Valve will attempt to combat review bombing on Steam by removing offtopic and DRM focused reviews

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PC gamers will likely be familiar with Steam and its user review section, where players can see hundreds of opinions all at a glance, to help determine if a certain game is good or not. And like any storefront that features user reviews, it's common for particularly heated users to collectively "review bomb" a title by bombarding it with negative reviews over certain updates, additions, removals, or even issues unrelated to the game itself, such as a developer's political affiliation or choice. In the past, we've seen examples like this for Devotion, a game that had an in-game picture making fun of China's president, which prompted hundreds of users to attack the game for that factor alone. On the other hand, there was also the time where Epic Games secured the latest Metro title as an exclusive, fans went and posted multitudes of positive comments for the game despite it no longer being available on Steam, with a majority of them not even talking about the game, but rather how they wanted to see the Epic Game Store fail.

Valve intends to curb this behavior by making a few changes to how a Steam game's review score is calculated. In the future, the company will remove all "review bombs" from the default store page, which will target all "offtopic" reviews. According to an official post on the Steam forums, an offtopic review is defined by if the content focuses on anything unrelated to the game, like DRM debates, personal developer affiliations, or exclusivity complaints. Whenever a title receives a major influx of negative reviews, Valve staff will individually look into the case, and if they find evidence of review bombing, they'll remove any reviews made during a limited period of time.

In every situation that this occurs, a notice will be posted in order to inform users. Additionally, if you still want to see those reviews, you can simply check a an option in your user settings to allow them to be visible.

Q: I care about some things that I worry other players don't, like DRM or EULA changes. Review bombs have been about them in the past. Do you consider them unrelated or off-topic?

A: We had long debates about these two, and others like them. They're technically not a part of the game, but they are an issue for some players. In the end, we've decided to define them as off-topic review bombs. Our reasoning is that the "general" Steam player doesn't care as much about them, so the Review Score is more accurate if it doesn't contain them. In addition, we believe that players who do care about topics like DRM are often willing to dig a little deeper into games before purchasing - which is why we still keep all the reviews within the review bombs. It only takes a minute to dig into those reviews to see if the issue is something you care about.

Q: So if I post a review inside in the period of an off-topic review bomb, my review won't be included in the Review Score?

A: Unfortunately, this is correct. We've tested our process of identifying off-topic review bombs on the entire history of reviews on Steam, and in doing so, we've found that while we can look through reviews and community discussions to determine what's behind the review bomb, it isn't feasible for us to read every single review. But as we mentioned back in our first User Review post, our data shows us that review bombs tend to be temporary distortions, so we believe the Review Score will still be accurate, and other players will still be able to find and read your review within the period.

Q: Are you deleting reviews?

A: No, we are only changing the way we calculate a game's Review Score. All reviews are left untouched, and if you still want to see the raw Review Score, you're welcome to make that change in your Steam Store Preferences.

Q: Does this mean you'll be going back to identify and remove old off-topic review bombs?

A: Based on internal conversations and consultation with some of the partners that have experienced off-topic review bombs, we decided not to unilaterally grandfather in what's happened in the past.

Q: What about when I don't agree with you about what's an "off-topic review bomb?"

A: We'd suggest setting your Steam Reviews default to "Include reviews from all Steam purchases in Review Scores" in under the "Review Score Settings" in your Steam Store Preferences

Q: Reviews are extremely important to me: they're one of the few tools customers have to react to deception or discovering something they've been sold is sub-par. I guess that really wasn't a question, but I just wanted to say that.

A: We agree. We remain in active conversation with you, the community, about what you want from reviews along with the various partners who sell their games on Steam. Reviews are an important part of Steam, which is why we continue to do the work to make sure that they are not being manipulated by anyone. It's the same reason that we decisively ban partners who engage in review manipulation -- customers need to be able to trust the system for it be valuable.

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Steam has become a garbage heap lately. Sure people review bombing something is bad for the game and could scare off devs but at the end of the day, DENUVO and the other garbage DRM programs can render games useless. To the point where a paying customer is the only one punished for playing by the rules. Screwing over legally playing customers is bad and if your game gets review bombed because of it, maybe its time to think about your players and not your bottom line.

I know Denuvo has been cracked for some games, but it's funny how devs tout it as some "unbeatable" DRM lol. Steam's DRM should be enough, and it's not the worst DRM I've used, is lightweight and for the most port noninvasive. But what really pisses me off, is when games on there either use uPlay, on top of Denuvo, why? There is no purpose other than to have Ubisoft being total dicks about it "but muh anti-piracy". We all know that DRM does little to nothing to impact piracy permanently. If anything, DRM only drives people to pirate more IMO.

It's funny how companies think that piracy will magically somehow cause their company to go away overnight, or that adding DRM will stop it forever.
 
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I know Denuvo has been cracked for some games, but it's funny how devs tout it as some "unbeatable" DRM lol. Steam's DRM should be enough, and it's not the worst DRM I've used, is lightweight and for the most port noninvasive. But what really pisses me off, is when games on there either use uPlay, on top of Denuvo, why? There is no purpose other than to have Ubisoft being total dicks about it "but muh anti-piracy". We all know that DRM does little to nothing to impact piracy permanently. If anything, DRM only drives people to pirate more IMO.

It's funny how companies think that piracy will magically somehow cause their company to go away overnight, or that adding DRM will stop it forever.
For some then uplay is more than just another layer of DRM -- it acting as a store, server browser/game finder, chat program of sorts... all the same things that Steam bills itself as to make it more palatable. Also why does Valve/Steam get to be the provider of DRM? What makes them (a very private company run not by a friendly government or industry consortium, one with a lot of shady decisions in their past and to this day, one not really accountable to anybody) worthy?
 
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I am not sure what to say other than I disagree with most of that, indeed only the uplay thing but that is more because it fails to distinguish between truly limiting DRM and just DRM (though possibly one that still carries more general downsides that I covered earlier as far as reselling games).

The analogy with a car I am at a complete loss for.

Why would we not want the guy with 100+ hours in on a game not making a comment? If someone has put the time in then it tends to speak to some credibility on the matter. Similarly I do have to mention that the game creates the community.

What is wrong with getting developers to change their policies with community action? How else are people supposed to do things? Firing anonymous support tickets into the wind? Firing actual bullets?

I am not sure what the puppy in the holocaust simulator is supposed to be about. Is it something the fans of such games might want to see? If I bought the ultimate car racing simulator and it turns out I was missing out on Ford, VW, Mazda, Toyota and Mercedes Benz then I would probably be a bit upset at such things being missing from the concept. Or do you mean like those joke reviews on places like Amazon where people would find £3000 professional graphics cards (as in cost that much because they were used by people that bill about that much a day, if not for a week of work and crashes represent real problems) and write things like solitaire ran slow and give it 1 star?
Let's see...I think we have a different view of what constitutes to being called a review. To me, a review is supposed to be an all-round description of the impression of a product or good. Per se, it shouldn't (always) be a complete listing of the features, but should at least attempt to give an indication of what the reviewer considered the product or good in terms of quality, and why the user considered it as such.

I make the analogy with a car to illustrate the point. Ask car owners why they consider a car a quality and you get many different responses. Some want comfy seats, large trunk, reliable motor, ease of maintenance, and so on, and so on. Nobody really DOESN'T want qualities, but people generally don't complain about things that are considered common or only happen occasionally. And it's that latter that is similar with DRM. DRM is one aspect of a game. One. And if it's implemented correctly, is a small inconvenience that comes with the package (like...how cars come with keys: they aren't needed if there are no thieves, but unfortunately we can't avoid it). Would it be considered fair to dish out a car that has comfy seats, large trunk, reliable motor and some other bunch of qualities that potential car owners find interesting ...solely because of one minor inconvenience? I think not.


Why would we not want the guy with 100+ hours in on a game not making a comment?

If you think that's what I want, you misunderstood me completely. I DO want the guy with 100+ hours in a game to make a comment. Absolutely. More so: I value his opinion much more than the guys with 0.1 hours of play time.
But here's the thing: a few esport athletes aside, gaming is still a hobby. Every hour, every minute spent on a game is one that is voluntary put into it. So the guy that spends hundreds of hours on a game and then decides to thumb it down on steam "because of DRM" simply isn't being fair. Perhaps you believe that he hates every hour with the game but pushes on because of some masochistic reasons, but I don't. I say that that guy likes the game but is using politis to get a part to change.


Similarly I do have to mention that the game creates the community.

Interesting view point. It might be true, but I personally believe somewhat the opposite: the community creates the community. Kind of how a toxic OP and the first few posts sets the tone for the dialogue in a forum thread, I think that the first ones to adopt a game will determine most of how the community will look like.


What is wrong with getting developers to change their policies with community action? How else are people supposed to do things?

Hmm...I'll concede that these are indeed very valid questions. But I'm not sure if "community action" is what valve is trying to stop here. There have been bad games on steam before, and AFAIK, these never somehow got good grades. And from what I can see, they weren't censored either. This situation is more like the inverse: developers should still be free to make the games how they see fit. they shouldn't be bullied into removing DRM or implementing changes.
That "puppy in the holocaust simulator" refers to the latter, by the way (sorry that that was unclear :( ). No matter what you change, some people will dislike it. I'd almost even dare you to look up reviews from sequels that took a franchise in a different reaction. Some go either all out "get <previous version of game> instead!!!" or passive-agressive "I guess it's nice but <previous version> was just much better>" without giving the change proper thought. Of course my example was a hyperbole (perhaps "there should've been more color in Limbo!" would've been a better one), but the thing is that some changes that are being pushed for fail to realise that adding something won't always make the overall end result better.
 

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Let's see...I think we have a different view of what constitutes to being called a review. To me, a review is supposed to be an all-round description of the impression of a product or good. Per se, it shouldn't (always) be a complete listing of the features, but should at least attempt to give an indication of what the reviewer considered the product or good in terms of quality, and why the user considered it as such.

I make the analogy with a car to illustrate the point. Ask car owners why they consider a car a quality and you get many different responses. Some want comfy seats, large trunk, reliable motor, ease of maintenance, and so on, and so on. Nobody really DOESN'T want qualities, but people generally don't complain about things that are considered common or only happen occasionally. And it's that latter that is similar with DRM. DRM is one aspect of a game. One. And if it's implemented correctly, is a small inconvenience that comes with the package (like...how cars come with keys: they aren't needed if there are no thieves, but unfortunately we can't avoid it). Would it be considered fair to dish out a car that has comfy seats, large trunk, reliable motor and some other bunch of qualities that potential car owners find interesting ...solely because of one minor inconvenience? I think not.


Why would we not want the guy with 100+ hours in on a game not making a comment?

If you think that's what I want, you misunderstood me completely. I DO want the guy with 100+ hours in a game to make a comment. Absolutely. More so: I value his opinion much more than the guys with 0.1 hours of play time.
But here's the thing: a few esport athletes aside, gaming is still a hobby. Every hour, every minute spent on a game is one that is voluntary put into it. So the guy that spends hundreds of hours on a game and then decides to thumb it down on steam "because of DRM" simply isn't being fair. Perhaps you believe that he hates every hour with the game but pushes on because of some masochistic reasons, but I don't. I say that that guy likes the game but is using politis to get a part to change.


Similarly I do have to mention that the game creates the community.

Interesting view point. It might be true, but I personally believe somewhat the opposite: the community creates the community. Kind of how a toxic OP and the first few posts sets the tone for the dialogue in a forum thread, I think that the first ones to adopt a game will determine most of how the community will look like.


What is wrong with getting developers to change their policies with community action? How else are people supposed to do things?

Hmm...I'll concede that these are indeed very valid questions. But I'm not sure if "community action" is what valve is trying to stop here. There have been bad games on steam before, and AFAIK, these never somehow got good grades. And from what I can see, they weren't censored either. This situation is more like the inverse: developers should still be free to make the games how they see fit. they shouldn't be bullied into removing DRM or implementing changes.
That "puppy in the holocaust simulator" refers to the latter, by the way (sorry that that was unclear :( ). No matter what you change, some people will dislike it. I'd almost even dare you to look up reviews from sequels that took a franchise in a different reaction. Some go either all out "get <previous version of game> instead!!!" or passive-agressive "I guess it's nice but <previous version> was just much better>" without giving the change proper thought. Of course my example was a hyperbole (perhaps "there should've been more color in Limbo!" would've been a better one), but the thing is that some changes that are being pushed for fail to realise that adding something won't always make the overall end result better.

"That guy that has 100+ hours on GTA V and downvotes it because the online community is bad is one to ignore."
If someone with the time in downvotes something because an aspect, which would well be a substantial part of the game or reason to own it on that platform (maybe not for you or I but more on that sort of thing in a moment), is left wanting seems like something maybe worth investigating.
Unless that was a typo/skipped word and you meant "is not necessarily one to ignore", which could well be the case going by the later comment then OK.

It is possible to tell whether an online aspect will have a good community. The classic example is something like DOTA/MOBA. With all the stupid and non obvious mechanics (last hitting your own stuff to deny experience, bunching and what have you), as well win-loss of teams (said teams being 4 on 4 so one "bad" playing really tanking things) being the only stats available means you are going to shun noobs and bad players. On the other hand if in a shooting game kills don't matter, servers are 64v64 then you are going to try to make it work even with Johnny can barely fumble a controller as they will draw the tiniest bit of fire and thus are valuable and you will make it work.

"Nobody really DOESN'T want qualities"
If qualities I don't need are going to hit me in my wallet then I do care, and nothing happens for free. How many times now have we heard devs were forced to add a multiplayer mode despite it not making all that much sense. If they had not (and given the quality of many of them then they probably did not get much in the way of extra sales because of it) and instead either invested that in the main game, or reduced the budget so they got better returns/profit and we got a nice sequel.


"a review is supposed to be an all-round description of the impression of a product or good"
I would not go that far. Aspects of it could be reviewed, or it could be reviewed with a particular market in mind -- I am not going to recommend a professional drill to my mate that just needs to put the occasional shelf up, on the other hand the one that uses it all day in a job probably won't appreciate one that will burn out within a few weeks of their heavy use. In games we would probably see it as people skipping the single player token training missions and looking at multiplayer (though there is a case to be made for just doing one when the other is substantial), and at the same time the "find a reviewer with the same likes and dislikes as you" thing we try to encourage. At least you did not say it needs a score to be a review.

As far as bullied I fail to see how such things count as bullying. Do a thing which troubles your customers with little tangible benefit and expect to get some grumbling. They can plough on all they like, and indeed many games have already been DRMed into oblivion and can not be played any longer. Why a supposedly game player focused/caring company should prevent such warnings from being issued I do not know.
I also see little issue with the guy having played and thumbing down because DRM. It could be that it made the experience far more of a chore than it had to be, that there was the kernel of a good idea there... if DRM is part of the game it stands to reason it could be reflected in the review. Now if there was no DRM in the game then that is a different matter.
At the same time I would agree that a lot of community actions are dubious in nature -- going back to DOTA/MOBA stuff then when devs were moving it away from a mod into a standalone gameplay style they asked what people would want. Many of the responses included all those nonsense mechanics. One might also look at the fate of the later Tribes games (once legendary shooting games)... inmates running the asylum springs to mind there.

Valve did censor a few games. The history of Hatred being a fun one ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/valve-to-stop-policing-content-on-the-steam-store.506639/ ), as would be their "not welcome" of various things involving nudity ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/update-...ir-content-or-face-removal-from-steam.504265/ ). They have since gone back on a lot of it and allowed something of a free for all ( https://gbatemp.net/threads/valve-to-stop-policing-content-on-the-steam-store.506639/ ) but I don't want to be too quick to forget.


As far as saying get the prequel then there are many seconds where the second verse is much worse than the first. Whether such people will eventually come to love the changes could be a thing but I don't see why I would want to nuke such comments, or where I might draw a line, if I even can (is simplification always a bad thing? Likewise is it always good?). Beyond that would fans of an earlier entry not be justified in expecting more refined play compared to earlier entries? If you spend possibly hundreds of hours learning one style then having the proverbial rug pulled out from under you can be jarring. Even if the game stands alone by itself.
One of my favourite ever review scores was for a later entry of the megaman battle network series. It ran take one point off for every game you have played before this. The idea being that while the game was good if you came in completely cold to the series if you had played all the others it would be much of the same.
 

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For some then uplay is more than just another layer of DRM -- it acting as a store, server browser/game finder, chat program of sorts... all the same things that Steam bills itself as to make it more palatable. Also why does Valve/Steam get to be the provider of DRM? What makes them (a very private company run not by a friendly government or industry consortium, one with a lot of shady decisions in their past and to this day, one not really accountable to anybody) worthy?

uPlay actually locked up Windows 10 a few weeks ago, it was loading Splinter Cell Conviction and the screen just turned blank, I couldn't close it out or enter the task manager. So I uninstalled it, I shouldn't have to use Steam to install uPlay just to play a game I bought on Steam. It's bullshit, either let me use one or the other.

I'd rather let Steam dictate what DRM a game uses than Ubisoft or Sega.
 

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uPlay actually locked up Windows 10 a few weeks ago, it was loading Splinter Cell Conviction and the screen just turned blank, I couldn't close it out or enter the task manager. So I uninstalled it, I shouldn't have to use Steam to install uPlay just to play a game I bought on Steam. It's bullshit, either let me use one or the other.

I'd rather let Steam dictate what DRM a game uses than Ubisoft or Sega.
If indeed uplay acts as a server finder, chat provider, store and such then I am not sure on what basis you might want to claim that. If it was purely redundant DRM then maybe a moral case could be made, though I am sure that is partly why such things were made into "more than DRM".
 

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If indeed uplay acts as a server finder, chat provider, store and such then I am not sure on what basis you might want to claim that. If it was purely redundant DRM then maybe a moral case could be made, though I am sure that is partly why such things were made into "more than DRM".

I mean, why use Steam just to use it on top of uPlay? Why can't one just use one or the other? I fail to see the reason why uPlay has to be used when I buy a game via Steam? It's like there's no point in it being on Steam if I have to use it Ubisoft's servers. I'd rather just install the game once via uPlay then crack the game so I don't have to use it, TOS be damned.
 

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I mean, why use Steam just to use it on top of uPlay? Why can't one just use one or the other? I fail to see the reason why uPlay has to be used when I buy a game via Steam? It's like there's no point in it being on Steam if I have to use it Ubisoft's servers. I'd rather just install the game once via uPlay then crack the game so I don't have to use it, TOS be damned.
I imagine they stuck it on Steam to get a wider potential customer base (pick your fights and all that) but kicked their server finding code, own in house DLC store (which they presumably get a better cut from), chat and whatever else to a single program which is probably easier to update and theoretically more secure, one they called uplay.

I don't know what Steam's regs are as far as launching things outside their program, or if people get better deals if they wind their code in with Steam's (does it appear on active players if so?). It might have been that Valve forced them to launch Steam. I am not a fan of redundancy in this instance but and don't know the hard reasons for why things may play out the way they do, however there could well be many plausible reasons.
 

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I imagine they stuck it on Steam to get a wider potential customer base (pick your fights and all that) but kicked their server finding code, own in house DLC store (which they presumably get a better cut from), chat and whatever else to a single program which is probably easier to update and theoretically more secure, one they called uplay.

I don't know what Steam's regs are as far as launching things outside their program, or if people get better deals if they wind their code in with Steam's (does it appear on active players if so?). It might have been that Valve forced them to launch Steam. I am not a fan of redundancy in this instance but and don't know the hard reasons for why things may play out the way they do, however there could well be many plausible reasons.

It's reasons like that I can't stand Ubisoft. ugh.
 

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It's reasons like that I can't stand Ubisoft. ugh.
Not sure what things discussed in my post make Ubisoft the arsehole, or leave Valve smelling like roses.

As far as I am concerned both are generally anti consumer bastards and would not care if either went up in flames tomorrow, the world likely being a better place in the fairly near term (I am assuming there would be a couple of teething issues at first) if they did.
 
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Not sure what things discussed in my post make Ubisoft the arsehole, or leave Valve smelling like roses.

As far as I am concerned both are generally anti consumer bastards and would not care if either went up in flames tomorrow, the world likely being a better place in the fairly near term (I am assuming there would be a couple of teething issues at first) if they did.

If either of them goes under, you can be damn sure I'll be stripping all my games of their DRM. The Steam API is supposedly easy to bypass.
I can understand anything but not be allowed to complain about DRMs? what the hell?

It's typical dev sycophancy
 

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Nobody really DOESN'T want qualities, but people generally don't complain about things that are considered common or only happen occasionally. And it's that latter that is similar with DRM. DRM is one aspect of a game. One. And if it's implemented correctly, is a small inconvenience that comes with the package (like...how cars come with keys: they aren't needed if there are no thieves, but unfortunately we can't avoid it). Would it be considered fair to dish out a car that has comfy seats, large trunk, reliable motor and some other bunch of qualities that potential car owners find interesting ...solely because of one minor inconvenience? I think not.

People absolutely avoid leasing cars precisely because they don't like the idea of renting a car long term. If you present something as being "sold" but legally it's in limbo because of DRM, then it may well not be a minor inconvenience and making it patently clear to people in a review and down voting because of it can be reasonable. Add to that that certain DRM schemes are online only, may require separate registration, or even have entirely become unplayable. There's a reason I recommend people don't buy R4i Dual Core flash carts. At least they can be legally hacked around to be used. Then there's the actual day-to-day crashes or issues which may be DRM related--although one could just complain about the crashes and issues.

No matter what you change, some people will dislike it. I'd almost even dare you to look up reviews from sequels that took a franchise in a different reaction. Some go either all out "get <previous version of game> instead!!!" or passive-agressive "I guess it's nice but <previous version> was just much better>" without giving the change proper thought. Of course my example was a hyperbole (perhaps "there should've been more color in Limbo!" would've been a better one), but the thing is that some changes that are being pushed for fail to realise that adding something won't always make the overall end result better.

Funny you bring that up because that's exactly how a lot of the Saints Row community split at Saints Row 4. If you don't know, the game moved from what could be argued to be a somewhat GTA parody to a GTA parody with super powers. It's totally understandable for people to warn off other fans of the series--their base--that it might not be what they desire. Compare that to GTA where there really hasn't been a massive shift in what the game is.

Now, if the core of your complaint is a lack of context for why people think the sequel is inferior, that's a legitimate reason to dismiss near any review. There's plenty of reasons, though, to take well thought out criticism of why "super powers ruin the game" as legitimate, even if it has the opposite effect. Hence, negative reviews are positive reviews depending on who reads them. The real core of it all is reading them. If Steam wants to offer better user-controlled filtering features that's one thing. In the end, though, it should be up the consumer what their own standards should be.
 

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Not sure what things discussed in my post make Ubisoft the arsehole, or leave Valve smelling like roses.

As far as I am concerned both are generally anti consumer bastards and would not care if either went up in flames tomorrow, the world likely being a better place in the fairly near term (I am assuming there would be a couple of teething issues at first) if they did.

I guess Ubisoft make themselves seem the way they are seen by gamers. Nobody ever asked for Uplay... or Origin... or the Epic Games Store. Yeah, sure they all provide more than just a layer of DRM, but in fact they provide absolutely nothing else than their competitors apart from some games. The same features over and over again. It's unnecessary to have four or more stores that do exactly the same, while some of them just do it worse than others. And the second one of them needs to be started in order to play a game bought at another one of those stores, it gets ridiculous.
So, yeah, for once I totally see the_rantomizers (sorry, I just had to) point.
 
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I guess Ubisoft make themselves seem the way they are seen by gamers. Nobody ever asked for Uplay... or Origin... or the Epic Games Store. Yeah, sure they all provide more than just a layer of DRM, but in fact they provide absolutely nothing else than their competitors apart from some games. The same features over and over again. It's unnecessary to have four or more stores that do exactly the same, while some of them just do it worse than others. And the second one of them needs to be started in order to play a game bought at another one of those stores, it gets ridiculous.
So, yeah, for once I totally see the_rantomizers (sorry, I just had to) point.

Nobody ever asked for Steam either.

If something as theoretically important as access to games is to be controlled by private companies I want competition.

As far as more than one program being launched then from a coding perspective if they were little more than ultra light frontends much akin to a library they probably load and unload a thousand times for a vaguely normal session I would be fine (how many people these days even close the browser down before launching a game, never mind go so old school as to remove everything they could from RAM that was not necessary for Windows, 3d and networking to run?). If they are going to be bloated behemoths that impart little extra functionality someone is actually going to care about then that is a different matter.
 

Jonna

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Depending upon where you are in the world you do have the legal ability, and have had for several years now
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...nnot-stop-you-reselling-your-downloaded-games

Prior to that there were all sorts of workarounds as well. Classic one used for expensive software was to spin off the company it belonged to (usually done when one was going bankrupt but not always) but leave the software under the "original" owner company. Company 2 then buys the original company with all its licenses and puts it as a subsidiary of company 2 and thus company 2 legally has access to the software.

There have been others over the years in other places
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=701bc0f8-bda0-4526-8eb6-a09f6e73bbf1
https://www.ebay.co.uk/gds/How-to-buy-or-sell-used-Adobe-software-on-eBay-/10000000177069854/g.html
https://www.eff.org/cases/vernor-v-autodesk (though the later circuit court stuff might trouble things here).

In any case Valve don't make it easy (if they can do things like this then they can trivially add an "other sellers" tab or dropdown) so I mostly just deem it a glorified rental service and treat it accordingly.
While I appreciate your in-depth response, I was going with more the logistics of people buying them. I mean, I can definitely sell a PC game, but no one will buy them. If they're older games when the CD key was unlocked through the game's internal code, those are fine since you just need that key every time you install it. But now those keys are activated one time, online, tied to an account, so if you try to sell the game, the other recipient has a disc of the game but no way to play it, hence why no one will buy pc games anymore. That's why I was wondering if you had any luck selling them.
 
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orangy57

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I feel like bad reviews about technical issues in a game are completely valid. If I'm going to have an awful time setting up a game like, for example, GTA IV because of its DRM that doesn't work properly, this means the game was made badly. Sure I enjoyed GTA IV itself, but the amount of hoops I had to jump through made the game not worth playing at all, so I just played it on the Xbox 360 instead. That's a perfectly valid complaint. If II'm trying to play a game and there's a process or feature that has to be running on my computer that detracts from the experience, then the game blows.
 

mario5555

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Well if you're playing on Steam it's DRM anyway, so..."kettle calling the pot black"

(I know the debate w/extra DRM like Denuvo, Star Force, etc.,)

Steam reviews for the most parts are jokes anyway, if you want the most biased, one sided reviews written, look no place else.
 

Ryccardo

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if you want the most biased, one sided reviews written, look no place else.
And what are reviews supposed to be, if not someone's personal opinion?

Reviews in general started becoming really stupid once "they" started thinking individual opinion can be expressed on an arbitrary numeric scale (with no standardized meaning, and influenced by decades of bribed "professional reviews" and grade inflation), and worse comparing numbers given by different people at different times (and with game updates & dlc having sadly become the norm too, of possibly different things!)
 

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