Steam bans "Very Positive" game developer

[Spotty]

Summary

A small time developer and publisher "Very Positive", creator of a game no-one has probably heard of Emoji Evolution has had their game removed from Steam and been banned after Valve alleges they were attempting to deceive customers. How were they deceiving customers? With their name...

 

Quotes

Quote

Valve recently removed it from the storefront and banned its creator’s developer account after apparently discovering how they were exploiting Steam’s layout to try to trick people into playing the game.

 

Very Positive sounds inoffensive enough as a name, but in the context of Steam’s store pages, it ended up being easily mistaken for an actual Steam review rating of “Very Positive.” 

Quote

Take another look at that image of its Steam page, and you’ll notice that while recent reviews are “mixed,” the game’s developer has replicated the look of a game with “very positive” recent and overall reviews by changing its developer/publisher names to “very positive.” Due to Valve’s font and colour choices, the effect is that it looks the same as a Steam page’s review summary section.

(Image: Valve/Kotaku)

 

The developer has argued the reason for the ban; "review manipulation" as being incorrect as it was not review manipulation, but rather developer name manipulation.

 

 

My thoughts

I think it was pretty intentional they were trying to game the system and trick people in to thinking the reviews were positive. Steam reviews do impact customers purchasing decisions and I personally would be more inclined to buy a game that had a positive rating. The way Steam displays the recent reviews & all reviews looks very similar to the developer and publisher and I think that's something they tried to take advantage of.

 

Was anyone actually deceived in to thinking it was a better game and bought it as a result? Who knows, probably not. Nothing really noteworthy here but I just thought it was a quirky situation and a rather interesting reason for a developer to be banned from Steam. I guess Valve really do take developers attempting to manipulate ratings seriously.

 

GG, you played yourself.

 

Sources

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/02/valve-bans-very-positive-developer-for-trying-to-trick-steam-users/amp/

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/02/somethings-fishy-about-this-steam-games-very-positive-reviews/

[givingtnt]

TBH a ban might be a bit harsh, a forced name change and some other form of.. actually nevermind.

[flibberdipper]

IMO it's deserved. They clearly knew what they were trying to do. The saying of "play stupid games, win stupid prizes" really rings true here.

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, Spotty said:

I think it was pretty intentional they were trying to game the system and trick people in to thinking the reviews were positive.

Of course it was entirely intentional, the dev is just salty that Valve reacted this quickly. I am one of the people who reported the dev a couple of days ago.

[Rym]

Eh I guess. Valve people are also hypocrites. They banned him for his name, but would have ignored him if his name was "very negative" or anything that's not "positive".

[TVwazhere]

Quote

It was developer name manipulation, not reviews

So they admit to try to manipulate how something looks to make it seem better than it is. Manipulation is manipulation.

 

Regardless if they admit it or not, glad they got banned. 

[Spotty]

4 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Of course it was entirely intentional, the dev is just salty that Valve reacted this quickly. I am one of the people who reported the dev a couple of days ago.

I didn't even know you could report developers on Steam.

I'm curious how you came across it though? Through browsing Steam normally or were you made aware from a news article or someone else sharing it? I'm really just curious cause I've never heard of the game and unless you're into that genre or are specifically searching for it I'm not really sure how likely it is to come across it. Seems a rather small game/developer.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Spotty

[sub68]

7 minutes ago, Spotty said:

Sources

I see that your useing weeb sources

[PlayStation 2]

3 minutes ago, Rym said:

Eh I guess. Valve people are also hypocrites. They banned him for his name, but would have ignored him if his name was "very negative" or anything that's not "positive".

To be completely fair, "Very Positive" connotates a much different manipulative meaning than "Very Negative" would as a developer name.

[williamcll]

what if I name my publisher "overwhelmingly negative"?

[Spotty]

Just now, williamcll said:

what if I name my publisher "overwhelmingly negative"?

Well, you'd either get banned or people will think your game sucks. Neither outcome is great if you're hoping to sell games.

To be safe just stick to the classic Publisher McPublishface name.

[SFFDesigns]

I think that Valve shouldn't have started with a ban, they should have first asked for a name change. 

 

They shouldn't assume anything imo, they should first see what the dev says.

[Master Disaster]

I saw this news when I woke up today and it took me a few reads for it to actually go in.

 

My initial thought was "Huh, how is that name ban worthy?", then I had 10 minutes to actually wake up (and a coffee) and when I read it again I laughed, probably more than I should have done.

 

Its clearly manipulation but still pretty humorous.

[FakeNSA]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

I saw this news when I woke up today and it took me a few reads for it to actually go in.

 

My initial thought was "Huh, how is that name ban worthy", then I had 10 minutes to actually wake up (and a coffee) and when I read it again I laughed, probably more than I should have done.

 

Its clearly manipulation but still pretty humorous.

Yeah, I actually see how this could have been a joke at the studio.....

100% ill advised however.

[RejZoR]

Aww, you sneaky bastard. It's just too obvious in that photo to be just a coincidence. They damn well knew what they were doing indeed. Forced rename and scraping of all reviews and ratings would make more sense instead of full on ban. But in a way they deserved it, sort of.

[Quackers101]

if they also did it since they knew the name will be marked blue just like the very positive for reviews?

Else kind of both, or rather that steam takes more action on this unlike other content is making me a bit more annoyed.

 

To the amount of bloat on steam.

[Moonzy]

What if humans used 100% of their brain?

[FakeNSA]

3 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

What if humans used 100% of their brain?

We probably wouldn't be gaming

[Quackers101]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

What if humans used 100% of their brain?

or if they see what the game is about anyways. Like buying it just for the reviews?

And it's not like shovelware already get positive reviews from groups and organized manipulation. (not at all wallstreet) *sweats*

To the topic of review bombing etc.

[PlayStation 2]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

What if humans used 100% of their brain?

No one would be using this forum if that was the case.

[RejZoR]

8 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

What if humans used 100% of their brain?

I've seen that with Scarlet Johansson and it has done some weird shit to her.

[lewdicrous]

Checking their twitter just confirms that they're dumb dumb.

 

3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I've seen that with Scarlet Johansson and it has done some weird shit to her.

Her name's Lucy, dammit!

[WereCatf]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

I didn't even know you could report developers on Steam.

You can report the store-page and then explain why you reported it in the dialog that pops up.

 

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

I'm curious how you came across it though?

I saw a screenshot somewhere and I noticed the name. Had to check for myself if it was some bug with Steam or a trick by the developer.

[PlayStation 2]

4 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

I've seen that with Scarlet Johansson and it has done some weird shit to her.

Relevant?

[steelo]

1 hour ago, Spotty said:

Summary

A small time developer and publisher "Very Positive", creator of a game no-one has probably heard of Emoji Evolution has had their game removed from Steam and been banned after Valve alleges they were attempting to deceive customers. How were they deceiving customers? With their name...

 

Quotes

(Image: Valve/Kotaku)

 

The developer has argued the reason for the ban; "review manipulation" as being incorrect as it was not review manipulation, but rather developer name manipulation.

 

 

My thoughts

I think it was pretty intentional they were trying to game the system and trick people in to thinking the reviews were positive. Steam reviews do impact customers purchasing decisions and I personally would be more inclined to buy a game that had a positive rating. The way Steam displays the recent reviews & all reviews looks very similar to the developer and publisher and I think that's something they tried to take advantage of.

 

Was anyone actually deceived in to thinking it was a better game and bought it as a result? Who knows, probably not. Nothing really noteworthy here but I just thought it was a quirky situation and a rather interesting reason for a developer to be banned from Steam. I guess Valve really do take developers attempting to manipulate ratings seriously.

 

GG, you played yourself.

 

Sources

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/02/valve-bans-very-positive-developer-for-trying-to-trick-steam-users/amp/

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2021/02/somethings-fishy-about-this-steam-games-very-positive-reviews/

Yeah, this is pretty obvious for anyone with 2 working brain cells. I can't say whether they deserved the permanent ban, maybe 6 months of 'time out'