Steam's personalization system is outdated. I propose an upgrade.

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да ну... нечестно! 20 hours ago

Hello!

Steam profiles have long become a form of digital creativity and a means of self-expression. Anyone who is part of the Steam community likely wants to use their profile to express their interests, views, material status, and much more. One of the most vivid ways to do this is by adding videos and illustrations.

However, these seemingly simple user requests run into very strict technical limitations. Only 5 MB for an illustration is already not much. And for adding videos, only the GIF format is available, which, to put it mildly, is not known for efficient memory usage. Of course, there is an option to embed a video from YouTube via a link, but that's not the same. This format doesn't allow for a truly beautiful profile design; it only lets you watch the clip by clicking on it.

For example, to upload a 7-second GIF, I had to reduce the frame rate from 30 to 10, use 32 colors instead of 256, and significantly lower the resolution. Because of this, the short clip became much less pleasant to watch.

I propose introducing a correlation between profile personalization capabilities and the account's age and reputation. Currently, we only have the profile level concept, but even with a high level, there's essentially little you can do beyond adding showcases. For instance, it could be done like this: an account that is 5 years old can add GIFs up to 25 MB and upload animated avatars. An account that is 10 years old and has a high level (e.g., from 30 to 50) can add its own custom frame designs, backgrounds to their profile. If a user violates the rules (by adding content with pornography, extremism, etc.), they will lose the ability to personalize their profile for 3 months. For a repeated violation — for a year or permanently (with the possibility to appeal).

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Showing 1-15 of 16 comments

Ettanin 20 hours ago

Are you willing to pay for the additional space and traffic this costs for Valve?

Last edited by Ettanin; 20 hours ago

да ну... нечестно! 20 hours ago

Even now, to personalize a profile with showcases, you need to have a certain Steam profile level. This is done to reduce the load on Steam's administration. Imagine if everyone could attach anything they wanted to their profile—chaos would ensue. Often, it's the active players with high levels who develop a desire to improve their profile.

William Shakesman 19 hours ago

Originally posted by Ettanin:
Are you willing to pay for the additional space and traffic this costs for Valve?

On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

Last edited by William Shakesman; 19 hours ago

да ну... нечестно! 18 hours ago

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Originally posted by Ettanin:
Are you willing to pay for the additional space and traffic this costs for Valve?
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

spot on!

Hikari Light 18 hours ago

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Originally posted by Ettanin:
Are you willing to pay for the additional space and traffic this costs for Valve?
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

And wrong.
Server space and Internet bandwidth are more expensive than you think for businesses.
For normal users they may not be expensive, but for businesses they cost way more.

Steam has MILLIONS of people accessing it all the time, that's a LOT of bandwidth needed to handle that.

And server space requires physical space alongside digital storage space.
And the storage servers businesses use are NOT cheap.

Zefar 17 hours ago

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Originally posted by Ettanin:
Are you willing to pay for the additional space and traffic this costs for Valve?
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

There are around 226 000+ games on Steam.

There are over 250 million Steam users. At least that is the last number I've heard and it was several years ago that was listed. Now it's probably 500 million users. With 37 million at peak per day. The amount of unique users is up for debate too. Could be double, triple that number.

It adds up pretty quick.

Nx Machina 16 hours ago

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Valve did not simply reduce from 8mb to 5mb they deliberately did it.

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

Are you willing to pay Valve's costs to prove that claim?

Last edited by Nx Machina; 16 hours ago

да ну... нечестно! 16 hours ago

Originally posted by Hikari Light:
Originally posted by William Shakesman:
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.
And wrong.
Server space and Internet bandwidth are more expensive than you think for businesses.
For normal users they may not be expensive, but for businesses they cost way more.

Steam has MILLIONS of people accessing it all the time, that's a LOT of bandwidth needed to handle that.

And server space requires physical space alongside digital storage space.
And the storage servers businesses use are NOT cheap.

There is an unknown number of abandoned accounts, so it's not a big deal to count only active users. Let's say there are 100 - 150 million of them. Out of these, not that many accounts have reached the 5-year mark (there are no exact figures, but let's assume 50 million). Of those, probably no more than 80% create profiles. That makes 40 million accounts. I suggest adding 20 MB [per account]. 40 * 10^6 * 20 / 2^20 = 763 TB. Now remember how much space is on your PlayStation. Even if you multiply this figure by 10, it's not that big for a world leader in gaming.

Last edited by да ну... нечестно!; 16 hours ago

да ну... нечестно! 16 hours ago

Originally posted by Nx Machina:
Originally posted by William Shakesman:
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Valve did not simply reduce from 8mb to 5mb they deliberately did it.

Originally posted by William Shakesman:
Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

Are you willing to pay Valve's costs to prove that claim?

Valve's revenue is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. What budget difficulties are you talking about?

William Shakesman 16 hours ago

Originally posted by Zefar:
Originally posted by William Shakesman:
On the site that hosts every single patch of every single AAA game, has constant 24/7 video streaming on every store page, and has dozens of 6mb gifs on every store page, the additional cost would be negligible.

Storage and bandwidth are not expensive and are already solved problems.

There are around 226 000+ games on Steam.

There are over 250 million Steam users. At least that is the last number I've heard and it was several years ago that was listed. Now it's probably 500 million users. With 37 million at peak per day. The amount of unique users is up for debate too. Could be double, triple that number.

It adds up pretty quick.

500 million users all streaming 226,000 videos of games all loading the 30mb of gifs on every page. It already HAS added up.

#10

Nx Machina 16 hours ago

Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
Valve's revenue is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. What budget difficulties are you talking about?

Did i mention budget difficulties? No.

I stated they reduced the size to 5mb. It was a decision they took based on all the information at their fingertips.

Secondly i asked if the person claiming it is not expensive to back up that claim, as in would they be willing to pay Valve's costs.

And finally do you have direct access to Valve's financial information to be able to state with out a doubt that your suggestion will have zero impact on them financially?

Last edited by Nx Machina; 13 hours ago

#11

да ну... нечестно! 16 hours ago

Originally posted by Nx Machina:
Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
Valve's revenue is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. What budget difficulties are you talking about?

Did i mention budget difficulties? No.

I stated they reduce the size to 5mb. It was a decision they took based on all the information at their fingertips.

Secondly i asked if the person claiming it is not expensive to back up that claim, as in would they be willing to pay Valve's costs.

And finally do you have direct access to Valve's financial information to be able to state with out a doubt that your suggestion will have zero impact on them financially?

I explained these costs from the start. A user needs to be at least Steam level 10 to post GIFs.

#12

Nx Machina 16 hours ago

Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
I explained these costs from the start. A user needs to be at least Steam level 10 to post GIFs.

You explained those costs based on zero knowledge of Valve's financial situation, after all they do not just have income they also have expenditure.

How much a year does it cost Valve for servers, maintenance, ip services etc?

Last edited by Nx Machina; 16 hours ago

#13

76561198407601200 15 hours ago

Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Did i mention budget difficulties? No.

I stated they reduce the size to 5mb. It was a decision they took based on all the information at their fingertips.

Secondly i asked if the person claiming it is not expensive to back up that claim, as in would they be willing to pay Valve's costs.

And finally do you have direct access to Valve's financial information to be able to state with out a doubt that your suggestion will have zero impact on them financially?

I explained these costs from the start. A user needs to be at least Steam level 10 to post GIFs.

Unless you are Valve's financial advisor those costs are simply guesses at best.

Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
Originally posted by Nx Machina:

Valve did not simply reduce from 8mb to 5mb they deliberately did it.

Are you willing to pay Valve's costs to prove that claim?

Valve's revenue is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. What budget difficulties are you talking about?

I don't think they stated any difficulties, seems more along the lines of "Valve didn't earn money by spending needlessly".

#14

Anonymous Helper 15 hours ago

Originally posted by да ну... нечестно!:
Valve's revenue is comparable to the GDP of a small European country. What budget difficulties are you talking about?

Valve's reason for existence is to enrich it's owners by making most profit it can. How much money they make now is irrelevant as goal is always to make more. If you want Valve to spend money you need to be able to explain how doing so makes them more money than they spend. So are you willing to pay for Valve for added storage and bandwidth costs?

Last edited by Anonymous Helper; 13 hours ago

#15

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All Discussions > Steam Forums > Suggestions / Ideas > Topic Details

Date Posted: 10 Oct @ 4:22am

Posts: 16

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