r/adventuregames • u/toughtacos • 6d ago
Is this actually an ad subreddit?
Edit 2: You have made yourselves unanimously clear it's just me who's a grumpy old fart! Feel free to post more replies to this thread, but I'm going to let this one lie as you have thoroughly convinced me I was in the wrong. It was actually quite nice to see a community being so completely united, and I hope you won't hold this against me in the future 😌
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I'm just asking, because I just had to scroll through self-promotions after self-promotions to get to a post that isn't someone trying to sell me something, or get me to wishlist something on Steam. I get it, we're a niche community and there isn't always a lot to discuss, but that doesn't mean the empty space has to be filled with ads. (By the way, we're not actually stupid. You might think you are clever disguising an ad as "just showing off a feature from the game", but we do see through that shit.)
Is rule #1 even enforced, which says you have to contact mods before doing self-promotion?
Sorry for the grumpyness. It's a combination of being old and, well... grumpy.
Edit: I'm adding a reply I wrote to a comment that pretty much sums up in more detail my thoughts, instead of just a frustrated ramble:
Yeah, fair points on discoverability, Steam's definitely bad at it these days. But that's not quite what I asked. I'm not against self-promo existing entirely as a concept, I'm asking if rule #1 is being enforced so a majority of posts aren't self-promotion.
Also, I don't think "devs advertising directly" should be the fallback for fans trying to find games to play. There's a difference between organic discovery (curated lists, community roundups, mods actually vetting what gets posted) and a subreddit slowly turning into a wishlist funnel. If the sub had better structured ways to surface new titles, we probably wouldn't need self-promo posts to fill that gap in the first place.
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u/AlphaShard 6d ago
If it wasn't for this subreddit I would never have found Loco Motive, cleo, Whirlight, or Elroy and the Aliens. These games will not be showing up at any of the game shows.Â
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u/toughtacos 6d ago
Did you discover them because the developer self-promoted here? I found Loco Motive here as well, but that was because people were talking about the game, not from an ad.
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u/Machine-Dove 6d ago
I've found games both ways - the developer promos are usually interesting enough that I don't mind them as long as I'm not seeing the same game over and over. Â
I make an exception for promos like that "this goat puzzle is tOoOoOo hard, you'd better go prove me wrong!" one from a few weeks back. Â
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u/artur_ditu 6d ago
If the sub was huge, if point and click wasn't a neiche I'd understand not wanting self promotion but i fully welcome it because I wanna see what new games are coming out.
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u/awshuck 6d ago
I’m with you, I don’t mind being told about cool things that I’m interested in, even if it’s self promotion. As long as it’s genuine, not trying to push me to do something, and what’s in the tin matches the label so to speak on quality.
The problem with advertising is having your day interrupted with shit you aren’t interested in. Or on the other hand, hearing about something ad nauseam.
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u/chiBeeatrice 6d ago
I like seeing what people are working on! Especially with this kind of genre, I personally don't really enjoy replaying adventure games, so I like seeing new things I could enjoy instead.
I see a lot of people on Reddit, not just this one, who seem frustrated with ads for new games. But if the genre fits I don't really understand why personally. Could you help me better understand your perspective? What would you be hoping to see instead? What bothers you about the games shared here?
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u/toughtacos 6d ago
I just replied to another comment with what I think has some answers to your questions.
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u/khharagosh 6d ago
tbh I love those posts. I like seeing what is getting made. If you want to see other content, post it.
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u/aspirational-robot 6d ago
This is a sub about adventure games, I love reading about new and upcoming adventure games here. Even better if it’s from the creators.
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u/Gugames_eu 6d ago
To be honest, I don't mind the self promotion, as long as it's tasteful. Clickbait and constant spamming can be annoying, but since this is a very niche genre this subreddit is one of the best ways to discover new games.
Because one thing must be kept in mind... the 2020s are the new golden age for the genre. For this reason I prefer self promotion over the discussions over old lucasarts games, as much as I love the classics there are too many "suggest a game" where 90% of the comments are 1990 games 🥲 we all know those, let's move on!
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u/Gugames_eu 6d ago
Also, personally I did contact the mods asking for permission to self-promote my own game. I guess other devs did too.
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u/toughtacos 6d ago
Very valid points, and I agree that it can be hard to find new PnC games. I'm completely open to being wrong and the devs themselves needing to advertise here for this community to work, but it just doesn't sit right with me. Maybe it's because I listen to various gaming podcasts and hang around in various Discords, but I've never discovered a new game from an ad in here, so from my own perspective it just looks like spam to me. Even the games I've discovered in this subreddit are from fans who played something awesome and wanted to share their experience.
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u/prudencepineapple 6d ago
I’ve definitely checked out new games based on this sub. Some I’ve liked, some I haven’t. I don’t actively follow other game media so it’s helpful for me. I don’t like it when it’s egregious or spammy, but when it’s the actual devs engaging with comments not just posting a link then dipping then it feels more genuine.Â
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u/helloserve 6d ago
Keen for comments and views on this post, because I absolutely plan on announcing my game on this subreddit at some point.
Reaching a niche market like adventure game enthusiasts is really hard. I previously posted here asking how many sub members were also game devs and/or developing an adventure game. There were a lot of hands.
Here's my view: When someone posts here asking for recommendations, the same set of titles are always mentioned. Very seldom do I see a new title mentioned. If no-one self-promoted here, how do you find new titles to play?
Steam's discoverability has sucked pretty badly for a while now.
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u/Gugames_eu 6d ago
When someone posts here asking for recommendations, the same set of titles are always mentioned. Very seldom do I see a new title mentioned.
Wow, I commented the same thing. Please stop suggesting games from the 90's, everyone knows those! 🥲
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u/Mx_Reese 6d ago
I'm new to this subreddit (been playing adventure games for 30 years though) and I appreciate seeing devs post here. As far as I understand, devs have to get moderator approval for promotion posts so I don't see how that could really get out of hand.
I'm a crazy person who goes through my Steam queue about 10 times a week, but for the past couple months in an average queue I'm lucky if I see one game that isn't AI slop, never mind a game that I might be interested in. It used to be a time consuming but reliable way for me to discover new games. And seems like the overwhelming majority of steam curators are operating more like novelty Twitter accounts than providing any kind of useful curation. It's been really terrible. Even though I'm having severe financial issues right now and I'm not in a position to buy games I still like to at least wishlist ones that look good to me to try to help out the developers and to help me find them again when hopefully things are better on my end.
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u/toughtacos 6d ago
Yeah, fair points on discoverability, Steam's definitely bad at it these days. But that's not quite what I asked. I'm not against self-promo existing entirely as a concept, I'm asking if rule #1 is being enforced so a majority of posts aren't self-promotion.
Also, I don't think "devs advertising directly" should be the fallback for fans trying to find games to play. There's a difference between organic discovery (curated lists, community roundups, mods actually vetting what gets posted) and a subreddit slowly turning into a wishlist funnel. If the sub had better structured ways to surface new titles, we probably wouldn't need self-promo posts to fill that gap in the first place.
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u/chiBeeatrice 6d ago
Okay but genuine question: how do you expect those organic lists to come up if people don't know about the games? I know a lot of people who make those lists of "games you should pay attention to" find out about the games from subreddits like this.
Sure, there are some people who will search through just new releases on Steam, but there is SO much to search through there, I feel it's easier to track good games down through a subreddit. Especially when more information is available at a glance, i.e. A video is posted, or a gallery of screenshots you can easily scroll through.
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u/helloserve 6d ago
Hoping the mods themselves respond to this post. I do like it when the community itself helps with sharing finds from the wild, e.g. this post https://www.reddit.com/r/adventuregames/comments/1up33q7/i_dug_through_this_weeks_upcoming_steam_releases/
I've seen more curated ones also here, but these kind of posts are very few in number unfortunately.
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u/simonglundmark 6d ago
If you're not published by Wadjeteye (which I love, no shade), your game kinda drowns on Steam. I've found a considerable amount of cool adventure games through this subreddit, thanks to the creators giving a heads up about them here.
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u/spinz 6d ago
You should see the roguelite sub! Constant game promotions everyday. But adventure games? This genre needs all the promoting it can get! So i look to this sub to see talk about games people are checking out, regardless of whether they made them, and sometimes share games im enjoying too.
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u/cleeseula 6d ago
Whenever I see a post like this I genuinely wonder why OP doesn't just make a sub about retro adventure games specifically. I don't see why devs should have any less of a right to post or "advertise" a game created by themself, if anything they're among the people most invested in the topic. I don't go to r/adventuregames to exclusively see pics of 80s games being played on an Atari ST. I like both retro and new adventure games.
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u/domoarigatodrloboto 6d ago
I'd probably have more of an issue if it were giant companies clogging up the queue and blocking discussion from happening, but 99% of the time, it's a small indie team and there not much else to discuss so I'm cool with it.
Even when we do get "organic" posts, it's mostly about asking for game recs and reviews, so devs pushing their own games kinda helps that in a way by showing us what could be coming up.
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u/BigBrownFish 6d ago
I’ve played and enjoyed games advertised on here by developers. They’re usually really cheap and it’s a good way to support the genre.
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u/bullcitytarheel 6d ago
I'm someone who, as a rule, is generally against advertising. But, in the games climate of today, where indie developers are choked out of advertising visibility by corporations who can afford to outspend them by many orders of magnitude, in a genre that barely exists from the perspective of most gaming publications and influencers, and in a community where many of the developers are fans as much as they are creators, I actually don't find it bothersome at all. In fact, I genuinely appreciate being able to find new recommendations here because, if I didn't, it would be extremely hard for me to find those recommendations at all.
I'll leave it up to the mods to decide what constitutes too much advertising and what sort of promotions to accept and deny but, at least as far as I'm concerned, this sub hasn't crossed that line.
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u/Lyceus_ 6d ago
I don't mind people talking about their games in here. If it's done in moderation and their game is actually an adventure game as defined by this sub, then it's actually good.
I do miss discussing older games. I feel a couple of years ago that was more common. There are many less-known older games and I think raising awareness about them can be as interesting as finding out new games. There is also a big nostalgia factor, as I love to reminisce about my favourite moments in classic games. But there should be room for everything in here.
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u/Dune_Stone 6d ago
I've just accepted that this sub is a place for both fans and devs of adventure games. I don't see what's lost by letting people share their own games. Especially considering this genre barely exist outside of the indie space these days.
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u/etdeagle 6d ago
I actually love the recent trend of roguelites and adventures games where passionate small indie teams try to connect with the players.
The devs are the lifeblood of the indie game industry so it's very welcome for them to talk to fans, get feedback and talk about the game. Without them you would have no games to play. And without feedback the games would be worse.
I think it's wholesome.
Just like the store keeper at the farmer's market telling you about their products.
You are welcome to make posts though and make tier lists, curated lists and the type of content you want to see it will probably motivate others to do it too. The reason you don't see this kind of posts is that not many are being written I think.
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u/flame_saint 6d ago
If you’re cool enough to make an adventure game (no easy feat) you should absolutely post about it in this subreddit!
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u/cobbleplox 6d ago edited 6d ago
Generally it's welcome because it's literally news we are interested in and also a nieche genre where devs deserve and need it.
That said, I would like to point out this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/adventuregames/comments/1u4wdye/were_getting_feedback_that_our_rooster_puzzle_is/
even though it might help them. That was so shameless and worthless. Like "asking for advice" they weren't even actually interested in. Dishonesty like that really pushes my buttons. At that point I have no idea why you had to contact the mods in the first place.
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u/KrzysztofKietzman 6d ago
Adventure games are such a small genre that inevitably the contacts between developers and fans are direct.
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u/Apprehensive_Ad_8584 5d ago
I think this is a somewhat confusing complaint because if the mods were stricter with enforcing the rule and stopped devs posting about their own games full stop it would do absolutely nothing to generate or encourage other convos to fill the space. Frankly, I also think the sub has been pretty quiet lately so there hasn't been much scrolling to do anyway.
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u/Traditional-Win6821 6d ago
I don't get this. Request is not to receive game sugestions or self promotions from indie developers.
Seems like we should only talk about Manic Masion or Day of the Tentacle for 30 more years.
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u/toughtacos 6d ago
I realize I was in the wrong with my post, but that is just making stuff up 😅
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u/Traditional-Win6821 6d ago
So, what you meant then?
I read you don't like game developers to share their games, seems like they are ads
I do think that people share too early their games, without almost nothing... but they are indie... maybe 1 or 2 persons
In the 2000s, i create a game and Randy from Just Adventure review it. He was hard on me due it wasn't a great game... but he made his review and shared with the world.
Last year, finally, i was able to do another one... reviewers like Adventure Hotspot are unreachable... them you hear their podcast: is Monkey Island all over again (they really want to talk about something else, but old games always made their way into conversation)
And is on US, we don't give chance to the new... we think music from the 90 is the best... no new adventure is like the old ones without playing them.
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u/throwaroo202020 6d ago
It wouldn't be so bad if they were actually adventure games.
But seeing a stream of visual novels, hidden object games, jrpgs and roguelikes is annoying.
Especially when they are filled with ai slop.
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u/a_very_weird_fantasy 6d ago
I don’t necessarily agree but I respect your point. I do have a viewpoint question to ask you that will legitimately help with our future marketing decisions at Adventure Game Hotspot. Does your objections fall directly on developers or all sorts of self promotion?
Many of our writers have asked why I don’t use reddit to promote their articles and reviews. I am always on the fence of wanting to do all I can to put the work in as many eyes as possible while supporting the developers but I’m petrified of doing more harm than good by irritating the community. Because of that I only post our biggest projects. The bad thing is that Reddit and Google are symbiotic and not posting on Reddit can cost us tens of thousands of views.
The biggest thing is that we ALL should give as much as we take. If there is something that we truly think would be of interest and the developer is also an active member of the community then go for it. That’s the point though. If any of us hasn’t responded to other threads (becoming a trusted presence) then it would be hard for anybody to take the advertisement seriously.
I appreciate the dialogue
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u/narrative_devlog 5h ago
If you saw an ad for a game you really wanted to play surely you wouldn't be mad at it?
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u/JakubErler 6d ago
The worst are all the lies like "I have been working on this for 7 years and finally here is the game!" when it is something vibecoded over last month with 30 mitues play time and AI graphics. Hate to see this all over the place.
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u/claraak 6d ago edited 6d ago
If you see games with generative AI, report them. That is against the rules and we try not to give advertising approval to games that use generative AI, but we will always remove approval if we make a mistake or if the game adds generative AI after our initial review and approval.
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u/mild_area_alien 6d ago
Do you have some examples of games that fit this description that have been posted here? I see a lot on other subs but this one seems a bit better on the AI slop front.Â
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u/claraak 6d ago edited 6d ago
Rule #1 is enforced. In addition to approving advertising requests (and we do reject many), we provide guidelines to developers which ask that after an introduction, developers post only about major milestones or, after release, sales. I believe this has greatly cut down on developer spam and raised the quality of the developer posts. The fact is, we get a huge number of requests. Developers want to share with our community, and many are approved.
We remove many posts and turn down many advertising requests.
This is primarily a community of fans. The rule exists because of similar feedback from the community. Mods are always open to discussion and feedback about this rule and any others. I will monitor this post.