Steam a video game platform that functions as a social media platform, game store, game developing site, and software distributor. Users can interact with one another in chat rooms, forums, and community pages. Games are available for purchase in the store and can then be added to a personal library. Game developers can interact with users and disrupt their products on the platform as well.
Democratic indexing is a prominent feature of Steam. Users generate tags and apply them to games both publicly and privately. These tags are used to make purchase recommendations, organize games within the platform and in personal libraries, can be used as search terms, and display information about the content of a game. An instructor could have students generate tags and apply to games and conduct an in-depth summary of the content found within that tag to assess the accuracy of the tags alongside its frequency of use.
Instructors could also have students apply both relevant and irrelevant tags to games in a personal library and then track the tag's growth. If the tag assigned is applied by multiple users, the tag becomes public. Students could attempt to determine the number of times a tag needed to be applied for it to become public.
During the introduction of the tagging system, users generated inappropriate and “trollish” tags to games. After this, Steam implemented filters and reallocated tagging authority to game-developers in addition to Steam users. Students could read the game-developer tagging authority agreement and discuss the ethics of reallocating authority in a system that relies on democratic indexing. Users could also test Steam’s filtering system, by adding irrelevant and inappropriate tags and then develop alternative filtering systems or authority agreements based on the results of their discussion.
