquery@3.5.1/dist/jquery.min.js"></script> <script src="/githubissues/assets/js.js"></script> <script src="/githubissues/assets/markdown.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/highlightjs/cdn-release@11.4.0/build/highlight.min.js"></script> <script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/highlightjs/cdn-release@11.4.0/build/languages/go.min.js"></script> <script> hljs.highlightAll(); </script> </body> </html>