Valve has launched a new feature on Steam, aimed at enhancing the utility of user reviews for potential buyers. This update seeks to filter out less informative content, ensuring that reviews provide genuine insights into the games.
Previously, Steam users could vote on the helpfulness of reviews, and the platform would prioritize those with high ratings. However, this system often resulted in reviews being dominated by jokes, memes, and other non-informative content, where public voting led to unexpected results.
Valve acknowledged this issue in a statement: “We’ve seen that many players use reviews for sharing jokes, memes, ASCII art, and other content that might not be the most helpful for a potential purchaser.” While such content can be entertaining for existing customers, it doesn’t necessarily assist new players in making informed purchasing decisions.
The new “Helpfulness System” aims to address this by deprioritizing reviews identified as unhelpful, such as one-word reviews, those filled with ASCII art, or those mainly composed of playful memes and in-jokes. Although these reviews will still be accessible, they will now appear behind more informative reviews. Importantly, this change will not affect the calculation of review scores, but rather the order in which reviews are displayed on store pages.
The mechanics behind the Helpfulness System are somewhat opaque. Valve explained that the system uses a combination of user reports, moderation by the Steam team, and machine learning algorithms to manage the vast number of reviews—over 140 million posted on Steam. While marking a review as helpful or not remains part of the process, the extent of its influence is unclear.
Valve also provided insight into why unhelpful reviews are being resorted instead of removed. “We have found that many players want to express an opinion about the game but don’t always have the words to describe their experience or aren’t interested in writing much,” Valve stated. “Their indication of whether they would recommend the game is still valuable data, even if they are not able to articulate why.” This approach respects players’ input while ensuring that reviews serve their intended purpose.
For users who prefer the traditional review sorting method, Steam offers the option to bypass the new system. By selecting the “Display” dropdown menu in the customer reviews section on a Steam store page, users can uncheck the “use new helpfulness system” box to revert to the previous sorting method.
This update reflects Valve’s ongoing efforts to improve the usefulness of user reviews, making them a more reliable resource for gamers exploring new titles.
