More than 2,400 Steam users rewarded a review under the game Warlander with a thumbs up. However, the comment was banned and all those Steam users also received a penalty. In the meantime, however, the Steam support responded and lifted the restrictions.
When considering buying a game on Steam, one’s gaze often drifts to user comments. There, other players provide more or less helpful reviews or tips, which can also be rated.
With the buttons “Yes” (thumbs up), “No” (thumbs down), “Funny” or “Price” one can express their gratitude toward the author.
However, the voting function became a downfall for some players because they gave a thumbs up to a review of the Steam game Warlander.
Here you can see a trailer for the game for which the review was written:
The Steam review was classified as “potentially dangerous”
Which comment was it? The Steam user FREEDOMS117 posted a negative review of Warlander. In it, he criticized the anti-cheat software of the game, calling it “suspicious.”
He stated, “It runs even when the game is closed, including the tray icons” and “it seems to be sending some data packets to Japanese IPs while the game is already closed.” Then, FREEDOMS117 explains how to completely uninstall Sentry Anti-Cheat. The comment was considered one of the “most helpful” user voices with 2,439 upvotes and several hundred ratings, as PCGamer reported. Also, in a community discussion on Steam, there is mention of almost 2,500 votes.
In mid-April, the comment was banned. The reason: “The review was banned by a Steam moderator for violating the Steam terms of service […].” (via steamcommunity). The author’s account was restricted for 30 days, and FREEDOMS117 could no longer use community features.
But even the Steam users who rated his review positively were punished: Their accounts were also restricted: They were unable to cast community votes for reviews for 30 days.
How does Steam respond? In the meantime, the restrictions on all affected accounts have been lifted early. FREEDOMS117 posted in the community discussion the response from Steam support:
They explained that a moderator mistakenly interpreted the review as a guideline on how to bypass anti-cheat software:
“Our moderators watch for content that describes how to cheat or how to manipulate anti-cheat systems. That violates our rules, and it seems that our moderation team mistakenly identified this in this case, which led to the banning of the post.” However, FREEDOMS117’s review technically does not fall into this category.
Due to the moderator categorizing the comment as “potentially dangerous” for others since some of the steps require changes to the registry, both the author and the voters’ accounts were restricted.
They plan to unlock the comment as well, but suggest explaining the complex issue in detail in a Steam guide and “with a note that the steps are taken ‘at your own risk’.” Additionally, they would also review the developer’s behavior that was criticized in the reviews.
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