Good grief. We've reached new lows today, as video game anti-fans have established a new website that's all about tracking Steam player numbers to determine just how badly a game has flopped.
If there was any doubt about the website's intentions, it's literally named Flopathon, and we won't be linking to it.
Essentially, the site is presenting the same data as SteamDB, but in a needlessly antagonistic way that seems to be cheering on the failure of video games.
The site's missions are to present "unfiltered, unsponsored" live player counts, facilitate community votes about whether a game has succeeded or flopped, and a firm stance against "corporate influence" and "paid reviews".
"They won't silence us. They won't label us. The data speaks for itself," the site's homepage reads.
Presenting information in a neutral way unaffected by external influences is a fine cause, but that already exists in sites like SteamDB and others; what's being done here is far from neutral.
Games are called "targets" across the site, you "enlist" to the site rather than signing up — all the language used on the site is strangely aggressive. The whole thing just comes across as mean-spirited.
And, crucially, Steam concurrent player data is far from the be-all and end-all. If we presume the data on this site is accurate, it's only a fraction of the entire picture for most games.
Publicly available data is scarce, and so Steam's charts, often sourced through SteamDB — which itself is not affiliated with Steam or Valve — have become the main way for onlookers to measure a game's success (or failure).
It is useful data within context, but again, we don't have the equivalent for console platforms, let alone any other metrics beyond the odd sales figure. It can seriously skew the picture.
Flopathon's existence is symptomatic of a fixation on these Steam numbers and, worse, people actively campaigning for a game to fail.
The website's 'Testimonials' page does at least provide some hope among the despair:
Anyway, probably best to steer clear of this, yeah?