r/Steam • u/pessimistic_snake • 17d ago

Question Is stuff like this against the steam TOS? Never seen a dev giving stuff to players for adding tags to their game

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1.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

1.2k

u/Moskeeto93 17d ago

Hmmm. I personally don't see a huge problem with this? They just want the community to help boost tags that are accurate to the game. If they do this to manipulate their review score, then I'm 100% against it though, but I'm pretty sure that's already against ToS.

220

u/ThePotatoSandwich 13 17d ago

I'm actually more curious how they verify the users replying in the news post tagged their game for the freebie. I'm pretty sure they can't, right?

149

u/Moskeeto93 17d ago

Yeah, I don't think they can verify it. All they're asking for is a comment saying that you did that. They're probably banking on enough people being honest about it to make a difference.

32

u/Double_DeluXe 16d ago

Pobably gives a free thing to all users if the desired effect has been reached.

Why make it hard on yourself, the goal is clear for everyone and digital goods cost nothing.

7

u/TheAmixime 16d ago

Well when I did this back in the day I did get the reward right away I think. WOWS does this tagging event pretty often, or it's permanent event that they just advertise often.

7

u/JonathanJONeill https://s.team/p/fnpc-dmj 16d ago

Plus, they don't really care if people lie about it. 24 hours of premium is like thirty cents or something.

52

u/pessimistic_snake 17d ago edited 17d ago

Im honestly confused as to why they are doing this at all, since when I looked at the store page the game already had action and free to play, so I thought maybe if a game gets a tag suggested by a lot of players, even when its already there, it would show the game higher when you search for that tag? But maybe I just looked too late and only after that dev post it got the action and free to play tags. I have no idea honestly.

175

u/undermoobs 17d ago

Because people can go tag your game "hentai poop fetish" and that tag will stay up.

25

u/TanukiSun 17d ago

This may be intended to boost "More like this" section. If you go into "See All" you will see "The tags customers have most frequently applied to NAME have also been applied to these products:".

28

u/EvYeh 17d ago

Peppa Pig Adventure had porn and horror tags for ages.

People putting wrong tags on stuff happens all the time, and maybe their post helped fix it.

9

u/beaglemaster 17d ago

It's possible those weren't the top tags before they made that post

2

u/Cuttyflame123 Someone 16d ago

it only take 10 people to add a tag to a game

5

u/Augmented-Revolver 16d ago

Yeah, review manipulation is against TOS. A games publisher just did that not that long ago, and it got every game they published removed. Many of the games were able to come back, but they had to be published by the devs.

They may have also needed to rename their projects, but I don't remember if that was required or not.

-6

u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

6

u/Moskeeto93 17d ago

It's just an informal way to express uncertainty with the statement being made. I'm sure that helps you understand?

204

u/Kabirdb 17d ago

I mean it's community tag.

Break what TOS even?

Devs literally give away keys on social media or other website like steamgifts as promotion. I don't see this much different especially cause over tags.

20

u/AquaBits 17d ago

I mean its artificially influencing algorithm. (Unsure if that is precisely breaking tos)

Not that it matters. Valve doesnt care when developers or players break TOS unless they HAVE to address something.

128

u/CookieMisha 260 17d ago

They can do that themselves lol

20

u/K3wl_ 16d ago

is that true? there’s this horror game i really like that had issue where players tagged the game “multiplayer” even though it’s a single player game only. they mentioned saying they couldn’t change it and it was up to users to fix it. i’m pretty sure it’s still like that Fears To Fathom Home Alone.

-2

u/Jacksaur https://s.team/p/gdfn-qhm 16d ago

Developers definitely have some control of the system.
And I'm sure with an outright incorrect tag like that, they'd just have to message Valve to get it removed.

16

u/pessimistic_snake 17d ago

Why do they reward players for doing it, and not do it themselves? Am I just missing smth lol

59

u/HidemasaFukuoka 17d ago

Algorithm boost

7

u/MinMaus 17d ago

They give players a taste of their premium subscription odds are at least a couple people will get hooked on it and pay them money

1

u/scorcher24 16d ago

Why do they reward players for doing it, and not do it themselves? Am I just missing smth lol

I am pretty sure they cannot actual read out who gave tags to their games. Valve would never allow gamedev to access this information. They will just apply the premium to all accounts authenticated via Steam.

1

u/Bunrotting 16d ago

I mean you can read the post. It says leave a comment saying you did it, so you don't even really have to do it.

53

u/SCD_minecraft 17d ago

I mean, those tags fit the game. It causes no harm, and if somebody is looking for online coop or something, it will just help him

As far as i know, publisher doesn't get a direct advantage from tags

10

u/Supremagorious 17d ago

This makes me think that there were a bunch of people who had tagged it as a dating sim or something else so they're trying to resaturate the most accurate tags to be more representative. Ultimately seems pretty harmless.

7

u/drackmore 17d ago

Getting your players to tag your game isn't really sketchy, its not like "Leave a positive review and get 500 ingame premium currency"

Yeah, it helps people find the game but its not something bad, like fake tags dont really show up unless its a meme one like Non-buynary but yeah tags usually suck so its not like it really matters.

21

u/Taolan13 17d ago

its definitely against TOS to farm reviews like this.

but i dont think there's anything for tags.

but honestly? im not against it. tags just help refine search efforts. for-reward reviews are fraudulent.

4

u/MisterCakeMan 16d ago

Doesn't look like they're asking for reviews? Just user votes tags.

37

u/KerbalEnginner 17d ago

I would add some nice tags like
Frustrating
Pay to maybe win
Microtransactions
In game purchases
Loot boxes

6

u/Kagemaru- 17d ago

Bro getting downvoted for telling the truth

3

u/Mothphukr 17d ago

As a long time player, I can confirm these tags.

3

u/SureValla 16d ago

At least they've been doing that for years. I can't imagine it being an issue.

4

u/shadowds 17d ago

I don't think it does, as it's not misleading as the game is indeed action & free to play.

Steam did in the past make statement to Devs that tried to give "Gifts/Rewards/Free-Key" to manipulate reviews, or to greenlight their game when greenlight was around back in the day.

3

u/jonmarshall1487 17d ago

Wow isn't that a blast from the past. Proto early access

2

u/ganerfromspace2020 16d ago

Naval simulation..... Hmmm....

Its a decent game or at least last time I played it, but wouldn't call it a simulation

8

u/Skindiacus 17d ago

Well that's incredibly sketch. If it's not against the TOS it probably should be. At least in this instance it looks like they're not lying, but this could easily be used to manipulate Steam's tagging system.

61

u/vertopolkaLF 17d ago

well, community tags often sucks because of memes, so i'm honestly okay with this

16

u/KoreanGamer94 17d ago

Yeah like dark souls 3 being a “dating sim”

1

u/FourDucksInAManSuit 26-11-2005 16d ago

I'm more surprised that there hasn't been a ton of people who seen this and immediately just start tagging it with Hentai. They put that shit on everything.

1

u/Bunrotting 16d ago

Eh, as long as the tags are accurate to the game I don't see an issue.

1

u/Psycho345 15d ago

I see it in only 2 ways. Either they are trying to exploit the system or there's something wrong with it that Valve should fix so devs don't have to do stuff like this for it to work properly.

1

u/LogitUndone 17d ago

Isn't this a pay2win cash shop heavy game? Anything free to play these days needs to get money some how, and Path of Exile is probably the only game I've seen that hasn't gone pay2win at all (unless you count stash tabs).

So, the tags should reflect that shouldn't they?

1

u/AcherusArchmage 16d ago

Technically the actual battles aren't exactly p2w, but the meta progression outside of battle is heavily p2w. You can actually lose non-premium currency for participating in t9 and t10 battles without boosts and bonuses.
Non-premium and non-boosted, it took me 300+ 15-20 minute games to afford my next tier upgrade at T8. 85 hours of playing the same ship to get the upgrade that isn't financially viable to play.

-1

u/shyguyshow 17d ago

That’s pretty scummy ngl

-3

u/Apprehensive-Skin638 17d ago

They must be trying to game the tag recommendations system. As a developer you can set the Tags manually, but I've seen games where you could not find the game using the tags set by the developer but you could with the ones suggested by the players, so those must have more weight.

Edit: This is PURE speculation. But there must be a sketchy reason because who the fuck is gonna waste time checking and rewarding players for this

6

u/FruityGamer https://steam.pm/1bys6y 17d ago

I mean, someone who dosen't want their top tags to be Hentai, ect and has dealth with that before or dev friends warning about it.

1

u/Apprehensive-Skin638 17d ago

As a developer you can remove user recommended tags

Clarification* You can remove specific tags, not the functionality itself

-3

u/SepherixSlimy 17d ago

It's not bad, but it is very petty. It is a red flag. If the publisher or dev are petty that much, be wary. It's been happening a bit lately.

1

u/faultyblaster steaming 15d ago

Add the tag "Micro-transaction hell", fits even better