Valve Further Tightens Steam User Review Controls; Free/Redeemed Copies No Longer Count in Full Score

Valve have begun deploying an update to the Steam storefront which will alter the way review scores are generated; specifically which reviews will count towards the game’s overall score.

An update on the Steam blog yesterday detailed the upcoming changes as well as reiterating the shifts that were made last September – when users who received the game for free were separated from the reviews displayed by default.

What this meant is that users who bought the game in a bundle, received it as a gift from others, received it in a giveaway, or received the game in exchange for coverage – like reviewers, youtubers, or anybody else who counts as an influencer.

This new update not only sees the reviews removed from immediate display, but it also removes them from the game’s User Review total.

The total, for those unaware, shows up on certain search engines, and also contribute to a thumbs-up or down on the Steam search catalogue, which in turn impacts the likelihood of the game showing up. It’s also -whether you deem it important or not- the first thing that most users see when they open a game’s store page.

Steam reviews, as with any service review, have attracted controvosy over the years; with people using giveaways to boost their review score, or using reviews from family & friends who have been gifted the codes, to boost their scores. In general though, the review sections are subject to a lot of trolling & joking around, which is not moderated.

The argument in favour of this move, which I agree with, is that people who have received the game from another storefront/for free, may well have ended up with the game in surplus and so are more likely to lean towards joking reviews; meanwhile, users who received the game as a giveaway or to generate coverage may accidentally spill their gratefulness over into the review as an accidental bias.

This, of course, before discussing the risk of review fixing, which breaks the platform’s recommendation system, and perverts the organisation of search results.

Curation seems to be the ultimate goal for the Steam Client, with masses of games launching on the platform. However, the curation features currently on offer require a lot of work to get to a level where they cover everyone from the genre-gamer to the wanderers.

Until then, however, this seems a sensible move as to retain some sense of order in the search-recommendation infrastructure.