How Steam Review Changes Perpetuate a Vicious Cycle

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I know we covered this last week when Steam made the announcement that it was changing its review policy, but I want to know what you guys think about this guy's claims that those changes are perpetuating a vicious cycle.

By removing non Steam key reviews from the average, Valve is making it even harder for indie developers to get noticed. If you were able to get a hold of a reviewer who likes your game, they could help you out with a positive review. This also has the impact of hurting kickstarted games that get onto the platform. Many kickstarted projects give out game keys as one of their reward tiers. In the past, many of your backers could give good reviews based on their time with the game before it was on Steam.
 
Maybe they should spend the money they use sending out free keys to do some actual marketing if they're worried about exposure? And am I crazy, or is there really no way to do a search on the store by average review score or number of reviews? Perhaps I am also crazy in thinking that a user review is supposed to be from actual users, not paid shills. Maybe the first step is to actually make a good game that people want to play.
 
No, they're making it harder for crappy indie devs to get noticed. No more free positive reviews from friends and family, positive reviews from keys handed out in bulk to people on youtube, self created shill accounts, and so on.

It is true that it would affect kickstarter backer reviews, however if those players had such positive glowing reviews of a game in the first place you'd think word of mouth would allow for some exposure.
 
Merc1138 said:
No, they're making it harder for crappy indie devs to get noticed. No more free positive reviews from friends and family, positive reviews from keys handed out in bulk to people on youtube, self created shill accounts, and so on.

It is true that it would affect kickstarter backer reviews, however if those players had such positive glowing reviews of a game in the first place you'd think word of mouth would allow for some exposure.
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I think Mighty No. 9 is a good case of how eliminating non-Steam purchased keys had an overall positive effect on its average score. Kickstarter games can cause a lot of animosity among the backers if the product was under-delivered or failed to live up to its promises.
 
If they want to have that "reviewer who likes your game" help out with a positive review, they still can. The positive review will still appear in the store page for everyone to read. It will just not be counted for the game's rating. The only way this could significantly affect the game is if the "reviewers who like your game" intend to give it a drastically different rating than all the people who bought the game through Steam (and if they are numerous enough to affect the rating). Most Steam users would probably be more interested in gauging the ratings of other players like them over the ratings of (pre-approved) professional reviewers anyway, even if they were honest.
 
When did people start taking Steam reviews seriously? Have they ever read a review written by a Steam user?

They're nothing but memes, cinge-inducing attempts at humor and greentext stories written by children who talk in hashtags.

Pretty sad that Steam reviews are affecting PC gaming in such a huge way nowadays.
 
crusty_juggler said:
When did people start taking Steam reviews seriously? Have they ever read a review written by a Steam user?

They're nothing but memes, cinge-inducing attempts at humor and greentext stories written by children who talk in hashtags.

Pretty sad that Steam reviews are affecting PC gaming in such a huge way nowadays.
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Have you? You should try using filters sometime, and using the filter in your brain. The community is actually pretty good at marking good reviews as helpful, and it's easy to spot the language of a bullshitter or troll.
 
Armenius said:
Have you? You should try using filters sometime, and using the filter in your brain. The community is actually pretty good at marking good reviews as helpful, and it's easy to spot the language of a bullshitter or troll.
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In fact I have. Before I wrote that post, I selected a random game from my library and read its "most helpful" reviews. The game was Metal Gear Solid TPP and all the top reviews were exactly how I described.

Go read them for yourself. Steam users mark the most dank memes and the best le silly XD greentext reviews as helpful, and those are the ones that rise to the top.
 
every steam review ends in 11/10, would *fill in the blank* again. Most non original bullshit I have ever read.
 
crusty_juggler said:
In fact I have. Before I wrote that post, I selected a random game from my library and read its "most helpful" reviews. The game was Metal Gear Solid TPP and all the top reviews were exactly how I described.

Go read them for yourself. Steam users mark the most dank memes and the best le silly XD greentext reviews as helpful, and those are the ones that rise to the top.
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When I read reviews, I scan the positive but read the negative ones to see if there are any legitimate issues with the game. I try to focus on objective stuff like length of the game, developer support, how much DLC vs. patching has occurred, etc. That's the only way I find any review helpful, Steam or otherwise.
 
I use to go by the game reviews. Now I just buy the game and test it out for 2 hours to see if I like it. To many game company shills pumping positive reviews.
 
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