For those of you that frequent Steam, you might have notice something a little different today.
Sure, it gets tweaked every now and then with minor and almost daily updates, but sometimes we get treats like this.
Let me get this out first though…
C’MON! I can CLEARLY see I have more than 93 reviews! :<
It is even written underneath it…
But well, even if this change seems a little weird to some, it is actually VERY good addition to the Steam platform and I’m here to tell you why.
The change can be seen highlighted on the image above, with the newly displayed icons next to every game review, and the new ways to search through categories.
Cool, I can now see how many people that reviewed a game, got said game with a game key… so what’s the big deal?
Well, as I displayed on my little rant a while ago, the key activations are there but do not count towards the game % review rate.
Meaning that many developers who actually used this as a way to improve their overall game score have to now stick with the reviews given by the platform purchasers.
Believe it or not there are a couple hundreds of games now that have a greater positive review rate (nearly perfect in some cases) coming from key redeemers. Keys that sure, could’ve come from early backers from a Kickstarter, a bundle campaign, review copies, or like in my case, from purchases from a personal website or third party store. But that doesn’t stop developers from actually “auto-liking” their content by giving away free keys, or giving away “positive review copies”. (Which no joke, I have been actually asked for.)
So essentially, before purchasing a game on Steam you can now see:
- The like / dislike ratio of a game, according to the reviews of the platform buyers.
- A verbal score based on said ratio, going from Overwhelmingly Negative (20%- ish on 500+ reviews) to Overwhelmingly Positive. (95%+ on 500+ reviews)
- A separate ratio with verbal score based on the last 30 days reviews.
- The ability to filter reviews by most recent, most helpful, most funny and an overall summary of the reviews contents.
- Not to mention the ability to ACTUALLY READ the reviews. (A given of course.)
Itself these little additions will help filter the bad games and content from the good stuff, hopefully allowing other games to be bumped and get the attention they deserve. And of course, it will empower the customer to know what they are getting into, before actually purchasing the game they want. (Although, refunding is still an option there.)
My guess is that this review system will keep changing possibly including additional information, such as how much someone paid for a game, or what machine setup they have. Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, these changes are for the best. I do know another thing though…
That I’m thankful to you, for reading my blog. ;3