Steam locked out users from reviewing games because Reasons???

L

Lakados

[H]F Junkie
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Feb 3, 2014
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https://www.pcgamer.com/over-2400-s...cted-for-marking-a-negative-review-as-helpful

TLDR;
Game came out with very unpopular anti-cheat that remained on at all times and reported system usage even when the game was not running.

Steam user gave game a negative review and provided instructions on how to remove the anti cheat.
Valve locked that users ability to make reviews for 30 days.
People “liked” or upvoted the review, those who did also got a 30 day ban from reviewing.

Not super impactful but sort of shitty behaviour.
 
What's even shittier is that it doesn't sound like the user was telling anyone how to cheat, it was telling people how to turn off the anti-cheat after you closed the game so it wouldn't keep sending random data back to the anti-cheat vendor.

Their defense is that it could harm people's computer because they had to edit the registry. Ok...maybe, but whatever. People upvoting a review really didn't do anything to deserve a 30 day lock is flat out an abuse of power.
 
Their policy should be that software shipping through their distribution system shouldn't do this kind of thing in the first place.

On Android market you can't do random background things that have nothing to do with your application either.
 
For those who didn't read the article...
Steam Support has now responded(opens in new tab) to FREEDOMS117, removing the restrictions on their account and the vote ban on others', explaining that a moderator mistook the original review for instructions on how to avoid anti-cheat software:

"Our moderators watch for content that describes how to cheat or describes how to tamper with anti-cheat systems. Those are against our rules and it looks like that is what our moderation team incorrectly identified with this case, leading to the banned review. I agree with your evaluation that this review does not fit that criteria.

"Furthermore, the mod identified this review as potentially dangerous to other players, due to some of the steps requiring registry edits. This led to the additional lock that was placed on your account and voter accounts. I can see that your review does not contain phishing links, attempts to scam or deceive players, or anything else that warrants a lock."
Click to expand...
emphasis mine.
 
Lakados said:
https://www.pcgamer.com/over-2400-s...cted-for-marking-a-negative-review-as-helpful

TLDR;
Game came out with very unpopular anti-cheat that remained on at all times and reported system usage even when the game was not running.

Steam user gave game a negative review and provided instructions on how to remove the anti cheat.
Valve locked that users ability to make reviews for 30 days.
People “liked” or upvoted the review, those who did also got a 30 day ban from reviewing.

Not super impactful but sort of shitty behaviour.
Click to expand...
That is a bad TL;DR when Steam fixed the issue, as posted above.
 
Steam is known to be protective of this sort of thing. Steam has policies against "review bombing", which means any organized effort by customers to voice their negative opinion on a product. Rainbow Six Siege implemented some censorship a few years back and the game's score began to drop like a hot potato. Then, users in the discussion forum who participated in this "review bombing" were banned and some reviews were removed.
The fact that they felt so threatened by one review says it all. The Steam review section and forums have very draconian rules where they can remove anything for any reason they see fit, and that's just how it is because it's their store.
 
t1337duder said:
Steam is known to be protective of this sort of thing. Steam has policies against "review bombing", which means any organized effort by customers to voice their negative opinion on a product. Rainbow Six Siege implemented some censorship a few years back and the game's score began to drop like a hot potato. Then, users in the discussion forum who participated in this "review bombing" were banned and some reviews were removed.
The fact that they felt so threatened by one review says it all. The Steam review section and forums have very draconian rules where they can remove anything for any reason they see fit, and that's just how it is because it's their store.
Click to expand...

Exactly. The fact that they restored the voting privilege isn't the issue. The issue is that they banned them in the first place without understanding the situation.
 
This was a bad move on Steam's end. You don't ban people for upvoting a post.
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Seems like a knee jerk reaction from Steam's non existing Support.
With this move i can understand where a post of mine went about a visual downgrade to a certain game, because i couldn't find it a day later. HA.

Remember kids vote with your wallet.
 
Never really gave a crap about reviews. Never read them. I have never pick games because of reviews. And cheats don't use them. They take the fun out of the game. Oh and will stay using Steam.
 
I feel like they prolly read fast and missing words in that type of review can change the meaning. Happens. Only way to make it better is to remove more humans from the loop. I am so sick of those meat bags of mostly water and their mistakes!
 
StryderxX said:
All this drama was caused by a Steam mod that misunderstood the context of a game review. Nothing to see here... move along. :p
Click to expand...

Maybe they will train their mods better. They have more mods than support? This is a scary pattern that should be nipped now before it's allowed to grow
 
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