ProtonDB today released a few notable changes:

• Game pages: Report lists are now separate for PC and Steam Deck report types.
• Game pages: Detailed information from the Deck Verified testing results is now presented in the Steam Deck report list header by clicking Show Details. Your preference is remembered across all pages.
• Game pages: Deck Verified status moved off the rating badge to above the Steam Deck report list.
• Game pages: If a game does not have any Steam Deck reports, contextualized suggestions are made based on if you've added a Steam Deck device and if you've played the game.

I hope you find these changes better surface the information you seek and keep your Steam Deck contributions prominent as new reports come in.

Steam launches a Steam Deck feedback system

Steam recently launched an opt-in feature to provide feedback on your Steam Deck experience. This is a great step forward for gathering customer input to help identify issues with our games. The news also states 'we're not crowdsourcing the compatibility testing process'. This makes sense. Official support is best determined by a formal testing regimen and this new feature helps determine where to allocate resources.

This means there's now a formal channel for raising issues privately to Valve. Think of the new feedback system as akin to the 'how's my driving?' number on the back of a cargo truck. We can all hope that Valve will triage this new information effectively. Both this feedback system and ProtonDB work towards the greater goal of seamless Linux gaming.

It's a natural question then: what about ProtonDB and does this replace the need for writing reports here? I don't think so. This site's knowledge has its own characteristics, foremost that it is a public community. When you write here, you're offering your experience for others to learn from. This empowers us to fix issues ourselves, make more informed purchasing decisions, and collectively narrow down solutions for the Proton team that may not be apparent individually.

These individual experiences can be at odds with other reports for the same game. Even for a unified hardware target like the Steam Deck. People play games differently, modify settings, and expect different thresholds of 'working'. For PC as well as Steam Deck. Although ProtonDB provides ratings for games, deriving this from reports inherently keeps some noise amongst the signal. But the information is out in the open for you to make your own conclusions.

Should you write feedback within Steam? Absolutely. And write here too. Authoring public reports on ProtonDB is still the best way to make your contribution towards Linux gaming. Keep the reports coming!

Additional changes:

ProtonDB makes releases continuously, so this list is not necessarily new as of this moment, but sums up changes since the last news post:

• Contribute: App Selection: Prevent script error when rendering suggestions for games with invalid data such as games removed from Steam. Thanks @Bax for raising and helping diagnose.
• Home: Mobile: Recommended game list now renders on smaller phones. Thanks @Shaun for raising.
• Profile: Your Contributions: Permalinks now link to game pages.
• Dashboard: Larger tooltip text, shorter formatting, performance improvements.
• Tooltip: Slightly lighter background for easier reading in certain places.
• Tooltip: Regression Fix: Show localized explanation of medal rating.

Enjoy!

--migelius (@buck)