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A group of toxic players got together to review-bomb our game on Steam. We're a small multiplayer-only MMO RTS, so something like this can really effect us. Together they took our rating down from Positive down to Mixed. poo poo like:  (Note the player has 300+ hours on record, including 80+ hours in the last two weeks, and almost 40 hours added since the time of review just a few days ago) And another one that was so abusive that Steam took it down. So these players, who continue to play, are doing this, coordinated, purely out of spite, to detract from our game, a 100% free game, that they continue to play. Someone please commiserate with me.
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Aug 14, 2021 20:19
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 11:43 |
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So what happened is that one player had a misunderstanding with another player and got upset (refused to accept an apology, started drama, etc). This happened outside of our game and outside of Steam, between two players. I don't know how or why, but somehow that led five players to get together and coordinate a review bomb on us. 2-3 of the reviews bemoan an "insular community" or something of the sort. I was also wrong earlier: the abusive, profanity-laced review is still up, unfortunately. I appreciate the advice and support everyone. I found all this out on my birthday (the 11th), so that was certainly very blech. Steam has a place on it's creator dashboard where you can message a service rep, and some dashboard manual said to message them if you get review bombed like this, so I'll try that. VelociBacon posted:Let us know what game it is and you won't need commiseration.
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Aug 15, 2021 09:21
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VelociBacon posted:I didn't realize it was a mod, I don't own CoH unfortunately but thought maybe I'd be able to run it for a few hours then leave a positive review. Instead I got this dialogue box which is pretty funny. Such as this gem:  I never realized the AutoUpdater also counted as play time, that's neat. But I'd also be worried about looking like we're astroturfing our reviews, when I'm about to message Steam to look through our reviews for unusual activity (not actually owning a copy of COH might set off a red flag for Steam). But I do have one gift copy (from when Steam still had game inventory), and I'd be happy to buy a copy for anyone else who's willing to check us out. I feel that COH1 is still pound-for-pound the best RTS game out there, and we built upon that, so I earnestly think our game offers the most complex and comprehensive strategy gaming experience out there with all the features and such that we've implemented. So if that sounds up your alley, come check us out. COH Bros welcome. quote:I hope other goons in the thread can toss you a positive review doing the same to offset your idiot reviewbombs. TooMuchAbstraction posted:You should be able to report abusive reviews if you're an owner or moderator of the game.
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Aug 15, 2021 20:58
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Personally I've had great experiences with Steam's support, like way better than I expected to. quote:Hello. I am writing to you today because unfortunately our game, Europe In Ruins, has recently been the victim of a coordinated series of review bombs. On August 9th and 10th, five players coordinated to all leave negative reviews at the same time specifically to tank our score and hurt our game. edit: Looks like they got one more person to leave a bad review. Time to update my message to Steam.  So what I've been able to piece together is that this is a group of players that used to play Operation Market Garden mod (the only other COH mod with persistent unit veterancy) together. The moderation team there drove them away, so they soured on OMG, and now they're playing our game and I guess souring on our game now. literally this big fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Aug 18, 2021 |
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Aug 18, 2021 00:10
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:I haven't tried what you're trying, so I don't know if it'll work. My main thought is "this is a lot of text", though. I'd summarize what you're hoping to achieve and include the backstory and proof afterwards. For example: quote:I've had a look through these reviews. I completely understand [...] On the other hand, these don't actually break any rules - we allow everyone who's played the product to leave their opinion as long as it's not abusive or part of an organized effort to lower the score (bot accounts or paid reviews). [blah blah blah] Did this guy not even look at the reviews? Did I get a useless bot or something? Do I message back quoting the exact passages from the Steamworks documentation that each comment is violating? Do I point out that at least two comments are flagrantly abusive and 100% off-topic? Do I quote back Steam's own definition of Review Bombing, which fits this situation exactly? Do I quote back the passage that says that if the source of a negative review is "something that is unrelated to the product or provided service, the abnormal period of volume will be removed from the overall score." Do I link him to Steam's own User Reviews Revisited post, linked to on the Steamworks documentation page in reference to that last quote, that says "we're going to identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score", and define a review bomb as "a review bomb is where players post a large number of reviews in a short period of time, aimed at lowering the Review Score of a game. We define an off-topic review bomb as one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game, and hence not something that should be added to the Review Score"? Also unfortunately, on the 16th, a sixth member of the same group left us another bad review. So this has become an ongoing thing. Dragging us down into 'Mixed' really hurts us when we'd be at 75% without them, and now this one group makes up over one-in-ten of our total reviews. We need to muster 7-8 more positive reviews, just to break even with their 6. This is a no-win, uphill battle for us as for as long as they want to keep this up.
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Aug 20, 2021 20:18
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 11:43 |
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Edgar Allan Pwned posted:I want to get into game development mainly to become a better programer and I wanted to know how I can publish games. Do I need to make an LLC? Am in the US Depends on the game, really. Just make a game and post it wherever you can. Steam is a nice platform, but you can start by hosting simpler stuff on something like Newgrounds, or even your own site. Assuming you're wanting to work solo on a small project. Incorporating into an LLC is only something I'd worry about once you start making a significant amount of money ("significant" is subjective, talk to a lawyer and/or accountant). If you just start doing 'business' in the US (any industry, not just games) then you're by default operating as a 'sole proprietorship'. But you can start uploading games and start a Patreon and such without having to 'officially tell the government' or anything like that. literally this big fucked around with this message at 20:03 on Aug 24, 2021 |
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Aug 24, 2021 19:58
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