Here's a case of how to definitely not deal with getting negative feedback. A developer of Depth of Extinction revoked a user's key after a negative review. Update: A statement from the developer.
Depth of Extinction is a game that went through itch's "First Access" program where they sold limited amounts of keys across various rounds. Like a lot of games that start off on itch.io, the developer promised a Steam key when the game makes into onto Valve's store. So to make matters worse, this was a user who helped fund them a little before the wider release.
You can see the Steam forum post here where the user talks about it, which is now locked by the developer which was made after they put up this user review on Steam. Looking at the short review, they're not even saying all that much and it sounds like a pretty honest post as well as remaining quite polite with their negative thoughts about it.
The reply the developer sent to the user, is a great example of how to not respond to players of your game who dislike certain aspects of it:
Sorry about that, but I thought I you weren't interested in playing the game. I would have loved to get your feedback during the First Access but I didn't see anything from you until the Steam review, which was a little confusing. I really don't see how you saw enough of the current version of the game to make the judgement call you did there since we made massive changes in the last few months that were all just on Steam.
I can get you another key if you are interested in playing more and perhaps providing some feedback on how we can improve the game.
As polite as the developer reply may seem, how could they have thought this would be a good idea? They did also apologise in a later post after. Since I actually quite like the game, it also stings a bit to see a developer I also supported do something like this. Thankfully, the situation is now resolved and the user does have access to it on Steam once again. Honestly though, I'm a little in shock that doing something like this would ever cross someone's mind.
I've given plenty of negative reviews in my time here and on Steam itself, I've later changed my mind on it especially in times when there's been a patch to improve things and this user could have done the same but that's not the point. This feels like an attempt to silence negative feedback to me, it doesn't sit right at all.
It does also bring up some interesting questions about how easy it is for developers to remove peoples access to their games. While it's a system that can help developers in certain situations, it's also a system that is quite obviously open to a bit of abuse. I do have to wonder what Valve think about this as well, so I've reached out to them for a comment and I will update this if they reply.
This does make another interesting case for DRM free games outside of Steam, since a developer can't just take away your ability to play it. While a DRM free store could remove the game from you, you're still able to fully back it up yourself.
Hat tip to madpinger for the info.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: GuestDo you not have your glasses on or something? The developer email reply literally explained it was due to the review.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: GuestAs already argued on Reddit, the developer already fully admitted fault. Arguing against what has already been said in public is silly.Quoting: liamdaweJust to add, as further evidence of this, here's my own purchase details: https://imgur.com/a/gmJuBfg
Notice I personally purchased it on itch like I said, my Steam key given was also from a "beta" batch.
Then the developer has fucked up - retail keys should be marked as such. This does not however prove malicious intent whatsoever, which is what you are claiming.
Yet you are portraying it as deliberate malicious intent when you have no proof of that whatsoever, apart from the posting of a guy who was obviously pissed off that his key had been revoked, and assumed it was due to his negative review.
edit: Moreover, this is not a Linux issue - other than the fact that the game has a Linux build, the poster hasnt even mentioned Linux.
Keep arguing blindly against it all you like, the developer agreed and admitted the fault was their own.
Edit: To be clear on something, "malicious intent" is not something I said in the article. I portrayed it exactly as it is.
Also, let's be clear something. The user was obviously targeted. How else would they have known that specific key was for that specific review on Steam? Their own email admits that and they didn't refute it, not even one tiny bit. If it was a case of removing beta keys, why didn't anyone else get theirs removed? Why didn't mine? And so on. To argue that this wasn't intentional is madness.
Edit 2: And now they've deleted their account and comments so it looks like I'm arguing with myself, happy Saturday,
Last edited by Liam Dawe on 20 October 2018 at 9:16 pm UTC
Expalphalog Oct 20, 2018
Quoting: GuestTo follow up what I've said on Reddit - bollocks. Read the Steam forum. The key was revoked as the developer thought it was a regular betatest key and revoked it as the beta expired. When it turned out it wasn't they corrected the mistake. You are portraying this as more than it is. No doubt you will censor this post.
Quoting: GuestYet you are portraying it as deliberate malicious intent when you have no proof of that whatsoever, apart from the posting of a guy who was obviously pissed off that his key had been revoked, and assumed it was due to his negative review.
Don't you think if the developers would have revoked it as a beta key, they would have stated in this very thread?
https://steamcommunity.com/app/636320/discussions/0/1730963192539840617/
And you're implying the user citing the developer's email with "Sorry about that, but I thought I you weren't interested in playing the game." is simply lying to us, again without the developers saying so, right?
Quoting: Guestedit: Moreover, this is not a Linux issue - other than the fact that the game has a Linux build, the poster hasnt even mentioned Linux.
Would you allow us to look over the fence?
Last edited by Eike on 20 October 2018 at 4:47 pm UTC
Quoting: EikeQuoting: Guestedit: Moreover, this is not a Linux issue - other than the fact that the game has a Linux build, the poster hasnt even mentioned Linux.Would you allow us to look over the fence?
Welp I held off from biting on this one but looks like I was not the only one being annoyed :P
Quoting: GuestYet you are portraying it as deliberate malicious intent when you have no proof of that whatsoever, apart from the posting of a guy who was obviously pissed off that his key had been revoked, and assumed it was due to his negative review.Can you just admit you are wrong for once and politely get out? You are clearly just trying to instigate anger here, again, just to feed your sad sad desire to be on the receiving end of vitriol.
edit: Moreover, this is not a Linux issue - other than the fact that the game has a Linux build, the poster hasnt even mentioned Linux.
GustyGhost Oct 20, 2018
Quoting: CyrilQuoting: chancho_zombieEven Gabe Newell knows that DRM is a bad thing, it doesn't add anything positive. Hope one day steam makes the move of being DRM free. But let's face it DRM is still there because devs and specially companies are control freak outs, publishers and devs won't be happy if steam removes DRM. This whole thing is a ethical problem and the same happens with linux distribution, between ethical and being able to play a mp3, I choose the second. Same happens with games, lots of games wouldn't exist if DRM was banned, but still I would be demanding for devs to remove DRM when possible.
And if someone removed a game from my library I would download the torrent, that's not stealing that's someone else stealing u.
Yeah, but now the MP3 format is open! ^_^
Yes, I was just going to say the patents finally expired a few months ago.
Quoting: Delicieuxz[…]Let's quickly wrap up this off-topic discussion: The GPLv2/v3 are in conformance with the law in the EU & the USA. They have undergone legal scrutiny in courts (GPL Enforcement Cases and the rights can also be revoked (e.g. Busybox vs Best Buy + 13 other companies (2009-2012)).
Quoting: DelicieuxzMany publishers write digital licenses knowing that they don't count for much beyond their psychological influence to invoke or prevent certain end-user behaviours - which is something publishers still consider to be valuable.Of course, I'm not questioning that. I'm simply stating that there are legal reasons to revoke a license.
Last edited by poiuz on 20 October 2018 at 5:09 pm UTC
Last edited by Scoopta on 20 October 2018 at 6:27 pm UTC
Quoting: ScooptaLiam you mention DRM free games as if they don't exist on steam. People seem to misunderstand. Just because a game is on steam doesn't mean it's DRMed and it doesn't mean you can't back it up. Steam does provide OPTIONAL DRM that a Dev must deliberately choose to use. There are actually a good number of games in my steam library that are not DRMed at all. An easy way to test is to run the game manually and see if it sets your steam status to in game. Even some games that do that don't actually require steam to be present so the most accurate way of testing would be to close steam and then try to run the game.Sure, but plenty of Steam games have some form of Steam integration. I'm sure you understood my wider point.
Quoting: liamdaweI understand the point but at the same time I think people make a bigger deal out of Steam's DRM than it actually is. Hell depending on the game there are even extremely trivial ways around it.Quoting: ScooptaLiam you mention DRM free games as if they don't exist on steam. People seem to misunderstand. Just because a game is on steam doesn't mean it's DRMed and it doesn't mean you can't back it up. Steam does provide OPTIONAL DRM that a Dev must deliberately choose to use. There are actually a good number of games in my steam library that are not DRMed at all. An easy way to test is to run the game manually and see if it sets your steam status to in game. Even some games that do that don't actually require steam to be present so the most accurate way of testing would be to close steam and then try to run the game.Sure, but plenty of Steam games have some form of Steam integration. I'm sure you understood my wider point.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me