Author Topic: why in gods name is every pc game data in My Documents (Read 2772 times)

Trogtor · September 06, 2017, 06:40:04 PM

you know, i'm a busy man, using my computer for multiple things. I have documents, stuff i need to get to.

but

why

does

every

game

need

a

documents

folder

this doesn't include some of the several folders i had to delete. like, some people actually do work on their computers. stop sending your weird encrypted data to a folder made for important documents. for instance it takes me like a solid 5 seconds to look for my models folder every time i open my documents. thats 5 seconds too long. i could be using those five seconds to do something useful, like pick my nose.

Dont you think you could store this stuff, er, i dont know, in a place where it belongs????

am i the only one bothered by this?

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torin� · September 06, 2017, 06:45:16 PM

god i loving hate that too

Verification · September 06, 2017, 06:46:15 PM

terraria has a reason for this, before 1.2.4 steam pipe and steam cloud were basically useless. so, they stored all world and charactee data in documents, which is actually sensible if you forget to back them up before removing terraria. most of those games do basically the same and GTA basically uses it because its pretty old and is meant to be played from a cd.

Private McDoggy · September 06, 2017, 06:46:22 PM

At least some of them put their stuff in the "My Games" folder in My Documents

Headcrab Zombie · September 06, 2017, 06:59:34 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on September 06, 2017, 06:40:04 PM

Dont you think you could store this stuff, er, i dont know, in a place where it belongs????

Speaking as someone who has personally developed software that writes files in My Documents:
I chose My Documents to write files too because people understand how to get to My Documents much more than they understand how to get to appdata, and explaining it to them when they don't is also easier.
This makes support easier in cases where I need to tell an end user "go to this folder and delete/send me x file"

Masterlegodude · September 06, 2017, 07:00:22 PM

Quote from: Private McDoggy on September 06, 2017, 06:46:22 PM

At least some of them put their stuff in the "My Games" folder in My Documents

Even Halo PC had the decency to do this

Trogtor · September 06, 2017, 07:02:40 PM

Quote from: Headcrab Zombie on September 06, 2017, 06:59:34 PM

Speaking as someone who has personally developed software that writes files in My Documents:
I chose My Documents to write files too because people understand how to get to My Documents much more than they understand how to get to appdata, and explaining it to them when they don't is also easier.
This makes support easier in cases where I need to tell an end user "go to this folder and delete/send me x file"

if people have to mess with game data files they should honestly know how to go to the appdata folder. its not hard. and its definitely not a good enough excuse to clutter my documents folder.

Headcrab Zombie · September 06, 2017, 07:10:54 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on September 06, 2017, 07:02:40 PM

if people have to mess with game data files

These folders also usually include things like screenshots and recorded ingame videos. My Documents is a far more logical place for that than appdata.
I do however agree that "My Games" would be better. At least EA puts all there games in one folder

And even when it is data files that people are "messing" with, oftentimes it's within the context of them having an issue with the game, and someone is telling them "try changing x setting in y file in my documents"
Again, explaining how to get to My Documents is much easier than explaining how to get appdata. The fact that you had to link to a several paragraph long article with several screenshots is evidence of that.

Verification · September 06, 2017, 07:13:12 PM

id also like to point out that the documents folder is multipurpose and was meant to be multipurpose. in windows vista onwards games are included in there automatically.

torin� · September 06, 2017, 07:15:29 PM

Quote from: Verification on September 06, 2017, 06:46:15 PM

terraria has a reason for this, before 1.2.4 steam pipe and steam cloud were basically useless. so, they stored all world and charactee data in documents, which is actually sensible if you forget to back them up before removing terraria. most of those games do basically the same and GTA basically uses it because its pretty old and is meant to be played from a cd.

Quote from: Verification on September 06, 2017, 07:13:12 PM

id also like to point out that the documents folder is multipurpose and was meant to be multipurpose. in windows vista onwards games are included in there automatically.

Quote from: Headcrab Zombie on September 06, 2017, 06:59:34 PM

Speaking as someone who has personally developed software that writes files in My Documents:
I chose My Documents to write files too because people understand how to get to My Documents much more than they understand how to get to appdata, and explaining it to them when they don't is also easier.
This makes support easier in cases where I need to tell an end user "go to this folder and delete/send me x file"

this doesnt excuse it being cluttery and obnoxious

Trogtor · September 06, 2017, 07:18:07 PM

minecraft is one of the most popular modded computer games and it uses appdata. the 'convenience' of using my documents is making it an inconvenience for people who actually use it properly

>ctrl + r
>%appdata%
>enter

if someone can't do this they should step away from a computer

The Resonte! · September 06, 2017, 07:29:04 PM

blockland is also in the documents folder, and i recall someone saying that there being some sort of specific reason for that

otto-san · September 06, 2017, 07:31:27 PM

relatively speaking, it's a pretty easy place to get to. windows automatically makes it really easy for you to get to documents and people who are used to windows intuitively know how to get there. people who are more computer literate don't blink twice at being instructed to dig through a program's installation directory or to look in appdata, but it's bad practice to assume that your user is going to be computer literate when designing software, and if you have the option to make something more accessible and intuitive by just changing a directory name, then there's no reason not to take it.

it would be nice if everyone agreed to use the "My Games" folder, but no matter what route people take, the folder has to go somewhere. you're either going to have tons of folders in documents that windows automatically provides and easy link to, or they'll go somewhere else that a large portion of your user base won't necessarily think to look at. it's inherently less user-friendly to put things like this in a hidden folder than to put it in a well-known, accessible location

Headcrab Zombie · September 06, 2017, 07:38:38 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on September 06, 2017, 07:18:07 PM

if someone can't do this they should step away from a computer

Believe me, some of the users of our software that I've worked with at work, I wish I could tell that to.
But that's not a good way of doing business

Kyuande · September 06, 2017, 09:48:50 PM

Quote from: Trogtor on September 06, 2017, 07:18:07 PM

minecraft is one of the most popular modded computer games and it uses appdata. the 'convenience' of using my documents is making it an inconvenience for people who actually use it properly

>ctrl + r
>%appdata%
>enter

if someone can't do this they should step away from a computer

Not everyone is tech savvy like you, even when I started modding in games I never knew this was a feature until I saw a few videos doing this.

MyGames is a much better place to put games in, not in AppData. Not everyone is tech savvy and not everyone is good at looking up simple things like "how to find AppData on Windows" - you have to think outside of the box when doing this kind of stuff, but I do agree there should not be so many files in Documents either - which is why games should be stored in MyGames. AppData is more for things like SublimeText, Google Chrome, etc. Not really a reason to put those kind of apps for app data to be in "Documents" - people mess with games much more than apps because of the modding feature - so it's another good reason to put it somewhere where it's easily accessible.