Get rid of upvote/downvote on Steam reviews

[genoforprez]

I understand the idea behind doing the upvotes/downvotes, but it doesn't really work. People don't use them to upvote/downvote the quality of the review; they just use them to bump reviews they agree with or think are funny. Worst of all is that in some cases the thumbs are clearly used to wage hate campaigns against particular games or developers. There are games with overwhelmingly positive reviews, with only 15% negative reviews, and yet the entire front page is 100% negative reviews that have been repeatedly upvoted, completely against the general consensus.

In short, people aren't using them as "was this review helpful". People are just using them as a facebook-esque "like" or "dislike" button. Not to mention it creates a filter bubble biased against more recently published reviews.

Steam should just randomly grab a handful of reviews when the store page is loaded. The thumb system doesn't appear to be working that well.

Not the highest priority issue in the world, but for what it's worth.

[Makiki]

I would have to agree. It's being abused so much.
If it didn't work in the forums in the past, then it doesn't work in the reviews. The "funny" is pointless as well.

God forbid you can't make anything new these days, so many idiots ruining it by abusing the system.

[Zefar]

Without those votes there is no way for a user who hasn't played the game know if the review is lying or not.

So the votes actually matter. Sometimes it's abuse but not by much.

[Lycairin]

The internet is flooded with anons. Can't help it but shrug it off :S

[genoforprez]

İlk olarak Zefar tarafından gönderildi:

Without those votes there is no way for a user who hasn't played the game know if the review is lying or not.

So the votes actually matter. Sometimes it's abuse but not by much.

Couldn't you have the thumb system where people could vote whether the review was helpful/unhelpful but remove the behavior where reviews with lots of thumbs/views are bumped to the top of the store page? That way users still get an indication of whether the review is lying, but it removes the incentive for people to abuse the upvoting, and also removes the filter bubble bias against recently published reviews. Being able to flag reviews as helpful/unhelpful isn't the problem so much as the filtering.

[»Dawg]

Internetz needs the ability to hate on something in discrete-mode!

[genoforprez]

İlk olarak .Rekt tarafından gönderildi:

Internetz needs the ability to hate on something in discrete-mode!

The opiate of the trollses XD

[Black Blade]

Well the thing is, it dose not matter that much
You have the Positive/Nagtive filter

So if someone down vote a Positive/Nagtive review, he will do it to all of them making the good one yet have more up-votes then the bad once

So in the end, if you use the Filter of Positive/Nagtive, you will yet get the most positive/negative helpful reviews

[JojoTheSlayer]

İlk olarak genoforprez tarafından gönderildi:

I understand the idea behind doing the upvotes/downvotes, but it doesn't really work. ... ... Not the highest priority issue in the world, but for what it's worth.

While I, considering my other thread, totally get what you are saying.
I still think there needs to be something that too "some extent" sorts out the spam from the legit, but I dont want there to be an active sabotage button as well (the down vote in this context).

For the "new reviews" they have the recent tab. Which I think is great because it gives a general idea of what people are thinking at that moment in time and you get a chance to read them before they are burried by down votes from people that game the system or similar. Not saying it happens to all, but a great number of them.

[dynastystar]

İlk olarak genoforprez tarafından gönderildi:

they just use them to bump reviews they agree with

Stopping right there. Isn't the point of a review to get an idea of if the game is good or not? If everybody upvoted games. If the concensus is the game is bad, and the people who reviewed the game list why, who cares if people upvote it because they agree with it? I agree, the voting on the game's being funny is ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but because people agreed with it? pshhh.

[genoforprez]

İlk olarak dynastystar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak genoforprez tarafından gönderildi:

they just use them to bump reviews they agree with

Stopping right there. Isn't the point of a review to get an idea of if the game is good or not? If everybody upvoted games. If the concensus is the game is bad, and the people who reviewed the game list why, who cares if people upvote it because they agree with it? I agree, the voting on the game's being funny is ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but because people agreed with it? pshhh.

What I mean is, if a person didn't like a game, they'll just upvote any review that gives a thumbs down. They're not even necessarily reading the review, agreeing with any of its points, or voting on the quality or honesty of the review. They just want to amplify anyone who gave a thumbs down because they are mad or whatever. Likewise, they could downvote a positive review for no other reason than it gives a thumbs up and they just want the game to have more down thumbs.

All I'm saying is, if this system is supposed to be somehow filtering out reviews that are poor quality or dishonest, then it doesn't do that. It's doing SOMETHING, but it isn't doing the thing that it purports to be doing.

Imagine a situation where only three people are allowed to post reviews on steam. For video game X, two of those reviewers post a positive review and one reviewer posts a negative review. Then 500,000 steam users are allowed to upvote or downvote those reviews. Recently one of the people on the dev team took a political stance on something, and as a result, when you check the three reviews, the negative review is upvoted 100,000 times and the positive reviews are upvoted maybe a 100-ish times each. This is a highly specific scenario, but it is a thing that happens, and it says something about the review voting system.

I will repeat what I said before, though, that being able to upvote/downvote a review isn't so much a problem as the fact that upvoted reviews are by default filtered to the top of the store page, which incentivizes abusers. I agree that it's not a high priority issue, and I agree with black blade that the filters are a help.

[dynastystar]

İlk olarak genoforprez tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak dynastystar tarafından gönderildi:

Stopping right there. Isn't the point of a review to get an idea of if the game is good or not? If everybody upvoted games. If the concensus is the game is bad, and the people who reviewed the game list why, who cares if people upvote it because they agree with it? I agree, the voting on the game's being funny is ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but because people agreed with it? pshhh.

What I mean is, if a person didn't like a game, they'll just upvote any review that gives a thumbs down. They're not even necessarily reading the review, agreeing with any of its points, or voting on the quality or honesty of the review. Likewise, they could downvote a positive review for no other reason than it gives a thumbs up and they just want the game to have more down thumbs.

All I'm saying is, if this system is supposed to be somehow filtering out reviews that are poor quality or dishonest, then it doesn't do that. It's doing SOMETHING, but it isn't doing the thing that it purports to be doing.

Imagine a situation where only three people are allowed to post reviews on steam. For video game X, two of those reviewers post a positive review and one reviewer posts a negative review. Then 500,000 steam users are allowed to upvote or downvote those reviews. Recently one of the people on the dev team took a political stance on something, and as a result, when you check the three reviews, the negative review is upvoted 100,000 times and the positive reviews are upvoted maybe a 100-ish times each. This is a highly specific scenario, but it is a thing that happens, and it says something about the review voting system.

I will repeat what I said before, though, that being able to upvote/downvote a review isn't so much a problem as the fact that upvoted reviews are by default filtered to the top of the store page, which incentivizes abusers. I agree that it's not a high priority issue, and I agree with black blade that the filters are a help.

Okay, well I think it works just fine.

[genoforprez]

İlk olarak dynastystar tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak genoforprez tarafından gönderildi:

What I mean is, if a person didn't like a game, they'll just upvote any review that gives a thumbs down. They're not even necessarily reading the review, agreeing with any of its points, or voting on the quality or honesty of the review. Likewise, they could downvote a positive review for no other reason than it gives a thumbs up and they just want the game to have more down thumbs.

All I'm saying is, if this system is supposed to be somehow filtering out reviews that are poor quality or dishonest, then it doesn't do that. It's doing SOMETHING, but it isn't doing the thing that it purports to be doing.

Imagine a situation where only three people are allowed to post reviews on steam. For video game X, two of those reviewers post a positive review and one reviewer posts a negative review. Then 500,000 steam users are allowed to upvote or downvote those reviews. Recently one of the people on the dev team took a political stance on something, and as a result, when you check the three reviews, the negative review is upvoted 100,000 times and the positive reviews are upvoted maybe a 100-ish times each. This is a highly specific scenario, but it is a thing that happens, and it says something about the review voting system.

I will repeat what I said before, though, that being able to upvote/downvote a review isn't so much a problem as the fact that upvoted reviews are by default filtered to the top of the store page, which incentivizes abusers. I agree that it's not a high priority issue, and I agree with black blade that the filters are a help.

Okay, well I think it works just fine.

Fair enough.

It's not the worst thing ever, and trust me that I 100% believe that most people on steam probably don't notice, don't care, or think it's working just fine. But nobody knows there are criticisms unless you voice them, so that's all I'm doing. If I'm just some lone OCD twit whinging into the void, then so be it, I guess. =P

[[DoW] DEADPOOL]

ОК

[supertrooper225]

İlk olarak ANCRON tarafından gönderildi:

Majority of players look on store page if game have more positive or negative reviews. Voting system needs only thumbs up, because if you agree and like the review you will up vote, if you don't you just move along, that way more votes you have, higher on store page it will be and more useful to potential buyer.

If Steam is concerned about reviews being informative, there's always people who moderate, so they can keep it clean from stupid "one word" reviews or reviews without useful information.

Down voting is discouraging people to write them, because of some angry kids who go through all of your 100+ reviews and down vote, they are placed in the bottom of the list. I bet no one will ever search a positive review with most down votes, it's just stupid.

Basically if you don't like the game, you make negative review with thumbs down (red), if people agree they up vote. If you like the game, you make positive review with thumbs up (blue), and if people like it, they up vote. Those who don't just walk past.

It's far better option instead of what we have at the moment. I was forced to make my profile private because of some clowns who went through all of my reviews and down voting. In the morning I had 80% of my reviews 0 of 0, when I came from work all of them were 0 of 4.

It's not random and it's not normal, I'm putting time into these, because I want to give some feedback on the product I bought. Also I write only positive reviews, and only on games I enjoyed, it's just how I like it, positive.

Downvoting is technically there for people to disagree with useless reviews.

Look, you need both the upvote and the downvote. If you can only upvote...you might as well take the entire system out altogether. The actual problem is with the community and the quality of most reviews....and no system change will fix that.

[genoforprez]

İlk olarak supertrooper225 tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak ANCRON tarafından gönderildi:

Majority of players look on store page if game have more positive or negative reviews. Voting system needs only thumbs up, because if you agree and like the review you will up vote, if you don't you just move along, that way more votes you have, higher on store page it will be and more useful to potential buyer.

If Steam is concerned about reviews being informative, there's always people who moderate, so they can keep it clean from stupid "one word" reviews or reviews without useful information.

Down voting is discouraging people to write them, because of some angry kids who go through all of your 100+ reviews and down vote, they are placed in the bottom of the list. I bet no one will ever search a positive review with most down votes, it's just stupid.

Basically if you don't like the game, you make negative review with thumbs down (red), if people agree they up vote. If you like the game, you make positive review with thumbs up (blue), and if people like it, they up vote. Those who don't just walk past.

It's far better option instead of what we have at the moment. I was forced to make my profile private because of some clowns who went through all of my reviews and down voting. In the morning I had 80% of my reviews 0 of 0, when I came from work all of them were 0 of 4.

It's not random and it's not normal, I'm putting time into these, because I want to give some feedback on the product I bought. Also I write only positive reviews, and only on games I enjoyed, it's just how I like it, positive.

Downvoting is technically there for people to disagree with useless reviews.

Look, you need both the upvote and the downvote. If you can only upvote...you might as well take the entire system out altogether. The actual problem is with the community and the quality of most reviews....and no system change will fix that.

Yeah, I agree. I would prefer not having either of them, but having both is better than only one. Downvotes allow idiots to go to a game/developer/player they have some kind of vendetta against and downvote all of the positive reviews. Similarly, upvotes allow those same idiots to go to the same game/developer/player and upvote the negative reviews. Both of them are spammed by a**holes. It doesn't make sense to get rid of only one.