Valve restricted almost 2,500 Steam accounts for liking a review

[midian182]

Facepalm: It's easy to understand why Valve would ban a Steam game review, but banning users who simply liked it seems excessive, especially when the post didn't really violate any rules. Yet that's what happened to 2,439 people who voted a negative review as helpful.

The game in question is Warlander, a free-to-play online multiplayer title with Mixed reviews. Slashdot reports that one of the almost 2,500 pieces of negative feedback came from a user called FREEDOMS117, who was particularly aggrieved by the game's anti-cheat software, Sentry Anti-Cheat.

FREEDOMS117 wrote in their negative review that Sentry Anti-Cheat was "suspicious" and that it "maintains running even when the game is closed, including tray icons." The most worrying part was that Sentry Anti-Cheat "seems to be sending some packets of data to japan IPs while the game has already been closed," and that it was difficult to remove even after the game had been uninstalled.

For those players concerned about Sentry Anti-Cheat, FREEDOMS117's review included instructions on how to completely remove it along with anything left in the registry. The post became the most popular review on Warlander's Steam page, garnering 2,439 upvotes and 437 awards during the three months it stayed on top.

But one Steam moderator took offense to the review, removing it and restricting FREEDOMS117's account for 30 days, stopping them from posting reviews/messages and voting. The reason? The review was "attempting to scam users or other violations of Steam's Rules & Guidelines," apparently.

Not content with just restricting FREEDOMS117's account, everyone who gave the review a thumbs up and an award also had their ability to vote on Steam reviews restricted for 30 days. Affected users contacted Steam support for help but to no avail.

PC Gamer writes that Steam support eventually responded to the outcry, apologizing to FREEDOMS117 and admitting that the moderator made a mistake; they thought the review was instructions on how to remove anti-cheat software, something Valve doesn't allow.

"Our moderators watch for content that describes how to cheat or describes how to tamper with anti-cheat systems. Those are against our rules and it looks like that is what our moderation team incorrectly identified with this case, leading to the banned review. I agree with your evaluation that this review does not fit that criteria," wrote Steam support.

"Furthermore, the mod identified this review as potentially dangerous to other players, due to some of the steps requiring registry edits. This led to the additional lock that was placed on your account and voter accounts. I can see that your review does not contain phishing links, attempts to scam or deceive players, or anything else that warrants a lock."

While FREEDOMS117's ban was lifted, as were the bans on those who liked their review, the original post's text remains hidden. Steam support wrote that they believe the review would make more sense as a Steam guide and should include a disclosure for readers about how the steps should be taken "at your own risk."

Steam support did say that they would be following up with the developer about the behavior described in the review.

Warlander's publisher Plaion wrote that Sentry Anti-Cheat had "a bug where Sentry fails to unregister the icon displayed in the task tray when Sentry Anti-Cheat Task Tray closes, which leaves the icon displayed and makes it appear that Sentry is still running." It claimed that the system does not collect any personal information as it does not need to handle any. The company also included instructions on how to uninstall the anti-cheat software.

The incident will likely be PR black eye for Valve. Not only could it dissuade people from leaving negative reviews, but it might also make others think twice before giving them the thumbs up.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98333-valve-restricted-almost-2500-steam-accounts-liking-review.html

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Hahaha. That's what you get for using Vavle's stuff.

Don't like a game and leave a bad review - you can get in trouble and banned from posting reviews. Steam feels it is their job to police review blasting, even if a game rightly deserves it.

Don't like a game you purchased because it took so long to play through the intro that you exceeded the 2 hour refund limit? Suck it! Too bad. No refund for you!

You make a post on their discussion boards and a mod doesn't like you - BAN from posting! Loser.

Do yourself a favor, just stop supporting Steam. There are other digital platforms to get your games through and even if they don't have the same functionality you might find with Steam, the problem isn't the platform, but the users' inability to change.

I haven't purchased anything off Steam for nearly 5 years now. They don't get my money.

 

[PEnnn]

This is pathetic!!

Steam should hire moderators who are at the very least computer literate and can read AND comprehend what they're reading!!

 

[Burty117]

Do yourself a favor, just stop supporting Steam. There are other digital platforms to get your games through and even if they don't have the same functionality you might find with Steam, the problem isn't the platform, but the users' inability to change.

So are you seriously suggesting other platforms don't moderate their reviews or forums?
Also, why would I spend the same money on another platform but not get basic features like Mod Support, Big Screen Modes, Controller Support or Streaming capability's?

Steam should hire moderators who are at the very least computer literate and can read AND comprehend what they're reading!!

Agreed, this was a particularly dumb move. I do agree it probably should have been a Steam Guide instead of in a review but as a moderator, you would have thought the better path would be to edit the review and simply say "to find my uninstall instructions go to my Steam Guide Here" and let the user know you've done this.

Banning all the people that liked or awarded the review is actually weird though. That to me sounds more like the typical ego of a moderator who goes way to far. You get them on pretty much all forums.
Even here at Techspot I've had posts deleted and all I said was hello to another longtime member, Almost like the moderator didn't like us talking to each other or something.

 

[Lozzy]

I note they didn't attempt to explain why they banned people for just liking a review. Welcome to the future, the year is 1984

 

[Neatfeatguy]

So are you seriously suggesting other platforms don't moderate their reviews or forums?
Also, why would I spend the same money on another platform but not get basic features like Mod Support, Big Screen Modes, Controller Support or Streaming capability's?

I don't use reviews to gauge a game. I get it for myself and if I like it, great! If I don't like it, then it's my loss. There aren't many games I've picked up that I thought would be good that turned out to be a turd. Same thing with "critics" thinking their review on movie or restaurant is law, I don't give a rip what you think. I'll make my own opinion. I just know that Steam has made the news multiple times with how they handle reviews and manipulate them, if other platforms do it....? Well, I haven't come across any stories about it.

I never used any of that stuff on Steam. I'm missing out on nothing I find useful in any means. My main reasons for stopping the of Steam was their heavy handedness of patrolling reviews and the UI switch over when they introduced many, many bugs and they took a very long time (year+) to resolve even some of the most debilitating ones such as:
* the overlay causing games to crash
* play button not launching games
* games that started without fail before the UI change would crash when trying to launch
* removal of useful sorting functions of the old library
and the list goes on.

I grew tired of waiting on them to make Steam functional again without the bugs plaguing my use of it that I just wrote Steam off. I also enjoy the fact I can simply download the game I want from GoG and install it and play it when ever I want without needing any kind of tiedown to needing a digital platform being active to actually play the game.

To each their own.

 

[Burty117]

I don't use reviews to gauge a game. I get it for myself and if I like it, great! If I don't like it, then it's my loss. There aren't many games I've picked up that I thought would be good that turned out to be a turd. Same thing with "critics" thinking their review on movie or restaurant is law, I don't give a rip what you think. I'll make my own opinion.

Ok cool, I never said anything about the value of game reviews and never said anything about how you interpret them. So you shouldn't care what I think because I haven't even told you what I think? Actually now I re-read your comment, I'm guessing you have some anger management issues

I just know that Steam has made the news multiple times with how they handle reviews and manipulate them, if other platforms do it....? Well, I haven't come across any stories about it.

Well apart from Steam being the most used so therefore, will get the most media attention, if you look at the EA App today, you don't even have reviews in the store, like at all, so there's nothing to report on.

I never used any of that stuff on Steam. I'm missing out on nothing I find useful in any means.

Well then that's a different story isn't it, if you don't value any of that, I on the other hand do plug my PC into my TV to play games sometimes, You realise the value of these features if you use them and then try to use another store, it's incredibly frustrating.

My main reasons for stopping the of Steam was their heavy handedness of patrolling reviews and the UI switch over when they introduced many, many bugs and they took a very long time (year+) to resolve even some of the most debilitating ones such as:
* the overlay causing games to crash
* play button not launching games
* games that started without fail before the UI change would crash when trying to launch
* removal of useful sorting functions of the old library
and the list goes on.

I grew tired of waiting on them to make Steam functional again without the bugs plaguing my use of it that I just wrote Steam off.

Ah see, we've had very different experiences over the years, I've found uPlay, Origin (Now EA App) and Epic Store to be way more buggy than Steam. GoG and Battle.Net I've not really had any major issues though.

I also enjoy the fact I can simply download the game I want from GoG and install it and play it when ever I want without needing any kind of tiedown to needing a digital platform being active to actually play the game.

Something that drew me to GoG was the ability to download games without DRM or even use Galaxy at all. Problem is, they don't sell all the games I wish to play. Due to DRM being a requirement by most publishers at this point, I doubt this situation will get any better.

 

[return]

Negatively reviewed games make less money for Valve. Valve will come up with any lie to silence negative reviews.

 

[gamertaboo]

Banning everyone who liked or awarded a review is next level moderating, sure hope that mod was banned. (doubting intensifies)

 

[MrCommunistGen]

If the game is doing suspicious, the GAME should get taken down, unlisted, etc until resolved by the developer... not the person who blew the whistle on the suspicious activity.

If Valve is (inadvertently) distributing malware or something that's malware adjacent I'd think they have a duty to stop. I assume it's against their terms of service to include trojans in a game listed on their platform.

I could see this potentially turning into a slipper slope if not handled correctly -- people reporting that Denuvo is hurting performance or other things of that nature. BUT, in this case Anti-Cheat that is doing suspicious things, isn't removed when the game is uninstalled, and is very difficult to remove for the average user seems pretty cut and dry to me.

But of course, as others have already stated, that would cost Valve money.

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

The moderator should be in politics, perhaps Xi will give him a job.

 

[Ephebus]

Steam community moderation has been an ungly mess for a long time now. I don't know what kind of selection process global moderators are submitted to (if any), but it's failing miserably. In this case, Valve had thousands of users complaining, so they thought it would be better to do something about it before things escalated more. In most cases, though, these psychologically disturbed "mod gods" manage to get away with their deeds, since their actions usually only affect a few people and Valve couldn't care less.

 

[scavengerspc]

So if an account gets restricted, how do they play their games?

 

[kiwigraeme]

So if an account gets restricted, how do they play their games?

I think only the ability to post messages , like, do reviews

 

[Ephebus]

So if an account gets restricted, how do they play their games?

There are different levels of restriction. In this case, they were all Steam community restrictions. The review author was banned from posting reviews for 30 days, and the users who liked the review were banned from voting on reviews for a variable length of time (depends on each account, if it had previous violations, etc.). Repeated community bans may lead to a complete suspension from using the Steam community, including buying, selling and trading game items and even adding friends.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I like to make rhymes:

Valve created Steam...
Steam is now a meme...

 

[mountains]

I agree that this is not a good look for Steam. Too bad it had to start becoming a news story to get a reaction from the company.

As for the described software, has anyone here tried uninstalling the Brave browser? Just saying...

 

[BobHome]

Moderator? Or Regulator....

 

[Nobina]

Unusual for Valve as they have a hands off approach to things.

 

[Stiqy]

This is pathetic!!

Steam should hire moderators who are at the very least computer literate and can read AND comprehend what they're reading!!

One of Valve's 1500 employees made a mistake! The appeal process worked and Valve corrected it immediately! Pathetic! I am outraged!

 

[Bamda]

The incident will likely be PR black eye for Valve. Not only could it dissuade people from leaving negative reviews, but it might also make others think twice before giving them the thumbs up.

No doubt stupid mistake, but who hasn't made them? But it's a bit assumptive of the author to claim that this is what is going to happen from his quote above. I have been using Steam since opening day and guess what, I have had zero issues with them. Are they perfect of course not but in what world is any company or organization run by human beings? So slow your roll before we get the pitchforks.

 

[toooooot]

Negatively reviewed games make less money for Valve. Valve will come up with any lie to silence negative reviews.

Not always. Ark survival was many times downvoted heavily. And yet it is one of the best selling long played and loved by moders game.
There are plenty of good people who leave positive reviews after the game is fixed.
Regarding the situation described in this article, I think positive feedback matters a lot of game makers who dont sell big. Those good feedbacks is their air.

 

[Hodor]

HOW DARES HE to criticize spyware?? He's giving a bad example to other people, who might become worried that games and other apps are spying on them. Which could endanger the entire global information collection operation!

 

[misor]

Would love to see that moderator banned for 3 months for excessive and unfair moderation.

 

[LimyG]

Ridiculous. 1. A moderator who can't understand posts (the reason Valve gave) absolutely should NOT be a moderator.

He must have his moderator status fully revoked. This kind of thing, negatively affecting so many "Steamers" it is poor judgment to let him be a mod in the first place - but that's probably difficult to assess?
Not instantly getting rid of this petty ***** mod will reflect very badly on Valve, In fact it means they still endorse him.
Note: I don't know if he is still a mod or not - but if he is - well Valves loss.