What exactly is an "off topic" review?

[Nicodemous52]

Because most of what Steam calls "off topic", I find is usually related to the game. Now, If I post a review that is a political pitch on why you should vote for X over Y in the next election, then sure I can accept that is off topic. If someone just posts song lyrics or a music video as their review for a game, sure I can accept that's off topic. Though, in that case I'd argue they did it for a reason, there is probably something in that that conveys how they feel about the game.

But, how is it "off topic" when folks "review bomb" a game, based on developer's actions and choices? If a developer did or said something publicly that's politically or culturally charged, you don't think that is relevant to some people in their buying decisions? If a developer made recent unpopular changes to a game, how is that not relevant?

Funny how if the developer makes changes in a game for the better and they get flooded with positive reviews, that's never called "off topic" or hidden. Are we in a retail relationship Steam, or is this a parental one where I am the child?

[Seretti]

Well, I'm buying a game not a developer. Just because the developer made an oopsie at some point in time, doesn't mean the game itself is bad. People really need to learn to separate the art from the artist.

[delerium76]

Seretti の投稿を引用：

Well, I'm buying a game not a developer. Just because the developer made an oopsie at some point in time, doesn't mean the game itself is bad. People really need to learn to separate the art from the artist.

This is kind of a grey area depending on the context, because some of a developers decisions do effect the game, such as firing a voice actor and replacing all of their dialog with a much worse one because of a few of the voice actor's social media posts for instance (just an example). I feel like if the political statements or issues effect the game, or are a part of the game, then it's totally on-topic to bring that up in a review. But if it's just "dev is a scumbag that kills puppies" or something weird like that, then yeah it doesn't belong in a review.

[Nicodemous52]

delerium76 の投稿を引用：

Seretti の投稿を引用：

Well, I'm buying a game not a developer. Just because the developer made an oopsie at some point in time, doesn't mean the game itself is bad. People really need to learn to separate the art from the artist.

This is kind of a grey area depending on the context, because some of a developers decisions do effect the game, such as firing a voice actor and replacing all of their dialog with a much worse one because of a few of the voice actor's social media posts for instance (just an example). I feel like if the political statements or issues effect the game, or are a part of the game, then it's totally on-topic to bring that up in a review. But if it's just "dev is a scumbag that kills puppies" or something weird like that, then yeah it doesn't belong in a review.

I would disagree. The trouble is in today's world, one man's scumbag is another man's hero. That, and people can lie. But reviews should be a tool, if you see people say horrible things about a developer that may have you decide you don't want to give them your money, it is on you to actually look into it yourself and figure out how credible it is. But I think it's relevant. I'm the kind of guy that will not shop at Walmart for this, that, and the other reason. But I don't call for others to stop shopping with them. I just won't give them my money. I don't go out of my way to find reasons to not patronize shops or developers, but if reasons present themselves to me, I'll consider them in my decision making process. And that, to me, is perfectly relevant to the topic of if I should spend my money with X or on Y.

[Nicodemous52]

Seretti の投稿を引用：

Well, I'm buying a game not a developer. Just because the developer made an oopsie at some point in time, doesn't mean the game itself is bad. People really need to learn to separate the art from the artist.

Is that your decision to make for them though? Is that Steam's decision to make for them? I'm not so sure.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

A lot of that whole "this review is off topic, so let's hide it" thing is pure censorship. It's a tricky way for developers to not be held accountable; at least that's how I see it anyway.

[delerium76]

Nicodemous52 の投稿を引用：

delerium76 の投稿を引用：

This is kind of a grey area depending on the context, because some of a developers decisions do effect the game, such as firing a voice actor and replacing all of their dialog with a much worse one because of a few of the voice actor's social media posts for instance (just an example). I feel like if the political statements or issues effect the game, or are a part of the game, then it's totally on-topic to bring that up in a review. But if it's just "dev is a scumbag that kills puppies" or something weird like that, then yeah it doesn't belong in a review.

I would disagree. The trouble is in today's world, one man's scumbag is another man's hero. That, and people can lie. But reviews should be a tool, if you see people say horrible things about a developer that may have you decide you don't want to give them your money, it is on you to actually look into it yourself and figure out how credible it is. But I think it's relevant. I'm the kind of guy that will not shop at Walmart for this, that, and the other reason. But I don't call for others to stop shopping with them. I just won't give them my money. I don't go out of my way to find reasons to not patronize shops or developers, but if reasons present themselves to me, I'll consider them in my decision making process. And that, to me, is perfectly relevant to the topic of if I should spend my money with X or on Y.

I see your point, but I think you are missing the point that it is a GAME review, not a DEVELOPER or PUBLISHER review. There are plenty of news sites out there that report on that sort of stuff, so if you care about that, you can and should look it up elsewhere. As you said, " it is on you to actually look into it yourself and figure out how credible it is." but instead, "it" should be the company, not a game review that has nothing to do with the game.

xAlphaStarOmegax の投稿を引用：

A lot of that whole "this review is off topic, so let's hide it" thing is pure censorship. It's a tricky way for developers to not be held accountable; at least that's how I see it anyway.

Developers are held accountable by the internet plenty. If you care what a dev is doing outside of the game, such as crunch culture, political alignment, sexual harassment swept under the rug, then do your own research. It's not censorship as much as eliminating spam not relevant to how the game plays... you know, the whole purpose of a game review.

[Hammer Of Evil]

Nicodemous52 の投稿を引用：

What exactly is an "off topic" review?

example:

15/10 would do <x> again

/example

we see in the above example of an off topic review, that the review:

>bears no information about the game
>bears no subjective opinion
>takes the stance of 'recommended' or 'not recommended' without context or reasoning.

and so, it can safely be ignored, or relegated to 'off topic' reviews.

iirc you can choose to include off topic reviews if you want to see all the joke reviews, and meme reviews, and copy pastas.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nicodemous52 の投稿を引用：

But I think it's relevant.

That's fine. Which is why it's good that the off-topic filter has the option to be disabled. That way you can see those reviews reflected in the average rating. People who don't consider such stuff to be relevant don't.

[Crazy Tiger]

Hammer Of Evil の投稿を引用：

iirc you can choose to include off topic reviews if you want to see all the joke reviews, and meme reviews, and copy pastas.

Except that those are not the type of reviews that are filtered out by the off-topic filter. Well, unless they were made in the same period as the "review bomb".

Heck, I'd go as far as to say that Valve does not care about copy&paste meme and joke reviews. Even after reports they aren't getting removed.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Steam does have measures in place that will prevent a massive flood of negative reviews for any game at any point in time, also known as "Review bombing". It doesn't matter for what reason that people may want to write negative reviews of a game (a recent change in the game by the developer as you said, a game releasing brand new game that is terrible, etc). If steam detects a certain amount of negative reviews in a certain amount of time they will start deleting new negative reviews and flag people with an "off topic warning" to prevent "review bombing".

This was posted about to the public and big news about steam back in 2019 (See here: https://www.eurogamer.net/valve-reveals-new-measures-to-tackle-review-bombing-on-steam ). This has been well known and has been in effect for many years. This is not new. This is not news today. It's just part of how steam operates.

[SDF-7]

Meh -- depends. I'm thinking of a certain publisher which has gone back into past releases and patched them solely to add launchers and web tracking.

Does that have anything to do with the past games or a new game published by them? No, not per se.

Is it a pattern of behavior that indicates you should stay away from that publisher and they're likely to try to keep doing this sort of garbage? Yeah... and I think folks should know before they pick up a game where said publisher has the control to push updates.

It isn't gameplay, it isn't the game itself -- but it is "You're entering a contract to let these fools mess with your computer", so there's relevance.

[Nicodemous52]

🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊 の投稿を引用：

Steam does have measures in place that will prevent a massive flood of negative reviews for any game at any point in time, also known as "Review bombing". It doesn't matter for what reason that people may want to write negative reviews of a game (a recent change in the game by the developer as you said, a game releasing brand new game that is terrible, etc). If steam detects a certain amount of negative reviews in a certain amount of time they will start deleting new negative reviews and flag people with an "off topic warning" to prevent "review bombing".

This was posted about to the public and big news about steam back in 2019 (See here: https://www.eurogamer.net/valve-reveals-new-measures-to-tackle-review-bombing-on-steam ). This has been well known and has been in effect for many years. This is not new. This is not news today. It's just part of how steam operates.

That's my point, I think it's bs

[Nicodemous52]

WolfEisberg の投稿を引用：

Nicodemous52 の投稿を引用：

Because most of what Steam calls "off topic", I find is usually related to the game. Now, If I post a review that is a political pitch on why you should vote for X over Y in the next election, then sure I can accept that is off topic. If someone just posts song lyrics or a music video as their review for a game, sure I can accept that's off topic. Though, in that case I'd argue they did it for a reason, there is probably something in that that conveys how they feel about the game.

But, how is it "off topic" when folks "review bomb" a game, based on developer's actions and choices? If a developer did or said something publicly that's politically or culturally charged, you don't think that is relevant to some people in their buying decisions? If a developer made recent unpopular changes to a game, how is that not relevant?

Funny how if the developer makes changes in a game for the better and they get flooded with positive reviews, that's never called "off topic" or hidden. Are we in a retail relationship Steam, or is this a parental one where I am the child?

Developer makes changes to the game good or bad that's on topic and Valve doesn't label it as off topic.

Developer does something else that doesn't include changes to the game and people review bomb it for that reason, then that is off topic.

Game reviews are about the game, not the developer.

People who want to know about stuff not related to the game are free to find that information in other ways, but reviews about the game is not the appropriate place for that.

Oh, Skullgirls.

[🦊Λℚ𝓤ΛƑΛᗯҜᔕ🦊]

Nicodemous52 の投稿を引用：

That's my point, I think it's bs

I do as well. But unfortunately this is a policy set in place by Valve and nothing anyone can do about it will change it. They won't stop doing this. They will always prevent review bombings now.

[Ruminate]

It's whatever Valve decides will bring them the most profit. It's in their benefit after all, to mask the actual overall score of a game as it will retain better sales.