Steam Updates Policy, Prevents Cheating Review Scores

Steam has finally made a move to stop what many think to be an obvious abuse of the review system. Since the update, the only reviews that will count towards a game's aggregate review score are from users who have bought the game within steam itself.

People who receive keys from outside sources such as packages and bundles, or even game developer giveaways, can still review. Their contributions are still all visible. However, it will no longer count towards the review score.

This update was brought about by the presence of illegitimate reviews by hackers, bots and other programs. Steam itself has this to say,"But in many cases, the abuse is clear and obvious, such as duplicated and/or generated reviews in large batches, or reviews from accounts linked to the developer."

According to Cinemablend, there have even been Reddit posts about such disreputable practices. Games such as Zombie Rush, Base Squad 49 and Lands of Destruction have reportedly been disallowed from the Steam store because of such actions.

Polygon has other examples, namely critics such as Jim Sterling and PCGamesN, with the latter reportedly giving positive reviews for as low as $5.

The developers of these games take such drastic actions because the review score really does increase the desirability of the game. Not only that, getting an overwhelmingly positive review status makes it likely for the game the be featured more prominently in the system's lists. The Steam front page, the one that everyone sees upon log-in, can be a very coveted place.

Another major change is the fact the review system now has a filtering option. Reviews can be sorted by positive and negative, by language, and by buy type. This allows users to still sift through reviews made by others, even if not counted towards the final score.

On the flip side, this can come as a strong blow to those developers that have a strong following outside of the Steam service. Valve comments, "There are, of course, legitimate reasons why this could be true for a game: Some games have strong audiences off Steam, and some games have passionate early adopters or Kickstarter backers that are much more invested in the game."

It's those games that are negatively affected by the changes, especially those with fans in crowdfunding and kickstarters. These fans' reviews will no longer be included in the score of the games they support.

Beyond this update, though, Steam is still looking to further improve their review system. Stay tuned for more!