Steam Spy背後之人是Epic Game總監 - Steam

Mia avatar
By Mia
at 2018-12-06T18:43

Table of Contents

The Guy Behind Steam Spy Has Been Working On Epic's Store For Years
https://tinyurl.com/y9mf5v54

It’s one thing for a gaming company to announce a Steam competitor—and
believe me, many have—but it’s something else entirely when the developer
behind the world’s biggest game does it. Epic’s upcoming game store seems
to have already gotten under Steam’s skin, but even before the announcement
yesterday, one Epic employee spent countless long hours picking apart the
behemoth piece by piece. As a hobby.

If you follow Steam closely, you’ve probably heard of Sergey Galyonkin.
Since 2015, he’s been running Steam Spy, a site that scrapes
publicly-available data from Steam profiles, analyzes it, and spits out
statistics like approximate game sales, average playtime per game, and
broader genre and tag trends. A change to Steam’s privacy settings put Steam
Spy against the ropes earlier this year, but it’s still bobbing and weaving—
albeit more clumsily—for the time being.

Few people outside of Valve are more intimately familiar with Steam’s inner
workings than Galyonkin. He has always described the Steam data-gathering
mainstay, used by major developers and publishers to take stock of Steam and
justify their games’ existence, as a “side project.” His main gig?
Director of publishing strategy for Epic’s new store, as it turns out. He
announced yesterday that he’s been working on the project for “the past
several years.” It didn’t take long for the “Steam Spy was literally a
Steam spy” jokes to start rolling in.

“I think it’s funny,” Galyonkin said in an email to Kotaku. “It wasn’t
my intention when launching or naming Steam Spy, but in retrospect, it makes
for a great four-years-in-the-making joke.”

There is, according to Galyonkin, no great conspiracy here. He’s always been
interested in data and game distribution, and that led to him both starting
Steam Spy and joining Epic. Steam Spy has, however, taught Galyonkin, and now
Epic, some valuable lessons that are being applied to the new store.

“I’ve learned a lot about how games are tracking [week] over week, how
effective are sales (not as much as people think, exposure is more
important), and more importantly, I got to talk to hundreds of developers to
learn what they want from a digital store and what they like and don’t like
about existing ones,” he said.

He noted that he could’ve done that last part without Steam Spy, but “for a
person as introverted as I am, it’s way easier when other people are talking
to me.”

“That’s why we won’t have forums on Epic Games store and will start with a
ticketing system, so gamers can message devs about their problems instead of
review-bombing them.”
This led to a slew of valuable insights that Galyonkin says directly informed
the Epic store’s feature set. For instance, forums and other social
media-like tools—a cornerstone of Steam—won’t be part of the package.
Galyonkin said that this is because “not a single developer I talked to
wanted forums” and “the toxicity it brings,” preferring to interact with
communities on their own terms on platforms like Reddit and Discord instead.

“That’s why we won’t have forums on Epic Games store and will start with a
ticketing system, so gamers can message devs about their problems instead of
review-bombing them,” said Galyonkin.

Then there’s the issue of clutter, which often makes Steam feel less like a
svelte 2018 video game store and more like a closet so stuffed full of games
that if you tried to pull one out, it’d be like dislodging the wrong block
from a Jenga tower. This is even an issue on individual game pages. Their “
More Like This,” DLC, and bundle sections impact not just users’ ability to
decide whether they want a game, but also developers’ ability to communicate
what they’re up to.

“There was a problem with too many things competing for users’ attention on
a game page and no way of ever reaching users unless a developer had its own
account system set up,” said Galyonkin. “That’s why we’re trying to
minimize the store presence on game pages and we’re adding a global
Twitter-like newsfeed, so developers can update their players about recent
changes to their games and their future titles. And they can have emails of
their players if the players agree to it.”

Steam Spy’s greatest strength, though, has been its ability to pull back the
curtain on sales data and other trends, paving the way for developers to make
games they know people will like (or that nobody else has made before) and,
hopefully, succeed. And while Epic’s store won’t have public-facing Steam
Spy-like functionality built in, providing developers with as much
information as possible is a big priority.

“We’re aiming to provide developers with as much information to make good
decisions as legally possible,” Galyonkin said. “Contractually we can’t
share other companies’ sales data—Steam Spy shows estimates—but we can
share other useful stats, especially in an aggregated format. We use a lot of
data ourselves and want the developers to have the same tools. And the
partners obviously can share their sales information.”

The Epic store will launch with a “very barebone backend dashboard,” he
said, but his hope is that “eventually it will give developers way more
information about their games that Steam Spy ever could.”

As for Steam Spy, it’s not dead, but Steam privacy changes did a heck of a
job of hamstringing it. Galyonkin’s not entirely sure what he’s gonna do
with it yet, but for now, the project continues to move forward, though at a
speed closer to a crawl than a sprint.

“The current algorithm is based on machine learning and is doing OK for tags
and general trends, plus an actual PhD in machine learning is helping me with
the next version,” he said. But, he said, Steam Spy has taken a back seat
recently: “I’ve been so occupied with Epic Games store, I didn’t spend
enough time working on Steam Spy in recent months.”

====

這有八卦到,但這篇其實更像是宣傳 Epic Game Store。

總之,Steam Spy的創始人 Sergey Galyonkin 其實是Epic Game Store的總監之一,他也
在那做了好久了。

所以這篇主要就在說他會以Steam那 「SPY」 來的經驗來讓 Epic Game Store 更好。

有興趣可以看看......

不過說真的他一直強調會對開發者更好更好......什麼的,我很想問那對玩家呢!

尤其是他說為了避免玩家評論轟炸開發者,所以 Epic Game Store 不會有論壇和社群,而
是只有投票系統。

但對我來說,我很愛看Steam上玩家的評論和討論耶!

--
「星耀如眼,賜吾輩目光。
取吾奉獻,予吾輩力量。
此等威力,暗夜淚光芒。」
─黑暗祭禮

--
Tags: Steam

All Comments

Ula avatar
By Ula
at 2018-12-09T01:00
有些評論才是本體XDD
Gilbert avatar
By Gilbert
at 2018-12-12T05:41
我也覺得steam好在有論壇社群 你看大公司一言堂的現
Elizabeth avatar
By Elizabeth
at 2018-12-13T12:21
那用PS4就好了 PS4都沒評論 對開發者根本天國
Iris avatar
By Iris
at 2018-12-13T15:03
在經營得如何 像bungie連客服信箱都沒有
Tracy avatar
By Tracy
at 2018-12-15T17:47
甘 沒評論要上哪看傳送門
Zenobia avatar
By Zenobia
at 2018-12-18T07:21
steam不就強在社群嗎
Zanna avatar
By Zanna
at 2018-12-22T17:11
避免玩家評論轟炸開發者,是為了討好廠商進駐EPIC平台
Megan avatar
By Megan
at 2018-12-26T06:26
Steam光有評論系統的狀態下,就各種雷大作進來了
Agatha avatar
By Agatha
at 2018-12-29T02:27
一堆好評作品都能踩雷了 沒評論不是更多雷
Megan avatar
By Megan
at 2019-01-01T14:58
完全資方傾向的平台,感覺沒甚麼未來可期待
Megan avatar
By Megan
at 2019-01-03T14:54
Steam幫中國言論篩掉以後很有看頭啊
完全沒討論怎麼可能比得過
Todd Johnson avatar
By Todd Johnson
at 2019-01-03T16:13
看看全軍羅馬,歪國人也感受到刷負評有效果
Belly avatar
By Belly
at 2019-01-07T19:07
所以之前steam改預設隱私設定他才那麼火大 XD
Hardy avatar
By Hardy
at 2019-01-09T05:00
這幾年來有多少人知道他在Epic工作
Damian avatar
By Damian
at 2019-01-10T17:58
來一波Epic connect我會馬上辦帳號
Delia avatar
By Delia
at 2019-01-11T12:10
ok this is epix
Cara avatar
By Cara
at 2019-01-12T10:49
steam上面有200多款遊戲了…很難割捨耶
Poppy avatar
By Poppy
at 2019-01-15T10:13
還有某A請不要來搗亂 你已經搞到一篇文章沒辦法推噓文了
Rachel avatar
By Rachel
at 2019-01-20T01:19
你可以兩個都裝
Una avatar
By Una
at 2019-01-24T13:55
我怎記得steam spy頗失敗?
Lily avatar
By Lily
at 2019-01-26T04:46
在STEAM改版前他是很棒的
Olga avatar
By Olga
at 2019-01-30T23:12
那到時會不會有個Epic spy
James avatar
By James
at 2019-02-04T00:25
哈哈哈哈哈哈沒有社群的平台
遊戲是開發者自己玩還是社群在玩呢?
Isabella avatar
By Isabella
at 2019-02-08T09:39
各種新聞很想紅
Andy avatar
By Andy
at 2019-02-09T09:24
你的電腦又不是裝EPIC商店 STEAM就自動爆炸,割捨什麼鬼
Eartha avatar
By Eartha
at 2019-02-10T19:09
不限制評論改直接沒有評論 這很可以這很中國~
Jessica avatar
By Jessica
at 2019-02-14T10:05
Epic Game早就是中資了 老闆是騰訊呀
Olga avatar
By Olga
at 2019-02-14T13:01
我都在猜Epic Game Store和WeGame有啥關係了
Frederic avatar
By Frederic
at 2019-02-17T16:49
不是兄弟嗎
Valerie avatar
By Valerie
at 2019-02-18T11:02
只是親等有待鑑別,但是是兄弟無誤
Barb Cronin avatar
By Barb Cronin
at 2019-02-19T06:47
Epic根本稱不上中資 因為剩下都在創辦人手上
騰訊沒有決策權 跟Riot那種差遠了
Quintina avatar
By Quintina
at 2019-02-20T15:53
有多少投票權不知道 但肯定比不上創辦人方
Olga avatar
By Olga
at 2019-02-23T22:22
不看決策權 那樣騰訊是南非資了XD
Ursula avatar
By Ursula
at 2019-02-28T05:50
認真覺得社群很棒 有的猶豫的是看了評論才買的
Frederica avatar
By Frederica
at 2019-03-03T08:31
我多開一個uplay就很不喜歡了 不想開一堆
Aaliyah avatar
By Aaliyah
at 2019-03-07T17:30
只有開發者和fortnite玩家的平台
Jack avatar
By Jack
at 2019-03-08T11:24
我沒steam spy經驗也大概知道評論區對遊戲平台的重要
他的經驗跟他說拔掉比較好?
Ina avatar
By Ina
at 2019-03-08T14:11
沒有討論區但是價格比steam低的商店你會去買嗎?
Zanna avatar
By Zanna
at 2019-03-13T00:35
沒有討論區但是只有那裡有steam沒有,你會去買嗎?
Emma avatar
By Emma
at 2019-03-16T04:55
我還真不會買耶,steam整合跟+1還是感覺比較好
Annie avatar
By Annie
at 2019-03-17T11:09
只會買獨佔或他們自家出品的
Dora avatar
By Dora
at 2019-03-19T21:50
沒有評論先吸引開發者,抽成低所以開法者也願意嘗試,
遊戲陣容多了價錢低了玩家就會過來
Zanna avatar
By Zanna
at 2019-03-23T09:07
人進得來、遊戲賣得出去、大家一起賺大錢喔
George avatar
By George
at 2019-03-25T01:19
只有低價是玩家利多,獨佔又不是爽到玩家更不用說禁評
他spy幾年得到這種結論真的有認真把steam當對手?
David avatar
By David
at 2019-03-26T15:56
抽成低跟價錢低是互斥的
Emma avatar
By Emma
at 2019-03-30T10:14
抽成低和價錢低不一定互斥吧?也許薄利多銷?
Daph Bay avatar
By Daph Bay
at 2019-03-31T22:41
為啥互斥 你抽成低 廠商才有機會把定價調低

秋季Humble抽獎I Level 1

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at 2018-12-06T14:54
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Donna avatar
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