Valve to Be More Active to Prevent Malicious Review Bombs - MMORPG.com News

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Valve to Be More Active to Prevent Malicious Review Bombs - MMORPG.com News

Valve's Alden Kroll has posted a lengthy article on the Steam Blog to let players know that the company will be taking a more active role in the prevention of "malicious review bombs". Valve originally thought to remove scores altogether but decided not to change the current system. As a result, part of the company's new role in preventing malicious review bombs will be the introduction of new graphs to allow people to see a game's player reviews longitudinally.

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majinant

Usually bombs when they change something like adding P2W crap into their game. That isn't malicious, that's just what happens when you decide to fuck over your player base.

MadFrenchie

majinant said:

Usually bombs when the change something like adding P2W crap into their game. That isn't malicious, that's just what happens when you decide to fuck over your player base.

I think maybe that's why they decided to provide a histogram instead of just removing scoring based on their reviews.  The players can look at when the negative reviews started flowing in and judge the veracity accordingly.

Talonsin

Wish they would be more active in policing the crap they allow on Early Access

SpottyGekko

If Steam reviews are going to be more about "consumer activism" than actual game quality, something obviously must be done.

Perhaps Valve should create a separate category for "game company scores", and just move all the review bombs over there...

azurrei

No doubt the recent BR/RU FF14 subscription pricing debacle had at least a little to do with this...

etharn

Good, review a game like it suppose to be not some teenagers not getting their way. 

Iselin

Games don't get bombed for political reasons, do they?

So many user reviews on Steam and Metacritic giving games 0s for things that have nothing to do with how the game plays. It's why I find the user scores mostly useless and tend to ignore them.

I'm not saying that there aren't extraneous factors that may or may not influence whether I buy a game or not - there are. But that's one of the reasons I visit this and other forums: for those extra bits. But they have no place in a review.

Wizardry

Malicious is the key word.

How the hell do they think they can tell if it is malicious?

A perfect example is what Iselin is saying,but then again i point to the other side of the fence,how about this website or gamespace for example giving piles of crap an 8.5/10 score?See the double standard here,ok to be malicious with reviews if a business partner but not ok for consumers?

I'll tell you right now there are lots of games i would give a 0 and based on knowledgeable game design reasons NOT just because i have no reason.I see far TOO MANY 8's going around,given out like candy,it is near impossible to find a reputable business in gaming in 2017.

Why doesn't valve show the same concern for the consumer,clamp down on malicious developers who lay out impossible claims and taking gullible consumers money with no care about ripping them off.Early access is full of dupes,tons of games even ones that survive that put very little effort into a game after the initial money rush has slowed down.That is what these businesses do,they hype up the game ,make a bunch of initial sales and then go into hibernation mode.

Wizardry

its it not the Conan Exiles game that did exactly what i elude to,claim to be in EA,claim to improve the game but when comes time to improve they want you to give them more money for those promised improvements.Maybe was a different game but i think was Exiles selling a so called expansion before finishing the game?

Chris Robert's another crook,taking millions of dollars from gullible gamer's on a promise to build a game.Instead he takes that money and starts running and continues to invest in the cash shop before finishing the game he PROMISED.

Too much crap going on in the game industry,even Smedley after so much negativity surrounding him tried to sell a complete pile of trash.How serious was he,well didn't get the funding he wanted from gamer's so he shut it down,so not very serious about making a gamer,just a business idea to make money.

Golelorn

To be fair, they need to do it on positive "bombs". This is just a subtle cash grab to protect their interest, and fool you into buying a crap game.

Golelorn

Gorwe said:

Iselin said:

Games don't get bombed for political reasons, do they?

So many user reviews on Steam and Metacritic giving games 0s for things that have nothing to do with how the game plays. It's why I find the user scores mostly useless and tend to ignore them.

I'm not saying that there aren't extraneous factors that may or may not influence whether I buy a game or not - there are. But that's one of the reasons I visit this and other forums: for those extra bits. But they have no place in a review.

Yeah. I don't understand how someone can give sub 7 to the likes of D:OS. Do I like it? HELL NO! Fuck that game! But does it deserve any grade that is 5 or lower? Also, HELL NO! How can a person give 0 to the likes of WoW / Dark Souls etc is beyond me. That's simply not objective. Period.

Um... correct me if I am wrong, but this article pertains to only two categories. Positive or Negative. 

majinant

Golelorn said:

Gorwe said:

Iselin said:

Games don't get bombed for political reasons, do they?

So many user reviews on Steam and Metacritic giving games 0s for things that have nothing to do with how the game plays. It's why I find the user scores mostly useless and tend to ignore them.

I'm not saying that there aren't extraneous factors that may or may not influence whether I buy a game or not - there are. But that's one of the reasons I visit this and other forums: for those extra bits. But they have no place in a review.

Yeah. I don't understand how someone can give sub 7 to the likes of D:OS. Do I like it? HELL NO! Fuck that game! But does it deserve any grade that is 5 or lower? Also, HELL NO! How can a person give 0 to the likes of WoW / Dark Souls etc is beyond me. That's simply not objective. Period.

Um... correct me if I am wrong, but this article pertains to only two categories. Positive or Negative. 

Yep. Steam only had Positive and Negative. There is no 1-10 rating. That guy is clueless.

Iselin

majinant said:

Golelorn said:

Gorwe said:

Iselin said:

Games don't get bombed for political reasons, do they?

So many user reviews on Steam and Metacritic giving games 0s for things that have nothing to do with how the game plays. It's why I find the user scores mostly useless and tend to ignore them.

I'm not saying that there aren't extraneous factors that may or may not influence whether I buy a game or not - there are. But that's one of the reasons I visit this and other forums: for those extra bits. But they have no place in a review.

Yeah. I don't understand how someone can give sub 7 to the likes of D:OS. Do I like it? HELL NO! Fuck that game! But does it deserve any grade that is 5 or lower? Also, HELL NO! How can a person give 0 to the likes of WoW / Dark Souls etc is beyond me. That's simply not objective. Period.

Um... correct me if I am wrong, but this article pertains to only two categories. Positive or Negative. 

Yep. Steam only had Positive and Negative. There is no 1-10 rating. That guy is clueless.

I'm pretty sure everyone in the world knows that Steam is just thumbs up or thumbs down, but my post, for those who can read, was about both Steam bombing and Metacritic 0's for bogus reasons.

majinant

Iselin said:

majinant said:

Golelorn said:

Gorwe said:

Iselin said:

Games don't get bombed for political reasons, do they?

So many user reviews on Steam and Metacritic giving games 0s for things that have nothing to do with how the game plays. It's why I find the user scores mostly useless and tend to ignore them.

I'm not saying that there aren't extraneous factors that may or may not influence whether I buy a game or not - there are. But that's one of the reasons I visit this and other forums: for those extra bits. But they have no place in a review.

Yeah. I don't understand how someone can give sub 7 to the likes of D:OS. Do I like it? HELL NO! Fuck that game! But does it deserve any grade that is 5 or lower? Also, HELL NO! How can a person give 0 to the likes of WoW / Dark Souls etc is beyond me. That's simply not objective. Period.

Um... correct me if I am wrong, but this article pertains to only two categories. Positive or Negative. 

Yep. Steam only had Positive and Negative. There is no 1-10 rating. That guy is clueless.

I'm pretty sure everyone in the world knows that Steam is just thumbs up or thumbs down, but my post, for those who can read, was about both Steam bombing and Metacritic 0's for bogus reasons.

Oh I could read it. You lumped them both into the same category and explained them both using a 1-10 rating. Not my fault you screwed up.

Slapshot1188

Maybe just weight the scores based on Steam level or something.. this would lower the impact of lots of new accounts review bombing.

Golelorn

Slapshot1188 said:

Maybe just weight the scores based on Steam level or something.. this would lower the impact of lots of new accounts review bombing.

Buy why? If a bunch of new users don't like the game... I would like to know. The changes only benefit valve and the dev.

Slapshot1188

Golelorn said:

Slapshot1188 said:

Maybe just weight the scores based on Steam level or something.. this would lower the impact of lots of new accounts review bombing.

Buy why? If a bunch of new users don't like the game... I would like to know. The changes only benefit valve and the dev.

If a bunch of new users legitimately don't like the game I would expect that similar numbers of old users would feel the same way.

vanderghast

Talonsin said:

Wish they would be more active in policing the crap they allow on Early Access

Why would they need to do that?

Just stop buying EA games and your problem is solved.

LexDomino

Just glad you can get refunds. I only needed a refund once but the company I got the game from banned my account just to keep me from leaving a deserved negative review. It's a common tactic on Steam that Valve seems unaware of or they don't care because low reviews means less sales. I've seen games that had deserved negative reviews all over the place suddenly switch to positive overnight after a ban wave by the developers trolling their own discussion forum.

GrandpaDJ

Wizardry said:

its it not the Conan Exiles game that did exactly what i elude to,claim to be in EA,claim to improve the game but when comes time to improve they want you to give them more money for those promised improvements.Maybe was a different game but i think was Exiles selling a so called expansion before finishing the game?

And here is a great example of why it would be helpful. Completely uninformed, incorrect information from an 'epic' member. Before you throw a game under the bus, name names, and talk about who is screwing who over, check your facts.

You are likely referring to ARK.

sayuu

Wizardry said:

its it not the Conan Exiles game that did exactly what i elude to,claim to be in EA,claim to improve the game but when comes time to improve they want you to give them more money for those promised improvements.Maybe was a different game but i think was Exiles selling a so called expansion before finishing the game?

Chris Robert's another crook,taking millions of dollars from gullible gamer's on a promise to build a game.Instead he takes that money and starts running and continues to invest in the cash shop before finishing the game he PROMISED.

Too much crap going on in the game industry,even Smedley after so much negativity surrounding him tried to sell a complete pile of trash.How serious was he,well didn't get the funding he wanted from gamer's so he shut it down,so not very serious about making a gamer,just a business idea to make money.

to answer your question, yes you are wrong about Conan Exiles charging for an expansion DLC while they are in early access. . .



b.t.w. your post is exactly the type the new review system was made to combat. . .

Octagon7711

You think that's something.  Just wait until this catches on.

Inside China's phoney 'click farm': Tiny office uses 10,000 handsets to send fake ratings and 'likes' for boosting clients' online popularity

Video footage taken in China shows a click farm with 10,000 handsets

Companies pay tens of thousands of pounds to get likes for their products

Click farm was giving likes to reviews of mobile apps to make them appealing
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4499730/click-farm-10-000-phones-boost-product-ratings.html

Aeander

Wizardry said:

Malicious is the key word.

How the hell do they think they can tell if it is malicious?

A perfect example is what Iselin is saying,but then again i point to the other side of the fence,how about this website or gamespace for example giving piles of crap an 8.5/10 score?See the double standard here,ok to be malicious with reviews if a business partner but not ok for consumers?

I'll tell you right now there are lots of games i would give a 0 and based on knowledgeable game design reasons NOT just because i have no reason.I see far TOO MANY 8's going around,given out like candy,it is near impossible to find a reputable business in gaming in 2017.

Why doesn't valve show the same concern for the consumer,clamp down on malicious developers who lay out impossible claims and taking gullible consumers money with no care about ripping them off.Early access is full of dupes,tons of games even ones that survive that put very little effort into a game after the initial money rush has slowed down.That is what these businesses do,they hype up the game ,make a bunch of initial sales and then go into hibernation mode.

From what I have seen of your post history, I would assume that you would hand almost every game on the market a 0 out of 10 based on some entirely asinine criteria of "game design" that would come across as foreign to almost everyone else.

By the way, a 0 out of 10 is a score that is meant to be reserved for a game that literally does not function. A 0 out of 10 is meant for the Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing's of the world. It is not code for "game I do not like." 

KnightFalz

Preventing malicious reviews is all well and good in concept, but may not be easy in practice. Identifying intent with ongoing absolute precision could well be challenging.

Calavry

Valve have become the shovel ware kings maybe there is a relationship there with reviews.