Mikeliosus 11 月 12 日 上午 3:19
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Wishlist Ratings - Wishlisting Experience Improvement Suggestion
Good day, Valve!

After a long time using Steam, I believe the wishlisting experience could be more convenient.

TL;DR - Summary

  • In general — it's a revised "Your Rank" feature, which isn't currently good for large wishlists.
    You can conveniently assign a personal rank to reflect how much you want a particular game at the time of wishlisting, and it will help you organize your wishlist.
    You can do it later, or you can ignore it entirely. It won't affect your current experience.
  • Users will be able to more conveniently manage 1000+ item wishlists with this feature.
  • Developers will be able to more clearly understand the wishlist conversion rates for their upcoming games and when to put their games on sale.

Reasoning 1 - When am I wishlisting?

I find that when I wishlist a game, I have very various intentions at that very moment.

If the game is released, I may:
  • Wishlist the game to buy it as soon as I have time to play it.
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it goes on sale.
  • Wishlist the game to mark for myself that I am aware of its existence and have already viewed this Steam page.


If the game is in Early Access, I may also:
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it leaves EA.
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it leaves EA and goes on sale.


If the game is free, I may:
  • Wishlist it to play later, with varying levels of interest.
  • Wishlist the game to keep an eye on it, as I am curious about what will happen with it later.

If the game is not released, I may:
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it is released.
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it is released and there are enough reviews to decide.
  • Wishlist the game to buy it when it is released and it goes on sale.
  • Wishlist the game to keep an eye on it, as I am curious about what will happen with it later.
  • Wishlist the game to mark for myself that I am aware of its existence and have already viewed this Steam page.

About curiosity - maybe “following” games is supposed to help me with that, but I have no idea how to use this feature.
It is unclear which games I am following and where to check this.

Reasoning 2 - My Wishlist organization

I am a Steam user of more than a decade, and with all these purposes behind wishlisting, my wishlist has become huge (1500+ titles).
Of course, it is unmanageable.

When Steam introduced Your Rank sorting in wishlist, I tried to organize my list a little, but it quickly became messy again. Of course, I don’t set aside time to reorganize my wishlist and keep my existent rankings up to date.
Even if I did, it’s super inconvenient and time consuming.
My thoughts - "I kinda want this game, but not very much. Where should I put it? The 50th place? The 100th? The 500th?"

To be honest, when I wanted to gift a game to friends, I tried a few times to check their rank sorting in their wishlists, but it doesn’t tell me whether they assigned it manually or if it’s an automatic rank. So I don’t get anything from that.

Possible resolution - Wishlist Ratings

The only convenient moment when I can clearly express my intention and organize my wishlist based on that intention is the moment I add an item to my wishlist.

So, I want to introduce the idea of Wishlist Ratings!

Wishlisting process

Use case on an item's Steam page (PC):
  1. User clicks on the "Add to your wishlist" button on the particular item's Steam page.
  2. Small non-blocking Wishlist Rating popup appears near "Item added to your wishlist!" bubble.

    Popup elements:
    Text - "How badly do you want this game?"
    Selector from 1 to 5 stars

    Here is a link to a Wishlist Rating popup mockup:
    https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3604317968

  3. User clicks on the preferred amount of stars.
  4. The information on how much the user wants the item is added to the user's wishlist.
  5. "Rating saved!" bubble appears near stars for a second and disappears after.
  6. The popup continues to stay near the "On Wishlist" button, so the user can change the amount of stars from the wishlisted item’s Steam page any time while visiting it.
  7. Further clicks on a different amount of stars will change the data and make "Rating saved!" bubble reappear for another second.
  8. If the user removes an item from the wishlist or buys it, the wishlist rating popup disappears.
  9. If the user does not mark any amount of stars after wishlisting, the item will appear in the wishlist with zero stars.

(Optional) To make this selector more clear and satisfying, the amount of stars may dynamically change depending on which socket your cursor is hovering over.
Example - while your cursor is hovering over the 3rd socket, 3 greyed-out stars are shown "to be placed."

Also, if the item is added to the wishlist outside of the item's Steam page, it is necessary to have a "Close" cross on the wishlist rating popup.

Wishlist management

On the user's Wishlist page, there should be an appropriate sorting option for the number of stars that the user marked their items with (example - Sort by: Star Rank).

Here is a link to a Wishlist Sorting mockup:
https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3604318417

The user will be able to quickly change the amount of stars placed on any previously wishlisted product on this page, and it will be instantly re-sorted if the Star Rank sorting is selected.

In general — it is a revised "Your Rank" sorting, but much more convenient to use.
As with it, if I want to change the placement of an item, I don't need to mark it with a number from 1 to 1500+ in my wishlist, and I can do the marking from the product's page if I encounter it.

Also, if I decide not to mark an item with stars while wishlisting it, it will sit with zero stars at the end of the Wishlist, and I can come back and clearly see what items are unorganized by me and complete this if I want to.

Developer data

I believe that not only users but also developers can benefit from this feature.
If data about the wishlist distribution among star levels (0–5) were shared with developers, they would be able to better understand how much the audience really wants their game.

Of course, it may be confusing at first, but I believe that, over time, the whole community could benefit from this.
最后由 Mikeliosus 编辑于; 11 月 12 日 下午 1:27
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Should Ra 11 月 12 日 下午 1:36 
"Wishlist the game to mark for myself that I am aware of its existence and have already viewed this Steam page."
You can subscribe to a game to get all the latest news about it

The visual element — a 'star rating' — is usually associated with game reviews. The idea is good, but it needs a different implementation. Maybe it could be something like creating custom favorite lists, similar to YouTube playlists. That way, you could have a general wishlist that includes all your wishlisted games, plus custom lists that you can make visible to others through privacy settings...:AFATElove:
最后由 Should Ra 编辑于; 11 月 12 日 下午 1:37
I really like this idea and I’d definitely use it.

Right now big wishlists are a mess to manage, and “Your Rank” in its current form doesn’t really scale when you have hundreds or thousands of games. Being able to quickly assign a personal priority when adding a game (or later, when you’re in the mood to clean things up) would make wishlists way more usable without forcing anything on users who don’t care.

From the player side, it helps decide what to actually buy next instead of scrolling endlessly. From the developer side, clearer “how much do people really want this” data sounds super valuable for planning discounts and releases. This absolutely feels like a feature that should be implemented.
L4yt3r 11 月 12 日 下午 2:30 
Brilliant! It perfectly describes how I feel about using the wishlist
It’s really hard to keep it organized.
Being able to just add a quick star rating when wishlisting would make everything so much smoother and clearer.
Hope Valve takes a look at this, it’s such a simple but genuinely useful improvement :)
zenkiridebmx 11 月 12 日 下午 2:46 
Wow! I completely agree that the wishlist needs to be changed! :steamthis: :manualdetonator:

The way the wishlist is currently organized forces me to add games to it in three situations:
- I really want to buy and play the game, but I don't have the budget or time to do so right now.
- I want to buy the game as a "thank you" to the developers. For example, I played this game several times as a child, and maybe I'll want to revisit it someday, but buying it would be more of a collectible.
- I'm not really ready to buy the game myself, but I'd be happy if someone gave it to me.

But after adding a game to the wishlist, I'll later go back and ask myself, "Why is this game here and has this specific rating?".



Adding a "Star Raking" would make this feature much more convenient. But I'd suggest adding a TAGs feature.
I think adding 5-10 popular tags that reflect the reason for adding a game to a wishlist would truly revolutionize this feature. And it wouldn't require a huge amount of effort to implement, I guess.




Plus, it would really add the ability to analyze users, both for you and for the developers. We've already discovered a huge list of the real reasons why people use wishlists :)))))

Also, it would be great to make the wishlist button in the user profile more visible. It really takes a lot of effort to go to another user's wishlist and gift them something from their list.

May the wishlist update be with us! :magicstarfish:
最后由 zenkiridebmx 编辑于; 11 月 12 日 下午 2:46
Mikeliosus 11 月 12 日 下午 3:13 
引用自 zenkiridebmx
I think adding 5-10 popular tags that reflect the reason for adding a game to a wishlist would truly revolutionize this feature. And it wouldn't require a huge amount of effort to implement, I guess.

引用自 Should Ra

The visual element — a 'star rating' — is usually associated with game reviews. The idea is good, but it needs a different implementation.

Thank you for your thoughts!

It would be nice to have visual tags like "Gotta Have It" and "Waiting for Discount" available to mark games for yourself.
It is definitely a good option.

I personally don't find stars confusing, but I believe that others may feel so.
Also, if those categories could be standardized for most users, it would be better to use something like lists or icon tags.

If too many people don’t share the same use cases, it may be better to use something more abstract, like a grade/star system.
KorbenDallas 11 月 12 日 下午 3:24 
2
I really like this wishlist discussion — it gave me an idea that might build naturally on it.

What if Steam added a “Wishlist Sponsorship” feature — a sort of pay-it-forward system for indie communities?

Players could mark games on their wishlist as open to community sponsorship, and others browsing the community page (or wishlist tab) could choose to gift a copy directly to someone who has it wishlisted. Steam already supports gifting and wishlists — this would just connect the two in a way that encourages generosity.

Developers could theme it if they want (e.g., “Adopt a new adventurer” in a fantasy MMO, “Sponsor a farmer” in a cozy sim). It would help small, player-driven games grow and give players an easy, meaningful way to support their favorite communities.

Even a light recognition system (like a Steam Points badge for sponsors or a thank-you note option) could make it feel personal without being transactional.

I think this could turn wishlists into something more alive — a bridge between discovery, community, and generosity.
Mikeliosus 11 月 12 日 下午 3:44 
引用自 KorbenDallas
Players could mark games on their wishlist as open to community sponsorship, and others browsing the community page (or wishlist tab) could choose to gift a copy directly to someone who has it wishlisted. Steam already supports gifting and wishlists — this would just connect the two in a way that encourages generosity.

I think it is more like a separate proposal, but I like it.
Kindness is great!
At least a few times I've wanted to support the game so much that I wanted to give away a few more copies for people to play. In this case I end up gifting games to my friends, but if they don't play them, half the point of this process is kind of wasted.
Gil4 11 月 12 日 下午 10:06 
A magnificent idea! I wholeheartedly support the notion due to facing a similar problem — while my use cases are less varied and my wishlist only reaches half the OP's wishlist count, it's been years since I've last considered managing it in any proper manner whatsoever. At this point I'm just dumping anything I'm remotely interested in into it and only looking through smaller discount sets outside the big sales/sorting by discount during said sales.

Any additional tools to manage our wishlists would be appreciated a ton, custom ranking just isn't gonna cut it once you add hundreds of games.
vovkamorkovka14 11 月 23 日 上午 9:14 
I also use the wish list not as a wish list, but rather to just note something down so I don't forget. And I usually don't even go back in afterwards. But the idea with the stars seems a bit strange to me, although in general the wish list concept really seems like it could be improved.
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