Steam refunds are "not for people to play games for free," says dev o…

Paddle Paddle Paddle developer Mateo Covic of studio Zoroarts went viral this month for his comments on Steam's refund policy, which, after more than 55,000 people refunded his well-reviewed but short rage game, he called exploitable. Speaking with GamesRadar+, Covic defends much of his argument but stresses that he supports the refund system overall and doesn't want to see consumer rights eroded.

"I'm 100% pro refund but the current 'no questions asked if you request a refund within two weeks and with less than two hours of playtime' policy just makes it super easy for players to abuse this rule," Covic says. liveiplscore.homes

Referring to Valve's refund rules, which expressly prohibit gaming the system "as a way to get free games" under threat of refund denials, Covic adds, "Steam says that refunds are not for people to play games for free, and refunds in general should be requested (in my opinion) when the Steam page misled you with wrong information, the game had problems that prevent you [playing or enjoying] the game, and other similar reasons that can be found in the Steam policy."

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He says he isn't dissatisfied with his game's sales or refund count, which he acknowledges is not out of band for a game like this. "My tweet was targeted towards the people who enjoyed the game, wrote a positive review, and refunded the game just because they can," he explains. "Many people think that I'm a complete asshole now and want to remove the refund policy in general but that was never my intention."

This whole saga led to more "hateful DMs and insulting comments" than he'd ever seen, Covic says, and Paddle Paddle Paddle was "review bombed already and went from very positive recent Steam Reviews to mixed ones." He reasons, "I guess it's a big learning opportunity and I will think twice before posting a statement / request like that in the future."

Covic singles out an argument made, among others, by Twitter user and game curator Indie Game Joe: the existence of Steam's refund policy gives users a level of protection that makes it easier to try out some games, which can lead to more sales overall even if it can also result in more refunds. Covic says this stance did give him pause.

"Sure my refund rate is high with 55,000+ refunds, but when I did some research I found out that a refund rate of 20% is pretty normal for a rage game," he says. "Overall, a refund rate of 10% is normal for games on Steam. I'm super grateful for the game's success after all, and I just learned that it's a normal thing to have that many refunds when you have an amount of 270,000 sold units... Regarding your question: I don't know if people think, 'Yeah let's try it out, I can refund it anyway.' What helped my game way more was the cheap price. When I showed people the game's trailer they often were like, 'Oh looks fun,' but when they found out about the price of $2.99 on sale they were willing to try it out right away."

One thing he does firmly dismiss is the idea of intentionally making games longer just to dodge the two-hour Steam refund window. He worries Steam's policy could discourage shorter games in this way. Despite this hiccup, Covic says Paddle Paddle Paddle "changed my whole life," enabling him to work on games full-time, and now specifically making short games has become a joy and a focus for him after spending years on hybrid action game Makis Adventure.

Covic concludes, "I don't know how many people really refunded my game with a true reason since you could just lie and choose one of the possible refund reasons. Steam's 'no question asked' policy makes it super easy and quick to do that. I can see how many players refunded the game because it was too difficult, for example, but it would help if they left a helpful comment too since that would help me to work on that problem."

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Grand Theft Auto 3's Ghost City was my first proper experience of community discovery.

I was too young to fully appreciate game-breaking in the likes of Super Mario and Alex Kidd, so the idea of flying the clipped-wing Dodo aircraft from the runway of Frances International Airport at a very specific angle in order to break the 3D map and wind up in an otherwise inaccessible area—the section which housed the game's opening bank robbery cutscene, floating well beyond the playable map—blew my teenage mind.

In 2004, modder Eliano86 built a bridge that allowed players to more formally access the area with less of the faff, however the project's original hosting platform (gta-downloads.com) has long since disappeared from the interwebs. Now, hobbyist creator Mod_Saver has resurrected that project well over two decades down the line. Enter Ghost City Available.

"For over a decade, this specific alternative bridge mod was considered 'Lost Media'," says Mod_Saver. "The original hosting platform went completely offline, and the original link was dead forever. Even the Wayback Machine couldn't recover the downloadable files. This mod was gone.

"Instead of letting it fade into history, I decided to fully recreate and resurrect it from scratch based on an old 2012 video (GTA 3 - Tips & Tricks - How to Reach Ghost Town by GTA Series Videos) footage. But I didn't just clone it: I fixed its biggest flaw. The original 2004 mod was strictly visual (you would fall straight through the Ghost Town floor). 22 years later, I have finally built the missing collision files (.col) to make the entire island solid and fully playable for the very first time."

Which is pretty beautiful, truth be told. I'm a sucker for game preservation, for unearthing secrets and for the passion that drives each and every hobbyist endeavour—in this case in relation to a game now 25 years old and an OG mod just a few years younger.