Suggestion: Allow hiding of spam games

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

9 minutes ago, BlindMango said:

I would be absolutely happy to individually tag all of these games manually to be able to clean up the new games page

I appreciate the thought and effort, but honestly I think the least controversial method would be to let users just block whatever they want on their own end. 
 

The PSNP team would undoubtedly catch flak for adding official “derogatory” tags to games they feel are “undeserving to be on the site”, which they are anyways lol. 
 

Can you genuinely keep up with 10-20 new unique shovelware entries a day?

Edited August 5, 2022 by SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki

[BlindMango]

4 minutes ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

I appreciate the thought and effort, but honestly I think the least controversial method would be to let users just block whatever they want on their own end. 
 

The PSNP team would undoubtedly catch flak for adding official “derogatory” tags to games they feel are “undeserving to be on the site”, which they are anyways lol. 
 

Can you genuinely keep up with 10-20 new unique shovelware entries a day?

 

Yeah I can keep up with that, I imagine Sly would just add a checkbox on the backend that says like "filter out this game" and then the new games page & homepage would filter all of that out but have a "show all games" button at the top of the new games page for people who wanted to see everything

[ZOLANTON]

I use the "Games" tab to check for new games on PlayStation, or rather used to, until the plague of these 2-30 min plat games began.

 

Personally, I would be ok even if every game did not receive so many copies/versions of the same trophy list in the front page.

 

If you take a look at the Games tab, page 1, right now (as of writing this comment), you will see 50 trophy lists. Of these 50 lists, 27-28 are unique games. The rest 22-23 are copies of the same list for a different region or console. And this happens for many pages going back.

 

Having a single trophy list for any game, regardless of regions and consoles, would help alleviate the issue a bit imo. I mean we don't need to see Roll the Cat's trophy list 4 times.

Edited August 5, 2022 by ZOLANTON

[amurnin100]

I suppose it’s cost of living.. people haven’t got money to shell out AAA titles and these cheap games are taking advantage of the current economy of gaming… sooner rather than later ,it will affect the amount of quality games we get…

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

2 minutes ago, amurnin100 said:

I suppose it’s cost of living.. people haven’t got money to shell out AAA titles and these cheap games are taking advantage of the current economy of gaming… sooner rather than later ,it will affect the amount of quality games we get…

Hard disagree. People that can’t afford AAA games aren’t playing these shovelware 5 minute games as an alternative. Those people play free-to-play games as an alternative instead. 
 

These shovelware games aren’t taking advantage of the economy (whatever that means), they’re taking advantage of people with trophy hunting addiction. 
 

I remember reading this study, that stated that a vast majority of people don’t even finish their games, let alone 100% them. And yet all these shovelware games have a 98% to 100% average completion rate. Basically, the only people buying these games are trophy hunters, for the trophies. 

[HusKy]

48 minutes ago, BlindMango said:

 

Nothing really yet on it, will check again 

 

Good to see you are interested in this feature. Will wait for Sly's reply and depending on that might think about how this can be done within PSNP+ if needed.

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

43 minutes ago, BlindMango said:

Yeah I can keep up with that, I imagine Sly would just add a checkbox on the backend that says like "filter out this game" and then the new games page & homepage would filter all of that out but have a "show all games" button at the top of the new games page for people who wanted to see everything

Are you guys hiring lol. I would dedicate my life to tagging such games alongside the Info Team. 

[amurnin100]

8 minutes ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

Hard disagree. People that can’t afford AAA games aren’t playing these shovelware 5 minute games as an alternative. Those people play free-to-play games as an alternative instead. 
 

These shovelware games aren’t taking advantage of the economy (whatever that means), they’re taking advantage of people with trophy hunting addiction. 
 

I remember reading this study, that stated that a vast majority of people don’t even finish their games, let alone 100% them. And yet all these shovelware games have a 98% to 100% average completion rate. Basically, the only people buying these games are trophy hunters, for the trophies. 

Do you have a link to the study , I’m curious

[Cleggworth]

I don't play these games and I don't have an opinion on other people playing these games but I have to be honest, filtering them out of the New games list on the front page would be welcomed by me. I don't remember a single day recently where I've come to the site and it's not been full of multiple versions of the same game. Any game I might be excited to see the trophy list of immediately gets bumped off the front page by jumping sausage and I miss it. Don't hide it from anything else, don't muck about removing trophies from people's profiles just not on the front page?

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

5 minutes ago, amurnin100 said:

Do you have a link to the study , I’m curious

I can’t find the primary source but it’s backed up by industry veterans and metadata across various platforms. 
 

Quick google search led me to a few articles. 

 

Just check the percentage of people that earned trophies related to beating a game, and it’s usually under 20%, regardless of how popular the game is. 

 

https://kotaku.com/nine-out-of-10-will-not-finish-the-game-they-are-playin-5832450
 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/

[amurnin100]

1 minute ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

I can’t find the primary source but it’s backed up by industry veterans and metadata across various platforms. 
 

Quick google search led me to a few articles. 

 

Just check the percentage of people that earned trophies related to beating a game, and it’s usually under 20%, regardless of how popular the game is. 

 

https://kotaku.com/nine-out-of-10-will-not-finish-the-game-they-are-playin-5832450
 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/gaming.gadgets/08/17/finishing.videogames.snow/

Thanks mate , will have a peruse now

[PalaceOfLove706]

Won’t somebody think of IBaddriverI. How will he maintain his YouTube walkthroughs if we get rid of the easy games?

Edited August 5, 2022 by PalaceOfLove706

[amurnin100]

2 minutes ago, PalaceOfLove706 said:

Won’t somebody think of IBaddriverI. How will he maintain his YouTube walkthroughs if we got rid of the easy games?

I’ve never heard anyone put more effort into saying platinum since KSI…

[LegendExeter]

13 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

I don't play these games and I don't have an opinion on other people playing these games but I have to be honest, filtering them out of the New games list on the front page would be welcomed by me. I don't remember a single day recently where I've come to the site and it's not been full of multiple versions of the same game. Any game I might be excited to see the trophy list of immediately gets bumped off the front page by jumping sausage and I miss it. Don't hide it from anything else, don't muck about removing trophies from people's profiles just not on the front page?

 

Or we forget about that indie game we wanted to try and months later are luckily reminded by someone making a forum post that the game even exists.

 

Again, I don't care about the leaderboards but getting them off PSN profiles Home Page is a big issue for me.

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

8 minutes ago, LegendExeter said:

 

Or we forget about that indie game we wanted to try and months later are luckily reminded by someone making a forum post that the game even exists.

 

Again, I don't care about the leaderboards but getting them off PSN profiles Home Page is a big issue for me.

Speaking of indies, these publishers and devs bring such a bad name to indie games. There’s A, AA, and AAA. 
 

If single “A” are indie devs, then these shovelware devs are “a”. Lowercase. Less than that. Probably max budget of $30 on developing each game. 

[JimIsTheName]

15 hours ago, dieselmanchild said:

This would require a lot of time, effort, and dedication for those whose responsibility it would be to program and implement these changes. But I would absolutely love this feature and support this 100%. I’d even donate some $ to making this happen. Something needs to be done about these shovelware games, they have become a fucking plague.

I honestly think a filter that filters out all platinums with a completion rate of +75% isn't that difficult. 
To be fair I would even consider paying $15 for premium instead of $12 just for this option.

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

5 minutes ago, JimIsTheName said:

I honestly think a filter that filters out all platinums with a completion rate of +75% isn't that difficult. 
To be fair I would even consider paying $15 for premium instead of $12 just for this option.

Should be 95% completion rate. Any lower and you catch actual games that non-trophy hunters are buying. 

[LegendExeter]

6 minutes ago, JimIsTheName said:

I honestly think a filter that filters out all platinums with a completion rate of +75% isn't that difficult. 
To be fair I would even consider paying $15 for premium instead of $12 just for this option.

 

The issue with this is when the games first come out there is 0% Completion Rate so that doesn't fix the front page.

 

I was thinking of suggesting Husky code it to skip all games that don't have a Bronze Trophy, yet that doesn't solve the problem either as that Sofiya game has no bronze yet actually looks like a full game.

[DEI2EK]

2 minutes ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

Should be 95% completion rate. Any lower and you catch actual games that non-trophy hunters are buying. 

Visual novels people might actually want to play might get caught by that too. Just a thought. VNs always have high completion rates because a lot of people just fast forward through them for trophies.

[SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki]

1 minute ago, DEI2EK said:

Visual novels people might actually want to play might get caught by that too. Just a thought. VNs always have high completion rates because a lot of people just fast forward through them for trophies.

I don’t doubt this, but most visual novels clock in at 40 hours if actually read properly. An easy plat, but at least it has the possibility of being “earned”, and may come with a great story too. 

5 minutes ago, LegendExeter said:

I was thinking of suggesting Husky code it to skip all games that don't have a Bronze Trophy, yet that doesn't solve the problem either as that Sofiya game has no bronze yet actually looks like a full game.

I’ve parroted this a few times in this thread already, but “catch-all” filters can be dangerous if used incorrectly. There is so much nuance and mitigating circumstances that applying a single rule or even a dozen rules will definitely catch at least one legit game. 

And honestly losing one decent game is worse than having to deal with seeing a hundred shitty games. 

 

[JimIsTheName]

17 minutes ago, LegendExeter said:

 

The issue with this is when the games first come out there is 0% Completion Rate so that doesn't fix the front page.

 

I was thinking of suggesting Husky code it to skip all games that don't have a Bronze Trophy, yet that doesn't solve the problem either as that Sofiya game has no bronze yet actually looks like a full game.

True! My suggestion was more viable for profiles. I would love to see people's profile without it being clustered with 600+ games that can be completed within minutes.
Even a filter to hide regional games would be nice to be honest.
 

Maybe if you could filter the new games tab in AAA, AA, A games it would help?

[DrBloodmoney]

24 minutes ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

I don’t doubt this, but most visual novels clock in at 40 hours if actually read properly. An easy plat, but at least it has the possibility of being “earned”, and may come with a great story too. 

I’ve parroted this a few times in this thread already, but “catch-all” filters can be dangerous if used incorrectly. There is so much nuance and mitigating circumstances that applying a single rule or even a dozen rules will definitely catch at least one legit game. 

And honestly losing one decent game is worse than having to deal with seeing a hundred shitty games. 

 

In all honesty, I think you’re right - no matter how you work a formula, there is always going to be some good games that get caught in the net - which is why I never loved the idea of this kind of thing…

 

However…

 

…maybe if it were being done as part of PSNP+, the ideal thing to do would be to use a formula, but write a check against an “exclusion list” into it.

 

A manual list that could be maintained, where folks can add specific games that the formula would ignore, as they technically fall within its parameters, but are of a quality that they shouldn’t be considered in the same category.

 

(one such game I always think of is The Longest Road on Earth, which is less than 90 minutes long, and a guaranteed platinum… but is FANTASTIC!)

 

There are folks on this site ( @visighost, for example) who play a lot of more obscure stuff, and I suspect would be very knowledgeable about some smaller games that may be liable to be unfairly caught by such a formula, but shouldn’t be considered “spam”…

 

…surely that kind of knowledge could be harnessed, and those folks could just tell someone to add it to that exclusion list?

Edited August 5, 2022 by DrBloodmoney

[The Alchemist]

54 minutes ago, Cleggworth said:

I don't play these games and I don't have an opinion on other people playing these games but I have to be honest, filtering them out of the New games list on the front page would be welcomed by me. I don't remember a single day recently where I've come to the site and it's not been full of multiple versions of the same game. 

 

I'd be pretty satisfied with this. I don't really care for the other stuff OP is asking for because it seems complicated and a bit excessive, but having these games removed from the front page would be a great start, and I'm sure welcomed by most people here. These "games" have been clogging up the front page for far too long now and it's plain obnoxious at this point. Trying to find actual games on the front page is a futile experience these days. And it's even worse since PS5 launched because now these games have the larger game tiles, so they're even more of an eyesore. 

[lcrystal__]

10 hours ago, HusKy said:

I hear you people, but I'm not sure this can be done. For example, from the current front page, there are 5 shovelware "games" that don't have developer/publisher info available right now:

 

 

10 hours ago, Elliot said:

Cheers for weighing in, and once again I love your work, it's fantastic!

 

I'm hoping that over time the games get metadata added, but it'll just take some time - I think it's a community team that sorts out metadata, so I guess they need a little time to do it. Certainly this race between getting metadata added and getting bumped off the new trophy lists page makes this aspect of it a little impractical, but I think the rest of the feature request doesn't rely on metadata being added quickly.

 

10 hours ago, SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki said:

Probably because they were just added to PSNP. I wonder how long it takes for it to be updated, and whether it’s manually done or automatic. Not sure where PSNP sources its entries, but it’s weird that it can’t grab metadata alongside the initial game entry. 
 

At the very least, a filter can grab some shovelware entries, but not all during the point that it matters, when it’s in the New Trophy List panel. 
 

Probably by the time those entries are properly updated and filtered, they’ve already been pushed out by newer games, thus not posing as an issue anymore anyways. 
 

What an ordeal lol. 

 

10 hours ago, HusKy said:

 

This data is loaded automatically from IGDB, but for example "The Giraffe G" is currently not even associated with Webnetic:

https://www.igdb.com/games/the-giraffe-g

 

@SakiSakiSakiSakiSaki Exactly, so I'm not sure this can be solved very easily.

 

 

 

Hi y'all,
Just would like to share that I have been working with the team here (specially Dreggit, thanks for our 160+ messages exchanged, 54 pages word document of updates lmao) and IGDB for a bit over a year, trying to add/ correct all the metadata on Playstation games. It has been an herculean job, which I gladly do, but for actual games not cash grabs.  I personally have no desire to work on Jumping Food / Animal Letter / Bible Games, but anyone can contribute to IGDB. *wink wink*

 

I still endeavour to add all Rata and EastAsia titles, though.  And, please, lend me your strengh to face Arcade Archives.... 

Edited August 5, 2022 by lcrystal__

[MonaSaxPayne]

artificial crybaby gate keeping aside, the proliferation of these games makes me wonder why Sony was so up in arms and removed 1000 top rated in the first place? wasn't it exactly because they didn't want games like that (sold specifically just for trophies) to be on the store?