13 votes

Steam announces plans to identify "off-topic review bombs", and remove them from games' review scores

4 comments

  1. [4]
    supergauntlet
    Link
    Really valve? Really now? So a game dev can put terrible DRM in a game or change the EULA to do something equally scummy and there's no recourse other than complain to the media? How is giving a...

    Q: I care about some things that I worry other players don't, like DRM or EULA changes. Review bombs have been about them in the past. Do you consider them unrelated or off-topic?

    A: We had long debates about these two, and others like them. They're technically not a part of the game, but they are an issue for some players. In the end, we've decided to define them as off-topic review bombs.

    Really valve? Really now? So a game dev can put terrible DRM in a game or change the EULA to do something equally scummy and there's no recourse other than complain to the media? How is giving a game a 0 star review score for performance-destroying DRM a "review bomb"? Ludicrous.

    1 vote
    1. [3]
      Deimos
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      You can leave a review about the DRM or EULA that can be read by everyone, voted on, etc. exactly the same as before, it just won't affect the percentage of reviews that recommend the game if it's...

      You can leave a review about the DRM or EULA that can be read by everyone, voted on, etc. exactly the same as before, it just won't affect the percentage of reviews that recommend the game if it's during a period that they designate as an "off-topic review bomb".

      I'm not sure if you're even familiar with Steam's review system though, since there's no ability to give something "0 stars", it's just a "recommend" or "don't recommend" choice.

      14 votes
      1. [2]
        supergauntlet
        Link Parent
        I could have sworn steam had a 5 star rating system, but as it turns out all it shows that's not a y/n binary choice is the metacritic score on the side. I get where they're coming from with this,...

        I could have sworn steam had a 5 star rating system, but as it turns out all it shows that's not a y/n binary choice is the metacritic score on the side.

        I get where they're coming from with this, they don't like coordinated brigades on review scores - but bad DRM seems like an actual legitimate complaint to me? I don't really understand why they're removing this small way to rebuke bad behavior by a developer but not replacing it with another.

        Yes, a "review bomb" can be shitty in a lot of ways but frankly sometimes it's warranted. What solution does valve put forth if they're going to flat out ignore reviews about DRM at the time a DRM change is made when a significant number of players dislike it? Other types of review bombing are obviously bad faith actors, but this really seems to me like users using a function in the way it's intended.

        2 votes
        1. Deimos
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Again, I think you're treating this as far more drastic than it actually is. You can still leave those reviews and rebuke the developer. They'll still see the major spike of user upset, through...

          Again, I think you're treating this as far more drastic than it actually is. You can still leave those reviews and rebuke the developer. They'll still see the major spike of user upset, through Steam and all the other outlets that people always express it through. The only difference is that it won't result in a massive drop in the game's Steam review score.

          The game's review score is displayed very prominently in many places on Steam, so this is a big deal for developers. Having a game go from "Very Positive" to "Mixed" because a large group of people suddenly decided to review-bomb it can completely destroy the game's future sales, and the developer has almost zero recourse. Even if they fix whatever the mob was upset about immediately, most of those users won't go back and delete or reverse their reviews, and the future positive reviews may never be able to compensate for them.

          Also, as they said, the reality is that the large majority of users just do not care about things like DRM. You can argue that they should care (and I'd agree), but they don't. For the users that do treat it as a factor when deciding whether to buy a game, the information is readily available. There's a bright yellow block telling you when a game uses third-party DRM, and the negative reviews related to a game's DRM will still be there. The only thing that's changed is that the game's score doesn't get pushed way down because of it, but that was never an indicator you could use to know anything about DRM anyway.

          7 votes