Steam hides recent War Thunder reviews amid economy scandal
Steam flagging legitimate reviews as "off topic" between May 20th - 24th, following outrageous War Thunder economy changes
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Steam hides recent War Thunder reviews amid economy scandal: Steam is currently facing criticism from players who are understandably concerned about potential infringements on their right to free speech. While some users express sympathy towards the platform, others perceive it as a violation of their rights. The root cause of this controversy lies in the outrageous economic changes implemented in the game War Thunder.
To fully grasp the situation and comprehend the reasons that led us to this point, let’s delve into the details. Specifically, we need to understand why Steam is concealing recent reviews of War Thunder amidst the ongoing economic scandal.
War Thunder economy changes
The War Thunder economy was rocked by a succession of huge changes to the way the game is played. But what happened?
On May 16, Gaijin Entertainment made big changes to the economy and how money is used in the game War Thunder. They wanted to modify the time it takes to repair things for free and the costs of getting new vehicles. These changes made the game unfair for players who don’t want to spend real money, moving it more towards pay-to-win instead of free-to-play.
Players didn’t like the changes from the beginning, but Gaijin didn’t listen and went ahead with the updates. The community didn’t give up and started an online campaign against the studio. They formed the War Thunder Player Union with over 13,000 members and created a dedicated Discord channel.
As a last resort, thousands of players review and bombed War Thunder to show their frustration because the developers weren’t listening to their concerns on the official forums. This caused the game’s rating on Steam to drop to “Overwhelmingly Negative.” – or so it did.
Steam hides recent War Thunder reviews under the “off-topic” tab
Although the reviews still exist, Steam has concealed them under the off-topic tab as a measure to safeguard War Thunder against an occurrence known as “review-bombing.” Currently, the recent reviews for War Thunder are categorized as “Mostly Positive.” Out of a total of 386,000 reviews, 25% are negative. Moreover, among the recent 19,000 reviews, 26% reflect a positive sentiment.
That’s a big change from what Gameworldobserver reported on the 24th of May, in an article they stated:
“War Thunder currently has an “Overwhelmingly Negative” rating on Steam. Over the past 30 days, users left over 98k reviews, with only 7% of them being positive. The lifetime rating has dropped to “Mixed” (59% positive reviews).”
It’s clear that Steam has had it’s hand in protecting War Thunder from a negative set of reviews, or has it?
Steam’s automatic response to War Thunder reviews
To preserve the integrity of its recommendation algorithms and ensure that only genuine reviews are taken into account, Steam has implemented a protective measure against review bombing, which encompasses both unwarranted negative and positive reviews. The platform strives to provide its users with reliable game recommendations.
Naturally, Steam cannot fulfill this objective if certain games are subjected to an influx of exaggerated or unmerited reviews, which may skew the overall perception.
In 2017, Steam introduced the review bombing safeguard as a proactive measure to shield the community from unfair reviews that could potentially mislead others.
It’s important to note that the response to review bombing is an automated process and likely not a deliberate decision by Valve themselves. However, as a consequence, the Steam link has been removed from War Thunder’s website.
Steam link removed from War Thunder’s website amidst negative review bomb
Gaijin made the questionable decision to remove the Steam link from War Thunder’s website in an attempt to suppress the influx of negative attention the game was receiving.
This move can be seen as highly deceitful. Moreover, Gaijin eventually conceded to roll back the update, but it should not have required such a significant outcry from the community to prompt this action. The studio should have prioritized listening to the community’s concerns from the start.
Final Word
In conclusion, the controversy surrounding War Thunder stems from significant economic changes implemented in the game, which shifted its balance towards a more pay-to-win model. Players expressed their discontent from the beginning, leading to an online campaign and review bombing as a last resort to voice their concerns.
Steam, in an effort to counter review bombing, has concealed recent War Thunder reviews under the “off-topic” tab.
This safeguard aims to protect the integrity of review systems, ensuring that genuine reviews influence game recommendations. However, Gaijin’s decision to remove the Steam link from War Thunder’s website can be seen as dishonest, and it took a substantial community outcry for the studio to roll back the update. A more attentive approach to community feedback could have prevented this controversy. This is why Steam hides recent War Thunder reviews amid economy scandal.
