1586

Yes, I’m sure each genre has its own trolling keywords.

Reading it over, I really think my #5 is key, users with less than 2 hours of playtime should have far less weight than those that paid for the game and cannot refund it. That alone seems like it would help a lot.

1587

Could there be another solution too, encouraging more people to actually post a review, making it easier for someone who is not inclined but is generally content or happy? This might actually soften the top and the bottom?

What percentage of players actually leave a review?

1588

This is a good point. A lot of sites end up having a disproportionate number of negative reviews because people tend to only log on to complain about a bad experience. If you have a normal problem free experience, why leave a review?

Valve, here is a free idea for you.

If you post a review, you get a random trading card for the game you review, and this could also trigger the end of the refund window. (i.e. you get a card or a refund with your review)

The only time I ever review a game on steam is when I get an incentive to do so, like during the sales events when you get a badge for leaving a review.

If I got a trading card for every review I did, I would review games a heck of a lot more, but right now I don’t see an incentive to do so.

1589

I review very few games, but I like more games that I buy then I don’t. Of the games I don’t like, I’d say maybe 30% I would even think about leaving a negative review because sometimes I buy a game I just don’t like… there isn’t anything wrong with it, and then I give reasons why my experience might be relevant to encourage others like I did with MHW.

The No. 1 reason I don’t leave reviews is because I don’t think I have anything to add that hasn’t been said before. When I do review a game it’s usually with the intention of encouraging people who might be hesitant to try it.

In my entire life as a gamer, I don’t think I’ve ever been encouraged to leave a review, not even once (exception is beta/alpha testing). Based on the responses from the developers around the reviews and comments, I get the impression they don’t want to hear from me or anyone else. It’s one of the few industries I heavily engage with that generally does’t want feedback.

I don’t know if you’re being serious because I only partially understand the whole trading card thing, but it seems like something others really like and value.

1590

Are there any metrics on Steam review bombs? I would guess the percentage of credible incidents are negligible given the quantity of total games.

1591

I am actually being serious.

I don’t really care about the cards, but for some reason I get unreasonably happy when I get one for free.

So, maybe I do care about them.

1592

Hey I’m the same way. I get them during sales and while playing games, but then they tell me I can’t get anymore unless I trade or something then I stop there. I don’t get many badges.

1593

It’s true that trading cards have no intrinsic value, but would people post reviews to get them? Yes, I think they actually would.

1594

I would say Amazon has also kinda solved it!

1595

Would making a review have a 1000 word minimum limit also work?

Would were out alot of fly by night bullshitters.

1596

Since no one would leave reviews anymore I’m sure developers would be fine with that.

1597

You can flag them. Valve just doesn’t do anything about it. Unless the content is actually illegal (piracy links, etc) they just remove the flag after a couple days with no explanation. Doesn’t matter that the review says “anyone who buys this game is retarded and should die” - they don’t give a damn.

I would care less about the review system’s problems if it weren’t an established fact that dropping below “Mostly Positive” annihilates the sales of most games.

1598

It’s a solvable problem, Steam just hasn’t bothered to do so due to lack of pressure from competition.

1599

Agreed but neither epic, steam or even GoG charge you a monthly subscription.

1600

In my experience about 1%, and yes, it would be vastly better if it was easier, and more convenient to leave a steam review. Its kinda buried in the UI.

1601

I get no value from leaving Amazon store reviews, but sometimes I do. And usually it is because Amazon sends an email reminding me to rate the product. And if it is something I thought was genuinely useful or good, I often will leave a review. But, I don’t do that as much anymore.

Google Opinion Surveys has ruined things for me. Now that I can get google play store money for answering survey questions, I balk at every survey or review that doesn’t give me some sort of reward for doing so, unless I feel like the review is a public service (I review restaurants I like becuase I want them to stay open) but for most stuff I don’t care.

And incentivizing reviews gets into tricky territory in objectivity. But, I feel like a free Steam card, or someting of very low monetary value wouldn’t change my review score.

Steam, fix this, and developers, AND customers will be happy. I barely interact with Steam reviews because I know that things get review bombed. I usually use it as a last resort for making purchasing decisions. Amazon, on the other hand, it is one of the first places I look before making a purchase. Their system is both helpful to customers and sellers (and also problematic in some ways too)

TLDR: Steam fixing reviews would make both customers and developers happy, and provide a service the Epic Store doesn’t. Do that Valve.

1602

Are you serious? I made that assessment based on your post which absolutely confused valid reviews with review bombing. I quote:

You clearly didn’t think that one through because it would have been obvious that you couldn’t possibly have been talking about “review bombing” because it is in fact something that ALL devs have a problem with. Hence my comment.

1603

^this. All of it.

1604

I know what review bombing is, and no amount of your flavor of arguing is going to change that fact. I also believe you know that; it’s just a thing you do. You’re also in a topic about an store that doesn’t want to support any reviews and we also talked about other reviews other than just review bombing.

1605

I agree. That’s why I’m not advocating for throwing out the Steam review system. It’s also why I said that EGS isn’t solving the problem; they’re just avoiding it altogether.