this developer is the previously banned
As is the way. It is known.
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It's a shame it's becoming a norm, it shouldn't be
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I dont think theres enough budget to put a dent in Amazon alone
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The principal and enforcement alone for me counts
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steam just lets devs who get games banned rename the same games and slap them back on the store page. they only really care about money
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They're happy scoring brownie points in cases like this though sometimes
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What i find unbeliavable is the complete lack of rationale- he up and goes straight to overwhelmingly positive? Seriously? He expects that alone wont raise eyebrows?
'Ugly games, few screenshots, completely unknow names- overwhelmingly positive rating' come on
That would be similar to a scammer listing, idk the newest iphone as a 15 dollar deal. The mismatch is ridiculous
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They sell the games in "mystery bundles" in trash shops and on amazon etc..
With the promise of at least XX%+ rated games with a min. steam price of $XX.
The exact percentage depends as you buy bronze, silver, gold, diamond -or whatever they call it- mystery bundles and they use a absurd high steam price that it look in combination with the high rating as people would be able to get AAA games.
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That does happen, but it isn't the case here. Diamond, platinum etc. priced packages aren't solely influenced by the review score. They are a factor, but it's also determined by the RRP of the game, and most of these are around $1
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It give discord servers, and their owners, that offer up to 1200 reviews/likes/subs. The reviews written from bots with AI.
Price: Around $2 for a review.
I reported one of them twice and the server got closed.
5 min. later a exact copy of the server was online and only the members were "lost", for a very short time because they got all reinvited and rewarded for joining and recommending the servers to their friends, when they bought something there (they offered followers on dif. platforms, reviews, likes, subs etc.).
So the shady devs pay for the reviews in the end.
And i wouldn't be surprised if one of them owns the review/like/follower bots + discord server(s) and make additional money with them.
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It was 2 years+ ago, so i can't remember on the servers name.
I checked each listed PM to see if i have one of the owners name and ID there, i wrote with the one that i reported the server later on. But, sadly, nope not listed there anymore :o(
I checked in my discord server if i ever wrote there about that other shady server but, sadly, nope.
I am out of ideas how to get the name of the shady server, group or the owner.
If you have other questions, because the "elaborate further" is a bit general written and don't give me the knowledge what you want to have elaborated more detailed, then write me on steam and i try to give you more details.
EDIT: I searched on my harddrives if i have a screenshot or text written to that shady server, group or the owner. The chance were low and sadly, the result are no too.
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Ah, a nightmare. If you encounter anything like that again, please let me know! :)
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I remember that they made GAs for their services where you could win "points" that you could invest for getting 1 - 3 likes for a review as example. I know that it weren't enough points to get a subscriber for a curation.
Maybe you can find something about them with this info.
I will question the next days a few people that i know since a long time. They are, maybe, still active on giveaway servers and hopefully could remember on one of the involved servers, group and/or owners. But the chances are low after such a long time.
To join that server was one of the tasks for a game GA, so maybe someone else joined them too.
I only remember on one user and that this server had below 500 members when i nuked it. And the new server had over 200 members 2 days after the nuke of server 1.
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You guys are my favorite sleuths. Kudos on another scammer uncovered.
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Their job is appreciated but I wish there were no need for that and Steam was as strict as Greenlight days. Or at least check games before publish them, like GOG.
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I agree 100%
And Steam knows full well what they're selling. They just don't care because they make money off it and they don't care that all this trash heap hides genuinely good games from indie devs either.
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Yeah, it's sad that Valve chose the quantity way. They don't even take down "games" like Banana, ironically they are against NFT games. It could've been a paradise for indie games if they really reviewed them before publishing.
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Sadly, many people do not come to see the SG discussion unless they have something to do, so I have attached a link to this discussion on the Description side of the GA.
Perhaps some of you know of matters similar to this one, and with any luck, you will have something to comment on.☕
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All those games with reviews of 10 or lesser, yeah obvious sign.
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They can be, but the games discussed here have around 100 reviews.
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This article makes it seem that even the making of the AI reviews counts as illegal activity.
As a result, we can flag them under "illegal." I don't know what else to flag them under.
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they will ban bot reviews but when 1person posts the same shit review whoring steam point over 300+ times they do nothing...
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I was reporting Fastest_Cashier https://store.steampowered.com/app/3067350/Fastest_Cashier/ It has been reported before.
BUT
I read the only negative review, and it said "Warning: The "majority of these games' reviews" are fake and are written by a bot network ran by the developer. The developer also uses alternate developer names and has around 20 games on Steam, all Unity asset flip shovelware titles. This developer is also dodging a Steam ban they received in March 2024, when Valve severed business ties with them because of Anti-Consumer practices. More can be read on that here: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/4553794655131533944"
However it was the only review, when it had about a hundred before
Apparently the bot network that was doing these AI fake reviews has been taken down.
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561199683430217/recommended/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561199683124578/recommended/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561199683200013/recommended/
You can check for yourself https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/4553794655131533944
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So, some users on Sentinels of the Store found around 80 users that were reviewing games in the same order, offering up AI-generated descriptions, and specifically targeting 4 developers.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/discussions/0/4695658272798030699/
I saw this and decided to do some more digging, and found that, firstly, these 4 developers were all one person, and second, this developer is the previously banned ImperiumGame.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/4553794655131533944
I figured, especially with the news of the FTC cracking down on fake online reviews that it's important to highlight these cases more in particular, especially since this may very well fall into a grey area of their new ruling due to these being bots rather than "paid reviews"
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/08/federal-trade-commission-announces-final-rule-banning-fake-reviews-testimonials
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