It's always been garbage. At no point was it better or worse.

Community moderated.

It’s never been a particularly great platform, it was more the games and the fact that people were way more relaxed back then that made that era of gaming so great.

Originally posted by Shreddy:

It’s never been a particularly great platform, it was more the games and the fact that people were way more relaxed back then that made that era of gaming so great.

Too be fair, things were fairly political back then by not to the extent to how they are now.

I feel like there was more of a video modding scene for first-time modders back then.

Back when someone would post their first map they made for Half-Life 2 and it was a rectangle made of brick with one soldier in it and a gun that spawns several meters away from the player.

Nowadays, there's so much high quality stuff available everywhere that people don't put out their first attempt (and the people who do are doing asset flips and charging money for their nothing-project).

I don't want everything from the past to come back, but it'd be nice if people were more comfortable being bad at something creative and then getting feedback and improving.

Originally posted by Mystical Spork:

I haven't been around from the early days of Steam back when it was beginning to flourish because I did not own a good enough gaming PC, but what was it like during the 2010s?

Was it really the golden years of Steam back then?

No.

I became active on Steam around 2013. I didn't want to. I only did so because Steam became required for just about every PC game.

I was constantly forum banned. I couldn't say anything about anything. No matter how polite I was.

I would ask questions like "Why is there so much cheating on Steam?" Then some mod would hurl endless insults at me. Claiming I was some delusional maniac with a fragile ego.

And when I confronted him with evidence? He would ban me for "name & shame".

When I confronted him with logical reasoning? He would ban me for "forum disruption".

It was definitely not a "golden age". More like a "dark age".

Steam itself was better because they didn't allow shovelware or porn. Just popular games. Which would frequently go on sale for as little as $5. Those same games rarely go below $15 these days.

Originally posted by Mystical Spork:

Was it really the golden years of Steam back then?

I kind of started using it in 2013, and it was a big shop with games. Same as today.

I feel like that it was way harder to accidentally stumble on snowflakes a decade ago. As in, it definitely seemed like there was way less of them. Steam itself as a platform has very little to do with anything in that regard, truth be told.

Originally posted by Kargor:

Originally posted by Mystical Spork:

Was it really the golden years of Steam back then?

I kind of started using it in 2013, and it was a big shop with games. Same as today.

What I meant was about the community itself. The only thing I know from some videos mentioning older versions of Steam had a deeper layer of customization when it came to changing your profile backgrounds and I think the layout and text. This was apparently during the Windows 7 era where that was more prominent.

Tbh, i've barely noticed much difference at all between back then and now.. Steam forums are still kinda the same as when i first got on steam... Though it was slightly better moderated compared to nowadays, back then you still had community moderators..

The same troll posts being post nowadays for clown awards were also on steam back then, even though there were less of them and more creative compared to nowadays.. Which is why i still think that the entire steam awards thing wasn't the greatest move that steam has made, but that's just my opinion..

It was better than it is now. People were nicer. Moderators were more tolerant.

Cheers to 22 years in November!

I don't know but when I first used the community discussions it was nicer than it is now. Although I did meet friends in steam discussions in the recent years.

I barely recall that era, but the amount and quantity of yelling is the same, except it used to be about games, strategies and how to get a gf. Nowadays its politics and game should have representation for whatever...

Originally posted by DarkCrystalMethod:

I barely recall that era, but the amount and quantity of yelling is the same, except it used to be about games, strategies and how to get a gf. Nowadays its politics and game should have representation for whatever...

The good old days of "buying gf" from runescape