New Steam review helpfulness system puts informative reviews first, ASCII art and memes second

Steam's user reviews have something of a reputation for being particularly unhelpful to those actually looking for reliable feedback about a game. Often, a game's Steam store page is filled with vapid copypasta, unoriginal jokes, or users review bombing the game over a change to microtransactions. The validity of review bombs as a method of protest aside, Valve has been fighting an uphill battle against unhelpful Steam reviews for some time now. One of the biggest moves was when the company changed how it displayed reviews, resulting in separate game ratings based on “all reviews” and “recent reviews.”

Now, Steam is taking yet another step in its seemingly ever-lasting fight against review malarkey by revamping the helpfulness score on Steam. Realistically, the new helpfulness system is just an evolution of the previous system in the sense that Valve will now simply default to placing reviews rated as more helpful at the top of the list. 

User reviews that are identified as being unhelpful for potential customers, such as one-word reviews, reviews comprised of ASCII art, or reviews that are primarily playful memes and in-jokes, will be sorted behind other reviews on the game’s store page. –Valve via Steam

Steam will still allow users to post their art, jokes, memes, and even review bombs, however, the new helpfulness rating system, along with Steam's internal review moderation team, will result in more helpful and informative reviews being displayed before the less serious content. Steam also says that the new system will not change how games are scored and how those scores are displayed, meaning gamers will still be able to see if a game has recently taken a turn or upset its community for whatever reason.

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