[quote][url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_slop][b]Warning: AI Slop[/b][/url]
This non-game e-book is partially or completely made with talentless, soulless AI generated content.[/quote]
"Culling of Normality" is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game.
This garbage e-book was not sincerely written, it was made for a "game jam", and I truly hope the "author" was forcibly removed, either for the use of AI slop or thinking that reading a book is the same thing as playing the game (it is not), or both. Or, it's the worst attempt at running a game jam ever. Books aren't games.
The topic, of course, is the author's imaginary girlfriend, this time a farmer, and there's a horror twist that, should M Night Shyamalan find out about this, would make him regret ever directing a film. The cringe, of course, is the true horror here.
This was slapped together with the godawful Ren'Py visual novel construction kit... enabling terrible authors to publish books as if they were games when otherwise we might have been spared the pollution. So, just like no professional writing took place here, no professional software development took place, either.
Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then translate that to a format where the words dribble out and you have to click your mouse every time you wanted to read the next sentence, instead of just turning the pages. You'd think it was garbage.
Now imagine that experience, but with much worse writing (because if these guys could write professionally, they'd be published authors and this would be on shelves in bookstores, and they wouldn't have to pay Valve $100 to self-publish this on Steam), and you have your average Steam e-book.
One of the chief problems with failed authors polluting Steam with non-game E-books is that E-books can easily just be presented in a web browser... there's no justification for charging money on Steam for what might as well be a webpage. We don't spend thousands on buying a gaming rig to spend money on Steam for something Chrome or Firefox could do.
This is not a sincerely made product, it was made for a game jam, which is a problem. It was done in a constrained period of time; professional game development takes years of effort from teams of talented and qualified people. A "game" slapped together in a weekend by an amateur simply isn't going to have any value for gamers, and that plays out clearly with this shovelware.
Also, products created in game jams were never intended for gamers, they exist only to stroke the ego of amateur developers who can't get a real job in the industry. When developers, especially untalented ones, put themselves before gamers, garbage like "Culling of Normality" is the inevitable result.
It's improper for shovelware like this to be published through Steam Direct, because it's harmful. This half-baked, rushed, non-professional product, not designed for gamers, is taking up space on the Steam store that should be given over to genuine, talented developers who do the right thing and make genuine products for gamers. This makes it harder for gamers like you and me to find these genuinely made products. All so the developer can shove his game jam garbage on Steam and pat himself on the back.
Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 120 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the e-book peaked at only 2 concurrent readers... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. The funny thing is, if you wanted to print this book, you'd only need to print 2 copies to satisfy the entire world's demand for it.
While this E-book has no up-front cost, you can get better quality, professionally written books and comics for free online (from places like Project Gutenberg) or from public libraries. Steam isn't a comic book store, neither is it Netflix, it's for games. Your gaming rig is not a Kindle. It's impossible for me to recommend things to PC gamers that aren't really games.
[quote][url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Response![/url][/quote]The developer has weighed in to inform everyone they didn't read the [url=https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/reviews]Developer Usage Rules[/url] for Steam "partners", or they deliberately ignored the part where Valve says:
[quote]Though it may be tempting, not every review needs to be responded to. A developer response will frequently draw more attention than the original statement, potentially turning a small issue into a much larger community discussion. It's also not a good idea to use this feature to refute customer opinions. Your direct attention can be seen as validation or a defensive attempt to silence your customers.[/quote]
The developer attacks this reviewer, insuating I have a condition that requires meds. Why? Because, like the other 120+ million gamers on Steam, I ignored this garbage from an objectively failed author who doesn't even know what constitutes a video game.
Remember, peak reader count for this garbage: 2 people... presumably the "author" and a court appointee. The developer, attacking reviewers, reveals a disturbing lack of professionalism, and this clearly explains why such garbage came to be on Steam, but it doesn't excuse it.
2 concurrent readers. AI slop used due to utter incompetence, insulting gamers everywhere with slop. What a joke.
Nothing in the authors pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this insincerly made non-game e-book garbage to anyone.
