Why do groups exist at all? (Weighing Detriment vs Value)

[Agentcow007]

Can anyone tell me what the point of having groups on Steam is? They seem to offer no value, except for the people who run the groups, who are somehow incentivised to beg and harass Steam customers.

So, what is it? What makes Steam Groups so essential that Valve says "Hey, I know this means our paying customers are going to get spammed with messages while using our service on top of daily advertising, but if that's the price we have to pay to have _______, so be it!"

What fits in the blank there? "Private discussion boards"? Who cares about privacy when you're begging people randomly to join? "User-controllable community"? You're a gaming community, a lot of your customers are children... why give them control over anything, especially the displeasure of other paying customers?

So, what is it then? Are Steam groups raising money for charity? Steam groups researching the latest and greatest Things? Or even Steam groups that naturally foster a community without having to beg and plead and harass to get membership numbers? I just need a reason to not hate this store so much since you pretty much have a monopoly on the control of my software licenses.

[venomblade89]

Well for me personally, I follow groups that are relevant to my interests that post news relating to my interests and ones that post announcements for deals that've helped me save a ton of money on select games. I'm not sure what determines the amount of invites you get, I guess some people are more easier to find then others but I receive maybe 1 random group invite every 2 weeks.

[Senescence]

Originally Posted by Agentcow007

Can anyone tell me what the point of having groups on Steam is? They seem to offer no value, except for the people who run the groups, who are somehow incentivised to beg and harass Steam customers.

So, what is it? What makes Steam Groups so essential that Valve says "Hey, I know this means our paying customers are going to get spammed with messages while using our service on top of daily advertising, but if that's the price we have to pay to have _______, so be it!"

What fits in the blank there? "Private discussion boards"? Who cares about privacy when you're begging people randomly to join? "User-controllable community"? You're a gaming community, a lot of your customers are children... why give them control over anything, especially the displeasure of other paying customers?

So, what is it then? Are Steam groups raising money for charity? Steam groups researching the latest and greatest Things? Or even Steam groups that naturally foster a community without having to beg and plead and harass to get membership numbers? I just need a reason to not hate this store so much since you pretty much have a monopoly on the control of my software licenses.

You seem pretty intelligent, it's nice to see a member that differs from the steam community.

Valve wants to, obviously, branch into everything they can. It's in their best interests to have such features.

Groups are good for holding events which send out notifications when an event is being held. Some games such as red faction guerrilla have very few players, so a group would enable getting enough people together to actually start a game.

[odrawing]

Might be unrelated but, is there a way to automatically block invites from people I am not friend with? Actually, is there a way to block all group invites at all?

I am not really a group person.

[cstrike99]

Originally Posted by odrawing

Might be unrelated but, is there a way to automatically block invites from people I am not friend with? Actually, is there a way to block all group invites at all?

I am not really a group person.

As far as i know, there isn't such feature.
However i read threads requesting this almost daily. You're not alone with this problem.

[Enskyment]

I've left every group I've joined. They all seem pointless.
It isn't like anyone ever uses the chat or adds/ plays with the users in it.