How to report games abusing the algorithm with paid/bot reviews?

[Zesc]

No naming&shaming, so I will not name the game in question here. EDIT: Alright, reluctantly linked it post #14. But yes, i am just a bot... one that assumes people click this non-clickbaity headline, read through a wall of text and then do... stuff. Exactly.


However, I just came across a very odd game being promoted on the store front page. It is of obvious "asset flip" quality, has 0 public screenshots, and only one discussion without any replies in its communtiy hub, but 20 all-positive reviews with abnormaly many "usefull" votes on them.

My suspicion was raised when other people on a Discord server I'm part off mentioned they've seen it on the front page too - we have greatly varying tastes, so this especially odd.

I came tot he conclusion that the developer is most likely resorting to techniques against Steam's TOS, and would like to report them, so someone qualified has a look at it - however, the report function only allows me to report things liek child abuse, malware, illegal content, etc.

What should i do? Contact the support? Report them anyway? Or am i as a mere front-end user nor meant to intervene here at all?

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

First option I guess. "Defamatory" and explain in detail in the box.

Or contact support. Steam support page > My account > Data related to my account scroll to the bottom click on contact support.

[J4MESOX4D]

Report each individual review that's suspicious and then Valve will be able to tell what's going on their end.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by J4MESOX4D:

Report each individual review that's suspicious and then Valve will be able to tell what's going on their end.

Alright, i just did this. Not all of them (is steam giving you a cooldown after to many reports in too little time? Seems fair though), but those which are defenitly not genuine.

Let's hope something is done about this swiftly - and the algorithm tweaked to account for such rather basic attack on it.

[ploppo]

I didn't know about this - so, what we are saying here is a game can promote itself onto the Store page?

Is this in 'The Community Recommends' bit on the Store or is like a fake trending thing - ie a new game that trends on fake reviews?

[Zesc]

Originally posted by ploppo:

I didn't know about this - so, what we are saying here is a game can promote itself onto the Store page?

Is this in 'The Community Recommends' bit on the Store or is like a fake trending thing - ie a new game that trends on fake reviews?

Sorry for the late reply (and the wall of text to follow) - yes, indeed.

Steam has a long history of shady elements abusing the platform's function for easy money, without creating anything of value. Once, these things were games to grind trading cards (and to some extent, the free achievement games too), then there were "key-mill" curators that devs could pay in keys for recommendations - both things have been somewhat-ish fixed, but i am fairly confident that now people are resorting either to buying reviews (and i do not mean "intencivized reviews") or plainly paying botnet operators for hacked accounts.

An asset flip from last March shouldn't be there on the shop page right next to Horizon: Zero Dawn, where it takes away attention from games (especially nichy indie titles) that people actually want. I know Valve agrees on this, so i hope they will act swiftly, befor thsi practice becomes widespread.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Zesc:

No naming&shaming, so I will not name the game in question here.

Translation. You want us to take your word on this and deny others the ability to verify the details themselves. Already off to a great start .

However, I just came across a very odd game being promoted on the store front page. It is of obvious "asset flip" quality, has 0 public screenshots, and only one discussion without any replies in its communtiy hub, but 20 all-positive reviews with abnormaly many "usefull" votes on them.

Yeah. Those list of traits... they make no sense.
So. Yeah . I'm just gonna take a truck load of salt with that. I see no such game on the store front. I have never seen such a game on the store front. I can't say I've even seen such a game in the store. I'm not saying you're a liar, but your statement is incredulous when weighed against observavble reality, and since youu have deliberately chosen not to provide any information that people could use to verify your statement...well...colour me skeptical.

My suspicion was raised when other people on a Discord server I'm part off mentioned they've seen it on the front page too - we have greatly varying tastes, so this especially odd.

More information that cannot be verified and that does not line up with reality.

I came tot he conclusion that the developer is most likely resorting to techniques against Steam's TOS, and would like to report them, so someone qualified has a look at it - however, the report function only allows me to report things liek child abuse, malware, illegal content, etc.

If this hypothetical game does exist...Broken or Fraud would be appropos. Legal Violation is also doable since by your description it's lacking proper screenshots, ie information vital, expected, and even Mandated by Steam to be included on the store page.

What should i do? Contact the support? Report them anyway? Or am i as a mere front-end user nor meant to intervene here at all?

All of the above.
Though me suspects this has nothing to do with hypothetical games in hypothetical breach of Steam's ToS and more a fabrication on your part.

[ploppo]

Originally posted by Zesc:

Originally posted by ploppo:

I didn't know about this - so, what we are saying here is a game can promote itself onto the Store page?

Is this in 'The Community Recommends' bit on the Store or is like a fake trending thing - ie a new game that trends on fake reviews?

Sorry for the late reply (and the wall of text to follow) - yes, indeed.

Steam has a long history of shady elements abusing the platform's function for easy money, without creating anything of value. Once, these things were games to grind trading cards (and to some extent, the free achievement games too), then there were "key-mill" curators that devs could pay in keys for recommendations - both things have been somewhat-ish fixed, but i am fairly confident that now people are resorting either to buying reviews (and i do not mean "intencivized reviews") or plainly paying botnet operators for hacked accounts.

An asset flip from last March shouldn't be there on the shop page right next to Horizon: Zero Dawn, where it takes away attention from games (especially nichy indie titles) that people actually want. I know Valve agrees on this, so i hope they will act swiftly, befor thsi practice becomes widespread.

Why use a botnet for reviews when a developer could potentially give access to friends to then fake review? I mean a purchase has to be made so the developer has to surely pay out on either option? Plus, could a developer gift games out, thus bypassing any form of purchase, to friends who then just review it?

[Washell]

Originally posted by ploppo:

Plus, could a developer gift games out, thus bypassing any form of purchase, to friends who then just review it?

Reviews from gifted copies don't count.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

*snip*

All of the above.
Though me suspects this has nothing to do with hypothetical games in hypothetical breach of Steam's ToS and more a fabrication on your part. [/quote]
If you are willing to cut this short - add me and i provide you a link to the shoppage, including proof that i am not the only one who saw it.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Translation. You want us to take your word on this and deny others the ability to verify the details themselves. Already off to a great start .

Let me be honest here: i am mostly afraid of the steam moderators. I have a clean track record, but i've seen other people in similar situations getting repercussions for (involuntary) sparking a witchhunt.
Plus, i am well aware i am fallible, so better keep quite and let somebody with experience rule about this, before probably ending some devs career because i felt it was fishy.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Yeah. Those list of traits... they make no sense.
So. Yeah . I'm just gonna take a truck load of salt with that. I see no such game on the store front. I have never seen such a game on the store front. I can't say I've even seen such a game in the store. I'm not saying you're a liar, but your statement is incredulous when weighed against observavble reality, and since youu have deliberately chosen not to provide any information that people could use to verify your statement...well...colour me skeptical.

That is exactly the point why i am skeptical about the game - such stats are not what would happen if it was played by a community of supporting players enjoying it.
However, your claims that they do not "line up with reality" - i'm afraid i could pull the "ditto" card here. If you had never any experience with asset flip games - take a look at the unfiltered list of new releases on steam. Even if you filter out all the adult content, you still find more than enough, excuse the term, shovelware to lose faith in humanity.
if you are questioning whether hacked accounts (or simply paid reviews) are possible, you have missed a great chunk of the last decade's internet - this is literally what every "influencesr/fake news destroy democracy"-agitprop is about.

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Though me suspects this has nothing to do with hypothetical games in hypothetical breach of Steam's ToS and more a fabrication on your part.

Sorry for the ad-hominem, but do you plan to add anything of value to this discussion? Why exactly would i fabricate such a story? if i were for click'n'giggles, i could draft up a better topic then asking a question few users in this forum are even interested in.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by ploppo:

Why use a botnet for reviews when a developer could potentially give access to friends to then fake review? I mean a purchase has to be made so the developer has to surely pay out on either option? Plus, could a developer gift games out, thus bypassing any form of purchase, to friends who then just review it?

What @Washell wrote: reviews from copies that were obtained for free or from keys are treated differently by the algorithm.

Also, it is not just about positive reviews - i personally find the number and ratio of them to be rather meaningless too - but the votes of "usefull" on them. Which also appears to be the part that made them trend in the first place.

If you've ever written a review, you know that upvotes on them are rare - unless a friend sees it in their activity feed and bumps it by +1. So if the game has a very, very small audience, having more "usefull" votes than total reviews is contradicting with the natural distribution.

If it was just one reviews that is somewhat meme-y or otherwise able to go viral - sure. But *all* of them, no matter their style and length?

EDIT: Just for anyone curious, this is not a new development. Online retail stores saw it, and it's nto far fetched to assume it made the jump to gaming sites eventually. Wanted to find the Verge-article, failed, so here's Buzzfeed instead: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/her-amazon-purchases-are-real-the-reviews-are-fake

[ploppo]

Ah, I see.

I am kind of clueless with all the community aspects of Steam which is why I always wonder how stuff works and why it works that way, etc - I'm always "what if this?" and "what if that?".

[ShelLuser]

Pointing out a game which you think might be fishy is not necessarily "naming & shaming". That only applies when you start accusing people of having done stuff and sharing their profiles in the process.

But sharing the link to a game hub? Nah.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Pointing out a game which you think might be fishy is not necessarily "naming & shaming". That only applies when you start accusing people of having done stuff and sharing their profiles in the process.

But sharing the link to a game hub? Nah.

Well... with the non-zero risk of a zealous mod suspending me from discussions anyway... here you go:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1152330

Pay attention to the reviews, especially how certain phrases are used multiple times (especially "unicorn texture" - a single person mentioning this once is wierd enough, but a significant portion of the reviews?) and how many votes they have each.

Originally posted by cyberluddite:

I call BS.

OP is a bot account.

Very well, i am a bot. Able of rational reasoning and civil debatte instead of cancel culture. My bad.

[Gambit-3k]

Originally posted by Zesc:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Pointing out a game which you think might be fishy is not necessarily "naming & shaming". That only applies when you start accusing people of having done stuff and sharing their profiles in the process.

But sharing the link to a game hub? Nah.

Well... with the non-zero risk of a zealous mod suspending me from discussions anyway... here you go:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1152330

Pay attention to the reviews, especially how certain phrases are used multiple times (especially "unicorn texture" - a single person mentioning this once is wierd enough, but a significant portion of the reviews?) and how many votes they have each.

Originally posted by cyberluddite:

I call BS.

OP is a bot account.

Very well, i am a bot. Able of rational reasoning and civil debatte instead of cancel culture. My bad.

Well, one good sign is all the reviewers have multiple reviews and their profiles don't look fake. I think the OP was fair either way and there was no need to discuss specific games as the question was how do you report games you think are abusing the system, the people viewing the reports can decide if it looks suspicious and warrants further investigation.

As for this game, I've been critical about asset flips on Steam but I don't think this game qualifies as one. Based on the videos, It looks like effort was put in and comes across as a complete game with thoughtful content. It does lack a certain polish visually and it's possible some of the tiles are purchased assets, but it seems like they are being used as intended if that's the case. It's possible it's getting good reviews because it's a bit of a hidden gem for it's price. I could be mistaken, but I'm not really seeing any red flags.

[Zesc]

Originally posted by Gambit-3:

Well, one good sign is all the reviewers have multiple reviews and their profiles don't look fake. I think the OP was fair either way and there was no need to discuss specific games as the question was how do you report games you think are abusing the system, the people viewing the reports can decide if it looks suspicious and warrants further investigation.

As far as this game, I have been critical about asset flips on Steam but I don't think this game is. Based on the videos, It looks like effort was put in and comes across as a complete game with thoughtful content. It does lack a certain polish visually and it's possible some of the tiles are purchased assets, but it feels like they are being used as intended if that's the case. It's possible it's getting good reviews because it's a bit of a hidden gem for it's price. I could be mistaken, but I'm not really seeing any red flags.

Thank you for this very honest oppinions. I had the feeling i just get hostility here.

For me, the main read flag was how multiple on the aforementioned server suddenly jumped the gun and mentioned it was on their store frontpage too. We have greatly varying tastes, so it is less likely to be a "yeah, computer says this is liek Hollow Knight, so you like this too"-hiccup.

For me, the main red flags are the ways the reviews are written. The way certain phrases are re-used let's me think of a content-factory... or just somebody running GPT-3 over the game description. I do not expect 1 in 10 reviewers to comment on the "unicorn texture", or one in 5 to mention how much the game is like Mario, if these were genuinely independent reviews. In a similar vein, there are these high values in "usefull" ratings on the reviews. Pick a random game and look at its reviews - usefull votes aren't evenly distributed, and especially not in such quantitys. Especially if the game is very nichy and migth hardly get the same number of visitors a month.

Such things could arrive naturally, of course - but if there is a friendly and loyal community pushing each others reviews, where are they? They create nothing but reviews. By the way, the game's facebook page[www.facebook.com] is asking for reviews both on steam and metacritics - turns out the steam reviews are just machine-translations of the russian metacritics ones.

I don't know what is going on here, but this is the exact reason why i want somebody from Steam to look into this - they are the only ones qualified to decide in the end. I don't want to start a witch trial, only share my concern with authorities.

With best regards, i'll add you comment as answer to this thread, if only so no more trolls feel enticed to write here whilst i go sleep. I really enjoyed your calm an thorough approach to the matter.