[quote][b]Note: Dead multiplayer game[/b]
This game contains no meaningful single player content. There's not enough players, no populated servers. This multiplayer-only game cannot be played as intended.[/quote]
This isn't a gambling scam from what I can see as there's no advertised MTX to buy chips (and keep buying chips so you can keep gambling), which just makes it a rather average, playerless multiplayer poker game with poor visual presentation.
So, "Trendpoker 3D: Free Online Poker" is a dead multiplayer game. Why did it fail? It's video game autopsy time!
The chief cause of failure is the developer thinking that their game will "go viral" without actually creating any reason for it do so.
Competition amongst multiplayer centric games is extreme, and there's only a finite player base to appeal to. This game failed to reach any kind of critical mass and died as a result. Let's go into some of the reasons this particular game failed to appeal to gamers, despite the zero up front cost.
For gameplay purposes, because the user interface for this game is mostly just static text, menus and a bunch of canned animations... it might as well be a web page. It's functionally no different from a browser game. And we all know, Steam isn't here to compete with Chrome and Firefox. If the game can be done in a web browser, it's just not rich or compelling enough to appeal to serious gamers on PC.
The graphics aren't great, animated, canned 3D renderings of the cards and things... they make a big deal about this being "3D" but it sort of isn't. That's understandably a turn off for a lot of gamers, and it's a big contributor to the failure of the game to attract gamers despite having no up-front cost. Gaming is a primarily visual medium, and if developers want to succeed, they must understand that it's not an area for compromise. You deserve better than compromises.
This game is fairly dated at 5 years old... and even back then it looked old and busted compared to contemporary, professionally made 3D games of the same period. It looked bad then, it looks worse now.
Now on to pricing and value for gamers.
This is "free" enough (not every "free" game in the "free" section is truly free, there's usually some hidden price tag), at least you won't be expected to spend any more money after you download this, but just because something is free doesn't mean it's good, and the cost of a game is more than just financial, your time is valuable too.
In terms of public reception, this failed. There's well over 130 million gamers on Steam. SteamDB showed the game peaked at less than 100 concurrent players, they couldn't even break three figures, and now there's basically nobody playing it. Even though it's free. This is a dismal public reception, but it's easy to see why gamers rejected it.
All other issues aside (any of which would disqualify this from being worth your time), this is a game that relies on other players for it to be viable, and because there's not enough players, it's not viable. I can't recommend anyone downloads this, it's basically dead.
[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 lies. We are left to wonder if this is a deliberate attempt to mislead gamers (never okay), or simply outright delusion from a demonstrably failed developer.
And here's the thing. It's nothing but idiocy to tell outright lies when the proof, facts and evidence which disprove that lie are right there for all to see. And they are.
SteamDB does not lie, where this developer does in the face of the facts. SteamDB clearly shows this has NO players, because it's garbage.
The developer claims that ZERO players is "gone viral" success. What a bizarre lie when it obviously is not true.
Paying $100 to dump garbage nobody wants onto Steam Direct is not "viral success". The developer seems to think that because Valve took his $100 to publish this crap alongside Depression Quest and all the Digital Homicide asset flips on Steam that he is "successful". This is quite simply bullcrap from an objectively failed developer.
It's not fully playable because [b]you cannot play a multiplayer game when there are no players.[/b] Another lie.
Nothing in the developers pointless breach of Valve guidelines changes any of the objective facts of my review. My review stands unaltered. I cannot recommend this failure to anyone.
