When you have a lot of games, it can become hard to find out why the number of games in the library changes by itself, without purchase or gift.
On Windows it always means that a game can be freely played for a limited time (there may be a few games that don’t have a Windows version, but I never saw any).
However on Linux (and on Mac OS, I guess), it often means that a game has a new implementation.
When you have hundreds of games, it becomes really hard to spot!
New OS support
IMO, when a user starts Steam for Linux, a notification like this should appear:
┌──────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌──────┐ │
│ │ Game │ Dead Space │
│ │ Icon │ is now on Steam OS + Linux! │
│ └──────┘ │
└──────────────────────────────────────┘
If the user ran Steam for Linux less than 2 months ago, a mail may also be sent.
Free games for a limited time
In a similar way, games that add themselves because they are free for a few days and have the current OS support could trigger a notification like:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ┌──────┐ │
│ │ Game │ TowerFall Ascension │
│ │ Icon │ is freely playable for {{ humanized_time_left }}! │
│ └──────┘ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Where humanized_time_left is the remaining time in a readable way, like '3 days' or '10 hours'. Of course, if humanized_time_left is less than a ridiculous amount of time, this notification should not be shown. Ridiculous being ideally 'not enough time to download and play 5 minutes of the game'. If it’s too complex to refer to the average download time of the game, use a reasonable amount of time like 1 hour. Not enough for most AAA games, but they’re never free for a few days.
A similar mail sending rule could be applied.
Disabling notifications
The notification should of course be disabled if the checkbox Settings → Interface → Notify me about additions or changes to my games […] is unticked.
When you have a lot of games, it can become hard to find out why the number of games in the library changes by itself, without purchase or gift.
On Windows it always means that a game can be freely played for a limited time (there may be a few games that don’t have a Windows version, but I never saw any).
However on Linux (and on Mac OS, I guess), it often means that a game has a new implementation.
When you have hundreds of games, it becomes really hard to spot!
New OS support
IMO, when a user starts Steam for Linux, a notification like this should appear:
If the user ran Steam for Linux less than 2 months ago, a mail may also be sent.
Free games for a limited time
In a similar way, games that add themselves because they are free for a few days and have the current OS support could trigger a notification like:
Where
humanized_time_leftis the remaining time in a readable way, like '3 days' or '10 hours'. Of course, ifhumanized_time_leftis less than a ridiculous amount of time, this notification should not be shown. Ridiculous being ideally 'not enough time to download and play 5 minutes of the game'. If it’s too complex to refer to the average download time of the game, use a reasonable amount of time like 1 hour. Not enough for most AAA games, but they’re never free for a few days.A similar mail sending rule could be applied.
Disabling notifications
The notification should of course be disabled if the checkbox
Settings → Interface → Notify me about additions or changes to my games […]is unticked.