If you play Counter Strike: Global Offensive, odds are you are probably not unfamiliar with the mass quantities of spam groups that have popped up related to gambling websites. Thanks to Valve not implementing a way to automatically block group invitations, players were at the mercy of whether or not a bot group had you … Continue reading “Valve Updates Steam Groups To Curb Gambling Spam”
It may not surprise you to learn that Valve bans thousands of Steam accounts every day for cheating, between two to four thousand VAC bans and just as many game bans on a daily basis. A website that tracks and estimates inventory value determined that a total of $7,387 in items were taken out of … Continue reading “Valve Drops 40,000 Accounts In Mass Ban”
Those of you who use or follow Steam in any capacity are no doubt aware of the high volume of low effort shovelware being heaped onto the service, increasingly from developers out of Russia, that have popped up on Steam for one purpose: Farming trading cards. These games use unscrupulous methods, through bot voting or … Continue reading “Valve’s Trading Card Update Shoots Shovelware Games In The Heart”
Those of you who game on consoles know one truth to be self evident: No refunds. Game comes out that is broken, missing features, or effectively sold on lies and fraud? In that last case, Sony did at least refund No Man’s Sky buyers. Otherwise, you’re out of luck if the game runs horribly or … Continue reading “Microsoft Adopts Valve Policy: Self-Service Refunds Coming”
Valve has claimed three more souls as Steam parts ways with developers over review manipulation. The games in question include Techwars Online 2, Concerning Evergrow, and Trigger Happy Shooting. As posted by a Valve Steamworks moderator, the developers were using fake reviews to make their games appear to be more popular and well received than … Continue reading “Steam Cleanlight: Valve Terminates More Developers Over Review Manipulation”
Valve has updated how Steam handles user reviews today in a way that will affect how paid/free reviews affect the game’s overall score. Starting today, the review score will no longer be affected by users that received the game for free, including free weekends and gifts. With the changes we are making now, the review … Continue reading “Valve Updates Steam Reviews, Free Reviews Don’t Count”
Steam Greenlight, the process through which developers pay $100 to gain access to submit their games for players to vote to sell on the platform, is going away. In its place is Steam Direct, a process through which developers will be able to pay a per-game fee to guarantee access to the store front. The … Continue reading “[Community] How Valve Can Make Steam Direct (Closer To) Perfect”
Steam Greenlight, has been both applauded and derided, as a method for small developers to find a platform to make money and as an easily gamed portal through which Steam has turned into a dumping ground for Unity asset flips and actual money laundering schemes. On one hand, the change seems to be mostly cosmetic, … Continue reading “Valve Kills Steam Greenlight, Implementing Steam Direct”
In a world where curation on Steam Greenlight is virtually nonexistent, shady developers seem to be getting more and more prevalent. Introduce Matan Cohen’s Studio, an indie developer consisting of two people (one of whom is probably named Matan Cohen) who released the game Art of Stealth. It wasn’t well received by a lot of people, with … Continue reading “[NM] Valve Cuts Off Another Shady Developer Over Fake Reviews”
Digital Homicide’s James Romine has filed a subpoena against Valve in Phoenix to discover the identities of what appears to be 100 anonymous users who had made statements about the company in the past. The documents were filed and the subpoena granted this week. The case has been assigned to Magistrate Judge Eileen Willett. Romine … Continue reading “James Romine Subpoenas Valve For Steam User Details”
MMO Fallout 