Valve has overhauled the tag system on Steam, removing 28 tags and adding 17 new ones. The changes aim to improve game visibility and make tags more useful for connecting games.
New tags include Bullet Heaven and Capybaras.
New tags include 'Bullet Heaven', 'Wuxia', 'Xianxia', 'Samurai', 'Organizing', 'Cleaning', 'Animals', 'Wolves', and 'Capybaras'. Removed tags include 'NSFW', 'Well-Written', 'Masterpiece', 'Cult Classic', 'Ambient', 'Drama', 'LEGO', 'Dungeons and Dragons', and 'Warhammer 40k'. Some tags were merged: 'Pool' became 'Billiards', and 'Jet' merged with 'Flight'. Animal tags were pluralized for consistency.
Valve explained that removed tags like 'NSFW' and 'Mature' had high overlap with more descriptive tags such as 'Gore', 'Violent', and 'Sexual Content'. Tags like 'Well-Written' and 'Masterpiece' were removed because they are highly subjective, leading to disagreements and inconsistent application. The 'Pool' tag was humorously applied to games with a swimming pool, so it was changed to 'Billiards'.
The 'Single-player' tag remains the most applied on Steam, appearing on 98,000 games, or 62% of the catalog. Valve described the new 'Capybaras' tag as covering 'the largest and possibly most adorable rodent species'. The company noted that many removed tags had alternative options or high overlap.
Valve has not confirmed whether further tag changes are planned. The company stated that the removed tags 'no longer serve a good purpose for establishing connections between games or describing unique and useful elements of content in the game.'
Source: PCGAMESN
