The Workshop feature carousel is still the same handful of people in rotation

[Plan1]

I've mentioned this before, and others have too, but the problem just seems to get worse and worse -- the Workshop feature spots are basically a showcase for the same 25 or 30 players, to the exclusion of everyone else who plays this game and creates content.

Worse, because it's basically a popularity contest and a feedback loop, the most popular creators have the most followers, meaning more people see their content when it goes live, meaning more people download and upvote it. If you can't get your stuff into the Workshop feature carousel, you're relegated to the ghetto of Planet Coaster, with a dribble of pageviews.

Because of that, some items that make it to the workshop feature carousel are...lacking. I've seen blueprints up there with absolutely no decoration, just coasters or dark rides with some walls and shapes, and they get featured because their creators have a lot of people in their friends lists who upvote them.

I should mention that some featured creators have been awesome. Red Dragon in particular is not only a great guy, but he's done a lot to promote other people's work with his live stream. He doesn't have to do that, but he does it because he's a good dude and promoter of the community. I also thank Frontier's team for featuring one of my creations on their Facebook page. But I feel the need to point out that stuff doesn't move the needle -- after one of my items was featured on Red's stream and the PC Facebook page, and I cross-posted it here, to the PC Reddit and other places, I got 89 pageviews on that particular item in one week. That's brutal. By contrast, if my blueprint was featured I would have gotten thousands of pageviews in one day.

This stuff is not easy. I understand that. I also know there are limitations with the way Steam has implemented the workshop. But I have to be honest, it really is discouraging when you're trying to get just one of your Blueprints featured for the first time with no results, and you see the same creator has had 14 items featured in the two-week span you've been trying to get one of your own item up there. It's a bummer to spend a long time putting together a solid, original Blueprint and after a week of promoting you've got 12 subscribers.

Also, FWIW, I'm not expecting all my stuff to make a huge impact. I know certain styles are more popular than others, and I know you have to bring your A-game. At the same time, if you look through the Workshop and wade through the noise, there are a LOT of great items that never see the light of day because their creators don't have thousands of friends and aren't full-time Youtubers. Especially nowadays with so many items saturating the Workshop, it would be nice if there was a way for the good stuff to rise to the top -- all the good stuff, not just the Blueprints from the same 25 or 30 people.

Cheers

 

[breezerHOG1]

if you want popularity, post videos on youtube. If you dont know how, talk to channel5

 

[Gysan]

I agree with this misfortune. It is the same issue as in Mario Maker to the Wii U. The feedback loop. If you are first or good on promote your stuff on Youtube, your blueprints get featured.

First out ---> Featured content ---> Showcased were a lot of people sees it and gives it points.
----> A lot of points gives it even more time in the light. ----> More feedback points.

Late comers with good content -> invisible -> Gets few feedback points -> Stays in the bottom... struggles...


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Personally I haven't get into this carusell yet. I am between two different Steam accounts. I play the game at the moment on my brother's computer on his steam account. He don't want me to have a personal profile on his computer were I can save my steam account. And I don't want to upload stuff in his name. So kind of a tough moment until I get my own new computer. [uhh]
Despite that, it is nice he let me borrow it. [up]
Playing Planet Coaster on my family's 7 year old computer is a great struggle and isn't any fun, but I can of course create small blueprints in it. But I am most creative while creating a park. [big grin]

 

[Plan1]

if you want popularity, post videos on youtube. If you dont know how, talk to channel5

I was invited to Channel5's Discord and spent some time there, but it's another timesink that favors the already-popular. It's gamefied, so you join, then you have to "level up" by submitting content for his channel and entering contests, and if you're lucky you might get featured in a video. It's not a promotional vehicle for the community so much as it's a guy who cleverly figured out that he could get free content from a large playerbase and make ad bucks.

And that's cool. I don't have anything against that. It was smart on his part. But now you're talking about putting 20 hours into a well-tuned and well-executed Blueprint, hours hanging out in Discord, bugging people to check out your stuff, more hours making Youtube videos, and additional time "leveling" on Channel5 to get more exposure. That's a big time commitment.

My point is that you shouldn't have to be a professional Youtuber, livestreamer and PR pro -- it would be nice if there was a way to filter out the noise so the best community Blueprints get exposure, rather than Blueprints from people who are already plugged-in and enjoy the self-perpetuating success of the Workshop feedback loop.

I agree with this misfortune. It is the same issue as in Mario Maker to the Wii U. The feedback loop. If you are first or good on promote your stuff on Youtube, your blueprints get featured.

First out ---> Featured content ---> Showcased were a lot of people sees it and gives it points.
----> A lot of points gives it even more time in the light. ----> More feedback points.

Late comers with good content -> invisible -> Gets few feedback points -> Stays in the bottom... struggles...


------------------
Personally I haven't get into this carusell yet. I am between two different Steam accounts. I play the game at the moment on my brother's computer on his steam account. He don't want me to have a personal profile on his computer were I can save my steam account. And I don't want to upload stuff in his name. So kind of a tough moment until I get my own new computer. [uhh]
Despite that, it is nice he let me borrow it. [up]
Playing Planet Coaster on my family's 7 year old computer is a great struggle and isn't any fun, but I can of course create small blueprints in it. But I am most creative while creating a park. [big grin]

I feel your pain. My PC is still solid enough to play PC on, but I'm at the end of my useful upgrade life cycle -- I have a great video card, but my processor is the bottleneck. Consequently it's extremely difficult to record decent video without sacrificing quality or getting big-time stutters, and it takes me ages to edit video.

I'm not familiar with Mario Maker or WiiU, but it sounds like a similar set-up as the Steam Workshop. Also, tell your brother to show some brotherly love and set you up on his Steam! Seriously though, it's good to have your own account, not least because you've got all your games stored there, presumably for life or as long as Valve exists as a company. Much better than having a shelf of game boxes collecting dust!



Also: I got a PM from a featured creator who says he feels bad after reading my post. That's not how I meant it, and I'm sorry if anyone feels that way. I've got nothing against the featured creators, in fact I've interacted with creators like Red, Kombat Wombat and others, and they've all been awesome people. It's the system, and the general inability to separate signal from noise, that's the problem.

I expected to get absolutely killed in this thread, so I'm glad people are being cool about it. It's just something to think about. Cheers.

 

[Plan1]

Just one more thing: When I mentioned "lacking" blueprints I don't mean I'm looking at someone's stuff and saying "That sucks!" or "Mine is so much better and should be up there!"

I'm saying I've seen some bizarre items featured, including one Blueprint that was just a box-shaped house with a few windows slapped on it. No decoration, no landscaping, no detail. It was the sort of thing we all make when we're new to the game and just learning how to use the controls.

Now whether that Blueprint was up there because the person's friends thought it would be funny to keep upvoting it as a joke, or whether they're just trying to promote their friend, I dunno. I mentioned it because it illustrates that feature spots are a popularity contest more than a "These are the best or most creative Blueprints of the past few days," and that underscores the signal-to-noise problem.

Cheers

 

[breezerHOG1]

I was invited to Channel5's Discord and spent some time there, but it's another timesink that favors the already-popular. It's gamefied, so you join, then you have to "level up" by submitting content for his channel and entering contests, and if you're lucky you might get featured in a video. It's not a promotional vehicle for the community so much as it's a guy who cleverly figured out that he could get free content from a large playerbase and make ad bucks.

And that's cool. I don't have anything against that. It was smart on his part. But now you're talking about putting 20 hours into a well-tuned and well-executed Blueprint, hours hanging out in Discord, bugging people to check out your stuff, more hours making Youtube videos, and additional time "leveling" on Channel5 to get more exposure. That's a big time commitment.

My point is that you shouldn't have to be a professional Youtuber, livestreamer and PR pro -- it would be nice if there was a way to filter out the noise so the best community Blueprints get exposure, rather than Blueprints from people who are already plugged-in and enjoy the self-perpetuating success of the Workshop feedback loop.

isnt that just life? look up street performers or that homeless guy with the golden voice. the point is, if you are not putting in the effort to make videos, then you will not be seen. Me personally, I look for a lot of Planet Coaster content via youtube because its easier, and my pc doesnt run large parks very smoothly. If you put out content via the workshop, it wont "gain popularity" unless you have something worth noticing

I actually saw your ghostbusters HQ posted on reddit and its nice, your starfall islands is cool, but those are not cool to watch compared to riding a coaster, and only a handful of people will want those specific objects. If you really want to stand out for scenery objects, make small things that can be grouped together, like more arcade games although theres quite a lot of various objects already on the workshop.

You have to think about the type of people who play this game. You've got extremists who go crazy making insane things, you've got intermediates who make average stuff, and you have casuals. Blue prints like your only appeal to people who enjoy making parks with preset buildings, and the majority of players are making there own buildings. So what is it that you want? Do you want to appeal to a larger audience or do you want you small objects to standout and get more attention?

I'm saying I've seen some bizarre items featured, including one Blueprint that was just a box-shaped house with a few windows slapped on it. No decoration, no landscaping, no detail. It was the sort of thing we all make when we're new to the game and just learning how to use the controls.

i dont know, like I said I mainly use youtube and the forums, but when I do visit the workshop it seems pretty well organized for the most part. There sure is a lot of different things on there

 

[Plan1]

isnt that just life? look up street performers or that homeless guy with the golden voice. the point is, if you are not putting in the effort to make videos, then you will not be seen. Me personally, I look for a lot of Planet Coaster content via youtube because its easier, and my pc doesnt run large parks very smoothly. If you put out content via the workshop, it wont "gain popularity" unless you have something worth noticing

I actually saw your ghostbusters HQ posted on reddit and its nice, your starfall islands is cool, but those are not cool to watch compared to riding a coaster, and only a handful of people will want those specific objects. If you really want to stand out for scenery objects, make small things that can be grouped together, like more arcade games although theres quite a lot of various objects already on the workshop.

You have to think about the type of people who play this game. You've got extremists who go crazy making insane things, you've got intermediates who make average stuff, and you have casuals. Blue prints like your only appeal to people who enjoy making parks with preset buildings, and the majority of players are making there own buildings. So what is it that you want? Do you want to appeal to a larger audience or do you want you small objects to standout and get more attention?



i dont know, like I said I mainly use youtube and the forums, but when I do visit the workshop it seems pretty well organized for the most part. There sure is a lot of different things on there

The most enduringly popular item on the workshop is a fountain with no value except as a scenery piece. Likewise, there's a Winnebago up there right now, and it's awesome. Great design, another example of what people can do with this game. But it's also just a piece of scenery.

So scenery pieces are legit and people do download them. Neither of us has numbers to back up our claims, but from what I've seen lots of people decorate their parks with pre-made pieces. It's what the Workshop is for -- the game doesn't come with Aztec themes or Star Wars themes, but players build pieces for those themes from scratch. It's one of the things that makes this game a lot of fun and keeps it fresh.

Again, this is about the Workshop itself and how it's the same handful of people in rotation on there, to the exclusion of a ton of good stuff. I've spent hours combing the Workshop and while there's a lot of noise, it's also home to lots of incredible stuff that's just sitting there undiscovered -- one dude makes recreations of Las Vegas hotels, for example. Another player created a superb baseball stadium. Hell, someone even made a replica of Angkor Thom (the lesser known complex next to Angkor Wat) and it's brilliant. There are a lot of diamonds in the rough like that, so to speak.

By the way, the Ghostbusters HQ and NYC block are part of an upcoming coaster. I just figured I'd throw them up there on my Workshop since I hadn't published anything in a while, but I didn't expect that one to become wildly popular.

 

[breezerHOG1]

The most enduringly popular item on the workshop is a fountain with no value except as a scenery piece. Likewise, there's a Winnebago up there right now, and it's awesome.

Your "Most popular" tab on the workshop is different then mine, I see a ghost train coaster, mickey mouse, dance of planets, and pixel island, quite a variety IMO

 

[Gysan]

I feel your pain. My PC is still solid enough to play PC on, but I'm at the end of my useful upgrade life cycle -- I have a great video card, but my processor is the bottleneck. Consequently it's extremely difficult to record decent video without sacrificing quality or getting big-time stutters, and it takes me ages to edit video.

I'm not familiar with Mario Maker or WiiU, but it sounds like a similar set-up as the Steam Workshop. Also, tell your brother to show some brotherly love and set you up on his Steam! Seriously though, it's good to have your own account, not least because you've got all your games stored there, presumably for life or as long as Valve exists as a company. Much better than having a shelf of game boxes collecting dust!

- Well, thank you! Yeah it is true, there are quite some limitations without a monster computer.
- My bro even baught the game to his steam account for me, so I can't complain. The issue now is about the Spooky DLC. Would I buy it for both accounts? Should I only buy it were I will use it? As many of you have seen in my item research report series, I haven't bought it yet, and this is why. [mouth shut]

- About Mario Maker. Yes, it is a very similar situation as Steam Workshop. Even worse, there were no early bird as for Planet coaster were anyone had a chance to show up their works earlier than others. It was youtubers getting a PR-copy of the game for free instead. Those who had their custom made levels on display first got an easy road to exposure of their creations and a lot of likes that just get the carousel to continue.
Even though they had a filter function for new uploads and recent popular for the day. It were still the featured one on the top. It were also a lot of bias of short easy levels got promoted better. Mostly those that only played music with enemies or made you jump around withpout the players imput. Longer levels or smarter levels with puzzles had a really hard time to get rated. [sad]

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About Planet Coaster. I find it most important that Bo's workshop streams help to promote good creation from unknown players. Because, all featured ones already have their own platforms.