Steam bullied into adding a dwarf tag by the short king tag team of Deep Rock Galactic and Dwarf Fortress

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It took some doing, but dwarves now have their very own featured category page on Steam. (And so do elves.)

Deep Rock Galactic art - four dwarves standing side by side
(Image credit: Ghost Ship Games)

By rock and stone, they did it: Dwarf Fortress publisher Kitfox Games and Deep Rock Galactic developer Ghost Ship Studios have managed to convince Valve to add an official 'dwarf' tag to Steam. But not without a little confusion leading up to the big triumph.

Steam uses tags to help users find what they're looking for amidst the massive pile of games on its storefront: If, for instance, you're in the mood for a cute FPS, the tag search function will help you zero in on that very specific interest. (And, by the way, there are more of them than you might think.) 

Steam users can apply tags to individual games as they see fit, and popular tags eventually become "featured categories," which showcase all the games bearing the selected tag on a nicely laid-out category page.

Earlier this month, Kitfox and Ghost Ship—perhaps inspired by the success of boomer shooters—began making noise about getting an official "dwarf" tag on Steam. Valve politely but firmly said "no," so they took their quest to the people, asking players to tag games manually to show Valve "that we are very serious about the value a dwarf tag would bring to the platform." And as one, those players cried, "You have my axe!"—which is to say, they started adding the tag.

(Image credit: Kitfox Games (Twitter))

Not long after, Valve got it figured out—dwarves have beards, elves have an irritating air of condescension—and pushed the right button. And all was forgiven.

(Image credit: Steam (Twitter))

And now, when you go to Steam and punch the dwarf tag, you will see this beauty:

(Image credit: Steam)

(It turns out there are quite a lot of dwarf and dwarf-adjacent games on Steam, too.)

So it's a happy outcome for everyone: The dwarves have their tag, Valve had some fun, and the players are happy.

(Image credit: Twitter)

Oh, and for the record, they weren't kidding about the elf tag: It's real. Perhaps hope for better days isn't so far off after all.

(Image credit: New Line Cinema)
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Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.