Over 2500 team users have apparently had their accounts restricted over a single negative game review, according to a recent post on Slashdot, a tech forum site. The post details that the 2439 users who marked the review as “Helpful,” as well as those who gave it a total of 437 rewards, all have their accounts restricted.
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The review in question comes from the Steam store page for Warlander, a fantasy-themed online multiplayer MOBA. With the game being listed as having “Mixed” reviews on Steam, there are quite a few negative ones that populate the bottom section of the page. Until recently, however, one review stood out. It pointed out the game’s “shady anti-cheat system,” alluding to possible data collection and intrusive software. The review has since been taken down, and while a screenshot is available of the post itself, the review text has been hidden, likely as a result of the ban.
Apparently, the review had been up for almost three months before a Steam moderator took it down. Following this, all users who marked the review as “Helpful” or gave it rewards had their accounts restricted, preventing them from upvoting or downvoting any Steam reviews for 30 days.
When attempting to contact Steam regarding the issue, affected users were met with a default response and were unable to get the vote ban lifted or shortened.
While there are quite a few reviews criticizing the game’s anti-cheat still up on the store page as of writing, the banned review was the most upvoted among them. Valve has yet to make a statement on the matter. With a single review ban having the potential to cause such repercussions, some have begun to question th effectiveness of the platform’s review system as a whole.
Source: Slashdot
heloo
The question now is, does the game contain actual bad anti cheat software? If so, then Valve is completely in the wrong here. It even might be the devs complaining to Valve that people figured this out. Valve has said reviews should be about the game content and not context but they like to ignore that reviews is the ONLY thing gamers have to voice their opinion. Forums? Discussions on Steam? The devs hold all the power and just hide them. Nobody is gonna check there before a purchase. They will if they look at the reviews.
I agree, reviews shouldn’t be used like this …. but on Steam you have no choice.
The original review detailed how the Anti-cheat behaved just like malware and infiltrated his PC, sending data to a foreign IP even when the game was not running. The review was exposing truth that Valve wants in the dark.
This is suppression of free speech, and it ain’t even to crack down on cyberbullying or scamming, this is Valve going up to bat to protect their bottom dollar. It disgusts me to my core. Everyone involved with this ban should be ashamed and find the nearest, steepest drop.