Privacy for reviews

[K]

When Steam was born and for some time after that, it forbade adult content.

Not many years ago, there was a change and now the gates are open, and I won't by hypocritical and complain.

However the change mandated also some extra attention to privacy rules.

Even if I make my account completely private, which is the only way to use these new adult content with mandatory privacy, reviews are still public or visible to friends.

Somehow, in order to review adult content, I need privacy rules to better protect me.

We need anonymised review, at least for adult content.

Adult content needs to be treated differently in order to allow Steam users to use it comfortably.

Ideally content flagged as "adult" should have extra privacy settings, so that friends can see when I'm playing "Doom", but I will not be seen playing an adult title.

[ReBoot]

If you don't want anyone to read your review, don't write a review. Problem solved.

[Chika Ogiue]

Stop playing "adult" titles if you're not adult enough to be comfortable with your "friends" knowing you're playing an "adult" title. Problem solved.

[Yujah]

Those (#1, #2) were expected replies. Insofar however that "reviews" are considered useful to Steam users hence Steam, the suggestion made is still a valid one.

And this while wanting to note that I'd much prefer Steam remove the pornographic crap outright whereby the "problem" would also already be solved.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Yujah:

I'd much prefer Steam remove the pornographic crap outright

And I'd rather they remove the ultra violence crud that also clutters the store.

But removing games doesn't solve the OPs problem of being too afraid to play something out of fear of what their so-called friends will say.

[Yujah]

Right, whence I didn't suggest said removal (even if I'd like them to). What OP would be helped by is, well, the thing OP suggested.

[Crazy Tiger]

I think people should have less shame for what they enjoy.

[Yujah]

Nice sentiment in theory. But if you're say 14 years old or live in Iran or... it respectively can be and flat-out is a pretty good idea to keep your stack of gay-themed visual novels hidden away a bit. Say.

[Crazy Tiger]

In such a case one would think someone would buy such games on a different account, tied to a different email and the like.

I'm in favor of more privacy options, but I'm also in favor of people being less ashamed in general of their adult games.It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, you know. Exceptions, extreme cases and outliers will always exist, but in general I find it odd that people somehow are proud to display games with heavy violence and gore but are prudish about adult games.

[BJWyler]

Originally posted by Yujah:

Nice sentiment in theory. But if you're say 14 years old or live in Iran or... it respectively can be and flat-out is a pretty good idea to keep your stack of gay-themed visual novels hidden away a bit. Say.

My initial reaction whenever this comes up is to say that if one is ashamed of what one is doing, then perhaps one should rethink doing what one is doing. And I would question why a 14 year old would be consuming Gay themed pornography, but then I remember being a teen-age boy myself and hiding certain Playful Rabbit magazines from my parents. I would also question the veracity and usefulness of anonymous reviews, but when you account for the fact that any review on the Internet is masked by a degree of anonymity (or at least should be if people are not using real names as their user/profiles names, which would be common sense), then it really shouldn't be an issue to hide the profile name of the user making the review here, as the real information would still be known by Steam and the review itself still be held to the rules as implemented by Valve.

So yeah, at the end of the day, more privacy options for our Steam Profiles and UGC, including reviews doesn't seem like it should be that much of a problem to have.

[Yujah]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

(...) but in general I find it odd that people somehow are proud to display games with heavy violence and gore but are prudish about adult games.

If you click through to OP's profile you will find it private. I.e., he or she to not be "proud to display games with heavy violence" even if they were to have and/or play those games, something which is a mere assumption in the first place.

OP is explicitly about being able to hide games in that "private profile" sense yet not in that of reviews. Yes sure, easily solvable in other ways also, that amount to not playing and/or reviewing -- and also in the way OP suggests, which to me makes complete sense as a suggestion to Valve at least insofar that "reviews" make sense to Valve in the first place.

So sure. All for. Or just remove the smut from a "game" platform outright, also all for -- but if not, all for.

[K]

Originally posted by Yujah:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

(...) but in general I find it odd that people somehow are proud to display games with heavy violence and gore but are prudish about adult games.

If you click through to OP's profile you will find it private. I.e., he or she to not be "proud to display games with heavy violence" even if they were to have and/or play those games, something which is a mere assumption in the first place.

OP is explicitly about being able to hide games in that "private profile" sense yet not in that of reviews. Yes sure, easily solvable in other ways also, that amount to not playing and/or reviewing -- and also in the way OP suggests, which to me makes complete sense as a suggestion to Valve at least insofar that "reviews" make sense to Valve in the first place.

So sure. All for. Or just remove the smut from a "game" platform outright, also all for -- but if not, all for.

In particular my post refers to a game that has bad ("mixed") review, because at launch it had insufficient content. However, now after some time, it has significantly more content and has greatly improved the quality, deserving positive reviews to clean the initial blunder.
Yet, I am not going to, if that exposes myself.

To those saying things that sum up against the importance of privacy (without even bother #1 and #2 of a dignified answer), you know nothing.

[Nx Machina]

You are "choosing" to write reviews of said content, in turn that review is attached to your profile name. If you do not want those "public" reviews to be read, delete them.

[Yujah]

Rinse, repeat.

Anyways, to OP, the "Suggestions / Ideas" forum would've been more directly applicable. Not sure if a suggestion made here goes anywhere (even if I'm not sure one made there would either). If you'd repost you'd have to redo this thread as well though...

[Kargor]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

In such a case one would think someone would buy such games on a different account, tied to a different email and the like.

You can have multiple accounts on the same email, no problem.

Steam uses the account name to distinguish accounts, not the EMail. So, all purchases, play data, settings, forum posts etc. are entirely separate even if you do use the same EMail.

[Start_Running]

You can set it friends only but thats about it OP due to the nature of reviews for the sake of transparency they have to be visible to someone other than the author.

If you're ashamed about writing a review or the game that's being reviewed. then don't write a review for ot.