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Dwolfy 2 Aug, 2017 @ 12:34pm
New way for dirty devs to profit?
I was browsing the store, tagging "achievement spammer" and asset flip games and when I went to check the achievements list for "Survival Zombies The Inverted Evolution" I found something weird...
Many of the achievements have names and profile links of Steam users and many others have the name and link for youtube channels. I believe the developer may be charging for the option to customize his game's achievements!... This is supported by the fact that:
  1. The channels advertised are small - so it's not an "homage" to a famous youtuber
  2. The images of the achievements with Steam users' names are usually their avatar, their "logo" or their nicknames written in different fonts.
  3. I've checked the profile of many of the users listed and most of them had the achievement displayed on their profile, under the "Achievement Showcase"
  4. There are more than 1,000 achievements, so it's unlikely all of those are just "shout outs" for the devs friends...
  5. The "description" of the achievements vary, and at least one of them was "SPONSORED by [the user's nick]
All this lead me to believe that this is a new way the developer found to get some extra money...

Does anyone know more about this or other examples o this "exploit"???

[EDIT]
Thank you talgaby for linking me to this thread: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/440730/discussions/0/133257636764514257/

So Apparently in this case the option to customize the game is not being directly exchanged for money... I can't even state that the intent here is bad... but it all feels shady to me... Specially since the person "asking for customization" can advertise their youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook page, etc.... Even though it is not a "direct sale", since the person needs to have the game to get a customized achievement, it is still an "incentive" to buy it and therefore give money to the developer...

And think about it... if "developers" are already making money by simply adding thousands of "cosmetic" achievements, imagine if others start to charge for this kind of customization... (I'd seen this kind of customization before - specially for Steam Groups - but rarely and when there weren't so many games with 1,000+ achievements to be customized....)
Last edited by Dwolfy; 2 Aug, 2017 @ 1:06pm
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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments
talgaby 2 Aug, 2017 @ 12:41pm 
Not exactly, any owner is free to ask for a personal achievement:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/app/440730/discussions/0/133257636764514257/
Sponsor in this case means they bought the game.
So, it is more like a marketing ploy to make people who really, REALLY love to customise their profile page to get special personal achievements by buying the game. Since most of them are big-time collectors, I guess they think they would have done it anyway.
#1
Dwolfy 2 Aug, 2017 @ 12:46pm 
Originally posted by talgaby:
Not exactly, any owner is free to ask for a personal achievement:
So, it is more like a marketing ploy to make people who really, REALLY love to customise their profile page to get special personal achievements by buying the game.
First: thank for the info! <3

Hmm, that makes it less of a "direct sale" but since the person needs to have the game, as you said, it is still an "incentive" to buy it and therefore give money to the developer... Idk.. it may not be ilegal by the Steam TOS and in this specific case I can't even state that the intent is bad... but it all feels shady to me... Specially since the person "asking for customization" can advertise their youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook page, etc....

And think about it... if "developers" are already making money by simply adding thousands of "cosmetic" achievements, imagine if others start to charge for this kind of customization... (I'd seen this kind of customization before - specially for Steam Groups - but rarely and when there weren't so many games with 1,000+ achievements to be customized....)
Last edited by Dwolfy; 2 Aug, 2017 @ 12:52pm
#2
talgaby 3 Aug, 2017 @ 12:26am 
It is tethering on the verge of being unethical, but no digital store or marketplace has any kind of clause that would prevent it. It is a shameless self-marketing ploy for all those various venues, like you said.

While we could say that people whore out themselves much worse ever since television was invented—and many of us could name at least a dozen internet personalities beyond PewDiePie who self-promote even more shamelessly like this dev—I can agree that it is not something that should be a trend.

On the other hand, this is exactly the type of gimmick you cannot really do many times; after all, people won't get more than one personalised achievement; or, if they do, they could just stick to the one game that gave it to them in the first place.
So, in a sense, it was rather clever, finding an opportunity that may not be exploited ever again and pulling it off in a manner that left most customers satisfied instead of feeling ripped off.

If it really would have been a buy-yourself-an-achievement fraud like the Social Interaction Simulator debacle… now, that is an entirely different can of worms.
Last edited by talgaby; 3 Aug, 2017 @ 12:27am
#3
Dwolfy 3 Aug, 2017 @ 2:30pm 
Originally posted by talgaby:
IOn the other hand, this is exactly the type of gimmick you cannot really do many times; after all, people won't get more than one personalised achievement; or, if they do, they could just stick to the one game that gave it to them in the first place.
Agreed. Also, I imagine that if any and everyone could easily get a personalized achievement, they would rapidly lose the initial appeal for collectors.

Lets just hope it doesn't become a trend .__.
#4
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Date Posted: 2 Aug, 2017 @ 12:34pm
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