Just last week, Bethesda responded to the many negative reviews received by its latest masterpiece “Starry Sky” on the Steam platform, denying the negative review points mentioned by many fans, such as excessive loading screens and extremely Empty planet. Although these responses caused controversy among players, other game developers also came forward at this time to say that the Steam platform actually encourages them to respond to player comments in this way.
“For those unfamiliar, this has become an industry standard. Because Steam player reviews are very important indicators, and many cases have proven that direct user interaction is indeed possible to reverse these negative reviews, and this Just do it one big game at a time,” BAFTA award-winning screenwriter Xalavier Nelson Jr. tweeted
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The issue isn't replying – it's the inauthentic tone and copy pasted corporate responses
— Dave in LA (@DaveOshry) November 28, 2023
“We’ve been doing this for years. Many players are willing to modify negative reviews if you are willing to proactively respond and indicate that you are currently dealing with what they mentioned. This can actually be beneficial to the algorithm. “A very significant change.” Dillon Rogers, producer of “Gloomwood” and “DUSK” said
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James Bartholomeou, public relations manager at Thunderful Games, said: “What Bethesda did was wrong, but Steam does encourage development teams to respond to comments.”
However, in response to these negative comments, Bethesda officials did not take a low profile like other developers, promising players that they would launch improvements, or provide them with help and assistance. Instead, when players left a message on the Steam platform When negative reviewers say they think Starfield’s empty planets are boring, Bethesda responds by bluntly dismissing their argument.
“Many planets in “Star Sky” are deliberately designed to be empty, but they are not boring. The design concept of the exploration elements in “Star Sky” is to make players feel small and overwhelmed by the huge environment. ” Bethesda wrote in response
Independent game developer Kaiju Ultimax also said on Twitter:
“Most indie game development teams do criticize players when they clearly make false statements. But Bethesda does try to convey to players that the opinions they mention in negative reviews are wrong and ask them to just run Playing more “Starry Sky” will change things. To be honest, this is really vicious.”
Primordia, has about 3k reviews, we've replied to all of them, thanks to the never ending belief in our requirement to fullfill a promise given to our players. Same for Strangeland at 600. I've posted about this countless times. https://t.co/j1cvhyiGJk
— James Spanos – dualnames.bsky.social (@Dualnames) November 29, 2023
Of course, as Nelson Jr. said, Bethesda is not the only AAA game publisher doing this, but it has gradually become the norm.
“This is actually one of the few mechanisms we have to combat the toxic/incorrect arguments a game gets at launch, which is why it works. Potential players have a chance to see these comments and Reply, this can directly affect their purchasing decisions. So is this weird? Absolutely. But will this continue and happen more frequently as the Steam rating system gradually has a more significant impact on a player’s credit? Being used? Of course.” He said
So this may become a new standard, but it will also cause a lot of controversy, especially as more and more major manufacturers begin to use this strategy. Ultimately, the reason why Bethesda’s response to the negative reviews of “Star Sky” triggered such a fierce backlash among players was not because of the action of the response, but the content of the response itself.
