Can someone explain '' Steam deleting negative reviews ''

[ᗩSᕼᑘᐺᗩ᙭]

I keep seeing this in various forum posts and game reviews, but i cant find any original source or proof.
Is this another one of those times where someone makes something up and then it just gets repeated so many times that it becomes ''true''.

The only thing i could find was someone saying that Steam remove reviews from people who refund the game. Is that all that's going on and people are just retarded?

[Mortilla]

Originally posted by AshuVax:

Is this another one of those times where someone makes something up and then it just gets repeated so many times that it becomes ''true''.

Yes.

[ᗩSᕼᑘᐺᗩ᙭]

Originally posted by PSA:

When people refund the game, their review disappears. Since a lot of people have been refunding, a lot of reviews have disappeared with them.

So some people are mistaking it for Steam removing them manually.

Okay, so i just checked my review for a game called ''Gigantic - rampage edition''... i gave a negative review a few months ago, and then refunded the game, it even says on my review that i refunded the game, yet my review is still up, and others must be able to see it as it has 6 likes.

[Johnnyan]

Not sure if they are removed from the stats but reviews for refunded games do not disappear ...

[Mortilla]

Originally posted by Johnnyan:

Not sure if they are removed from the stats...

They are not.

[necroyeti]

It's probably best to trust actual developers instead of baseless statements, e.g. this one here (yeah it's pretty old):
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/52kli9/a_developers_opinion_on_the_new_steam_review/
Read the part about how devs have a hard time adressing negative reviews.

Apart from that, some negative reviews might be deleted due to violating Valve's discussion rules (e.g. "Do not direct abuse or insults at other players, developers, or groups"). Positive rules probably violate these rules way less often than negative reviews

[ᗩSᕼᑘᐺᗩ᙭]

Originally posted by necroyeti:

It's probably best to trust actual developers instead of baseless statements, e.g. this one here (yeah it's pretty old):
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/52kli9/a_developers_opinion_on_the_new_steam_review/
Read the part about how devs have a hard time adressing negative reviews.

Apart from that, some negative reviews might be deleted due to violating Valve's discussion rules. Positive rules probably violate these rules way less often than negative reviews.

That was an interesting read, thanks for the link.

[Deatheye]

Originally posted by AshuVax:

Originally posted by PSA:

When people refund the game, their review disappears. Since a lot of people have been refunding, a lot of reviews have disappeared with them.

So some people are mistaking it for Steam removing them manually.

Okay, so i just checked my review for a game called ''Gigantic - rampage edition''... i gave a negative review a few months ago, and then refunded the game, it even says on my review that i refunded the game, yet my review is still up, and others must be able to see it as it has 6 likes.

Your review is still up but it doesn't contribute to the rating anymore.

People who talk about deleted reviews are probably missing some filter options or reviews indeed got deleted because they were against the tos.

[Bron]

There are tons of trolls right now. Yeah the game is hamfisting social views into Veilguard. It is a legitimate complaint. But alongside that legitimacy there are A LOT of trolls and generally angry people who will take to trolling because of it that will buy the game just so they can post a troll review then request the refund. Ultimately hurting the legitimacy of the complaints.

Not saying all of these reviews will be flagged and deleted just because of that, but they will average to having a lot of course language and threats, general racism, or bigotry towards these groups. A lot will do it so they can push a "Deleting reviews" narrative.

Those reviews will be deleted by Steam itself.

Until you see many people claim their personal reviews were deleted (with receipts), don't worry about it too much.

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by PSA:

When people refund the game, their review disappears. Since a lot of people have been refunding, a lot of reviews have disappeared with them.

So some people are mistaking it for Steam removing them manually.

No, it doesn't. It gets a little 'product refunded' written in red on it.

[Quacksalber]

You can literally see refunded reviews. I do think there should be a restriction on refunded reviews to stop people wasting everyone's time by buying games just so they can give them a bad review and then refunding them. You can't have an opinion on a game unless you actually played it. Watching youtubers and streamers does not count. You can decide not to buy a game based on that, but it doesn't entitle you to review it, and doing so is actually deranged. The exceptions are bugs and not being able to run the game.

Also, the more people do this kind of idiotic thing, the sooner it will actually be impossible to review refunded games for anyone. No platform wants to waste resources dealing with nonsense. It also encourages platforms to switch to subscriptions, as the more people do annoying bs, the more likely a company will make changes to avoid the hassle of processing idiotic behaviours. I also wouldn't be surprised if Steam eventually gets round to tightening the rules on people spamming the forums with nonsense as well, since it genuinely ruins the user experience for any half way normal person who just wants to ask a question.

Why people struggle so much with the concept of doing annoying things that waste time and resources leading to less freedoms for everyone/stuff getting more expensive is beyond me; it's like they never grew up or do not participate in society.

[dannypipes75]

Originally posted by PSA:

When people refund the game, their review disappears. Since a lot of people have been refunding, a lot of reviews have disappeared with them.

So some people are mistaking it for Steam removing them manually.

Are there a lot of people getting refunds?

[Vassago Rain]

I made this so people can maybe start learning how steam works. Picked two random reviews that were on the first page of what steam shows me in the reviews feed.

https://files.catbox.moe/4huiy9.png
Note the things underlined in red.

[Vassago Rain]

Originally posted by dannypipes75:

Originally posted by PSA:

When people refund the game, their review disappears. Since a lot of people have been refunding, a lot of reviews have disappeared with them.

So some people are mistaking it for Steam removing them manually.

Are there a lot of people getting refunds?

Yes. Look at the reviews feed yourself.

[Deatheye]

Originally posted by EH!:

Why people struggle so much with the concept of doing annoying things that waste time and resources leading to less freedoms for everyone/stuff getting more expensive is beyond me; it's like they never grew up or do not participate in society.

100% this, very well said.

[=Focus=]

Originally posted by Vassago Rain:

I made this so people can maybe start learning how steam works. Picked two random reviews that were on the first page of what steam shows me in the reviews feed.

https://files.catbox.moe/4huiy9.png
Note the things underlined in red.

Wow, that's petty. Why does it matter if the person bought the game directly through steam or through a key site? It's still a person with two eyes and a brain sharing their experience of the game!!!!!