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I'm sure you've all seen some of the more playful user reviews on Steam, but they're not exactly helpful for figuring out if you want to buy a game and so Valve have a new "Helpfulness System" they're testing.

Valve said in the announcement of the new Beta that this new system will not impact the actual review scores, just change the ordering of what reviews are actually shown. As Valve explained:

User reviews that are identified as being unhelpful for potential customers, such as one-word reviews, reviews comprised of ASCII art, or reviews that are primarily playful memes and in-jokes, will be sorted behind other reviews on the game’s store page. That doesn't mean players won't ever see these humorous, but unhelpful posts, but it hopefully means that they’ll see them less frequently when trying to learn about a game. If you enjoy seeing these sorts of reviews when browsing the store, there's an option on the store page to include them when browsing.

How do Valve determine which to show? They said they use a mixture of techniques, including user reports and the Steam moderation team looking directly at reviews, along with some "machine learning algorithms". They found that a lot of the unhelpful reviews were easy enough to spot but it's all a work in progress. And of course, considering the amount of user reviews on Steam, this could take a while to get through.

For example, looking at Persona 3 Reload without (first picture) and with the new system activated (second picture) and yeah…the results of this new system are pretty clear:

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc, Steam, Valve
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26 comments
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DogsRNice Aug 16
☻/ This is bob. He has finally been defeated by Valve.
/▌
/\
BladePupper Aug 16
Are you telling me an ascii anime girl butt or breasts gets old really fast? Don't worry, I have an ascii penis, that won't get old right? I'm sure the people with adult content disabled like ascii genitals being displayed on basically every game.
Genuinely shocked they didn't do this much sooner since this isn't new at all. This doesn't need to be like nintendo's miivese but like some moderation more than what we have now which feels like zero is an improvement.
EduAAA Aug 16
I'm way more frustrated by troll/shitpost steam guides than reviews tbh, might have grown too old for the internet already
my Man, that's the biggest piece of shitty spam they've got to end with, I couldn't agree more, example: "how to open the game".
And spamming the same shit over 100 game guide forums.

I'd just ban those pricks and their email, phone, their hwid, and or course no matter how many games they own, the more the better, never allow em to log in their accounts again, bye bye all games, also send the sopranos to break their hands bones so bad they end up being dust.

Seriously, burn them all!!! Burn Them All!!


Last edited by EduAAA on 16 August 2024 at 4:04 pm UTC
I haven't really looked at Steam reviews in…some time. At this point (and for several years back) if I'm interested in a game but not convinced I just go look it up on YouTube; 5-10 minutes spent watching someone actually play it usually tells me a lot more about whether I, personally, would enjoy playing it than spending that same amount of time reading reviews. That's not to say reviews have no value (especially if it's not a newly-released game, a review can encapsulate thoughts about the game from start to finish), I just don't find myself scrolling that far down the page very often anymore. Still, this is a welcome improvement on Valve's part.
slaapliedje Aug 17
I just wish there were a way to get the steam store to ignore sound tracks... anyone else remember when you bought a game on CD, that the vast majority of them were just CD Audio tracks you could rip/convert! Imagine a world when you didn't have to pay 10 dollars extra just to listen to the video game music?

Bah, maybe I'm just old, get off my lawn!
I like soundtracks on Steam. 👀

What I hate is when the older ones aren't recategorized as such and still act like they're game DLC. Cause it makes getting all of your music easier when they're actually treated as soundtracks.
My point was; they used to be included in the game, not some extra thing. These days, publishers use it as an excuse of 'Deluxe edition!' sales.
anewson Aug 22
But I want to know more about fobot rucker :(

Spoiler, click me
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