Steam is NOT an all-encompassing game database, Discord. Please stop using it that way! (Open Letter)
~open letter preamble (click here)
I initially wrote this request roughly 20 days ago, but Discord's "Community Features" feedback forum appears to have stopped accepting new posts as of about 5 months ago.
For what it's worth, my unapproved request is located here, although you may not be able to view it. Regardless, in the 20 days that followed, a brand new feature known as Game Collections hit a good 10% of users with no FAQ to reference. For clarity, the feature looks like this:
And, of course, the list of games to pick from is almost exclusively of Steam games, as described in depth below with my original Discord feedback.
A Little Context
There are a few places where the title of this request are impacted, but I expect for this trend to become steadily more noticeable. Three immediate examples I invoke are Game Collections (explained in the ↑ preamble), Server Profiles, and Game Profiles (as shown in Recent activity contained within your full profile). The latter has a list with a search bar in it, and if your server revolves around practically any game not already on Steam, you'll quickly discover that your options are limited. This is because the list is seemingly based exclusively off of Steam releases.
For example, if your server is centered around non-PC titles such as Mario Kart World or LittleBigPlanet (not to mention older games or fanmade mods for retro consoles), then you simply do not get to feature those games in your Server Profile or in your Game Collection. Even PC compatible titles may not have a Steam release for various reasons. (I moderate a Verified Discord server that cannot feature its game. A Steam release is out of the question as it poses a legal liability to us, but that's irrelevant to the suggestion.)
A Simple Alternative
The proper solution here would just be to just use IGDB (a database best known for driving Twitch's categories) as the database. IGDB is already implemented in Discord to some degree as prominently featured on Game Profiles and within the Registered Games user settings section. A link to IGDB has been in the latter for well over a year now, at least. Sure, there's a few silly entries on IGDB, but the list as-is already has some ridiculous choices. (such as the PlayStation®VR2 App…this is considered a valid game??)
And while we're at it, please use the Stylized title data as standardized here. This is more of a bug report than anything, but Game Profiles associated with massive games (some already with manual overrides in place because of the poor decision to rely on Steam) such as osu!, VALORANT, EVE Online, and HELLDIVERS display the incorrect title. (if it were my decision, IGDB wouldn't enforce absolute title case or nothing across a video games database, but what do i know...)
~a tiny post-request inclusion (click here)
When it comes to Game Collections, it seems like Discord has a very....roundabout way of ensuring a complete database. Pictured below is an error message if your game is not inherently published on Steam:The link then goes to a Qualtrics Survey with the below questions:
Make of this what you will.