Valve to Change Steam Review System to Combat Negative Barrages

Why the current system does need to change

The current review system on Valve is broken. There, I said it. This wouldn’t be the first time such criticism had been leveled at the review system employed in Steam. We recently saw the inclusion of two separate review systems within a games store page, recent and overall. The hope was that any negative review bombings which occurred would only affect the one list rather than the ‘overall’. There was just one problem with this new system, it didn’t work really.

The system was unfortunately entirely based on someone bothering to discern the difference. In fairness to steam though, they have been trying to get it right for quite some time now and are clearly keen on a fair review system.

Steam in recent years attempted to crack down on what it felt were fake reviews by not allowing people who didn’t buy directly from Steam’s review to be taken into the aggregate scoring. That didn’t work.

Valve introduced the Discovery 2.0 update to, as above, look to target more recent reviews. That didn’t work.

On the plus side though, Valve did support the community when publishers attempted to sue people for negative reviews.

Valve has considered the review system such a major problem that it did even consider, for a while, removing reviews completely reports PCGames.

So, what will Valve change in the new system?

Well, the major problem with the current system is that if a developer does something which the community takes a dislike to, it has become common for reviews to get bombed.

Following recent gaffs regarding the removal of mods, the developers of GTA 5 found their game to be, based on recent reviews, ‘overwhelmingly negative’ at one point. For any of you who are still reeling off my initial declaration that Steam reviews don’t work, read this paragraph again. Grand Theft Auto 5 had a ‘overwhelmingly negative’ Steam review.

Firewatch, in addition, has recently suffered the wrath of PewDiePie’s fanbase for them placing a DMCA claim again the popular YouTube personality.

What Valve is now proposing is that Steam reviews will be reflective over a period of time. This will hopefully allow people to identify the overall pattern of reviews and specifically the negative spikes these bombs cause. They are calling this new system a ‘histogram’. Not entirely snappy,

Not an entirely snappy name, but what do you think? Will the new system work or will Valve forever attempt to find a solution to their review nightmare? Let us know in the comments!