Steam - Updates to the User Review System

So, if I understand this properly they are removing review "scores" from Steam because apparently developers were generating keys to give to spoof accounts to write good reviews and prop their score higher.

and me that though they were making the change because of trolls giving crap review score with not even one hour of gameplay.

At this point, they should just remove the review score entirely.

This sounds like a pretty shitty solution; I've bought most of my recent Steam keys from Greenmangaming / HumbleBundle.

I've read so few steam reviews or reviews in general that it doesn't really matter to me.
I know long before reviews come out if I'm going to buy a game. At that point I'm in find out for myself mode anyway.

If I want a game bad enough to buy it at release then no review will change my mind anyway. Also I avoid them like the plague so I don't get spoilers. some screen shots and a feature list is usually sufficient for me.

TBH, all user-score aggregates are worthless to me. They are so regularly distorted by hysterical petty grievances, fanboyism, and various species of politics, that they've lost all meaning. Just a few places I look to for proper, written reviews.

I am pleased that Steam took this decision. I purchase and play most of my titles in Steam.

Go Steam.

Speaking as a Steam Customer, the thing I care about more than anything is that the reviews I read are as accurate as possible so that they help me to decide if I want to buy a game. I've already learned to look suspiciously at positive reviews from games with a small number of players, which is a problem both for me and for the creators of legitimately good games that I might overlook because I'm not sure if their reviews are legitimate.

If Steam manages to cut down on review abuse, I could care less if there are some people who bought their game outside of Steam who are unable to write reviews.

While not perfect, I think this measure helps in keeping Steam user reviews that bit more ‘clean and honest’. Sure, there are ways around it, but just because a lock can be forced doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to keep the front door open…

I did check on a couple of Indies I recently bought and – surprise, surprise! – the effect was precisely what I could reasonably expect. The genuinely fun game’s ratings held up, the disappointing game, some of whose user reviews I already suspected, had gone down (18 out of 33 user reviews no longer counted).

So it seems to work. It won’t stop the dodgier devs and establishing a ‘minimum time limit’ might be a good idea as well (that one can be manipulated too, of course).

tomasp3n said:

I acknowledge the problem, but I don't like the solution. If Steam didn't straight up convert $ to € it would be be better, but today the same game on Steam costs more than buying a steam key from GMG to me.

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It's doubly bad for Australians, because the Australian Steam pages first charges the same price as you'd get in an Australian store (let's say $80) instead of the $50 the US Steam store would, but it charges it in US DOLLARS. So add another 30% on due to the weaker Australia Dollar vs US dollar in the exchange rate (taking an $80US game up to $107 to the paying Australian). It's far cheaper in Australia to walk into a store and buy the boxed version than to buy a new game on Steam. Or to buy it from the 3rd party resellers who have the occasional 20-25% discounts like Greenman, instead of Steam.

So, I imagine there'll be a lot less Australians getting their votes in for the future.

I think what people might be overlooking here is that this is 100% sure first way of battling Steam key resellers. I doubt Steam is happy about people selling their keys for peanuts all over the place and not being able to directly stop it.

So they go with this roundabout way, forcing devs to limit selling Steam keys outside of Steam if they want good scores. Fair review policy is I think least of Steam goal with this move.

henriquejr said:

What's the next step? To abolish negative reviews altogether?

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Steam is a commercial venue aiming to sell.

It's been a while Steam achieved the suppression of negative reviews through various means (social control) as negative reviews could hinder sales potential.

Actually, Steam are so rich in positive reviews they can afford to sacrifice some of them.

Crowdfunding, if not a con itself, shares a lot of common points with cons. One is that, for conned people, a solution to get out of the con with limited damage, is to feed the con with other people.

Backers are deeply interested in painting their crowdfunded product in a positive light as crowdfunded devs compute in terms of work hours. Reporting negatively might mean scaring away potential buyers and therefore not increasing the work hours provided to devs.

Steam forums have their lots of example with people (most pf the time, intoxicated by the rule of law thingie) answering genuinely to any enquiry about buying the crowdfunded product. The reports are factual. Then come members of the army of light who counter act to avoid losing potential buyers.

In rare occurrences, some admitted that the product required much more developpment (work hours) and thus, reporting factually on the product jeopardized the prolonged efforts as it spooked newcomers.

Backers have an incentive to paint the product in good light, no matter what.

Steam sacrifice that segment even though keeping them a seat (separated but equal) It is not about positive reviews. Steam have too many of them.

Steam has failed to find new lines of revenues (like steam boxes) They are in a position they cornered the market.
They might even be at the position the volume of Steam products sold is increasing, but the volume bought through their Steam platform is decreasing.

It is all about the services provided by Steam like forums or their review system (added value) Any person buying a steam key elsewhere questions the added value and then questions Steam commercial activity.

If I wrote Steam reviews, I might be a bit unhappy, given I have the bulk of my Steam games from other sources. However, I don't write Steam reviews…

I rarely read them, either. I can see that this is bad for Kickstarter though. The whole "building hype" effect of this is gone.

Archangel said:

I think what people might be overlooking here is that this is 100% sure first way of battling Steam key resellers. I doubt Steam is happy about people selling their keys for peanuts all over the place and not being able to directly stop it.

So they go with this roundabout way, forcing devs to limit selling Steam keys outside of Steam if they want good scores. Fair review policy is I think least of Steam goal with this move.

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I don't think this would discourage reselling steam keys. The person you sold your key to could write a good review or a bad one. Your overall average reviews would remain the same.

The measure addresses buyers. Players writing reviews for a given product are a tiny minority and usually, for what Steam shows up, players write reviews only on certain products.

Players who want to keep exerting their power will have to buy through Steam. As for most of them, they do not know in advance which product they are going to review, they are up to buying a second key from Steam at the very least.

fadedc said:

I don't think this would discourage reselling steam keys. The person you sold your key to could write a good review or a bad one. Your overall average reviews would remain the same.

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I think it will. Developers would before give out as many keys to non Steam platforms as those wanted to buy. Now those devs know that each of those keys will be useless as part of Steam review system. They will limit how many keys the sell directly or through 3rd parties forcing people to buy games through Stream. It might not be a big change but any new revenue for Steam is good. It is not like people will stop using Steam because of this change.

Why don't they just create a package for the developer to buy that lets them remove any review.

We could call it Review Microtransactions. $2 per deleted review. $1 per deleted parapraph.
Or

Review DLC...
$5 for the full review. $3 to show just the score. $45 for review season pass *




*Season Pass is guaranteed to surpass the value of several individual reviews. Also contains exclusive something we haven't developed yet and several somethings we cut from the original to sell seperately.

Archangel said:

I think it will. Developers would before give out as many keys to non Steam platforms as those wanted to buy. Now those devs know that each of those keys will be useless as part of Steam review system.

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But that wouldn't matter. Your steam review reflects the percentage of people who like your game. If 90% of the people who play your game like it, your Steam review will be the same even if half of the people who play it can't review it.

I also don't see this affecting resellers. Developers and publishers will always aim to be on as many channels as possible at all times to create the highest possible visibility and availability for their game(s). It would border on suicide to confine themselves to Steam exclusively just over reviews. Make a decent game and they will come. Nothing to worry about then .

fadedc said:

But that wouldn't matter. Your steam review reflects the percentage of people who like your game. If 90% of the people who play your game like it, your Steam review will be the same even if half of the people who play it can't review it.

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Except people will trust a score based on 50 reviews less than based on 150 reviews.
Also how popular the game is can be easily based on number of reviews. Niche games usually don't attract new people because they are niche. Because of this system one can think a game is niche when it is not.

Moriendor said:

I also don't see this affecting resellers.

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Steam might wish otherwise.

Developers and publishers will always aim to be on as many channels as possible at all times to create the highest possible visibility and availability for their game(s).

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This is where devs, publishers and Steam ways part. Steam do not care about devs (if they exist) who would manipulate a Steam review up as it means more sales and all of them aim to sell more.
Steam do not have to bother about the manipulations down as there are so few of them, not enough to motivate a change in structure.

It would border on suicide to confine themselves to Steam exclusively just over reviews. Make a decent game and they will come. Nothing to worry about then .

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It would border on suicide to let the resellers grow. For Steam, that is. Steam is the PC market. And resellers growth happens at the expense of Steam.

Devs care much less on what platform a sale occurs. For Steam, that is everything.

That being said, Steam do not apply pressure on devs or publishers as Steam have no means to pressure them.

Steam points of pressure are applied on buyers. They are the ones who are going to decide over buying from a reseller and losing access from Steam services and buying from Steam and being granted the opportunity of pushing a review of their tastes.