What, you thought the summer fort-building was for nothing?
The Internet was abuzz last week with the news that Valve, in a move widely seen as being an attempt to compete with GameFAQs in the “helpful, but mildly obnoxious” market, were launching the Steam Guides service. In a twist, however, it turns out that we have once again completely misread the company, and in actual fact they were launching their own version of the Girl Guides.
“One of the biggest problems that we face as a purveyor of less casual titles” said Gabe Newell when quizzed about the move, “is attempting to energize the female demographic. They’ve been increasing a lot in recent years, but there’s no denying that, honestly, PC gamers still have a sort of “icky” stigma to them. We want to say to all these female gamers that, actually, you can play all these games without it being weird! The Steam Guides will help in that endeavour, both by helping existing users and by promoting the ideals of Steam and the Valve ethos out in the wider world.”
Almost as soon as it launched, however, the program was dogged with controversy over its cookie policies.
“When I see Guides I expect to be able to buy cookies!” said one irate gamer, “I mean, what else are they there for? I need the sugary goodness to maintain my energy levels for all-night DotA sessions! So I was told by Steam support to head to the relevant part of their website, I put in my card details, added the cookies to the basket and started downloading them. Imagine my surprise when all I got was my own saved password information!”
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