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

[Start_Running]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Pierce Dalton:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Start_Running:

One account, no. But how many different payment credit cards do they have?
That's the better question.

Yeah that's the only payment method that exists.

Anyway, none of that really matters if it's one individual wanting to target one game, just once. I mean, who doesn't have $60 in a first world country, right?

Again. How many Paypal accounts, and etc accounts are they willing to contunually make. I mean thats a lot of work and potential financial risk because you can bet the providers themselves will be questioning the odd behaviour they are seeing.

It's not 100^ but its light years better than NOTHING AT ALL.

Diposting pertama kali oleh brian9824:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Low Standards:

Gamespot review just came in: 5/10.

Critic reviews are not user reviews. Also just checked Xbox and its 4/5 stars so pretty much the same as Playstation and Steam.

So lets recap.

Playstation, Steam, and Xbox all have very similar reviews for the game. Metacritic which openly admits it has major problems with review bombs is the outliers. So are you going to claim that PS, Steam, and Xbox are all deleting reviews and Metacritic is the only review site that has it correct and everyone else is wrong?

And Critics are easily bought since their jobs kinda rely on some good will. I mean remember how many critics tarred and feathered Hogwatrs legacy?

[Blood]

Steam does not delete negative reviews, but they sometimes remove negative reviews from the average review score, which is funny because they don't do that with positive reviews.

[Mid-boss]

Diposting pertama kali oleh brian9824:

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10001609

Also again, 4.5 out of 5 stars on Playstation, can't find where xbox has its reviews but I bet its similar. Hence why you don't trust metacritic with any game with any remote drama as they have known for years that their reviews are inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

But there's no such thing as positive manipulation?
Forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth, but why is only the negative bias being considered here?
Steam requires you to own the game, thus anyone who didn't get filtered by all the noise around the game is already more predisposed to liking it.
Wouldn't that mean Metacritic is the *more* reliable metric? because it will have everyone from both ends of the bias rating it?
You can like/dislike a game for any reason, rating it negative without playing it because your against live service is completely valid.

[Pierce Dalton]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Start_Running:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Pierce Dalton:

Yeah that's the only payment method that exists.

Anyway, none of that really matters if it's one individual wanting to target one game, just once. I mean, who doesn't have $60 in a first world country, right?

Again. How many Paypal accounts, and etc accounts are they willing to contunually make. I mean thats a lot of work and potential financial risk because you can bet the providers themselves will be questioning the odd behaviour they are seeing.

It's not 100^ but its light years better than NOTHING AT ALL.

Once.

[D. Flame]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Start_Running:

And Critics are easily bought since their jobs kinda rely on some good will. I mean remember how many critics tarred and feathered Hogwatrs legacy?

This is why no one takes game "journalists" seriously. When you are reliant on handouts from the very businesses that you are meant to be reviewing, there is zero chance that you can remain impartial and unbiased.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blood:

Steam does not delete negative reviews, but they sometimes remove negative reviews from the average review score, which is funny because they don't do that with positive reviews.

They do that with all reviews during a spike of off topic reviews.

[Brian9824]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blood:

Steam does not delete negative reviews, but they sometimes remove negative reviews from the average review score, which is funny because they don't do that with positive reviews.

Actually they do. When an off topic review period occurs ALL reviews in that period, both positive and negative are reviewed.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Mid-boss:

Diposting pertama kali oleh brian9824:

https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/10001609

Also again, 4.5 out of 5 stars on Playstation, can't find where xbox has its reviews but I bet its similar. Hence why you don't trust metacritic with any game with any remote drama as they have known for years that their reviews are inaccurate and easy to manipulate.

But there's no such thing as positive manipulation?
Forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth, but why is only the negative bias being considered here?
Steam requires you to own the game, thus anyone who didn't get filtered by all the noise around the game is already more predisposed to liking it.
Wouldn't that mean Metacritic is the *more* reliable metric? because it will have everyone from both ends of the bias rating it?
You can like/dislike a game for any reason, rating it negative without playing it because your against live service is completely valid.

Not saying it never happens, but do you have an example of one? I mean you always have spam reviews, but i mean a genuine positive review boosting? I guess where mass positive reviews that are not related to the game are posted? The entire point of steam's system is its OFF TOPIC review bombs.

Of course again, i'd like to point out NO REVIEW BOMBS have been flagged for suicide squad. So steam has not removed anything. Some just dont like the game is getting a score they feel is too high.

I mean Metacritic themselves have even admitted they have a review bombing issue, the problem is that on metacritic you can make 100 accounts, 1000 accounts, etc. On steam you can only leave 1 review. Its FAAAAR harder to bomb a game on steam

[Pierce Dalton]

Diposting pertama kali oleh brian9824:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blood:

Steam does not delete negative reviews, but they sometimes remove negative reviews from the average review score, which is funny because they don't do that with positive reviews.

Actually they do. When an off topic review period occurs ALL reviews in that period, both positive and negative are reviewed.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Mid-boss:

But there's no such thing as positive manipulation?
Forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth, but why is only the negative bias being considered here?
Steam requires you to own the game, thus anyone who didn't get filtered by all the noise around the game is already more predisposed to liking it.
Wouldn't that mean Metacritic is the *more* reliable metric? because it will have everyone from both ends of the bias rating it?
You can like/dislike a game for any reason, rating it negative without playing it because your against live service is completely valid.

Not saying it never happens, but do you have an example of one? I mean you always have spam reviews, but i mean a genuine positive review boosting? I guess where mass positive reviews that are not related to the game are posted? The entire point of steam's system is its OFF TOPIC review bombs.

CS2.

[Tripas]

You expect integrity, or really any kind of standards, from Steam reviews? Really? Have all the years of them being completely unreliable, whilst showcasing exactly how dumb the average person is not clued you in as to how worthless they are?

[Hong Kong Phooey]

Imagine you have infinite cash..You want your platform to be the bees knees......

What wood Paul Allens platform look like?

[Quarex]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Malfunctioning Robot:

wayback machine shows no drop in reviews, looks like cope from the trolls wanting the reviews to be wrong.

A bunch of nonsense false claims

Fascists will believe literally anything you tell them except the truth

"Yes bro, the radical left is out to get you, they delete every review from a real true brave big boy like you, trust me, my buddy has proof"

[Arthur of War]

I won't be making any more purchases on Steam until Steam fully explains why the review score has been manipulated to try to prop up games that are be widely panned by players and then publicly apologizes. The integrity of the Steam user review was the only reason to use the service. The players are the customers, not failing studios.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Arthur of War:

I won't be making any more purchases on Steam until Steam fully explains why the review score has been manipulated to try to prop up games that are be widely panned by players and then publicly apologizes. The integrity of the Steam user review was the only reason to use the service. The players are the customers, not failing studios.

Literally explain why.

If there's a giant surge of off topic reviews, all reviews during that period don't go toward the overall score if you don't have it enabled.

[Start_Running]

Diposting pertama kali oleh D. Flame:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Start_Running:

And Critics are easily bought since their jobs kinda rely on some good will. I mean remember how many critics tarred and feathered Hogwatrs legacy?

This is why no one takes game "journalists" seriously. When you are reliant on handouts from the very businesses that you are meant to be reviewing, there is zero chance that you can remain impartial and unbiased.

Well you can but you're likely not going to have a review for the game out on lauunch day and byu the time you do get a revuiew out... it's already 1-2 weeks later than some of your peers.

Diposting pertama kali oleh brian9824:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Blood:

Steam does not delete negative reviews, but they sometimes remove negative reviews from the average review score, which is funny because they don't do that with positive reviews.

Actually they do. When an off topic review period occurs ALL reviews in that period, both positive and negative are reviewed.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Mid-boss:

But there's no such thing as positive manipulation?
Forgive me if I'm putting words in your mouth, but why is only the negative bias being considered here?
Steam requires you to own the game, thus anyone who didn't get filtered by all the noise around the game is already more predisposed to liking it.
Wouldn't that mean Metacritic is the *more* reliable metric? because it will have everyone from both ends of the bias rating it?
You can like/dislike a game for any reason, rating it negative without playing it because your against live service is completely valid.

Not saying it never happens, but do you have an example of one? I mean you always have spam reviews, but i mean a genuine positive review boosting? I guess where mass positive reviews that are not related to the game are posted? The entire point of steam's system is its OFF TOPIC review bombs.

Of course again, i'd like to point out NO REVIEW BOMBS have been flagged for suicide squad. So steam has not removed anything. Some just dont like the game is getting a score they feel is too high.

I mean Metacritic themselves have even admitted they have a review bombing issue, the problem is that on metacritic you can make 100 accounts, 1000 accounts, etc. On steam you can only leave 1 review. Its FAAAAR harder to bomb a game on steam

I think I saw an honest to goodness example of that for Doom 2016. There's a flagged Off Tpopic review section but the mahjority of the reviews in that period are positive

[Start_Running]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Arthur of War:

I won't be making any more purchases on Steam until Steam fully explains why the review score has been manipulated to try to prop up games that are be widely panned by players and then publicly apologizes. The integrity of the Steam user review was the only reason to use the service. The players are the customers, not failing studios.

If they actually meant anything to you, you'd just turn off the off topic filter for your account. That is an option after all.