Is it against Guidelines to ask friends for reviews?

[cenowador]

Hi!

I recently got engaged in a discussion about whether is it against Community Guidelines to ask for reviews to friends/family. What the guidelines says is: Do not artificially manipulate the User Review system or voting/rating systems. Which is not very detailed about "artificial".

So, in this case I have three questions:
1. is asking for friends/family for positive reviews in a game that YOU made, against Guidelines?
2. is asking for reviews for a game that you DID NOT make, against Guidelines?
3. is making giveaways between reviewers against Guidelines?

I'm talking about groups of small devs reviewing each other games, not like going to giant facebook groups and "hey, help me out here" kind of stuff.

Thank you!

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by cenowador:

Hi!

I recently got engaged in a discussion about whether is it against Community Guidelines to ask for reviews to friends/family. What the guidelines says is: Do not artificially manipulate the User Review system or voting/rating systems. Which is not very detailed about "artificial".

So, in this case I have three questions:
1. is asking for friends/family for positive reviews in a game that YOU made, against Guidelines?
2. is asking for reviews for a game that you DID NOT make, against Guidelines?
3. is making giveaways between reviewers against Guidelines?

Thank you!

1. Asking for "positive" reviews is artificially manipulating the system.

2. That's fine.

3. More details on this please.

[LowJack_VA1]

1. I never asked for 'positive' reviews but I asked for reviews from friends
2. I never did do and not sure why you you would care
3. Never did that

I don't see why any of this would be against the rules, they are just reviews.

[ShelLuser]

#1 A better question is: how would Steam find out that you're related?
#2 Why would it be? I'd say it's kinda pointless (depending on who you'd ask) but...

See: asking for a review is one thing, asking for a pre-determined one (positive or negative) is another.

#3 Probably... see, now you're raising the impression that you're rewarding people for promoting your stuff.


Here's a better idea: why not just let "nature" (or Steam) take its course? Publish your game and see what happens next.

[tttt]

dunno

[Had Matter]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

#1 A better question is: how would Steam find out that you're related?

A quick look through the friend list and their friend list makes it pretty obvious what is happening and it's affecting multiple games.

[Morgan Fun Gamer]

No i don't think it is breaking the guideline

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by Had Matter:

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

#1 A better question is: how would Steam find out that you're related?

A quick look through the friend list and their friend list makes it pretty obvious what is happening and it's affecting multiple games.

I didn't go that far into it earlier but yeah, I see the "artificial manipulation" now.

[cenowador]

To be more specific, I'm talking about groups of small devs reviewing each other games, not like going to giant facebook groups and "hey, help me out here"

[cinedine]

Originally posted by cenowador:

To be more specific, I'm talking about groups of small devs reviewing each other games, not like going to giant facebook groups and "hey, help me out here"

If you trade for good reviews or give incentive for them, you are gaming the system. If Steam notices, you will get your game removed and barred from publishing another.

[Irene ❤]

It's also a system that protects you. Steam does not want a youtuber to talk bad about your games, or getting all their friends to downvote you.

If it happens, you will most probably claim it's not fair, what they did is against the rules. So just think in reverse. If you get friends to upvote, that is also wrong and is against the rules.

[[UA]Віктор Молокан]

everyone is entitled to their opinion. begging for a positive assessment, you break it. but if you ask to leave a review, perhaps your friends will not be able to be honest with you, and will put a positive review. Or maybe not.

[B✪✪tsy]

Originally posted by LowJack_VA1:

1. I never asked for 'positive' reviews but I asked for reviews from friends
2. I never did do and not sure why you you would care
3. Never did that

I don't see why any of this would be against the rules, they are just reviews.

If you ask your friends then obviously they will rate it positive as a favor. If 100 of your friends do it then it could be considered as manipulating the review section. I think it's more the scale that can cause an issue, if 10 friends give a postive review then it will not affect the total review rating, if 100 do it then it can change the total review score. I assume that Valve/moderators look at it at a case to case basis if it is legit or not.