Steam's user reviews have been around for a long while but they are still not trusted by the community. It seems that Valve has finally decided to turn this situation around and is taking measures to ensure the integrity of its user review scores.
Valve has introduced several updates to its user reviews system over the last few months, but this week's update strikes us as the most meaningful so far. Starting this week, the average review score will not include scores from users who obtained the game through a Steam Key.
Steam keys have been around for years. They are given by Valve to game developers so that they would sell or distribute them on other retail channels. This has many benefits, but it also allowed some developers to manipulate their review scores by posting multiple reviews using different keys or by outright paying a third party to use those keys and post positive reviews in bulk.
Valve's analysis red flagged more than 160 titles that are likely to have abused the CD keys to boost their review scores. The company reviewed those cases, removed all offending reviews and is now warning developers that similar behavior will result in immediate business relation termination from now onward.
This change is definitely a step in the right direction, but it doesn't mean that Steam user reviews system is now perfect. Valve is aware of that, and promises to keep improving it by tackling issues such as the ability of an organized small group to mark specific reviews as helpful and skew the perception of what the majority of customers are really saying.
VIA: Steam.
