A user demands that players on Steam must specify their hardware. The demand receives a lot of support. However, some warn that this could expose some users. Here, some suggest a middle ground.
Reviews on Steam for games are an important way for many users to determine whether they really want to buy a game. However, there has long been criticism of the system: superficial one-sentence reviews, meme ratings, or too short playtime.
But especially regarding the fact that games are often criticized for their poor performance, the community now has a proposal: players should be required to specify their PC hardware.
Players should specify their hardware in reviews to make them more valuable
What is the proposal? Players suggest on Reddit that on Steam, reviews should indicate which PC hardware users play and subsequently rate the titles. The argument for this: many users want to be able to differentiate whether a game is really poorly optimized or just stuttering on weak or improperly configured hardware.
If a player then writes “the game does not run on my PC” and it becomes evident that the user’s hardware is significantly below the requirements, then according to users, it can be much better assessed.
For it makes a difference if a game stutters on a PC that clearly falls below the minimum requirements, or on a system that meets or exceeds the recommended specifications, thus placing the responsibility on the developer team.
Who knows that someone with similar hardware writes “runs great” or “doesn’t run at all” can better assess their own situation than with an abstract thumbs-up rating.
Players would have to admit they do not own a fast gaming PC
Is there also criticism? An important point is data protection: some users do not want to disclose their exact hardware, as this could lead to conclusions being drawn. Or as a user writes: “Gabe knows anyway that you are poor. But now everyone else knows it too.”
Furthermore, not every player might understand such hardware specifications. For many players, clues to CPU, graphics card, and RAM are likely to cause more confusion than actually help.
Some users therefore recommend a middle ground: Steam should, for example, indicate whether the reviewer’s hardware meets the minimum or recommended requirements to be able to use the title:
A rather middle option would be to indicate whether the reviewer meets (or does not meet) the minimum or recommended requirements to play the game.
This option would at least not expose the user who wants to launch the new Call of Duty on a 10-year-old office PC.
Valve has introduced the Steam Machine as new hardware. But what exactly can we expect? A console, a gaming PC, or something completely different? And can I even play all my games? MyMMO has collected the most important questions for you and tried to answer them: Steam Machine: The most important questions and answers
