The Steam Deck is great. Let's get that out of the way. Personally, it's a cool portable Personal Computer that I can carry with me when I am going to be away from my home for a while. The fact that it is basically a small form PC outside of its gaming capabilities makes it such a useful tool for everyone. What the Deck shouldn't be, however, is a litmus test for every single game being released on Steam. The problem is, like all good things in life, there are plenty of people out there apparently who is now primarily gaming on the Steam Deck and thus, bringing some delusions and malcontent into the celebration. The Deck is not supposed to be the ultimate gaming rig. It can act as a gateway, especially for console owners or Switch fanatics, to dabble into PC gaming. It's certainly a point of envy for Sony who recently announced their PlayStation Portal streaming tablet - yucks - when you can already do that with Steam Remote Play on any old tablet and controller. Steam even has a certification process on the playability of a game on the Deck with a classification system. The fact that the device is indeed a PC, it still doesn't stop people from trying and experimenting on games that are not officially supported on the Deck, which is fine. It becomes a problem when the said individuals then take their frustrations onto the Steam store, writing horrible reviews for games just because they are not playable on the Deck, even though these games are not verified to be played on the system to begin with.
An example of a misguided review on a game that,
on this date of publication, is not Steam Deck verified.
Which makes me wonder, are most of these reviews from those who are new to PC gaming? I would think that as a PC gamer, one would know that the Steam Deck in itself is, as I quote from the review above, "mid af" when it comes it providing graphical quality versus access and mobility. I for one would never run anything that would look like crap on it to save my eyesight and would play mostly games that have low requirements to run so that I can achieved maxed out quality settings on the 800p screen. I also know that it is not a game's fault that it doesn't run well on the Steam Deck if it's not verified. Sure, I have found games that still run excellent on it despite having no Deck classification, but I wouldn't be twitching on the floor upset when they don't. Valve is not helping with this situation either. It's unfair for games to be reviewed based on Deck performance when they never claim to be able to run well on the system, yet they allow for these reviews to litter the entirety of the review database. I understand discussing the Deck performance to your heart's content in the forums but when a game is not Deck-verified, it is not appropriate for it to become a factor determining the value of the game being published on Steam. On top of this, I have also seen a lot of threats of boycotting incoming games in the forums if they are not Deck-verified upon release. Suddenly, Denuvo is no longer public enemy number 1 and playing games on a small screen is superior to those large monitors with faster than light maximum frames per second.
Valve has found tremendous success with the Steam Deck and it's unfortunate that this has brought an unexpected negative culture on the platform. Almost every other review posted on Deck unverified games now has mentions of the system as if Steam users only play games on the Deck. Ever notice on the promo page that the Steam Deck is always being played outside of the house? Yeah, that's its primary function. I am not saying that if this is your primary PC, you have bought the wrong thing. What you do with your Deck is your own business, but you cannot expect it to run like a high-end PC because that, it is not. Know its limitations and enjoy it for what it is. The Steam platform is not like your consoles. PC games are not made to run specifically on the Deck, though many developers are kind enough to ensure that they will run very well on it. Can you imagine the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 only running at the maximum Deck graphical performance level on better PCs? You do not want that, do you? Well, maybe you do because you only PC game on the Deck.
Deck on the dock? Does this couple write negative reviews of Deck unverified games?
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