Please Restore Full Transparency in User Reviews
of the things I always liked about Steam was how transparent the review system used to be. Seeing all reviews in all languages by default gave a much clearer picture of any game. For me, community reviews were always the main reference when buying games that weren’t already on my radar, I trusted them more than any gaming sites.

With the new change, if a game has, say, 1,000 reviews and half are from Chinese or Spanish players, those reviews are hidden unless you go into the settings and change the filters. The problem is that most players won’t even know this option exists. They’ll assume they’re seeing all reviews when they’re not, and that feels misleading.

The old system was simply better and more honest. I really hope this is just a temporary experiment and that Steam brings back full transparency by default. That’s the kind of approach that made this platform stand out in the first place

Just one quick example:

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers
Total Reviews (92000)
Reviews in English (6200)

By default, using the new system I'm only glancing at around 7% of total reviews and this to me feels deceiving.
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Showing 1-9 of 9 comments
You can change how you see reviews in your store preferences.
Originally posted by datCookie:
You can change how you see reviews in your store preferences.


I know that I can change it, and I already did.
but for the average user it will not be clear the default should be all reviews and if you want to filter then you can filter, not the opposite.
Originally posted by AHMITO:
Originally posted by datCookie:
You can change how you see reviews in your store preferences.


I know that I can change it, and I already did.
but for the average user it will not be clear the default should be all reviews and if you want to filter then you can filter, not the opposite.

Personally, I find the current system more accurate and better for users. The old system didn't take into account culture or language barriers. The new system does. Having the new system be default and the old system secondary is the way it should be.
Maybe instead of:
Overall
Recent

we should have:
Overall (your language)
Overall (all languages)
Recent (your language)
Recent (all languages)
I would only separate "exclude review bombing" as an standalone setting, instead of bundling it with new options.
Originally posted by Ettanin:
Maybe instead of:
Overall
Recent

we should have:
Overall (your language)
Overall (all languages)
Recent (your language)
Recent (all languages)


That would be excellent.
The key is to be transparent not to hide or mislead people.
Originally posted by AHMITO:
of the things I always liked about Steam was how transparent the review system used to be. Seeing all reviews in all languages by default gave a much clearer picture of any game. For me, community reviews were always the main reference when buying games that weren’t already on my radar, I trusted them more than any gaming sites.

With the new change, if a game has, say, 1,000 reviews and half are from Chinese or Spanish players, those reviews are hidden unless you go into the settings and change the filters. The problem is that most players won’t even know this option exists. They’ll assume they’re seeing all reviews when they’re not, and that feels misleading.

The old system was simply better and more honest. I really hope this is just a temporary experiment and that Steam brings back full transparency by default. That’s the kind of approach that made this platform stand out in the first place

Just one quick example:

WUCHANG: Fallen Feathers
Total Reviews (92000)
Reviews in English (6200)

By default, using the new system I'm only glancing at around 7% of total reviews and this to me feels deceiving.
No it should stay the way it is as the default, I don't want the chinese netizens to have any influence on the review scores, but if you want the chinese netizens to control the review scores you see, then go and enable it
Originally posted by AHMITO:
I know that I can change it, and I already did.
but for the average user it will not be clear the default should be all reviews and if you want to filter then you can filter, not the opposite.

It is defaulted to your native language so those whose native language is not English can get context from reviews written in their own language.

My native language is English, therefore i have context and full transparency because i no longer need to skip past reviews not written in English with this as the default setting.
Last edited by Nx Machina; 16 hours ago
Originally posted by AHMITO:
Originally posted by datCookie:
You can change how you see reviews in your store preferences.


I know that I can change it, and I already did.
but for the average user it will not be clear the default should be all reviews and if you want to filter then you can filter, not the opposite.
The Average user is more interested in what people in their own region ghave to say avbout a game not what some shlub in china or russia has to say about it.
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