Valve Changes Steam User Reviews Again, Removing Reviews on Unpaid Game Copies

ffronw

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Valve Changes Steam User Reviews Again, Removing Reviews on Unpaid Game Copies

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1388/1388239.jpgValve has made some more changes to user reviews on Steam, and they aren't likely to be popular.

You might recall that back in September, Valve made some changes to the way that Steam's user reviews work, and how games had their review score calculated. That change not only added new filters, it also removed user reviews from reviewers who activated a Steam Key for the game, rather than purchasing it on Steam.

While this change did have the effect of lowering the incentive for developers to hand out free keys in exchange for positive reviews, it also meant that people who purchased keys elsewhere (such as Humble Bundles, other sites, or direct from the developer) would have their opinions ignored as well.

Last night, Valve announced [http://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/563352991934009789] its next steps to further "fine-tune the relevance and accuracy of the overall review score for each product." In short, the new changes will further restrict which user reviews are included in calculating the aggregated score you see on a game's Steam page.

Valve says that the score, "will no longer include reviews by users that received the game for free, such as via a gift, or during a free weekend." That means that if you someone gifts you a game, your opinion on it is discounted in the review score. If you try out a game on a free weekend and it's not fun, your review won't count towards the review score, either. Obviously, this change won't affect free or free-to-play titles.

This change is already being rolled out, but Valve says it will take a few days for all review scores to be updated. Scores for games may change depending on how many of the reviews included in that score come from people who didn't buy it on Steam.



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Saelune

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I am fine with them altering the weight of certain scores due to being received for free, or free weekends, but removing them outright doesnt seem cool.

I do honestly use the user reviews often for games.
 

The Enquirer

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Saelune said:
I am fine with them altering the weight of certain scores due to being received for free, or free weekends, but removing them outright doesnt seem cool.

I do honestly use the user reviews often for games.
Yea, this is kind of my take on things.

I wasn't even aware reviews were still a serious problem, I had thought quality control was the big issue they were facing, so this has less to do with the actual reviews and more to do with these games not getting put on the store in the first place.
 

Erttheking

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Well, to be fair, I can see the sense behind this one. I could've used more fine tuning, but I appreciate what they're trying to do. I can see a game getting spammed with reviews during a free weekend.
 

Zydrate

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I mean. I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and then bought it the next week. Does it just like... delete reviews right out of my profile or something?
 

Erttheking

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Zydrate said:
I mean. I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and then bought it the next week. Does it just like... delete reviews right out of my profile or something?
I think you're good because you own it now, and even then it just wouldn't have counted in the percentage score.
 

Zydrate

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erttheking said:
Zydrate said:
I mean. I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and then bought it the next week. Does it just like... delete reviews right out of my profile or something?
I think you're good because you own it now, and even then it just wouldn't have counted in the percentage score.
Well that's still unfortunate and I don't support this update. I have 59 reviews, and I'm sure there's a scattered few I got for free in some manner, or via Uplay. Steam thinks my 40 hour opinion on some Assassin's Creed game is null to them? Pretty shitty.
 

Erttheking

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Zydrate said:
erttheking said:
Zydrate said:
I mean. I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and then bought it the next week. Does it just like... delete reviews right out of my profile or something?
I think you're good because you own it now, and even then it just wouldn't have counted in the percentage score.
Well that's still unfortunate and I don't support this update. I have 59 reviews, and I'm sure there's a scattered few I got for free in some manner, or via Uplay. Steam thinks my 40 hour opinion on some Assassin's Creed game is null to them? Pretty shitty.
Yeah...I can see where they're coming from on the free weekend front, but overall free? Major misstep.
 

Zydrate

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erttheking said:
Zydrate said:
erttheking said:
Zydrate said:
I mean. I reviewed Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and then bought it the next week. Does it just like... delete reviews right out of my profile or something?
I think you're good because you own it now, and even then it just wouldn't have counted in the percentage score.
Well that's still unfortunate and I don't support this update. I have 59 reviews, and I'm sure there's a scattered few I got for free in some manner, or via Uplay. Steam thinks my 40 hour opinion on some Assassin's Creed game is null to them? Pretty shitty.
Yeah...I can see where they're coming from on the free weekend front, but overall free? Major misstep.
That still doesn't make sense to me, personally. If someone plays 20 hours during a 3-day free trial, why is their opinion rendered invalid? I wrote my review of Rainbow Six Siege during the free weekend and continued playing. Same with For Honor. I played ~80 hours on the open beta and the live version wasn't that much different beyond the campaign, some heroes, and maps. My opinion didn't change much.
 

Callate

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Wouldn't this most likely include, like, almost every review from a professional reviewer (who most likely received their copy from the publisher?)

Ruh-roh, Raggy.
 

TrulyBritish

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Am I the only one confused about why Steam hasn't gotten rid of the Trading Card system yet? Faffing about reviews still doesn't really help if people are going buy cheap games anyway to farm cards.
The refund system surely means shitty developers can't make that much money from sales so cutting off their other means of financing seems the obvious first step to clearing the out (well, outside of Valve actually doing some QC themselves).
 

gigastar

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Callate said:
Wouldn't this most likely include, like, almost every review from a professional reviewer (who most likely received their copy from the publisher?)

Ruh-roh, Raggy.
Professional reviews arent likely to be published in the User Reviews section.

TrulyBritish said:
Am I the only one confused about why Steam hasn't gotten rid of the Trading Card system yet?
Because Valve gets a fair amount of dosh out of it.

And with the imminent death of Greenlight it should be alot harder to get cheap shite onto Steam.
 

Callate

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gigastar said:
Professional reviews arent likely to be published in the User Reviews section.
True, but a number of professional and semi-professional reviewers have a presence on Steam, and some offer capsule versions of their reviews and a thumbs-up or down; shouldn't their opinions count?
 

gigastar

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Callate said:
gigastar said:
Professional reviews arent likely to be published in the User Reviews section.
True, but a number of professional and semi-professional reviewers have a presence on Steam, and some offer capsule versions of their reviews and a thumbs-up or down; shouldn't their opinions count?
Capsule versions of reviews was pretty much what Steam Curators was supposed to be before Totalbiscuit made the Framerate Police and people began using it for cataloging instead.
 

Xorph

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Not counting reviews for games that were gifted just seems silly to me since this change seems to revolve around preventing reviews from sources that hadn't paid for the game. People playing on a free weekend obviously didn't pay, and not counting key-redeemed reviews is for the purpose of weeding out keys that were given away for free, but a gift copy was most assuredly paid for by -someone-. Hell, I just had a friend buy me the new HD remake of Spooky's House of Jump Scares because he owed me $7, in what way is my review now less valid than if I had paid the $7 myself?

Unless of course devs can give out gift copies the same way they give out keys in which case this is, once again, valve fucking the review process for everyone just because the .01% of the dev base that is russian shovelware hockers do whatever they can to game the system.
 

Gennadios

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Aaaaand,

Right with this announcement, Torment: Tides of Numenera's review aggregate went from mixed to mostly positive.


I guess the shafted kickstarters will have to find a new avenue for their rage.
 

babinro

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None of the proposed changes bother me but they'd exactly make sense to me either.

Being GIFTED a game generally means less favorable reviews because the owner likely wasn't hyped for the gifted game else they'd have bought it themselves in many cases. This change could be seen as potentially skewering reviews in a more positive direction.

Playing a game on a free weekend leads to all sorts of potential problems. The user might be rushing content, they might be experimenting with a genre they don't normally play, they might not get the time needed to properly 'review' the game, etc. This change is more valuable to me as a reader because I'd rather not get a knee-jerk product review for lack of a better term. Especially since games are INTENTIONALLY crafted to have a strong start before settling in to the core experience. I'm sure plenty of weekend reviews could be 100% valid but it's simply more difficult to treat those reviews reliably.

So as an experienced gamer I accept the downsides of these changes for what they are. I really don't see these things as anti-consumerist or harmful in a meaningful way. It does mean that all reviews will be viewed upon as more favorable than before though. Because who plays a game for a free weekend then BUYS it just to write a purely negative review?
 

Pyrian

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gigastar said:
And with the imminent death of Greenlight it should be alot harder to get cheap shite onto Steam.
...Or easier, which seems to be the direction Valve wants to go in.
 

Ender910_v1legacy

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Maybe we'd have some better accuracy if Steam (and others) would stop relying on such a simplistic binary +/- system to score a game/product?

Although admittedly, this change does appear to be having a more significant impact on game scores than I expected. Finding far fewer randomly mixed scores every which way.
 

Fulbert

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Ender910 said:
Maybe we'd have some better accuracy if Steam (and others) would stop relying on such a simplistic binary +/- system to score a game/product?
Metacritic allows users to rate games on the scale of 0 to 10, but they seem to use zeroes and tens almost exclusively. So why bother, I suppose?

As for the situation as a whole, it is a real shame people who buy games from places other than Steam get shafted. Looks like a pretty aggressive move to try and get buyers to shop through Steam exclusively.