Latest Steam update is Valve’s attempt at cracking down on fraudulent game developers who use paid reviews to skew the overall impression of their game. Valve is also introducing the ability to filter views based on the kind (positive/ negative), language and purchase (steam key/ third party/ directly from Steam). The changes come amidst controversy involving numerous blacklisted developers. Community feedback regarding Valve’s new Steam update has mostly been positive.
Steam update set to prevent fake game reviews
“Steam keys have always been free for developers to give out or sell through other online or retail stores. That isn’t changing. However, it is too easy for these keys to end up being used in ways that artificially inflate review scores.
An analysis of games across Steam shows that at least 160 titles have a substantially greater percentage of positive reviews by users that activated the product with a cd key, compared to customers that purchased the game directly on Steam. There are, of course, legitimate reasons why this could be true for a game: Some games have strong audiences off Steam, and some games have passionate early adopters or Kickstarter backers that are much more invested in the game.”
Valve has also explained what it wishes to do in the next update:
1. There are a couple of prominent titles that have review scores of ‘positive’ but all the reviews marked as helpful are negative. Next update will represent cases where the community has highly divergent opinions.
2. There are some titles where a small group of users are able to consistently mark specific reviews as helpful, and as a result can present a skewed perception of what customers are saying about the game. Next update will look at ways to ensure that a few users don’t have influence over the system.
3. Some off-topic reviews get marked as ‘helpful’ simply because they are funny. These don’t appear to actually be helpful in determining whether you should buy the game. Next update will deal with such reviews.
Let us know what you think of the new steam update.