wow
Thank you for writing this (and all your work in general), and thanks John for pulling the FTC into this!
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Like 3 weeks ago the FTC banned the usage of fake reviews and will now fine companies that take part in it. It's more targeted towards companies selling their own products, like a pillow company using fake pillow reviews on their website, but it might be applicable to Steam as well. Even though Valve isn't participating in the fake review schemes, the FTC might say that they have an obligation to ban developers that buy fake reviews
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Donāt they do that already? I thought thatās why so many trash devs keep getting all their games removed from Steam.
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They do, but there's still a ton of them. Comes down to whether the FTC feels like they do it "enough", which is gonna be pretty subjective. I have someone on my friends list that obviously gets paid to write fake reviews, and I still see him posting fake ones all the time.
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Due to Gamepass I've really stopped buying games but if I did I would base it off of reviews. Granted it's pretty easy to spot fake reviews versus genuine ones but review bombing or whatever you call the opposite can skew things. You might have a fantastic game made in some highly politically charged country get review bombed so it has mixed reviews. So ultimately yes it matters to a lot of people. Not everyone has disposable income. The only reason I even have Gamepass is because I can get it without spending money, heck I even get gift cards I can shop with pretty much anywhere. I mean, yeah, there are much more pressing concerns out there. I get that. I'm much more concerned about setting myself up so that I can live comfortably when I reach advanced age. I have less than 20 years to go, no savings and no employment opportunities. I got this.
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It's not about video game reviews, it's about deceptive business practices in general. You can't let certain industries ignore the law, just because video games are unimportant in the grand scheme of things
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Ha the law what's that didn't Elon just brib people to put Trump back in power with the chance to win $1 million and I doubt that will have any punishment
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Not to be the buzzkill here, but once the transition of power happens in January, I would expect this and other consumer protection regulations to be rolled back. I can't imagine them allowing the FTC to actually protect the consumer after they get situated.
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We shall wait and see. For now, the fact they're looking into it is reassuring in and of itself.
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As someone who is developing a game that has a steam listing, I can say that already I've been approached by several quite pushy marketers offering to connect me with a 'network of influencers and reviewers' to promote my game. I've ignored them, but I can imagine for some developers it's a tempting proposition. (Jokes on them anyway as I don't have money). I'm not sure Valve would ever be able to dismantle these networks, as I suspect it's a bit like a Hydra, but there are probably some common factors that could be used to gauge the likelihood that an account is a review bot.
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Would you be able to forward these to me at all Formidolosus? mellowonline1@gmail.com
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Ahh sorry man, I didn't really think about saving them. I just deleted them as spam. If I get any more I'll forward them to you.
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I don't see how this should lead to anything. Steam isn't the one producing or selling fake reviews. So they are one victim, not the FTC's target.
Steam also installed plenty of countermeasures regarding fake reviews over the years, so the FTC couldn't even suggest that Steam ignored the problem. And they can't reasonably expect a 100% success rate.
And last but not least I consider it hilarious that the FTC would expect to receive answers from support via a customer.
The best outcome would probably be that developers can report attempts to sell them fake reviews for their products, which then could be forwarded to the FTC. Till Musk ends all regulations.
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And those people that are posting fake reviews? Like all those 50ā¬ games always with 10 positive reviews?
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I'm guessing you haven't seen the newer tactics that rose this year with websites being set up for fake reviewers to purchase Steam games, write fake reviews, and then be imbursed the full cost of the game back plus a little extra on top? And the bot review networks uncovered a couple months back?
I agree, the methods that were an issue 8 years ago aren't much of a problem, but they have manifested into something new to circumvent the barriers Valve put in place.
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I'm aware. But you asked what countermeasures Steam introduced and I told you. And it does prove that Steam didn't totally ignore this topic, just as I mentioned.
Obviously I can't know how much Steam does do suppress these new "services". But neither can you.
And frankly, these new cases are much less of an issue then fake reviews used to be, before those countermeasures I mentioned. So it seems pretty fair to suggest that Steam managed this competently. Not with 100% success but still well enough.
So yes, I don't think that you (or John) will succeed if your intention is primarily to blame Steam.
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That's not my intention. I'm not here to pick a fight dude, don't worry. I feel we both agree review manipulation isn't good, but feel we got off on a bad footing.
Yes, the blame predominately lies on the developers that make use of these reviews and the suppliers. A frustration I've had however is Steam has claimed to have been investigating these accounts for months and seemingly no action has been taken, leading up to a stage where the FTC is now involved.
Regarding: The countermeasures, I was more referring to countermeasures to those instances I highlighted in my follow-up comment, but admittedly, I didn't make that clear in my initial question. I was aware of the changes made regarding key reviews a while back but felt if the first go-to solution that we can recall was implemented years ago, I feel that reflects itself it's time further action was taken, maybe a means for users to directly report off-topic review activity as opposed to leaving that feature specifically for developers/publishers.
In terms of the scale of all of this, if we take a look at curators such as the Games With Paid Reviews curator, who has been tracking these instances very efficiently, they highlight at minimum 353 games having employed these fake reviews, some having as low as 10, others having around 100. Definitely a curator I recommend giving them a look!
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44785539/
Those lists vary from p*rn games, low low-quality shovelware but also genuine titles. The fact that a curator has identified over 300 apps I feel shows that they do need to be quashed to some level, and the rate these games are getting added to the curator shows it's a frequent go-to for some people on Steam.
Do I think Steam still holds a burden of responsibility? Yes. Review manipulation is something they have stated they hold zero tolerance for, but yet their enforcement of this has been very inconsistent. They have been made aware of these games and have still not taken action. Are they the only ones at fault? No. These services and those that are hiring them are primarily at fault.
Hope this helps clarify!
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Fair enough and I absolutely agree that such practices shouldn't be tolerated.
I do scale the relevance and responsibility differently though. 300 apps with fake reviews might seem impressive at first. But considering the thousands of releases every year? Not so much.
And if we consider their market share in total revenue it's borderline irrelevant. Or just irrelevant.
Or in other words: Even as a user with deep interest into Steam, I'd never have heard about any of these games without you guys or someone creating giveaways here to farm CV.
But yeah, naturally Steam should be more active if informed about such cases.
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The FTC now have the ability to seek civil penalties against violators who sell or purchase fake reviews.
The FTC chair stated "Fake reviews not only waste peopleās time and money, but also pollute the marketplace and divert business away from honest competitors"Nice
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From the government website, emphasis mine:
Fake or False Consumer Reviews, Consumer Testimonials, and Celebrity Testimonials: ... It also prohibits them from buying such reviews, procuring them from company insiders, or disseminating such testimonials, when the business knew or should have known that the reviews or testimonials were fake or false.
I believe that implies a business (based in the US, most likely) should not be displaying/spreading fake reviews. Bit weird to say they "should know" reviews are false, but I guess it's a fair assumption that the regulatory body will inform businesses about fake reviews before they act on it. Similar to when illegal content is posted on social media (eg. child abuse) and it evades in-house moderation, they'll tell the business to remove it but won't do anything about the posters if they aren't in the US.
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But there are two parts to this equation. Sure, Valve may be held liable to monitor for such things, but the original quote was (emphasis mine):
The FTC now have the ability to seek civil penalties against violators who sell or purchase fake reviews.
That's where I'm fuzzy on how that would be administered. Overall, I'm supportive of the new process, just not sure how truly effective at stopping the fakers it will be. Seems to me it's just forcing the shop owners to play whack-a-mole.
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At the very least I hope the fact that it is bigger than valve itself may ar minimum scare some of the fake reviewers into stopping, as, and I may be wrong, I believe they can be punished as well by the FTC? While fake reviews donāt ruin the game industry, itās still an annoyance, especially if youāre just basing things off of the total positivity score and not able to spot the commonly used language in fake reviews.
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If anything, maybe it'll scare Valve into actually enforcing some moderation themselves instead of half-heartedly pretending to "reform" the review system and acting out on reports only to let the same bad actors sell the same crap under a different name later.
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I've been informed by the ever-so-helpful member of Sentinels of the Store, John, that they have made a report to the FTC regarding review manipulation on Steam. The FTC is investigating the matter and has requested contact with Steam regarding the cases.
Read our article below for all the details we have as things stand.
https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/4487367832217059452
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