I think there's a least one Steam group that's dedicated to hunting games with fake reviews but I don't recall the specifics.
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Thanks for the share, Adam! Yes, we try to share and highlight examples of review manipulation so that in cases in which no action is taken by Steam, customers are at least made aware of it on their store page if they follow our curator! We also cover asset flips, the rare occurrences in which games may have malware/phishing software included, asset theft and more.
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I'd say most of your curated games are titles nobody in their right mind would ever touch, so no warning necessary, but better safe than sorry. also surprised you only have about 500 titles instead of 3 groups' worth with valve's idiotic 2k limit/curator. some games not mentioned there look decent at least (not strictly gfx-wise) or would be pretty good but the devs are dicks (harassment, permaban after asking a simple question or being critical about their lazy shit, deleting feedback and not doing any fixing, etc.).
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I accept that we focus a lot on games there's a chance you may not see through regular browsing, however, we don't predominately focus on games that have a mainstream focus that you're likely to have heard of, we focus more on stories that don't get as much mainstream focus but we feel that the ethical or focal points of them are still important to debate, discuss and inform. For the mainstream, there are plenty of outlets talking about them, so we'd rather keep our focus on topics that don't get talked about as much.
We put game quality to the side, as I feel no matter what quality the game is at, when it comes to matters such as the content being present in the game being stolen, or reviews being manipulated there's no sufficable justification as it does show a willingness to deceive the consumer or show, at the very least, negligence that I feel shouldn't be endorsed. At the bare minimum though, I feel it should be known of for when/if the game in question gets uncovered. In addition, I feel a lot of the discourse of the scene that we operate in stems from the debate of "Are you telling us we are not allowed to like this game!?" as quality is so subjective, and I accept some may enjoy some asset flips, but it's best them to know that at the forefront and be aware first of all, that's why we never give positive or negative recommendations, just informational to help inform the purchase rather than saying they should or shouldn't purchase something. We acknowledge that people are much smarter than a blanket black-or-white approach and will use the information we provide as and how they wish.
We admittedly had a gap where we went inactive mostly during 2022 and most of 2023 because of my own life, but we're back in action fully and trying to get a grapple on a backlog, so that's partly why our curator count may be lower than expected but spreading games across curators I've never been a big fan of those that have, which is why we have an "all in one" focus and you pick and choose what you do and don't pay attention to.
Apologies for the longer post, but I've never had a chance to talk about this stuff in detail, and your comment allowed for a great chance to do just that!
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the problem is, people tend to ignore issues with more mainstream (or simply seemingly or actually proper) games/devs (popularity, pretty gfx, etc.), that's why it'd be great to highlight those as well. not that my examples are close to being mainstream and I'm not talking about ubisoft or similar either, though again, that kinda stuff should be there too.
it's a double-edged sword though. I'm all for calling bullshit out, been doing it forever, but also sick and tired of it and any attention can be good for these fuckers (talking about obscure/unknown stuff, not the latest call of duty), so I often ignore them after the revelation instead of posting a detailed negative review. might as well do it right but it takes time and money (or bothering with refunds and a limited time due to the refund window), plus the game itself might still be fine (I put emphasis on basic functionality and your group obviously doesn't care about lazy anti-accessibility devs) and I wouldn't downvote e.g. fez, a great game, just because the dev was a dick on twitter (not exactly the same as sitting on the permaban button on the steam forum, directly hindering discussion/feedback), but wouldn't want to give any positive attention to these titles either.
and I didn't say you should divide the games into separate curators, only that there's a lot of lazy trash and valve's 2k limit will be reached at some point.
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I'd disagree with the point that people tend to ignore issues with more mainstream games/devs. Those are the stories that get the mainstream headlines talking about them and are pushed down people's throats a lot more, which is part of the reason we don't bother covering those, as there are already lots more people covering it that we wouldn't be able to add much more to the conversation.
I can heavily relate, I've been doing this for almost 10 years now, and I think I showed an interest in covering Steam's indie scene in 2015 time, and there have been times when it becomes exhausting and frustrating, but the times when we've seen development come forward from coverages has been very rewarding. And I agree with you on exercising the freedom to do with the information as you see fit, whether it still leads to a purchase or makes you ignore it is your prerogative, we're just there to aid in case you come about it.
I think the cap was raised to 5K a little bit ago, so hopefully, it will be some time before we reach that point!
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if people ignored mainstream issues, ubi, ea, bethesda and others would be out of business by now (not to mention rps, a website I used to read, happily voted diablo 4 as one of the best something and ignored all the issues surrounding it and its publisher). and since your curator doesn't provide full reviews, just a one-sentence warning, I don't see why these couldn't be included, the more awareness the better. and non-mainstream but non-trash titles would improve overall quality, as currently it's more of a captain obvious thing (lazy trash is also stolen/scummy), but that might change if you get back into it.
as for the limit, a retro curator just had to start a second group because they reached 2k. valve being valve, I'm pretty sure the only thing they ever did to curators after introducing them and quickly chalking the initiative up as a failure due to all the meme/fake/scummy ones is hide them from the storefront nobody visits anyway. easier than fixing stuff.
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My point is: do not ignore the AAA industry, but I am saying since loads already do it, I see little addition for myself to do it. I don't just do one-line curations, they link to larger pieces, such as this one: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/Sentinels_of_the_Store/announcements/detail/6636686753320980162
In addition, and I by no means have any ill will when I say this but more just as a statement of fact, it is my curator at the end of the day and I will cover what I wish to cover. If you feel there needs to be a curator that covers the material you cite, I highly encourage you to open one yourself. you are clearly passionate about it and feel it may even pick up traction.
In all respects, I highly disagree that the content is "captain obvious" See the above article as a reference. A lot of this material involves content across multiple different websites that won't be obvious to many users, which is why we make articles such as the one above so that the content is all in one place and can also be seen on the store page.
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You are fighting the good fight. Thanks guys. You are the only curator I follow
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you might've misunderstood and got offended for no reason. the captain obvious stuff was referring to what I said earlier, telling people that lazy asset flips are lazy asset flips. plus mini-reviews don't show up on the store page to warn more people, but that might involve paying for them, which would only encourage the so-called devs and refunding is an extra hassle.
I only browsed the curator, not the group/forum/announcements, the titles didn't show much else and I see enough of that trash when I check new releases every week, so saw no point in following it (I don't follow any anyway but this is an interesting/sad/important topic). must've missed articles and whatnot linked there, don't recall 'full review' links to click, wherever they lead, or maybe they weren't there at the beginning/most recent stuff and I stopped looking for them for earlier entries. or I'm just blind.
and yeah, I feel strongly about a few things in gaming (including what your group is about, as I said) and I've also been doing what I think is right and what I can my way. some of it is admittedly far from efficient, though a permaban from a shitty dev only proves my point, so good enough. I'm more disappointed that despite my efforts (again, within my means), really worthy titles and devs don't get the attention they need and deserve (or any attention), but that's sort of the opposite of what you're doing and hopefully will keep doing for a long time. the more people find out about any sort of fuckery in gaming (and elsewhere), the better.
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Honestly aside from the obviously AI-generated reviews the price should be a dead giveaway that this "game" (and all the others from this "dev") is either a money laundering or a get-a-few-bucks-quickly scheme, so you can drag this crap in the mud as much as you like.
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It's nothing to do with money laundering. They make cheap, asset flip games, farm fake reviews so they're positive then sell millions of copies to sites like Kinguin for their "5x $30 positive review mystery bundle"
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This is why it's good to browse a few reviews for a game you might like but is unknown to you. Even lots of negatives could have been over some "woke" thing and it's just a BS negative. Other times it's a positive with 5 mins of playtime and the review says "it gud". The perfect world all of those types would be deleted but it's up to you/us to be vigilant.
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Nearly ALL overpriced, 50p, trash games have 10 - 20 fake reviews to present them as "good games" (that they can push them in cheap bundles on DIG or some shady russian stores and advertise them as "bundles with games that got reviewed as good").
I gave up to report all this games after months because i don't seen that steam punished one of the reported games/publishers/devs.
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The fake reviews all set language as Russian.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/2668270/reviews/?browsefilter=toprated&filterLanguage=russian
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Well, I find it somewhat ironic that you're criticizing a small developer for trying to bypass Steam rules manipulation, while there are other big AAA companies doing the same. For instance, Fable did it in their latest game, with the same Chinese bots, same reviews, and the same hour count. It seems like fake player bot counts also included. Surprisingly, not many people seem to be debating this, except for a couple of discussions I found on Reddit and Steam, but this problem often targeting smaller games.
As for the game you mentioned, it does seem weird and kind of funny. Based on my research, when I checked the store without showing English reviews based on my site preference since most of them are english. then i looked at other languages like Russian, I tried SteamDB: https://steamdb.info/sub/956011/ . It seemed the game was priced at $0.47? Then the developer changed the price after their league or friend bought it and left a review. Of course, this is based on the dates—10 reviews before the price change and 10 reviews after the price update. Congratulations, you are correct; it's fake.
I want to mention that I dislike this post because it seems like you're attacking this small game just because it's smaller (ofc many of you will disagree with me, typical steam user). It's understandable that they can't hide and have a bad plan to hide the obviously fake reviews. However, it's important to think that big game developers do this too. You just might not see it because bigger games cover those fake reviews with real ones, so the faked ones get hidden.
Moreover, am I the only one noticing a new fighting game called Granblue that is obviously advertising as a free game, but they use the Steam demo feature as the free version, so free players can't review it and need to buy a different game? Unlike other games like Dead or Alive, which, even though it's free, they lock their content as DLC unlike granblue (i found a reddit talk about it), meaning free players dead or alive can review it?. Does nobody think of that, of course, since it's not a small company, this is Steam we're talking about the user dont care if many people buy it and play it.
But no, and yes, I dislike small games that do fake reviews like that without mentioning all aspects, good or bad, but it's not a reason to report it. If it's fake, leave it and move on. Nobody is going to buy it at that price anyway. And if you are that rich Middle Eastern person who wants to collect games no matter how expensive, then the target market wasn't you.
Plus, you can review a game on a curator even if you don't have the game, blame Valve. <- Nobody report valve? that already broken.
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you're attacking this small game just because it's smaller
I think you kind of missed the point here. These "devs" are spamming steam store with shit games to scam people. Yes - also big reputable publishers should be held accountable for using bot farms, but in the end they still have an actual playable game which you can buy for normal price. And since no one buys these 50EUR games anyway, it makes you wonder whether there isn't more illegal stuff going on behind. Even if there isn't their only goal is to scam other people.
So no - specifically calling out these "small" games is not a bad thing, because they are not games and those who publish this are not devs. They are scamming scum who use asset flips and substandard bullshit games to ruin steam store. The biggest issue is the fact that such worthless shit even gets to the front of steam store. And we should definitely report every single developer and game which elevates this issue. Maybe eventually steam will start thinking about somewhat moderating what gets put on there.
I seriously don't get why would anyone (namely - you) defend these shit ass games in the first place. Steam store should be purged from them. And just because some bigger publishers also do this scammy practice in no way makes it okay for some third tier scammers to do the same. Both should be called out and reported.
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I'm not defending the game. I've already mentioned that it often attacks smaller ones while bigger ones do the same but nobod mention it. Regarding the illegal stuff, Valve actually allows developers to set their prices whenever they want. At least after a change, they can't change it again for 30 days, and I believe they can't put a discount and have another cooldown. It seem also i cant find is it okay to change the price often, i dont think there are illegal stuff there. Still the review is still consider as illegal according for steamwork. the price doesn't
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but it's not a reason to report it. If it's fake, leave it and move on. Nobody is going to buy it at that price anyway.
Who says the price will stay like this forever? The dev could change it again at some point. How about reporting all games with obvious fake reviews, no matter how big or small the dev/publisher is?
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I know a lot of indie games that have been out for 5 years or more. If people aren't interested, it won't sell. The game you mentioned is worse than indie game I know that only have like 15 reviews after many years. It won't work for them to get future buyers from those reviews alone. The trailer already tells us.
For big or small dev who done the same? The forum that trying to report it like fable and granblue rising (perhaps theres other game by big dev, I don't read on forum often) it had no interest from valve since it posted on steam forum... They don't care, I'm a steam fanboy but I know the bad side of steam, and your case one of them fake review can't be stopped same like those reviews "I'm a father and my gift this game to my son". boom multiple reward and no ban? is it because positive, is that a review? nope valve don't care.
I once report many games with fake review like you, but oh well it doesn't work :D
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I know a lot of indie games that have been out for 5 years or more. If people aren't interested, it won't sell.
it's not about interest. can't buy something if you don't know it exists and it's hard to find anything with all this trash around and valve's shitty user-controlled (i.e. useless) tag system.
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Actually, I saw this game in the Steamgifts giveaway site. And before I click the button to hide them, I first check the reviews on Steam and add it to the ignore list there as well. So, I found this more on a whim and by chance. That this is an indie game is unrelated. I didn't even think about it. If I had seen the same behaviour for AAA games, I would have asked the same question. Although I agree with you, it might be harder to notice there. Then again, it is unlikely that I would even look a the reviews as I am not interested in most AAA games. I am more on the indie games site.
Also, thousands of people discuss malpractice or perceived malpractice by AAA makers. Have you visited some Steam forums from Capcom games recently? Modders and Cheaters have a collective meltdown.
As for not liking it. That is fair, you don't need to like the post. I just wanted to know what an appropriate measure would be. And I think there is a general interest in decreasing such things in the Steam store as shown by the existence of the Sentinels of the Store group. It does not matter how big the company is doing this. However, I think it is a fight with low success chances
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Agreed. Well, I'm no longer interested in Capcom for a while after the Enigma DRM drama. XD We both know Steam has rules for manipulation of review counts, even though many big or small games do it and it can't be helped. I hate Steam user reviews when they copy-paste the 'I'm a father' template, and it has spread like a virus on many new game releases. If those can't be stopped, this one can't be stopped either.
Although lately, I got gifted by Steam Curator Connect for the similar game that had an overpriced and weird gameplay, Identical as the game mentioned in this forum. I declined it; I'm not interested in playing it, let alone leaving a not recommended. It's just not worth my time. I also made some similar comments above, and I won't help the game's sale even if they added fake reviews while real users see it has 'positive reviews.
Bonus : steam isn't asian based user, i'm from asia and these fake review strategy 100% work (don;t iclude me LOL), but i don't think it will work on steam.:D
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It can be frustrating that not everything gets actioned on, but from my experience, Valve does treat it very seriously, but it's more it needs to get brought to their attention first. Sentinels has been thankful to have gotten direct correspondence with Valve on a number of issues which helps in terms of skipping the hurdle of filing reports, as I think reports only get reviewed if it accrues a certain amount of them, but never feel any action is in vain :)
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It seems I got a reaction from others. I need to mention that, just like placing a bad review on Google or perhap youtube, it's called as marketing. the best way is to leave it alone. Yet, this discussion, or if it gets spread, you guys are just giving the game free advertisement.
Note : Im not disagree everyone here just my though and no i dont support this fake activity stuff.
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being a small team or a solo dev doesn't give them a pass, it's just an excuse, much easier to say than putting in the 'extra' work and people like you eat it up. plus there's not much to be done with aaa stuff as long as idiots keep pre-ordering half-finished games months ahead but any scummy dev, no matter how small, off the market is good enough.
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I found by chance a game which in a very obvious manner uses fake reviews to improve its review score: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2668270/Alone_and_Dangerous/
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2069550/Slime_Rule/#app_reviews_hash
If you check the english reviews, you'll notice that several reviewers have the same amount of reviews. And all reviews per Steam profile have identical playtime and nearly all those Steam profiles have reviewed identical games.
With this in mind, I considered reporting the game (yes, I am aware that it would be mostly an exercise in futility which is why I haven't decided yet). Questions would be:
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