Lunar Sale, Wishlist Tweaks Hit Valve's Steam Platform

[Raevenlord]

Valve yesterday announced the begin of yet another wallet-burning sale to appeal to our consumerist bones. The Lunar Sale, as it is being called, is live from February 15th through February 19th, so, a mere four days with tons (thousands) of games under heavy discounts that can sometimes go up to 90%. On this front, it's business as usual - buy all those games you've been wanting at a fire-sale price, and then look at them guiltily as they collect virtual dust on your backlog.

Other, somewhat more relevant changes that have been made by valve to the overall Steam experience also look towards making it easier for customers to part with their hard-earned currency of choice (or not so hard-earned, it's all good for Valve, really.) Namely, there are some changes to the wishlist which now allow users to place items on their shopping cart directly from their wishlist page - which is nice, since before, you had to enter the games' own store page, and then add it to your cart). Of course, for items that are sold in packages or where there's a bundle, customers will be invited to peruse "Details" on the package, via the relevant store page. There's also the ability to sort your wishlist gamers through those that have the higher discount percentage - a handy tool for bargain-bin hunters. There's also tag search, and filtering options to exclude games such as W"Early Access" titles that aren't currently finished - and that may, or may not, be finished in the future.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Sale sucks and so does the new wishlist. Valve has a terrible habit of regressing their website.

 

[Fluffmeister]

Year of the Dog... which is obviously "three" letters.

Half-Life "3" confirmed.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I actually like the new wishlist. There is a lot more relevant info which negates me from having to go check game details I can't remember on the game page.

 

[kn00tcn]

Sale sucks and so does the new wishlist. Valve has a terrible habit of regressing their website.

filtering the wishlist is regressing!? we're supposed to have an epic sale a month after an epic sale?

make some real points with real examples or stop the FUD

 

[Space Lynx]

I actually like the new wishlist. There is a lot more relevant info which negates me from having to go check game details I can't remember on the game page.

I like the extra info the new wishlist gives as well, but the scaling of it is off, it looks clunky and requires extra scrolling, they could have designed it a little better. Even just shrinking everything a little bit, or giving us a slider scale to enlarge/shrink the square space as we please. Just feels clunky when I scroll through it now because the boxes are so large. I am on 1080p though, that will probably change if I go back to 1440p, oh way... they have DPS scaling now, so it probably won't be fixed by doing that.

@FordGT90Concept /agreed

 

[FordGT90Concept]

They're showing way more information than they should. If you already added a game to your wishlist, you're not going to care so much about when the game was released, what platforms it is available on, the review score, the tags, nor when you added it. Just need to see the name of it, the price, the discount, add to cart, and view in store. It's also so wide that when the Steam window is made as small as it can go, it scrolls horizontally. So yeah, I'm with lynx29: it's clunky. I can't stand looking at the main page since they clunkified that too. Like I said, Valve loves regressing.

On top of that, if you navigate away from the wishlist to look at details and go back, old wishlist would keep your location on the page and new wishlist does not (forces refresh).

I can't see myself ever using the filters just like I never use them in the store.


The last sale wasn't fantastic either. That's not Valve's fault though; that's publishers not willing to let their games go for cheap anymore. Valve's fault though is having two sales like two weeks apart because the prices are going to be more or less the same for both. It's effectively crying wolf.

 

[rtwjunkie]

Maybe you Ford, but I have games that have been on my long wishlist for a year. Some I don't even remember why I put them there. The new one jogs my memory by giving me enough info that I don't have to leave the wish list to go to the actual game page. I'm quite sure there are a lot in the same thought as I have on what a pain it was to go get your memory jogged. Back n' forth, back n' forth.

Edit: it could be smaller though. The large size is unnerving.

 

[Space Lynx]

I just did the Air Skin Classic.... mmm she is beautiful again... such a clean look. I hope this skin is supported forever. It makes the wishlist a little smaller too, not nearly as bulky.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Maybe you Ford, but I have games that have been on my long wishlist for a year. Some I don't even remember why I put them there. The new one jogs my memory by giving me enough info that I don't have to leave the wish list to go to the actual game page. I'm quite sure there are a lot in the same thought as I have on what a pain it was to go get your memory jogged. Back n' forth, back n' forth.

I have stuff on my wishlist that goes back years. Even with the changes, I'm still going to have to go back and forward, especially reading reviews. In other words, it really is no improvement in terms of reviewing the wishlist.

 

[Space Lynx]

I have stuff on my wishlist that goes back years. Even with the changes, I'm still going to have to go back and forward, especially reading reviews. In other words, it really is no improvement in terms of reviewing the wishlist.

Yeah, like the light blue borders for each game could easily be condensed to allow for more games, something as simply as that, or even that combined with a double column instead of centered... Steam really is lazy. I know people hate on Uplay a lot, Ubisoft is a terrible company don't get me wrong, but Uplay really has a smooth UI, I enjoy it anyway. I really like how unlocking achievements with Uplay in-game lets you get in-game rewards as well, if Steam did that I would be much more motivated to do achievements, as it stands, I only do achievements in Uplay because it is a fun reward based system that requires no extra money.

 

[kn00tcn]

my wishlist is over 5,200 items, it's much more responsive now & i can delete items without reloading the page (part of the reason i didnt remove items before), i can search & filter which again didnt exist before, it's very much two steps forward MAYBE one back, but not one forward two back at all

too large items? cant you zoom out in your browser or use a browser addon that can inject css to alter/hide content in the box? i do not know if steam client themes can control page content like this

dont navigate away, most sites dont do a good job with this in the first place so i always open in new tab, not blaming valve at all when middle click doesnt increase my effort

all this talk about clunky main page, meaning the home page? who uses the home page? a home page is an advertising page, you can still view new releases in the condensed list format...

the image file resolutions have not changed in many years, header is still 460x215, capsule is still 615x353, list view capsule is still 120x45, etc.... (if you thought my wishlist was huge, i've also been collecting these game cover images from the store & some trailers)