Steam Review: Product received for free

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ItchyDani3l May 22, 2016 @ 1:54pm

Steam Review: Product received for free

I saw this in yellow text on some steam reviews "Product received for free"
Obviously it means that the reviewer got the game for "free" somehow... but what does that mean really?

What is considered free in this case? Did they have the game gifted to them? Did they install the game as a F2P and then it became a retail game? Did the developers give them a CD key for free so that they would review the game?

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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments

cinedine May 22, 2016 @ 2:08pm

It's a checkboy on the review. If someone feels it's applicable, he checks it. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing as there is no backup data or reliability behind it. "Free" can mean review code, giveaway, gift, complementary to a bundle, ... I've even seen reviews on F2P games which checked this.

ItchyDani3l May 22, 2016 @ 2:21pm

So I can buy a game and then say that I received it for free?? lmao

Toad Mooks May 22, 2016 @ 3:02pm

I guess if you want to?

username12121 May 22, 2016 @ 8:43pm

It seems to be a strange addition to the reviews (along with the other recent changes, imho). I've noticed at least one person indicate (somewhere in these forums) that if they saw any reviews that indicated this that they would assume them to be biased and would not take them seriously. I'd assume that a number of others might feel the same way.

The funny thing is though that it's voluntary whether one ticks that box or not, so that presents a fairly obvious question. If I received a game for free on the condition that I (perhaps dishonestly) gave it a good review, would I choose to tick the box or not? And another; if a reviewer is honest enough to tick the box, is that a good indicator that their review can be trusted as being truthful too?

This leaves the reader second guessing the genuineness of the reviewer's intentions, and of course renders the provision of that information somewhat pointless. In the end, the best way to judge a review is the same as it has always been: to read it and use one's own judgement.

Finally, with regard to a game's monetary value, one would hope that a sensible reviewer would always take into account a game's normal store price, regardless of having purchased it at that price, at a great discount, or having received it for free.

ItchyDani3l May 22, 2016 @ 9:11pm

In all seriousness, it's probably some kind of legal liability waiver to prevent them from being sued for false reviews (if that ever happened)

But I think it may be abused for social engineering purposes, like if a scammer ticked the box and then put a link in the review and said "Click this link for free Steam CD Keys"

Yes, steam would probably have the review down in 12 hours or so, but the link might get 5~10 hits and maybe 2 of those people would enter their information and then complain because they got owned.

Last edited by ItchyDani3l; May 22, 2016 @ 9:13pm

CheckYourFax Oct 2, 2016 @ 3:40am

Originally posted by username12121:
It seems to be a strange addition to the reviews (along with the other recent changes, imho). I've noticed at least one person indicate (somewhere in these forums) that if they saw any reviews that indicated this that they would assume them to be biased and would not take them seriously. I'd assume that a number of others might feel the same way.

The funny thing is though that it's voluntary whether one ticks that box or not, so that presents a fairly obvious question. If I received a game for free on the condition that I (perhaps dishonestly) gave it a good review, would I choose to tick the box or not? And another; if a reviewer is honest enough to tick the box, is that a good indicator that their review can be trusted as being truthful too?

This leaves the reader second guessing the genuineness of the reviewer's intentions, and of course renders the provision of that information somewhat pointless. In the end, the best way to judge a review is the same as it has always been: to read it and use one's own judgement.

Finally, with regard to a game's monetary value, one would hope that a sensible reviewer would always take into account a game's normal store price, regardless of having purchased it at that price, at a great discount, or having received it for free.

It's just for being nice and let people know you got it for free so people know your review is based on a non-fanboy based sudden experience. "Free copies" from friends most of the times are less biased than paid copies from die hard fans. It means you won't get the "i paid for this piece of ♥♥♥♥ game?" and instead you get "this game can be fun, but might not be worth the price" As long as the developer doesn't say "please leave a positive review" then it is usually less biased than people who paid for it.

Last edited by CheckYourFax; Oct 2, 2016 @ 3:41am