After Valve says no, Dwarf Fortress and Deep Rock Galactic devs unite to get "very serious" about their very silly demand for a dwarf tag on Steam, and they want your help
"Dwarves who stand together are slightly taller than before"
The devs behind Dwarf Fortress and Deep Rock Galactic are once again uniting to make the very wholesome demand that Steam add a "dwarf" tag for dwarf games, and this time they want your help.
You might recall that Deep Rock Galactic studio Ghost Ship Games and Dwarf Fortress port publisher Kitfox Games started raising demands for a dwarf tag on Steam earlier in January. Now, they've explained in a joint tweet that, "We have received a response from Steam regarding this issue. The short answer is 'no,' but the real answer is 'OK but only after people on Steam start trying to use it as a tag.'"
Together we stand slightly taller than before 💪⛏ @JoinDeepRock pic.twitter.com/6QH1EyawpQJanuary 31, 2024
They go on to say that "our friends at Steam say dwarf is 'not a tag' - similar to how elf, centaur, wizard, et cetera aren't tags. This is very legit and fair, but the difference is that dwarves are cooler and have a much more dedicated fanbase than any of those other mystical creatures." It should be pretty clear by now that this whole campaign is just a little bit silly, but the studios have shown downright delightful commitment to this particular bit.
There are, in fact, other Steam tags referencing mystical creatures, including werewolves and vampires, but those sorts of tags only come into existence once people start manually using them on the Steam store. "Next time you see a dwarf game on Steam, go ahead and add the tag manually," the devs say. "Over time, Steam will see that we are very serious about the value a dwarf tag would bring to the platform. Remember that dwarves who stand together are slightly taller than before."
If you want a place to get started, they recommend this list of nearly 200 dwarf games on Steam. Together, dwarf enthusiasts can change Steam for the better.
There are a lot of upcoming PC games, but it remains unclear just how many of them will feature dwarves.
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Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.