Integrity of Steam Reviews

[Gavin786]

Dear Steam,

I have deep concerns about what some Steam users are claiming in regards to reviews of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game.

There are claims that negative reviews are being deleted. There are claims that the review numbers have plummeted from > 7k to around 2k over the last days. And there is a marked discrepancy between the 85% positive Steam review score and what is seen on Metacritic and other review platforms and what Steam player numbers currently would imply. In other words there is good evidence that this review deletion is actually happening as some users have claimed.

Now I have no horse in this race and do not care about this game one way or another.

However I deeply care about the integrity of the Steam review process. I use this and have relied on it for many years to make purchase decisions. I am a long time player on Steam and use this as my primary games platform. The integrity of the review process matters to me.

I would kindly request that this is looked into and Valve/Steam make some kind of statement on what is going on here. Have reviews actually been deleted or is something else afoot? Why is there such discrepancy between Steam review scores vs MetaCritic and player numbers? Is there some innocent explanation for what seems to be going on here?

More importantly, does this incident signal a shift in Steam's review policy and what does this mean for the future of the Steam review system?

I know there has been deliberate manipulation on other review sites in the past, notably for expensive yet generally loathed TV shows like "Rings of Power" and other such shows accused of being "Woke". However Steam has always seemed thus far immune to this kind of thing, with reviews accurately reflecting player sentiment.

I would greatly appreciate any kind of comment on this matter.

Regards,

Gavin786

[Pierce Dalton]

Tito Shivan původně napsal:

Pierce Dalton původně napsal:

Do you really believe that every Steam user hovers the mouse over that asterisk? The information is there, yes, if you do that.

Surely someone who misses the big banner on top is going to miss the small highlighted asterisk on the graph.
https://imgur.com/a/2535xuh

I was referring to the asterisk at the top, alongside the score, not the one inside the graph. It's not like everyone even scroll down to the reviews to begin with, especially given the... peculiar nature of Steam reviews.

[Rin]

In general, modern reviews or rather review outlets, found online stopped being useful some 15 years ago.

And as for the current trend which follows the same path as its predecessor you might as well ignore big budget games unless they happen to be from someone who doesn't bother with social media.

Speaking of, Rocksteady like so many other US devs were put to rest almost a decade ago when every game had to have a trillogy.

Everyone of these have pretty much shifted to live service meaning these dev studios are in name only if anything. It is the publisher that is calling the shots in the end while dev studio or rather the IP = brand. You might as well compare brand to irl brands that had funny commercials like gillette or that beer brand. And everyone are following suit. From disney to the family driven store all in the name of driving <insert agenda here>.

And that's been going on far longer once you start picking things apart that may seem normal to (the eye of the beholder) you. Tobacco, alcohol or junk food brands love to sneak in their brands into media (undisclosed to the consumer or via unmalicious intent by the developer) as much as possible while some actually make a deal with publishers/studios to pay the bill. All in order to promote said brand, like in that postal carrier simulator.

[niralamart000]

William Shakesman původně napsal:

Steam treats reviews as a metric to be manipulated and massaged as necessary so it doesn't surprise me but I have not seen them mass delete reviews. This is a new charge.

but not surprising, steam is rapidly changing in to microsoft

[niralamart000]

brian9824 původně napsal:

🔮🎆💎Darth Hulka💎🎆 původně napsal:

From what i heard content was removed so people voiced their opinions and were silenced.
if people paid for a product and want to leave a bad review for something that they see is bad why should they be silenced?

Many of the reviews were just blatant review bombing and the reviews weren't removed. They don't factor into the score. If you look at the graph you can see it for that game very clearly that it was a massive anomaly in the reviews.

They are still able to give their opinion and you can read them if you want.

isn't that the same thing though, people are not gonna read those reviews and not counting them in the total score just means false advertising. i doubt steam is even reading any of those reviews, those 5k reviews no longer counting are all probably those.

[niralamart000]

from what i got all this, no steam reviews removed, but put as ignored in the total score which is pretty much the same thing. As a store steam would want triple A publishers to have as many sales as possible, it's bad enough already that steam's special sales window is trash and they barely promote old games like gog and xbox store on console, i have to actually open up my xbox console and see the the entire lists of sales and similar games and recommendations all in a giant window with both old and new games and it's excellent. why doesn't steam just do this already

[D. Flame]

Malfunctioning Robot původně napsal:

D. Flame původně napsal:

There is plenty of evidence. I mean the very fact that Steam will remove negative reviews as "off-topic," even when they are directly about a change in the game itself, is proof enough that the reviews on this site are lacking in integrity. Letting Publishers control the forums for their own games so they can suppress negative discussions is a nothing data point that logically leads to the conclusion that there is a lack of integrity. Not to mention, I have heard it said that if they ban you from their discussion boards, that also renders you unable to leave a review for said game.

How can you look at all this evidence and still pretend to not see it?

Because that is sea lioning, not evidence.

Don't use terms you don't understand.

Malfunctioning Robot původně napsal:

No, thats the kind of "evidence" that flat earthers present. It is entirely unrelated to the claims being made and doesn't prove ♥♥♥♥.

You clearly have no idea how evidence works, which explains why you are trying to resort to ad hominem instead, I suppose.

Evidence never proves anything on its own. It is just there to support logical reasoning and rational conclusions. Pointing at an apple, doesn't prove anything. Tossing it in the air, then explaining gravity and inertia based how how the apple reacts to being thrown on the other hand...

[Brian9824]

niralamart000 původně napsal:

from what i got all this, no steam reviews removed, but put as ignored in the total score which is pretty much the same thing. As a store steam would want triple A publishers to have as many sales as possible, it's bad enough already that steam's special sales window is trash and they barely promote old games like gog and xbox store on console, i have to actually open up my xbox console and see the the entire lists of sales and similar games and recommendations all in a giant window with both old and new games and it's excellent. why doesn't steam just do this already

Nope, if that happened it would be labeled and the game would have no reviews as the positive reviews are removed to during the period.

What happened is someone just lied and guilable people believed them based on their claim because they wanted to believe it

[D. Flame]

Malfunctioning Robot původně napsal:

D. Flame původně napsal:

Don't use terms you don't understand.




You clearly have no idea how evidence works, which explains why you are trying to resort to ad hominem instead, I suppose.

Evidence never proves anything on its own. It is just there to support logical reasoning and rational conclusions. Pointing at an apple, doesn't prove anything. Tossing it in the air, then explaining gravity and inertia based how how the apple reacts to being thrown on the other hand...

Come back when you have a rational conclusion then. Because the evidence already presented in the thread shows that no reviews have disappeared, little sea lion

I have a rational explanation.


Meanwhile, your entire response just boils down to “nuh-uh!”

[D. Flame]

Malfunctioning Robot původně napsal:

of course, no reason to engage with a sea lion and rehash the proof that debunks their nonsense again.

Ad hominem fallacy

[Brian9824]

D. Flame původně napsal:

Malfunctioning Robot původně napsal:

Come back when you have a rational conclusion then. Because the evidence already presented in the thread shows that no reviews have disappeared, little sea lion

I have a rational explanation.

Not really,

1. They don't remove reviews, at most they remove the impact the reviews have on the overall score for people who choose to not see them, and don't do anything at all to those who do wish to see them.
2. No reviews were removed for the OP's game in question so the claim is meritless in this case

[D. Flame]

brian9824 původně napsal:

D. Flame původně napsal:

I have a rational explanation.

Not really,

1. They don't remove reviews, at most they remove the impact the reviews have on the overall score for people who choose to not see them, and don't do anything at all to those who do wish to see them.
2. No reviews were removed for the OP's game in question so the claim is meritless in this case

1.) if a review is hidden, it is functionally the same as being removed

2.) prove it.

[Boblin the Goblin]

D. Flame původně napsal:

brian9824 původně napsal:

Not really,

1. They don't remove reviews, at most they remove the impact the reviews have on the overall score for people who choose to not see them, and don't do anything at all to those who do wish to see them.
2. No reviews were removed for the OP's game in question so the claim is meritless in this case

1.) if a review is hidden, it is functionally the same as being removed

2.) prove it.

Removed means it cannot be read.

[Brian9824]

D. Flame původně napsal:

1.) if a review is hidden, it is functionally the same as being removed

Review isn't hidden, it shows up if you search reviews, as repeatedly said you need to learn the difference between hiding a review and not counting the score in the total

D. Flame původně napsal:

2.) prove it.

Sure, if they had removed reviews for an off topic period it would be labeled like it always is, and you'd see a gap in the review date of the missing reviews as they remove ALL reviews in the off topic period. There are no gaps, no labeling of it occuring, and not a shred of evidence to show a single review was marked as off topic, let alone removed. The game is only 4 days old so its not hard to see.......

Go look at Borderlands 2 and note the asterisk and label next to the review score when it happens.

Now you prove otherwise.

[D. Flame]

SlowMango původně napsal:

D. Flame původně napsal:

1.) if a review is hidden, it is functionally the same as being removed

2.) prove it.

Removed means it cannot be read.

Tossing a needle into a stack of hay does not render it physically unusable, but it does make it unusable for all intents and purposes. This is what hiding review does as well.

[Zarineth]

D. Flame původně napsal:

SlowMango původně napsal:

Removed means it cannot be read.

Tossing a needle into a stack of hay does not render it physically unusable, but it does make it unusable for all intents and purposes. This is what hiding review does as well.

There is a magnet next to that stack of hay... It's an option to show all reviews.