Multiple game creators describe ineffective moderation on the platform, resulting in unchecked hatred in forums and targeted campaigns of negative ‘anti-woke’ reviews
“I’m not new to online harassment,” says designer Nathalie Lawhead, who spent two years trying to get reviews removed from their games’ pages. Both reference allegations of sexual assault that Lawhead made in 2019. “I assumed reporting Steam abuse might have its own issues. But when people suggested that I open a ticket, I did have hope that this would be the way to get it resolved.”
One of the reviews, published in 2023, read, “cringe game, made by a liar”. The other, a review of Lawhead’s game Blue Suburbia posted in 2024, said: “A women [sic] who seeks to destroy other’s [sic] career made this. It’s very poorly put together. She also probably has dual Israeli citizenship with how pointy her nose is.”
Despite Steam’s code of online conduct and community guidelines prohibiting “abusive language or insults”, public accusations or “discrimination”, moderators initially cleared both reviews after Lawhead reported them.
What’s with Lemmy users and lying and bending backwards to shield poor indie dev company Valve from harassment? Does Gabe’s dick taste that good?
Honest question, do you think someone replying to a thing in a public forum “cringe thing made by a liar” is actually harassment and should be forcefully removed just because the dev doesn’t like it?
Yes. Never in a million years I would consider “cringe game, made by a liar” an honest review, and I don’t know why anyone would consider it as such. It’s clearly part of a harassment campaign.
should be forcefully removed just because the dev doesn’t like it?
It should be removed because it’s not a review and has nothing to do with the game at hand, not because the dev doesn’t like it.
I’m not even saying it sounds like an authentic review persay but I don’t think objectively one can say for sure it’s because of a targeted harassment attack, which if we remove any “borderline” reviews, again it opens up removing any legitimate criticism against a game just for saying “oh it’s harassment!”
Which is what the entire article is about, reports being ineffective…
Its not, its about Valve not proactively moderating for the devs.
What’s with Lemmy users and lying and bending backwards to shield poor indie dev company Valve from harassment? Does Gabe’s dick taste that good?
Honest question, do you think someone replying to a thing in a public forum “cringe thing made by a liar” is actually harassment and should be forcefully removed just because the dev doesn’t like it?
The seems too far censorship to me.
The antisemitism yeah get rid of that shit
Yes. Never in a million years I would consider “cringe game, made by a liar” an honest review, and I don’t know why anyone would consider it as such. It’s clearly part of a harassment campaign.
It should be removed because it’s not a review and has nothing to do with the game at hand, not because the dev doesn’t like it.
Not liking something doesn’t mean it should be removed.
Any negative review of a game then becomes fair game.
And I never said that.
No, it doesn’t. If you truly, truly believe that the review is authentic, I have a bridge to sell you.
I’m not even saying it sounds like an authentic review persay but I don’t think objectively one can say for sure it’s because of a targeted harassment attack, which if we remove any “borderline” reviews, again it opens up removing any legitimate criticism against a game just for saying “oh it’s harassment!”