[DISCUSSION] How Do You Know if Reviews are Fake? : Steam

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

If you look at the Steam reviews for certain games, some of the reviews are just 1 time deals.

The account has only 5 games, 4 free and only 1 purchased game which they reviewed.

All the review accounts have only 1 review in their entire existence.

Do you think it's possible that the reviews are fake?

[Natalya]

Yes it is possible

[mimizukari]

Look at the content of a review. It can't be fake if it's genuinely about the game/etc. It can be fake if they just say EPIC EXCLUSIVE 1 YEAR SO NEGATIVE FOR 1 YEAR. auto report those.

[crunchyfrog]

Absolutely.

When dealing with reviews, you should ALWAYS err on the side of caution. If it looks odd to you then assume it is until better evidence presents itself. Move on - there's tons of other info on the internet.

I've got many thousands of games and I've yet to find a game that isn't mentioned somewhere.

The fact that you bothered to check into the person leaving the review and know to check suspsicous things like the amount of games they have and so on, shows you're barking up the right tree.

[I>U]

Mr. Gorelov from GSC games was openly buying reviews for Cossacks 3 on at least one Russian "content-making" site (starts with "a+++++"). Multiple video-gaming sites had confirmed this, but do you personally know about that?

Yup. It's just a part of marketing.

[Start_Running]

Possible: Yes.
Keep in mind. Being struck by lightning when you say SHAZAM is also possible.

Rather than trying to play detective based on tyour assumptions, biases, and beliefs, it would be far better to simply judge reviews based on their content.

In otherwords. Assume they're all genuine, and ask yourself. what did they like/dislike?

[crunchyfrog]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Possible: Yes.
Keep in mind. Being struck by lightning when you say SHAZAM is also possible.

Rather than trying to play detective based on tyour assumptions, biases, and beliefs, it would be far better to simply judge reviews based on their content.

In otherwords. Assume they're all genuine, and ask yourself. what did they like/dislike?

Precisely correct - the old piece of logic applies here (because it applies to everything in reality, of course):

CLAIMS ALWAYS STAND ON THEIR OWN MERITS.

This means it doesn't matter who says it, how they say, when they say it, or why. All that matters is the content correct.

I should refine my previous statement by saying that having healthy scepticism going in, and suspecting anything that doesn't smell right, is still good to do. Just don't look for excuses to discount something because at the back of your mind something disagrees with your own biases.

For this reason, my personal go-to reviews are ones where the reviewers LIKES exactly what I like in games, and details this, but also those that are POLAR OPPOSITE to my likes also. These are just as valuable reviews, because simply, if they hate a game for the things they disalike, then if they're things I like, you can see that's extremely helpful.

[I>U]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Possible: Yes.
Keep in mind. Being struck by lightning when you say SHAZAM is also possible.

Rather than trying to play detective based on tyour assumptions, biases, and beliefs, it would be far better to simply judge reviews based on their content.

In otherwords. Assume they're all genuine, and ask yourself. what did they like/dislike?

It's 2 big differences when someone wanted to share his own opinion - even if that turned to be a false one - and tried to rise a hype wave to tighten up people suspectable to it.

In other words, it's not as easy as you've just described. Fake reviews is a thing on many platforms, so buying a 60 USD game is not as big of a deal as buying 400 USD monitor that mr. reviewer proclaimed to have 12bit matrix, while in reality it's 6bit+FBC for that ridiculous price. And you can only learn it by playing detective and help others by naming the false "facts".

There is an amount of "truth" in the Internet and it's strongly quantified. If every single individual would follow the way as Mr.Gorelov's helpers, the "truth" would cease from being citated in open and would belong to elites (like this bad self of mine with 3 developers on friend-list).

So, no, OP: if you are interested in platform, do your research and - if you feel generous - share the results.

[Zekiran]

If you see the exact same copy-pasted 'review', multiple times, from different accounts, then yes, that's botting.

I'd still suggest as above - read, educate yourself. It's really easy to see which reviews have meaning and which do not.

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

Originally posted by I>U:

Mr. Gorelov from GSC games was openly buying reviews for Cossacks 3 on at least one Russian "content-making" site (starts with "a+++++"). Multiple video-gaming sites had confirmed this, but do you personally know about that?

Yup. It's just a part of marketing.

Thank you for sharing.

But no, where is the evidence?

[<™[-=> Cookiez <=-]™>]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

If you see the exact same copy-pasted 'review', multiple times, from different accounts, then yes, that's botting.

I'd still suggest as above - read, educate yourself. It's really easy to see which reviews have meaning and which do not.

That's not a good measure.

I can copy paste a generic good or bad review from another game and spam a game with it.

e.g.

"Great RTS game, I've had so much fun with this game through the years, for many of them I would have said it was the best in its class. Recently, Starcraft 2 may have edged slightly ahead, but <insert game name here> is still super fun. "

[Xautos]

Users posting opinions on feelings instead of the game,
users posting spam comments and comedy one liners which again has nothing to do with the game.
Entitled whining with some details of game mechanics, but not the game entire.

There are three examples of fake reviews that bump the scores in one direction of another and as for proof, just look at any game review section and look through a few.

Originally posted by <™-=> Cookiez <=-™>:

"Great RTS game, I've had so much fun with this game through the years, for many of them I would have said it was the best in its class. Recently, Starcraft 2 may have edged slightly ahead, but <insert game name here> is still super fun. "

That's not a review, thats an opinion that touches on nothing about the game.

[I>U]

Originally posted by Xautos:

That's not a review, thats an opinion that touches on nothing about the game.

That's an opinion and review, lol. And that's when you start ussing your detective skills - you go to the profile, and - if'ts open - get a look over the library and other reviews of the same username.

Posted negative to RA3 and Act of Aggression? SC worm and scrub.
Preffered SupCom2 over SupCom1? CnC fanboy.
Held those 2 in the same regard? That's mah boi.
Plays a lot of TBS'es and competitve fightings, too? That's a soul-mate.
Has Wgm HS and Hammerwatch? That's my bruder. With 120% taste.

This algorithm can and should be improved, but can't be avoided on the meta-level.

[mimizukari]

Originally posted by <™-=> Cookiez <=-™>:

Originally posted by Zekiran:

If you see the exact same copy-pasted 'review', multiple times, from different accounts, then yes, that's botting.

I'd still suggest as above - read, educate yourself. It's really easy to see which reviews have meaning and which do not.

That's not a good measure.

I can copy paste a generic good or bad review from another game and spam a game with it.

e.g.

"Great RTS game, I've had so much fun with this game through the years, for many of them I would have said it was the best in its class. Recently, Starcraft 2 may have edged slightly ahead, but <insert game name here> is still super fun. "

That's not a review. A proper review dissects the mechanics of the game and explains what's good or bad about multiple points. You can't just blanket summarize a review in 1 sentence and call it a review.

[FPS]

If the review is really short and consists of bare emotions, I don't consider it useful, whether it is fake or genuine.
If it looks well-thought and covers all the game mechanics. weak and strong sides, it;s worth reading, again, no matter if it's paid or genuine.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by I>U:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Possible: Yes.
Keep in mind. Being struck by lightning when you say SHAZAM is also possible.

Rather than trying to play detective based on tyour assumptions, biases, and beliefs, it would be far better to simply judge reviews based on their content.

In otherwords. Assume they're all genuine, and ask yourself. what did they like/dislike?

It's 2 big differences when someone wanted to share his own opinion - even if that turned to be a false one - and tried to rise a hype wave to tighten up people suspectable to it.

In other words, it's not as easy as you've just described.

Its actually easier. If one does not over complicate the matter.. Or to put it another way. Focus more on 'why?' rather than 'what?'.

Fake reviews is a thing on many platforms, so buying a 60 USD game is not as big of a deal as buying 400 USD monitor that mr. reviewer proclaimed to have 12bit matrix, while in reality it's 6bit+FBC for that ridiculous price. And you can only learn it by playing detective and help others by naming the false "facts".

That ones actually fairly easy. If the reviewer mentions a major feature that that the manufacturer themselves doesn't list...something is off and paid reviewers are usually given a script of things to mention so the reviews line up with the actual feature advertised.

The counter to this is to read both positive and negative reviews. If a game lacks negative reviews... well that's a warning flare for me.

So, no, OP: if you are interested in platform, do your research and - if you feel generous - share the results.

Research is of course a good thing. The more data sources the better and uits worth noting that this is one of the reasons I will NEVER Pre-Order a game, or purchase a game at launch. I prefer to wait a month.

And I consider heavy marketing pushes towards pre-orders and launch day purchases to be a giant red-flag. These are the time frames where you have the least available information.