Arma Reforger Developers Abusing Steam Moderation Tools

[Biggus Dickus]

So I think this is the place to post this, but honestly I cannot tell the difference between all these general discussions/community stuff.

Anyways, I haven't actually been banned myself but am just part of an enthusiastic group of longtime Arma fans that feel disappointed by Arma Reforger and have been keeping track and posting criticisms of the game and contrasting promises made by the developers and how that's actually implemented, and a fair number of us have been permanently banned from the Arma Reforger and Arma Reforger experimental version communities.

Now I get that developers can do whatever the heck they want on their own game communities so I'm going to focus on how they are overstepping their boundaries and seeking to silence anyone pointing out them outright lying about the state of the game. First is that the Arma Reforger and Arma Reforger Experimental version count as seperate game communities, so if someone is banned on both quickly they receive a steam-wide community ban, and the Arma Reforger developers will usually ban someone on both at the same time even for posts on one being entirely unrelated to one on the other yet for the same rule both cases. Beyond that, I didn't even know this was allowed but once someone receives a ban from the Arma Reforger community their game review can be moderated and even deleted by the developers. I don't need to explain how that can be massively abusive, as anyone who criticizes the game cannot leave a negative review as a result since several members of the community have noted that once banned their already existing negative reviews disappeared and when they asked steam support they told them that that's a result of their community ban and reviewed by that game's community moderators, AKA the developers.

And this is important because the Reforger developers are outright lying and abusing steam tags/systems to promote their game. Reforger is tagged as "singleplayer" despite the game description and the FAQ listing that Reforger is multiplayer only with no planned singleplayer content. As well, Reforger recently left EA after a year and a half of despite it being nowhere near ready, and I don't mean the subjective sort of "it's not ready", I mean the FAQ and linked roadmap listed the features that would be in a 1.0 release, which still remains btw, and they simply renamed the at the time beta patch to "1.0" despite adding no new features and only having about a third of the features promised, and advertised the game as having those features already implemented. As well they are retroactively changing the FAQ including the pricing, with promises that there would be no sales or price changes before all the features were added. Surprise Surprise right after the 1.0 version was released there was a sale, and for a day or two the "no price changes or sales" on the FAQ remained but was taken down once it was pointed out and this can still be viewed on stuff like the wayback machine.

Beyond this, the game developers are abusing bans by deleting negative posts of users and that while they are banned they cannot edit or delete their own posts, parade positive posts, screenshots and community discussions made by the banned users that those users then cannot remove, creating a false sense that the game is fine. As an example many in the community were quite excited when Reforger was first made playable for what would come later and made a lot of posts saying how good the game looks and how great it can become, then becoming disillusioned as time went on. Well those users were banned, their negative posts removed, and their old positive posts from like 2 years ago being suddenly bumped by the developers posting as users(or whatever, I don't mean posing as users, I mean the devs just posting in the discussion) to make it seem like these players are currently positive and hyped for the game, all the while they are banned and cannot edit/delete/stop this.

Overall I feel that Reforger is a woefully underdeveloped game, which I get is not something steam can do anything about, but the Reforger developers are abusing the moderation tools to create a false narrative around the game and hide legitimate criticism and warnings to new players, and outright lying about the state of the game in violation of steam guidelines, ie tagging the game as singleplay when it's not and changing the description/FAQ retroactively and in a deceptive manner.

[Biggus Dickus]

引用自 cSg|mc-Hotsauce：

引用自 Biggus Dickus：

And Steam support said that this is not the way it is supposed to be used, and is meant only for bans relating to violating the Steam subscriber agreement, not game hub rule bans. I dunno what you're looking for.

Had you not posted a review before the game hub ban, you could have written one after the ban. But editing it is no longer allowed after a game hub ban. This was intentionally done by Valve to stop people from going full rage mode by editing their reviews after getting banned in the game hub.

People used to edit their reviews to threaten devs with all sorts of things after getting banned in their game hubs.

:winterbunny2023:

I also specifically mentioned "adding reviews" as well. It was "editing and adding reviews", and again steam support said that is not the intended function of a game hub ban by game hub specific rules by non-valve moderators.

If you want further evidence it says so right here in the community moderation guidelines, which steam support told me to review when I contacted them, confirm this is what is happening, and then replied that they would contact the relevant department and to post here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/community_moderation#7

[HikariLight]

When support tells you to go to the forums, that is their way of politely telling you to go away.

[d3str0y3r]

Also Steam Support has no say in way is or is not intended by Valve... Steam Support is an outsourced company.

[Satoru]

"Tools are working as intended"

"Devs are abusing the tools"

I don't think you really understand what you're saying or how your own behavior is the consequences of your own actions

[miakisfan]

In other news: people are still posting on forums and don't get it that they aren't in charge?

Ah, there are times I wish I were still this ignorant of reality.

[nullable]

It kinda seems like they were told something contradictory, or were able to interpret it contrarily and they want to argue as if that overrules everything else. Then enter in confirmation biases where only things that support their current beliefs count, and anything else, regardless of how factual it is must be wrong, "because I was told..."

Standard "I don't like the consequences for my actions" stuff to me. Groping for anything to get out of it.

[Pipe]

jesus christ. yet another example of game devs abusing their power to silence criticism, and a big one at that
I'm seriously discouraged from participating in any dev-controlled space

[miakisfan]

The great thing about being on the other side of an opinion here is you are almost guaranteed a jester ... even if you are right.

Eat 'em and smile I guess.