In January I posted a series of suggestions for how Valve could improve Steam. Since they’ve just announced and launched a beta version of the most significant update Steam has had since its 2003 launch, I’m comparing what I proposed before with what they’ve actually changed or added. I’ll omit the items which don’t apply.

My suggestion: Allow users to create and name groups in the My Games and Friends lists.

What they did: Half of this suggestion was implemented; we can now create and add games to “categories” in our games library. It works like a tag system on a blog in that games can belong to multiple categories.

Follow-up: Allow users to filter by “installed” and “uninstalled” regardless of which category they’re viewing. Also add an extra context menu item with a sub-menu where users can add games to existing categories.

A major update has been released for NCSoft’s free-to-play MMORPG Dungeon Runners. Many bug fixes and tweaks have been made, but these are the most interesting notes:

• No more ads!
• We’ve added shadows to the game. You’ll notice a new graphics configuration option to control the quality level of the shadows.
• PvP is now allowed on all worlds. There are no more PvP worlds.
• All Unique and Mythic drops are now Membership Required. Kings Coin purchases are, as always, usable by anyone.

While non-paying customers lose access to some upper tier items, they’ll no longer have an ad eating up screen real estate. I logged in to get a look at the new shadows (they look great) and about half of my items were ineffectual, but I think losing the ad is a fair compromise. Besides, I wouldn’t sweat five dollars per month if I were to play regularly again.