I like the direction this is headed, but I feel (even after the rate limit gets lowered) that it won’t really accomplish it’s goal in adding a way for developers to push game updates without them just redirecting to an external link or the description. The 60 character limit, although good at minimizing any type of text wall, is extremely limiting for developers. It’s hard to convey any useful information on a big update.
I suggest that instead of in the notification stream, information on game updates can be shown on a separate tab on the game page (in between the About tab and the Store tab maybe?).
This would be a spot for developers to write a “gist” and full patch notes, with the "gist’ showing up on the page itself and the full patch notes being on a separate page you are brought to when you click on the update title.
When an update is released, it will also be announced to the notifications stream and the “My Feed” section, but only with “(Game) has been updated! Check it out!” or something like that, with the button redirecting to the game page.
This would allow developers to communicate both a simplified version of the update info (the gist) and a more detailed description on what has been updated, that won’t impede on the legibility of the list of updates while still being able to convey that information to those who are interested. As well as this, update info for separate games can stay separate, instead of being mixed into this small box on the top right of your screen.
It’s a much bigger system. and this system with the notifications stream is off to a good start (as I said in the beginning), but I think something like what I described would be so much more powerful and useful for developers in the long run.
Just got this notification, but there’s an issue with it, which some are clear from the screenshot and some aren’t.
Issues:
Icon didn’t load
Constant loading animation over the notification
I never followed this game
It claimed I was following it when I went to the game’s page, and I had to specifically unfollow it. I’m certain I never followed it, and have 2fa enabled on my account. I’m confident no one was on my account and followed it.
It says the game isn’t available on my device (computer) even though it is
Just got another one from a game I never followed, and once again it claims I did on the game’s page. Both places I had in my favorites, so I decided to check if it auto followed any favorite places, which doesn’t seem to be the case.
Why is it making me follow only specific games in my favorites which I never followed?
Probably random. This is to do A/B testing. However, one of my friends only just got this feature today, so I assume they either expanded the subset or everyone has it now.
*Note: If you’ve added a game to your Favorites list, you’ll automatically start following it. If you so desire, you can choose to stop following that game, but continue keeping it on your Favorites list.*
Thanks for the update! Just wanted to voice my little suggestion really quickly as well!
I LOVE this update, and I’m so glad you guys chose to do this. Its a step in the right direction entirely. My only suggestion / request is to remove the limit to one notification a week. I believe this just causes more issues than it solves.
For example, if something bad starts to happen in our game during something really important (in which we already used a notification earlier) we wouldn’t be able to post another notification.
I can see why you guys intended to add the limit though. The main argument is probably for the developers who try / could try to abuse the system and spam users with game notifications. However, in my mind, if a developer did this, the followers who got annoyed with it would probably just unfollow the game anyway. So I believe leaving it up to the developer to correctly use it (which is to their best interest anyway) is the best way to go about it.
