Let's just say that I actively ignore the "aggregate" review score since Steam decided to "improve" the reviewing system. Then when reading reviews, I look for people that employ logic, careful consideration and weigh the pros and cons of the game. The rest of the reviews I pretty much ignore.
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This only affects the review score summary shown at the top of the page, the reviews still count if you scroll down to the reviews section and filter it to all reviews.
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They are still implementing it, it's fairly likely that'll change down the line too.
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Interesting. Don't agree with games bought by yourself not counting.
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It made sense when they added the option to tag a review as funny.
It wasn't really fair but it kinda made sense when they decided that if you got the game via key activation your review wouldn't count towards the overall score.
But this, THIS, this is overkill.
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I think negative reviews because of the price are a bigger problem. It's as if these people are oblivious to sales or bundles. "It's actually a terrific game, but not for $20. At half the price, it would be a good deal." If Steam went the other direction and only allowed key reviews, we'd see more positive/negative rankings for the game, rather than for the retail price.
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You can generate gift copies with steam keys , probably why they pushed this change
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Do you have any proof of this? First time I hear about it.
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look at minion masters you get an extra gift on key activation , same thing can be done with pretty much any game
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Warhammer 40,000: Eternal Crusade
..you will also get a Steam giftable version of the game.
Steam game giftable goes out when we formally launch later this month, not now.
Also list of games with extra copy after the purchase
I activate some of this games with keys and yeah, i got extra-gifts in my inventory.
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While this explains it partially, it's still 20 games out of 12.000+ available on steam. But yes, it does make the whole change sort of understandable.
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wait what? this sounds exactly as if you could turn steam keys into steam gifts - [ x ] doubt
unless you're referring to something else ...
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... too bad that aint sauce :(, turning steam keys as a user into gifts would be
something revolutionary which volve would very likely not want to begin with
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If you are dev of a game you can generate 2 pack steam keys and basically turn all keys into gifts
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i see, i don't have dev status in steam - doesn't sound like you can create steam gifts with steam keys, acquired from other sources (hb, bs, ig ..) with the exception that you can generate gifts, with keys from your own game (key activation + x drops as gift in inventory)
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afaik, only valve can do that... and they removed 2-packs and 4-packs a long time ago (for new apps, some old still have them)
but yes, I understand what you mean, that is not the only game that gives you a free gift after you activate the key. Interesting.
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While it's true, I kind of doubt it. The Ship, Frozen Synapse/ Prime did this for a long time... it still can be true, but really, it would taken MONTHS for Steam to catch up with the weak points of it's own system that's being used since years in a way it is? That's either super unlikely, or terrifyingly amateur from Valve. I don't know which answer would make me more sad :\
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another step towards making steam reviews even more futile than they already are - fucks given: -1
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Next update will be "pay us 100$ to show us you are a reviewer and then you can leave as many reviews as you wish" 😁
Ridiculous update. I'm still not sure though do reviews with keys have any impact on the total review score now, or still nothing? 🤔
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You can see the true scores if you scroll down to the reviews, but on the top of the screen only "legit" scores are shown.
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They changed that now... no freeloading KS'ers, bundle buyers etc allowed!
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Freeloaders like those Kickstarter scum are not tallied on the top.
Since free keys aplenty on that site and all.
They did allow you to show the true value on the bottom, along with not completely hiding (but still definitely unrecommending and branding as "freeloader") keyreviews.
Really, if you however over the key it's extremely implied the person reviewing got their copy free. Steam at it's finest.
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Why should my review of a game count less if I received the game as a gift? Why are people so anti-gift reviews counting? Why am I even posting a response to this? Of all the things people should care about.... this certainly tops the list!
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a 'free key' counted as a normal purchased review previously - now they are counting gift copies (which is quite different than a cd-key copy). I am sorry to tell you this, but I find it hard to believe that 1M people would accept a gift copy of a game that was complete garbage in exchange for a 1M good reviews. I certainly wouldn't provide a positive review of a piece of shit simply because I got that piece of shit for free - maybe there are people who would do that.... and maybe that speaks more to the average steam user than the scoring system.
At the end of the day - 1M free keys vs 1M free gift copies - means a developer (under the old system) could still give free crap for reviews as they can under the new system?
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I actually don't care if it counts to the total or not. I just want a place to capture and share my thoughts on a game I just played, and the current format is just fine for this. I read Steam reviews daily, I might as well share my own.
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Didn't they already do this in the past? What's the change?
I'm fairly sure they shat all over keyreviews already, little left to do. Especially that which they say they're doing but already did.
And AGAIN a stab at keyusers being NOT "invested, paying customers"... nothing says NOT being invested like that Kickstarter platform that just gives FREE keys away.
sigh Steam
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Wait a second... this entire issue is confusing. What changed? Someone who activates a product via cd-key on steam (as in purchased from humble store / humble bundle - activating on steam) or someone who activates a steam gift copy. Are you saying that outside purchased game activations are the reviews that are changing and not the gift copy reviews?
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Apparently I didn't quite notice the small subtle change, that gift-copies get the same shifted status as keyactivations. Considering all the "changes" sounded very familiar (seeing they all done it), but guess they just apply it on something different now. Who knows why, since they STILL allow refund reviews, which are actually way easier to pull off than any gift-funding, and disabling that wouldn't screw over as many people as this does... for no apparent reason.
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The whole Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down system was always a joke, now they just made the joke bigger.
To give an extreme example, a game having 99% scores of 51/100 and an overall average score of arguably 40/100 is not the same as a game having a mere 75% positive reviews, but an actual average score of 70/100. Huuuge difference.
The whole Thumbs Up vs Thumbs Down should be there merely to allow the customers to regulate reviews themselves, as for example keep reviews with less than 50% upvotes from users not count towards the overall score and have those with less than 20% also be hidden in the way reddit does it.
Yes, self-policing would still have a few holes, but arguably nowhere nearly 1/4 of the problems today already identified here by most like crap reviews that even if you downvote will still count towards the score.
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People complaining Valve is too lazy for using an automated system for a crappy review system, while this same people seem incapable and too lazy to look for proper reviews from specialized sources. Yeah, yeah, typical gamers.
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sigh Sometimes it looks like everything Valve does causes an uproar.
It's just a review system. It won't affect your gaming lives. You will still be able to write your opinion on it, it just won't count towards the score. While this is "discriminating" to people who buy from authorized 3rd parties, to be honest, I think it would be more accurate to hear the opinion of a guy who paid full price than that of a guy who got it as a gift from someone or at 1/3 price from a grey market. People tend to be less indulging when they payed good money.
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And that's why I won't ever again write a review. I only write a few reviews (inluding one for your game, luckilly I bought it myslef so it counts), but this is bullshit. Basically someone writing down :lol it's shit" will be more viable if he bought a game directly than me writing multi-paragraph review if I won a game on SG or bought a key.
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I have to agree here with many others - while total score number is kind of interesting, I still browse through reviews to find well written ones and don't really care if they have little circled valve or a key next to them.
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Also another thing - all professional reviewers, all press, youtubers, streamers etc, get their press release codes as a keys or gifts, they do not buy games themselves, so now a review from professional press will no longer count, while someone who buys a game, play for 1 minute, write fake review, then refunds the game will have fully viable review. This. Is. Bullshit.
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Update:
New titles under a certain number of reviews don't have score calculated anymore.
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Unless that number is at least 25, I don't think it will help much other than even more people just skimming over indies as they are too lazy to scroll down to the reviews section.
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Which is as it should be. Statistical significance and all that...
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For example, dev gave 5-10 copies for positive reviews and trash-game has 95-100% ratings in one hour after release (with 5-10 owners total)
Now this situation is impossible :p
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Gifted copies are already not used in the total score (since a week ago), same as keys.
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http://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/563352991934009789
tl,dr; if you got a gift (let's say from someone on steamgifts... or a friend... or yourself...) and not bought the game directly into your library, your review now counts the same as key review.
Is there already a thread? search didn't find it...
Update:
New titles under a certain number of reviews don't have score calculated anymore.
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