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[skullmuffins]

Reviews from reviewers are effectively meaningless because they get keys, just great.

"Reviewers" meaning, what, in the context of Steam store reviews? I'm probably stuck in the past, but when I think of reviewers getting free press keys, I think of people posting their reviews on external sites or maybe Youtube or whatever. Are you just talking about more-or-less regular dudes who post a lot of reviews on Steam and ask devs for keys so they can post Steam reviews (or I guess get contacted by the dev after they see the volume/quality of reviews that person has written?) Do they get paid for this or is it done for free (other than the game key)? If these kinds of reviews are downplayed, is it going to affect the reviewer's financial status?

I'm really just curious, since I've always thought of Steam reviews as consumer reviews, and never really thought about it being a venue for "reviewers" to share their reviews. Kinda like Amazon, I guess, and re: Amazon, I was weirded out when I went looking at shower heads a while back and 90% of the reviews posted said something about "I was given this product for free in exchange for my honest and unbiased review". Even if they want to be unbiased, it seems there could be at least an unconscious bias to be more forgiving about games or whatever product, since you'd be more likely to receive future free keys or w/e if your reviews are generally positive.

 

[Htown]

Just confirmed what I said, and I was correct, you now need to click 1 extra button to be able to see the reviews from people that activated the game with steam keys, you can check yourself using this game page http://store.steampowered.com/app/337720/ which has very few reviews, and a more or less 50/50 split between both types.

hmmm

weird

 

[Clint Beastwood]

How dare they mess with the sanctity of user reviews?

 

[Nzyme32]

How dare they mess with the sanctity of user reviews?

Memes will always be impossible to prevent if you have an open review system. I don't think that specifically reflects the entire initiative on any site using such a system

 

[FaintDeftone]

I'm fine with it. I get most of my Steam games outside of the platform, but I don't write reviews for Steam much anyway so this doesn't really affect me much. If it helps prevent folks from cheating the system, it's cool in my book.

 

[kswiston]

Steam review aggregates were trending towards useless anyhow, and this just addressess one problematic aspect. We'll still have the "play 10 minutes and refund" review bombers who are set on giving the game a negative review months/weeks before release for any variety of frivolous reasons. We still have the "couldnt play the game on my i3 laptop with integrated graphics. Horrible optimization!" Types. We'll still have the "cartoon tits - 10/10" types and meme reviewers. Paid reviews will continue to exist. They will just be a bit more costly to pubs.


As always, you will have to ignore the aggregate and actually read some individual reviews.