Steam Reviews Changed- Overall Score No Longer Includes Reviews Via Steam Key Activation
42 replies, posted
[QUOTE=Greenen72;51046069]Does the press/reviewers even interact with the user review system? I thought that all went into metacritic or the curator system[/QUOTE]
I don't know, proper critics don't interact with Metacritic and all that, but the idea that critics won't have any influence over the steam review aggregator goes against the idea of a review aggregator. Steam was always the most reasonable too because they don't try to put a number to the game and instead just say whether or not people would recommend it.
[QUOTE=Blade Rx69;51045771]Can't get much more direct than removing the motive of profit itself. These things turn into an endless arms race where the side where the more superior and cost effective approach wins.
Fake reviews and comments plague any site that involves profit or public perception in some way. Amazon, Yelp, Metacritic, etc.: I can guarantee you people will be looking for ways to exploit them if they haven't already established ways to.
You crack down on one detectable aspect, then people will figure out a way around it. For example: a number of reviews coming from one IP, so they block that IP. The operator notices the accounts aren't able to post any more, figures out why, then upgrades to a system that utilizes a variety of IPs.
The smart ones will develop systems that are even hard for humans to detect. After all, it's just posting reviews, not interaction with a person, so a Turing test is out of the question. The naïve suspects will just have a bot spam the same review with [game name here] or something. The smart ones will make them vary, some even getting into machine learning with legitimate reviews.
By far the most efficient way to solve this is a cost barrier. To make a review that impacts the number on the store page, the account must have provably purchased the game. This removes the profit motive, which I would call the most direct solution.[/QUOTE]
Good points, I'll concede
They are taking this review stuff way to seriously. I appreciate them wanting to avoid rating sway via key handouts but this like the most inelegant solution ever (is that even that common anyway?). Who actually takes ratings that seriously anyway? They're a just a quick way of gauging a game's quality. I doubt anyone who really wants to buy a game does it based on ratings alone.
I'm not sure I understand this change
I was pretty sure most of the "fake" reviews are from people buying and refunding, which I don't think you can even do on CD keys.
[editline]14th September 2016[/editline]
Oh hey I get it now, I guess I wasn't really thinking about devs cheating via key gen
[editline]14th September 2016[/editline]
They should probably also remove refunded reviews from the pool though, MUA had some reviews that were literally just shitheads hearing about the issues and buying and refunding it to post negatives in protest even when it was fixed
[QUOTE=VenomousBeetle;51048849]I'm not sure I understand this change
I was pretty sure most of the "fake" reviews are from people buying and refunding, which I don't think you can even do on CD keys.
[editline]14th September 2016[/editline]
Oh hey I get it now, I guess I wasn't really thinking about devs cheating via key gen
[editline]14th September 2016[/editline]
They should probably also remove refunded reviews from the pool though, MUA had some reviews that were literally just shitheads hearing about the issues and buying and refunding it to post negatives in protest even when it was fixed[/QUOTE]
Refunded reviews make sense being left in though. "The game was terrible so I got it refunded and I'm warning other people it's terrible." And the thing is that they can and will disable refunding on accounts that abuse the refund system, so there is already something in place to combat refund abuse. Not to mention it being done directly through Steam allows Valve to see the entire process. Valve can only see the process after a key is put in on Steam if purchased outside the store itself.
I wonder who the naughty developers were.
Seems like a good idea, I hadn't even considered this possibility.
Maybe they could provide more infos like showing how many people(%) with negative reviews refunded the game and average play time of people who gave positive reviews
[QUOTE=Doctor Zedacon;51049450]Refunded reviews make sense being left in though. "The game was terrible so I got it refunded and I'm warning other people it's terrible." And the thing is that they can and will disable refunding on accounts that abuse the refund system, so there is already something in place to combat refund abuse. Not to mention it being done directly through Steam allows Valve to see the entire process. Valve can only see the process after a key is put in on Steam if purchased outside the store itself.[/QUOTE]
You can only refund with less than 2 hours game time though
[QUOTE=VenomousBeetle;51050694]You can only refund with less than 2 hours game time though[/QUOTE]Not true actually. Its just no longer automatically approved, it has to be manually reviewed. And what does that change? A bad game can easily be identified within that two hour window.
[url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s_T4WYWf-tBtA8Oqg79J7fDe3ulOc6DgJl6ByhYMnD0/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0]This spreadsheet[/url] shows the games that had their scores hit the hardest by the change - a bunch of random-ass greenlight games no one's ever heard of, and Mighty No. 9
Pretty interesting. If the idea of trolls buying games just to leave a bad review and then refund them held bearing, I'd imagine we'd not have seen Might No. 9 actually go up in score. A game that is notoriously bad at this point and its a meme to hate it.
[QUOTE=smurfy;51052996][url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1s_T4WYWf-tBtA8Oqg79J7fDe3ulOc6DgJl6ByhYMnD0/htmlview?sle=true#gid=0]This spreadsheet[/url] shows the games that had their scores hit the hardest by the change - a bunch of random-ass greenlight games no one's ever heard of, and Mighty No. 9[/QUOTE]
Where do these figures come from?
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