The amount of #IndieGames on my wishlist that are "not available in your region" because of one small oversight is insane. #GameDev PSA ⬇️ steamcommunity.com/groups/steam... - ThreadSky

murderveggie.bsky.social • 57 days ago

The amount of #IndieGames on my wishlist that are "not available in your region" because of one small oversight is insane.

#GameDev PSA ⬇️

https://steamcommunity.com/groups/steamworks/announcements/detail/4678768276768588864

Comments

greenf0x.bsky.social•56 days ago

It's not trivial for indie devs to understand and account for censorship laws well outside their region.

murderveggie.bsky.social•56 days ago

Of course! That's why talking about it to spread the knowledge is important - and Steam provides guides like above.

For new store pages this is an automatic requirement by now, if I understood correctly.

mrbright01.bsky.social•56 days ago

📌

skute.bsky.social•57 days ago

But age ratings are mandatory before Valve check the store page

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

The issue lies with store pages that were approved before the change, since they retrospectively got region locked

skute.bsky.social•57 days ago

Perhaps they weren't - I've always filled mine in (and then manually prevented access from some countries)

skute.bsky.social•57 days ago

Weren't manditory, I mean

crafciak31.bsky.social•55 days ago

Ah, other victims of German bureaucracy xD. I had to drop a potential job, because it required me to explain my last 10 years of work experience, and they would not hire me, if I had gaps longer than 3 months.

I had one lasting 3 months and one week.

murderveggie.bsky.social•55 days ago

In this economy? Job search can take a while 😬 I usually just say I freelanced during those periods, that seems to placate most.

crafciak31.bsky.social•55 days ago

-Small city
-Trying to get a first job right after finishing school
-Covid
I was struggling back then with things. I couldn't just move somewhere else, because of lack of money and no way to even borrow some, and my mental state was also struggling to keep itself together.

coreflux.bsky.social•57 days ago

I got an age rating in September. But now wondering if the content survey changed with because of new requirements. 🤔

coreflux.bsky.social•57 days ago

Ah, it did get applied based on the survey:

coreflux.bsky.social•57 days ago

Despite what it says there are no shrimps in the game though. 😊

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

🦐

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

For anyone wondering, you can check the status of your game here: https://partner.steamgames.com/healthcheck/missingratingforgermany/

willdavis.bsky.social•57 days ago

Interesting.

rebootinteractive.bsky.social•57 days ago

Localization, Localization, Localization.

meirnon.bsky.social•57 days ago

This happened to one of the games I'm working on. The fix seems like it was pretty quick and painless because we got it put back up in a day, but it feels like Steam could have / should have done more to inform people about the change.

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

The Godot Engine Steam page was affected too, it really hit a lot of projects.

Simple enough to fix, IF you had heard of the news.

meirnon.bsky.social•56 days ago

Yeah, we only found out because a fan was kind enough to say that it disappeared from their wishlist in the steam discussion forum of the game. Total ball-drop from Valve not to inform devs.

murderveggie.bsky.social•56 days ago

I do think I saw some messaging float around the internet, at the very least on social media - yet I'm not a great example for the average dev here, considering being overly aware of the online landscape is part of my job.

tarasophie.dev•57 days ago

And it only takes less than 5min to get that rating and it's FREE.

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

eternalskiestcg.bsky.social•57 days ago

Read the first sentence and went oh, they must be German

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

Yeah exactly - I was surprised how many people did not already hear about this rather drastic change by now, so a reminder felt in order^^

eternalskiestcg.bsky.social•57 days ago

It feels WILD that it's retroactive. Like, it's one thing to mandate every game get a specific rating going forward, but to apply it to everything already out for a decade is kind of crazy.

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

That's German laws for you, we weren't even surprised - just that Steam wouldn't try to mitigate the impact was a curious choice.

Rate every game 18+ until proven otherwise, or something along those lines.

coreflux.bsky.social•57 days ago

In the article they at least implied they did some automatic rating as well; but perhaps only to automatically make it 18+ then 😅

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

I thought so too originally, but scrolling my wishlist revealed dozens of locked entries 🤷🏼

eternalskiestcg.bsky.social•57 days ago

It's like every country in the world realized the video games cause violence thing from forever ago was silly, except Germany who decided to double down on it.

magiwastaken.bsky.social•57 days ago

I mean, it's not that necessarily. Like, the amount of sexual content, gore, violence, and even flat-out gambling in games are not really appropriate for all ages. Of course, kids shouldn't have unrestricted access to the web but also Steam should at least have age-verification in place.

slugdog.bsky.social•57 days ago

Knowing the modern age retriction discussion in germany very well.. It's more about the ginormous amount of hentai and gambling games. Something that really shouldn't be available to children. Rules around violence relaxed ages ago and are relatable.

murderveggie.bsky.social•57 days ago

I think in this case it's more about informed consent/parenting choices but you're not wrong about that being a problem for developers here at times.

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply