Valve Bans Developer After Employees Leave Fake User Reviews (arstechnica.com) 91
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Insel Games, a Maltese developer of online multiplayer titles, has been banned from Steam and had all its titles removed from Valve's storefront after evidence surfaced that it was encouraging employees to manipulate user review scores on the service. Yesterday, redditor nuttinbutruth posted a purported leaked email from Insel Games' CEO encouraging employees to buy reimbursed copies of the game in order to leave a Steam review. "Of course I cannot force you to write a review (let alone tell you what to write) -- but I should not have to," the email reads. "Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year."
In a message later in the day, Valve said it had investigated the claims in the Reddit post and "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game. The publisher appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own games. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously." While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
In a message later in the day, Valve said it had investigated the claims in the Reddit post and "identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the publisher of this game. The publisher appears to have used multiple Steam accounts to post positive reviews for their own games. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously." While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
Re:will they refund real users? give them an unloc (Score:5, Informative)
The games will continue to work for those who have already purchased them.
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But the developer now CANNOT update it, and this has killed any growth for the online gaming community for these games. Just cause the game "works" doesn't mean it's providing the experience they were sold. Insel has to get back on steam or valve has to refund those.
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Hogwash, of course they can update it. They can release a patch changing update method to "in-house".
Does this require large amounts of coding? Of course. Is it more costly? Sure. But not impossible.
Re:will they refund real users? give them an unloc (Score:5, Insightful)
Just cause the game "works" doesn't mean it's providing the experience they were sold.
Actually, it does. You keep suggesting that these customers were sold a multiplayer experience. They weren't. They were sold a game, and that's exactly what Valve gave them. Nothing more, nothing less. At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve.
Whether the game lives up to its promise of delivering a particular multiplayer experience is the responsibility of the publisher. Moreover, if your ability to deliver on your promises depends on maintaining a relationship with a third-party, maybe you shouldn't go breaking the contractual terms under which that relationship operates, lest you fail to be able to deliver on your promises?
As for updates, what's stopping them from updating it? I've updated plenty of games I bought on Steam with third-party patches and mods. Is there some sort of magic preventing first-parties from updating their own games? I doubt it. All they've done is cut off their ability to easily update those copies, but they've hardly cut off the ability altogether. Besides which, even if they had cut it off, it's not difficult to verify whether someone has purchased a copy of your game, at which point you can simply give them a free copy of the game off of Steam, one which you have the ability to update.
Valve may choose to give these customers a refund, but they are under no obligation to do so (excepting those who qualify under their normal terms for a refund, of course). But if Insel made promises it can't keep? It may be on the hook for those refunds, and it'd need to figure out some way to honor them without Valve.
Re:will they refund real users? give them an unloc (Score:4, Insightful)
" At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve."
If I bought the title from Valve, after reading the description on Valve, and Valve gets 30% of the cash... then Valve has an obligation to deliver what was promised along with the publisher.
This isn't some bizarre interpretation, if I buy cottage cheese and take it home, open it, and its modly, I can return it to the store I bought it from.
"At best, they were promised a multiplayer experience, but that promise didn't come from Valve."
Valve curated the title, published the promise, featured the promise prominently on their own publishing platform ("steam"), and then took a substantial component of the selling price. That promise may not have originated with Valve, but Valve most definitely passed it on with their explicit endorsement.
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Valve has a contract with the game company, which includes the requirement of "No Fake Reviews".
The game company broke that contract.
Valve responds by also ceasing to honor the contract.
You? You're not involved. Valve has no obligations to you - really. Go read your agreement with Valve. You know, the one you agreed to when you installed Steam, every time you active a key, and every time you buy a game.
The fact that Valve keeps some of the money has nothing to do with you; it is part of the contract bet
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If Valve sells a multiplayer game and then kills said multiplayer, they owe the purchaser a complete refund. Any other response is not acceptable.
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They didn't kill multiplayer. They killed sales of the game. Big difference. Multiplayer still works just fine and the game works exactly as it did when it was sold to the purchaser. Buyers still have exactly what they purchased.
The AC way back up in this thread was trying to suggest that because sales will drop off the multiplayer experience won't become what people had hoped, and he was using that to suggest that Valve owes people refunds, which is bunk.
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To save people the title search:
Studio size: 20 staff, including freelance.
If the studio is living hand-to-mouth off each title released, losing the Steam market will be a major blow. Doesn't seem like a proportional response... looks more like they're being made an example of. Do something other then deal a potential death blow.
Re:will they refund real users? give them an unloc (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm very glad Valve has "made an example" here, and I hope they follow suit with any other studios that pull the same stunt. If you want to get good reviews, make a good game. If you cheat and you get caught, you pay the price.
I certainly feel sorry for the devs and others affected by this who weren't responsible, but we can't let that stop us from penalizing cheaters.
JD can't be bothered to read... (Score:3)
While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them.
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But, from the summary, these are online multiplayer games. Their inability to sell the game to new users on steam has robbed those customers of the multiplayer experience they were sold. Online multiplayer is only useful as long as there are multiple players to be had.
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If the publisher didn't want to lose access to such a convenient sales platform, they should have abided by the Steam ToS.
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I'm playing an online multiplayer game right now that has Steam support, but Steam users are a minority, probably 1 in 4 to 1 in 6. Steam is great for the people who graze on games, playing until they sufficiently "finish" one, then move on to the next. But MMOs are normally played daily or nearly so for years. Not that there aren't people who just don't want to deal with yet another installer/updater, but it's not a good fit between MMOs and Steam. Also, Steam's refund policies mean that the game I'm playi
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Come on. That's bullshit and you know it.
If a developer can't give purchasers of their product -- regardless of original source -- a path to get patches and bug-fixes, then that's another reason for the developer to tank anyway. Steam is not the end-all be-all of getting patches for games initially purchased through Steam. Case in point: I bought Elder Scrolls: Online through Steam. Steam is not update path for the launcher or the game. Zenimax pushes updates to the launcher directly as needed and the
Re:JD can't be bothered to read... (Score:5, Funny)
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No Valve should refund their money because Steam is Valve's product and they are not doing due diligence to insure the products being sold on their store are quality products and not scams.
And if you buy something on Amazon or eBay or Craigslist and it turns out to be shit or faulty or fraudulent you want them to pay up too, right? I think you fundamentally don't understand - or want to understand - the difference between a store and a marketplace. They had a shady vendor that was caught and unceremoniously kicked to the curb, that's usually a harsh penalty. In fact, you have people on this very forum arguing that was an overreaction and they should have gotten a slap on the wrist. If you mak
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And if you buy something on Amazon or eBay or Craigslist and it turns out to be shit or faulty or fraudulent you want them to pay up too, right?
You cite three grossly different examples. If I buy something from Amazon, I expect Amazon to make me whole if something goes wrong. eBay and Craigslist are a bit different since, in those cases, they clearly aren't the sellers. Amazon muddies the waters a bit with "third party" sellers. But certainly if Amazon is the seller, they are on the hook. And Steam is the seller here. They just happen to get the game that they're selling from a third-party. It's more like Amazon than eBay so yes they should
still be able to use them. but reinstall them? (Score:2)
still be able to use them. but reinstall them? get updates? get refunds to move to an off steam build?
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As noted in another thread parallel to this: All of that is up to Insel Games to provide alternative methods for. Valve is not liable for any of it because IG is the one who decided to break Steam's ToS. If IG just drops support for anyone who purchased through Steam, that's another indicator of what kind of shit company IG is. Reputable companies (if there is such a thing anymore...different topic) don't falsify reviews.
This is the fundamental difference between a distributor (Steam) and the provider (
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Dude. Read the last line of the summary: "While Valve has ended its business relationship with Insel Games, users who previously purchased the company's games on Steam will still be able to use them."
Dude. Read.
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For how long?
It sounds like it was an online game, and those are updated frequently. Is the company able to still update the Steam version, because if they can't, owners are screwed. And DLC? If they can't ge the new DLC through stream, will their steam copy work with whatever new mechanism they use?
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Re:As a games developer (Score:4, Informative)
And that is why reviews show how much recorded play time you have in a given title.
Congratulations (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess you don't have jobs THIS year.
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Email is dated 14.12.2017. Is reading the sources really that hard?
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Poor Employees (Score:5, Insightful)
The real loser here are the employees of the company. They got an email from their boss manipulating them into leaving fake reviews (essentially threatening to shut down jobs if they didn't), and now they're virtually guaranteed to lose their jobs.
Re:Poor Employees (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, at least one employee seems to think that is fine.
Well ...
" "Of course I cannot force you to write a review (let alone tell you what to write) -- but I should not have to,"
The real problem is tyrannical managers who believe that they own their employees. Telling employees to commit fraud (review their own products without disclosing that they are employees) is crossing a line. This behaviour smells of management who rule their little fiefdom with very little oversight. They believe that they are at the top of the tree and a manager who wants to dictate to their employees the type of fraud to commit has been getting away with way too much already, which is why they feel safe in managing by fear.
Hopefully the shareholders drop this manager and find one who leads the employees with vision, not one who drives them with fear.
I cannot force a manager to stop acting like royalty, but I should not have to.
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PC Gamer always picking titles for Game of the Year awards based on which company spent the most revenue advertising was not much better. However, my take on the email from the manager, was that they were already in real dire straits. To assume they would have had jobs for another year might be an misplaced assumption. Its possible this consequence may have only accelerated things a month or two. It probably was as dire as it sounds. If only ebay were this proactive about these users who bid their own aucti
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Quite a few countries including mine have a legal clause that employee must be loyal to the company. There's nothing controversial about it. It's natural to expect employee to have loyalty for the entity that funds their livelihood in exchange for their work.
In this case, the problem is in working ethic + contractual obligations vs interest of the company. A choice that every manager in a meaningful position needs to make quite a lot. In this case, the manager clearly made a wrong choice and tanked the comp
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Not "agreement". A state law. If you get a job in Finland, state requires you to be loyal to your employer.
As far as I know, this is a very common legal interpretation. It's specifically designed to criminalize things like industrial espionage.
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Those small studio might not have shareholders.
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Well, at least one employee seems to think that is fine.
Seriously, if you work for a game company - why wouldn't you leave an honest review for the game if you like it? Also, companies pay for review copies all the time. This should have been a nothing-burger; but anytime something is posted online it gets blown out of proportion, context is lost and everyone jumps to the worst possible conclusions.
Are you seriously suggesting that employees leaving positive review of game made by their company is perfectly fine?
This is wrong on so many level. Do you even understand the purpose of a review?
When I'm reaching out a review of a product before I buy it, I'm looking for honest, unbiaised opinion of other buyers.
This is the equivalent "professoinnal review writters" that plague Amazon and the likes.
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So you leave a review, and a disclaimer. No different than a reviewer of a game from a magazine should reveal he's wined and dined before writing a review, or if they own stock, etc. Reveal your bias and give your review - let the reader adjust accordingly. Expecting honest and unbiased reviews from other purchasers means jack all - I known people to savage reviews on games they had enjoyed, simply because of a new dlc, another game by the same company, or a company's president's tweeted opinion.
Works is you write a review in a magasine, doesn't in Steam where the review summary matters.
When you buy an item on amazon, do you go throught the +200 review or you just look at the summary?
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I look at the star rating, and then I read 10 of the 4 star reviews, and then 10 of the 1 star reviews. I dont even read 5 star reviews. I feel that gives me the best idea of the truth of the product.
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Maybe because your inherent conflict of interest in the game's success would be make your review suspect, and doubly so if it was revealed that you didn't disclose it.
You wouldn't happen to be the aforementioned manager, by any chance?
car dealerships do the same BS give us an 10 or (Score:2)
car dealerships do the same BS give us an 10 or we fail.
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The real loser here are the employees of the company. They got an email from their boss manipulating them into leaving fake reviews (essentially threatening to shut down jobs if they didn't), and now they're virtually guaranteed to lose their jobs.
I won't be so sure about that.
On top of their job, CEO and President usually have shares and other asset linked to their company. So, in a way, I find that they will lose a lot more if the company is to goes bankrupt. And this little controversy will follow them for a while.
On the others hands, employes lose their revenu and will need to see another job. For some it will be harsh, for other it may bring them to new horizon. I don't feel like Insel Games had much of a future anyway.
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Wealthy executives losing share value isn't the same universe as people who will now have trouble paying rent/mortgage, bills, and kids tuition if they can't find a new job within a month or two (and the lowest level of employees even sooner). That you'd even make a comment like that shows you're disturbingly out of touch. Garbage like that is why people put the wealthy's heads on pikes come revolution time. "Oh no, poor CEO, he had to downgrade from a Bugatti to a Lambo." Who cares they lost more real dollars, drawing an equivalence like that is grotesque.
Well this isn't Facebook, it's Slashdot. Sentimental fantasy created by teenagers movies where 1% are the evil man isn't welcome, only facts matters here.
Let's start with a scoop, most president have families too (especially president from little companies) and bankruptcy isn't a downgrade to a Lambo, it's a downgrade to nothing at all. And I know that I'll will survive way more easily than my boss if my company had a controversy like that and goes bankrupt (in fact, I just changed job after my old company
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The real loser here are the employees of the company. They got an email from their boss manipulating them into leaving fake reviews (essentially threatening to shut down jobs if they didn't), and now they're virtually guaranteed to lose their jobs.
Beats making another sociopath rich, they can get another job, their boss is likely deeply invested and going to lose much more.
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And 10 more asset flips and 10 "early access" for full price that will never be finished.
If anyone thinks Gaben gives 2 shits about the quality of games on Steam, they are idiots.
But at least we got rid of Steam Greenlight... now Value just lets any garbage in.
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Pretty sure gaben has no need for cartoon boobs. He has a pair of his own that is sufficient for all of his boob needs.
If you have to... (Score:2)
common practice (Score:2)
Re:common practice (Score:4, Interesting)
I once worked for a company that asked its employees to do something similar. They opened up a forum so their customers could ask for help and discuss how to better fix the system that the modules we were selling them go into. - It was an after market repair company. There was a section for customer feedback they wanted us to fill up.
I laughed, laughed, and laughed some more. What ended up happening was the QA manager did all of this, pretending to be a customer initially, having a screen name so very similar to his actual name, which you could find on the "about us" page of their website. Then he continued to answer technical questions on the forum in a official capacity of the company under the same user name.
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It is (Score:3)
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No, several companies have been kicked from Steam store, Digital Homicide, Silicon Echo and 'Matan Cohen's Studio' are some and there's more which I can't remember the names of. Indie developers get caught writing reviews for their own games regularly.
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That's stupid. If the game looks interesting, the first thing I look for is the negative reviews. You aren't going to help yourself one iota by trying to "balance" those out, because I'm not going to look at your apple-polishing nonsense.
And yes, I'm quite capable of detecting when the user is just being bitchy, or is complaining about something I don't care about (or has likely been patched in the 2 years since they wrote it). But if 30 users are complaining about the same thing and its something I care
Points and Laughs (Score:1)
HA HA!
My Review! (Score:2)
Of this action? Thumbs up. Right on the money, Valve. A zero-tolerance policy on review skewing, tampering and fraud is absolutely fantastic!
Couldn't have said it better... (Score:2)
"Neglecting the importance of reviews will ultimately cost jobs. If [Wild Busters] fails, Insel fails... and then we will all have no jobs next year."
Guess you guys learned a good lesson about reviews then. You should've added something about not reviewing your own products. Ooops.
Glassdoor? (Score:2)
hmmm.. (Score:2)