"Techwars Online" (1&2) / Developer Mikhail Pasik Removed from Steam Store

[BlackSpawn]

"We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game. The developer appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own game. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously.

For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Mikhail Pasik and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library."

http://steamcommunity.com/games/523740/announcements/detail/507060676880243287

[timsandtoms]

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/acpreport#curation/app/523740/
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/acpreport#curation/app/444180/
Reviews are up.

[Ryuu]

I wonder if Valve's review methods are 100% false-positive-proof. No, i'm not one of the people from comments, i just don't believe Valve too much.

Also didn't know it's possible to make curations on games unavailable in Steam store, it would be hard to notice them anyway and i see no real reason to, unless games return.

[timsandtoms]

@Ryuu: I'm confident enough that when they full on sever business ties, it wasn't for a false positive(this isn't VAC, after all). Consider how many games we see that seemingly have shady reviews. Rarely is anything done about it, and if something is done, usually it's just the removal of the reviews. For them to remove the game itself, something they make money from, I think it's safe enough to assume they've got something to go off of. Despite what it seems like, Valve does actually hire a lot of people who are very good at what they do.

They actually fixed a lot of the curator stuff in the last 6 months, nothing game changing, but being able to label reviews as informative instead of being a recommendation, and actually being able to review any game on Steam are both awesome. As for posting games that are no longer available, it's in case they ever come back, or if someone is buying a key made before the game was removed.

[Ryuu]

Thanks for info, kinda makes sense. I admit i haven't read Steam ToS for developers, so i don't know at what aspects Valve might look. I guess we won't know until one of those developers sues Valve.

And I don't think person buying a key would be able to see that review unless he deliberately searches this group or curator which is not likely. But i see point otherwise, it's like a database if developer comes back again like it happens.

[BlackSpawn]

Originally posted by Ryuu:

I wonder if Valve's review methods are 100% false-positive-proof. No, i'm not one of the people from comments, i just don't believe Valve too much.

"Hello. My name is Mikhail Pasik and I am the publisher of Techwars Online 2. We (Argus Games) carefully checked Valve's claims and confirm that none of our team wrote reviews. Neither positive nor negative, none at all. We do not have and never had accounts that could be manipulated and issued for our own. We never paid in the store for buying our own game from any of our accounts. At the moment, we do not understand what mistake we made and for what the developer account was blocked. We wrote a letter to Valve three days ago with a request to clarify what was happening and to return our partner status, but Valve (Jason Ruymen) ignored our letter and we still have no result."

Quoted from the following reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/63wvjk/valve_kicks_out_several_developers_and_games/?st=j18c0p5s&sh=7968f677

Reddit thread also recounts an anecdote about a malicious individual who allegedly posted false reviews in order to impersonate and potentially cause harm to a particular developer / publisher.

Given Valve's reticence to act in the past for similar and worse / varied infractions, I doubt they would haphazardly sever business ties with developers without incontrovertible evidence of bullcrappery. Of course, we will never know as they probably won't make their "actionable evidence" publically available.