What you need to know
- On Tuesday morning, Steam users noticed a "new helpfulness system" in place for user reviews. When toggled, this system filtered game reviews so that the only ones visible were those that were fairly detailed and classified as "Most Helpful."
- Valve — the creator of Steam — disabled the toggle for this system a few hours later, indicating that it's not finished yet. Still, this leak of it confirms that Valve is finally making an effort to address issues with Steam's reviewing system.
- Currently, many users flood Steam store pages with low-effort reviews that are humorous, quirky, or controversial in an effort to farm Community Awards from their peers.
- These "awards" are essentially emoji reactions, and give reviewers Steam Points they can spend on profile customization when given. Their introduction several years ago is largely what led to the onset of useless review spamming.
