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Valve Bans Developer After Employees Leave Fake User Reviews (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Insel Games, a Maltese developer of online multiplayer titles, has been banned from Steam and had all its titles removed from Valve's storefront after evidence surfaced that it was encouraging employees to manipulate user review scores on the service. Yesterday, redditor nuttinbutruth posted a purported leaked email from Insel Games' CEO encouraging employees to buy reimbursed copies of the game in order to leave a Steam review. "Of course I cannot force you to write a review (let alone tell you what to write) -- but I should not have to," the email reads. "Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year."
In a message later in the day, Valve said it had investigated the claims in the Reddit post and "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game. The publisher appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own games. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously." While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
In a message later in the day, Valve said it had investigated the claims in the Reddit post and "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game. The publisher appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own games. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously." While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
Let's buy the game and reward them with good reviews on a non-steam platform.
I can understand not wanting to be at the mercy of 1 star jerks who ruin years worth of work after 30 seconds of play
The games will continue to work for those who have already purchased them.
I guess you don't have jobs THIS year.
Involuntarily Celibate games?
Or is the name meant to imply that their games are for incels?
Sounds like it fits.
The real loser here are the employees of the company. They got an email from their boss manipulating them into leaving fake reviews (essentially threatening to shut down jobs if they didn't), and now they're virtually guaranteed to lose their jobs.
While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
Gaben was quoted as saying "Maintaining the quality and integrity of the Steam store is of utmost importance". He went on to say "Now explore your queue and I will recommend 10 shovelware titles made in RPG Maker. But hey, cartoon boobs"
Dude. Read the last line of the summary: "While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them."
Dude. Read.
But the developer now CANNOT update it, and this has killed any growth for the online gaming community for these games. Just cause the game "works" doesn't mean it's providing the experience they were sold. Insel has to get back on steam or valve has to refund those.
people still diddle your mom?
I know I did last night, and I want my $1.50 back
Leave fake reviews you mustn't be confident in your product.
Hogwash, of course they can update it. They can release a patch changing update method to "in-house".
Does this require large amounts of coding? Of course. Is it more costly? Sure. But not impossible.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Every company I've worked for has done this, if only to offset early hyperbolic 1 star reviews (it took 10 seconds to load!). I find it hard to believe this is not widespread behaviour.
HA HA!
still be able to use them. but reinstall them? get updates? get refunds to move to an off steam build?
car dealerships do the same BS give us an 10 or we fail.
This seems to be a common theme these days. Zero ethics from management. Maybe a compulsory ethics course should be mandatory for anyone in management.
Heh, you paid the full $1.50. I got a half-price discount in return for writing a favorable review.
For how long?
It sounds like it was an online game, and those are updated frequently. Is the company able to still update the Steam version, because if they can't, owners are screwed. And DLC? If they can't ge the new DLC through stream, will their steam copy work with whatever new mechanism they use?
Just cause the game "works" doesn't mean it's providing the experience they were sold.
Actually, it does. You keep suggesting that these customers were sold a multiplayer experience. They weren't. They were sold a game, and that's exactly what Valve gave them. Nothing more, nothing less. At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve.
Whether the game lives up to its promise of delivering a particular multiplayer experience is the responsibility of the publisher. Moreover, if your ability to deliver on your promises depends on maintaining a relationship with a third-party, maybe you shouldn't go breaking the contractual terms under which that relationship operates, lest you fail to be able to deliver on your promises?
As for updates, what's stopping them from updating it? I've updated plenty of games I bought on Steam with third-party patches and mods. Is there some sort of magic preventing first-parties from updating their own games? I doubt it. All they've done is cut off their ability to easily update those copies, but they've hardly cut off the ability altogether. Besides which, even if they had cut it off, it's not difficult to verify whether someone has purchased a copy of your game, at which point you can simply give them a free copy of the game off of Steam, one which you have the ability to update.
Valve may choose to give these customers a refund, but they are under no obligation to do so (excepting those who qualify under their normal terms for a refund, of course). But if Insel made promises it can't keep? It may be on the hook for those refunds, and it'd need to figure out some way to honor them without Valve.
this is a shot across the bow. Insel games just happens to be the first ones caught / made example of. Sucks, because they can't say they weren't warned, but nobody expected the rules to be enforced.
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Of this action? Thumbs up. Right on the money, Valve. A zero-tolerance policy on review skewing, tampering and fraud is absolutely fantastic!
"Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year."
Guess you guys learned a good lesson about reviews then. You should've added something about not reviewing your own products. Ooops.
How is this any different than my employer encouraging me to leave positive reviews of the company on Glassdoor? We should probably be banned as well...
To save people the title search:
Studio size: 20 staff, including freelance.
If the studio is living hand-to-mouth off each title released, losing the Steam market will be a major blow. Doesn't seem like a proportional response... looks more like they're being made an example of. Do something other then deal a potential death blow.
Employees can quit and go find a different job. Slaves cannot leave and go find a different owner.
The equivalence that you see is entirely rooted in ignorance of how horrible actual slavery actually is.
Yes, people must work to survive. This isn't because some mean old people like making others work, it's because shit needs to get done. Lots of it. And until the machines can do it all, people are going to have to do it.
And, those people will get paid to do it. And if they hate it, they can quit and go get paid to do something else.
You have no appreciation for how free you are, you ungrateful little fucktard.
" At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve."
If I bought the title from Valve, after reading the description on Valve, and Valve gets 30% of the cash... then Valve has an obligation to deliver what was promised along with the publisher.
This isn't some bizarre interpretation, if I buy cottage cheese and take it home, open it, and its modly, I can return it to the store I bought it from.
"At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve."
Valve curated the title, published the promise, featured the promise prominently on their own publishing platform ("steam"), and then took a substantial component of the selling price. That promise may not have originated with Valve, but Valve most definitely passed it on with their explicit endorsement.
I'm very glad Valve has "made an example" here, and I hope they follow suit with any other studios that pull the same stunt. If you want to get good reviews, make a good game. If you cheat and you get caught, you pay the price.
I certainly feel sorry for the devs and others affected by this who weren't responsible, but we can't let that stop us from penalizing cheaters.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
If it's an MMO, it probably has ways other than Steam to install it. Users should be able to just switch to the "regular" installer with regular account credentials.
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Valve has a contract with the game company, which includes the requirement of "No Fake Reviews".
The game company broke that contract.
Valve responds by also ceasing to honor the contract.
You? You're not involved. Valve has no obligations to you - really. Go read your agreement with Valve. You know, the one you agreed to when you installed Steam, every time you active a key, and every time you buy a game.
The fact that Valve keeps some of the money has nothing to do with you; it is part of the contract between Valve and the game company.
Your suggestion that Valve curated, endorsed, or in any way was responsible for the game or its content is entirely in your mind.
Do they have so many employees that those 'fake' reviews (as maybe some of them actually like the game), that it would really influence the total number for the game?
"This isn't some bizarre interpretation, if I buy cottage cheese and take it home, open it, and its moldy, I can return it to the store I bought it from."
Yes and no. In the case of cottage cheese, yes, you can return it to the store. There are quite a few bog box stores that sell electronics or large items and they tell you, if there is a problem, you take that problem to the manufacturer.
So the question comes down to is this a return or is this a defect and is their policy to take that up with the manufacturer?
You could be completely correct. I don't know the Steam policy as it applies here, just pointing out that there is a different way that this could be handled.
Right but Valve also has a contract with the customer who purchased the game. A default by the customer doesn't relieve them of any obligations to the game publisher and vice versa.
cut scene, flashflashflash, cutsceen, flashflashflash, cutscene...you cant even tell whats happening what a dumb game, of course they tried to manipulate reviews after churning out this rehashed pile of steamy poop.
If Valve sells a multiplayer game and then kills said multiplayer, they owe the purchaser a complete refund. Any other response is not acceptable.
They didn't kill multiplayer. They killed sales of the game. Big difference. Multiplayer still works just fine and the game works exactly as it did when it was sold to the purchaser. Buyers still have exactly what they purchased.
The AC way back up in this thread was trying to suggest that because sales will drop off the multiplayer experience won't become what people had hoped, and he was using that to suggest that Valve owes people refunds, which is bunk.