A Developer on Steam using the name ‘Very Positive’ had been accused of manipulating reviews, and later Steam banned him.
Assume you’re going to purchase a game on Steam, and you barely watched the reviews. If you see Very Positive there, you’re most likely to buy that. But in this scenario, you should see the reviews panel more precisely. Check this and see if you can tell what’s weird about this image.
According to the Vice report, the Developer utilized that the publisher/developer name and Reviews are so close to each other on Steam’s game page. As the Developer name field is editable, he could possibly manipulate reviews using that.
“I noticed that the publisher/developer name is located really close to the reviews and has the same color, and I decided to use it for my purposes,” the anonymous developer of Emoji Evolution told Vice.
A game with ‘Very Positive’ reviews could make the users believe that it is a great one to play. Either they buy it or not, that’ll change the perception.
Well, this is one way to trick people into thinking your game has positive reviews on Steam…! pic.twitter.com/jnzGC9qfEu
— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) February 10, 2021
The developer told Vice that they didn’t think it would be an issue with Steam. However, Steam found it and banned Very Positive. It also delisted Emoji Evolution.
“Valve has banned my developer account due to the ‘review manipulations.” Absolutely disagree with this accusation,’ Very Positive Developer wrote on Twitter. Later, he followed up, “I will contact the support to clarify the Steam position on Very Positive Developer,” so this isn’t over yet.
I will contact the support to clarify Steam position on Very Positive Developer. Will keep you posted!
— Very Positive Developer (@verypositivedev) February 13, 2021
The developer has now uploaded Emoji Evolution to Itch.Io, and says “The game will FREE until Steam restores my developer account (forever, lol).”
So that’s been it. Thank you for reading, and do share the article if you get a bit piece of information. Also, keep an eye on this space for more relevant updates. Stay safe, and we hope to see you around.
