Almost everyone seems to be capitalizing on the ability to have ads placed on their platform, whether it be a frequently used one like Facebook, or smaller sources such as personal blogs that garners significant views. Which is why it’s surprising when Steam, digital game store and community owned by Valve, announced they will not be having ads because “ads don’t serve any value to customers”.
Of course, this is great news for current users. They won’t have to deal with unsolicited ads when they are trying to browse for games or are logging on to chat with friends.
But how does Steam get their users exposed to new games? On a platform with over 6,000 games, how does a game developer get the attention of users? Simple. Steam implemented “Steam Discovery”, in which games that a user may be interested in are put in a discovery queue.
I think it’s a great system, and instead of being exposed to aggressive ads, I am free to “discover” games that are aligned with my past purchases and titles I’ve liked. If you’re a developer who made a great game that are similar to my play style, great! It’ll probably show up in my queue. The discovery queue appears on the front page when you login to Steam. The customized feel that I get is something I truly appreciate.
While this sophisticated platform is doing well on all aspects of the 7C’s of consumer interface, opting to do a sorting system based on a user’s activities rather than allowing ads to infiltrate the platform is acing how customized the site feels to the end user. Plus, if you don’t like something in your queue, you can flag it as “Not Interested” so that their system notes that for future reference, thus changing what appears. Neat!
