By rock and stone, they did it: Dwarf Fortress publisher Kitfox Games and Deep Rock Galactic developer Ghost Ship Studios have managed to convince Valve to add an official ‘dwarf’ tag to Steam. But not without a little confusion leading up to the big triumph.
Steam uses tags to help users find what they’re looking for amidst the massive pile of games on its storefront: If, for instance, you’re in the mood for a cute FPS, the tag search function will help you zero in on that very specific interest. (And, by the way, there are more of them than you might think.)
Steam users can apply tags to individual games as they see fit, and popular tags eventually become “featured categories,” which showcase all the games bearing the selected tag on a nicely laid-out category page.
Earlier this month, Kitfox and Ghost Ship—perhaps inspired by the success of boomer shooters—began making noise about getting an official “dwarf” tag on Steam. Valve politely but firmly said “no,” so they took their quest to the people, asking players to tag games manually to show Valve “that we are very serious about the value a dwarf tag would bring to the platform.” And as one, those players cried, “You have my axe!”—which is to say, they started adding the tag.
Valve quickly took notice, and decided that an official store tag was indeed called for. Alas, there was a minor miscommunication somewhere.
Not long after, Valve got it figured out—dwarves have beards, elves have an irritating air of condescension—and pushed the right button. And all was forgiven.
And now, when you go to Steam and punch the dwarf tag, you will see this beauty:
(It turns out there are quite a lot of dwarf and dwarf-adjacent games on Steam, too.)
So it’s a happy outcome for everyone: The dwarves have their tag, Valve had some fun, and the players are happy.
Oh, and for the record, they weren’t kidding about the elf tag: It’s real. Perhaps hope for better days isn’t so far off after all.
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