Okay, yesterday a few inevitable things happened. The Framerate Police curator group – a group specifically intended only to inform (in an opt-in way) whether a game is locked to 30fps – led to a developer getting a little bit of grief. The ruckus occurred because the developer decided that “30fps lock.” is not the most useful quote to have displayed prominently on their store page and opted to remove the curator from the set displayed (they subsequently put it back).
First (and most important) point:
In other words, if games running at 30fps offend your eyes you are likely following this group and therefore this does not affect you in any way, shape, or form (YOU will still see the curator on any game the list flags). If you are not following this group, then “30fps lock.” is a completely irrelevant thing to see on the store page – a more meaningful recommendation is infinitely more useful.
The end. Well, it should be – but there seems to be a bit of confusion as to what the Steam Store Page actually is, how it should be used, and what constitutes censorship.
What are curators?
Curators are designed as recommendations. In this instance, the function of a curator has been mangled for the purposes of providing consumer information given the lack (within Steam) of a more appropriate alternative. I’m fine with this personally, but you must understand that this is an incorrect usage. It would not at all surprise me if, at some point, Valve decide that they must enforce the ‘correct’ use of curators and prohibit their misuse in the same way that they have prohibited the use of tags which lie outside of their intended purpose.
But for the time being, you’ve got the curator – be happy about that. The information you want displayed is now displayed for you.
So. Given that curators, in theory, are all positive recommendations for your game, a developer having control over which curators are displayed and which are not is absolutely no different from selecting from a list of press quotes which ones to plop on the box. You would not expect to ever see this:
Nobody would complain that the quote used to advertise the game has not been selected democratically.
Is it censorship to hide a curator from those who don’t follow it?
No. Because, again, curators are all supposed to be positive – so you’re just selecting which positive things you wish displayed. That one or two curators abuse the principle (regardless of how well-meaning they are, or their usefulness given the lack of alternative) does not entitle them to suddenly be the most prominent quote just because there’s a lot of people following it – any more than a super popular negative user review should suddenly start appearing on the advertising posters.
As a customer, you already have the ability to make your feelings heard. It’s via the reviews. You can have an affect on that user score and, believe me, that user score counts a hell of a lot more towards the visibility of a game on Steam than any curator does. Power to the people, and all that.