Post

Mike Bithell
@mikebithell.bsky.social

RE that RT.. it’s wild how steam reviews are still so damn important to getting visibility. If you play and like indie games, the most generous and helpful thing you can do is spend an hour popping positive reviews onto anything you like with <500 or so reviews.

125 reposts469 likes

Tristam
@trist.am

Is there any sort of tool to see which games in my steam library have less than 500 reviews? Paging through hundreds of games is less than ideal 🫠

ianmitchell0.bsky.social
@ianmitchell0.bsky.social

For me, the number of reviews don't count to me as much as the percentage of positivity, along with the hours invested in those reviews. But I still make sure to voice my opinion on small indie games after playing a decent amount of it.

Mike Bithell
@mikebithell.bsky.social

With the utmost respect, and even love, it’s not about what matters to an individual, it’s about the algo. You won’t be served games that don’t cross a threshold, or rather, a lower number of ‘yous’ will be.

ianmitchell0.bsky.social
@ianmitchell0.bsky.social

I might be misinterpreting what you said, but are you saying "You won't be given free games just because you say nice things about them"? I should clarify that when I said "voice my opinion", I meant in a review. I DO post steam reviews for small games.

ianmitchell0.bsky.social
@ianmitchell0.bsky.social

I just meant that number of reviews don't matter as much to me as much as the general feedback, the quality of the review, and what they're saying. I understand they are necessary for helping a game sell well. Though, funny enough, a LOT of games I've bought never ended up getting much exposure.

DarkTwinge
@darktwinge.bsky.social

Any idea if reviews tagged as 'key received for free' count in the algorithm's eyes for anything at all? I've usually not bothered posting Steam-side reviews for games which devs send me keys to stream, since my understanding is that they don't "count" for most purposes — but I don't know for sure.

Joseph Humfrey
@joe.inkle.co

Yeah this is my understanding of the situation. On the one hand they don’t count for anything, but on the other hand if it’s the first 1-2 days of release the positive vibes can’t hurt before the “real” reviews start filling up.

Geoffroy Vincens
@geoffroy.nova-box.com

However, I believe that if you have a large following as a content creator, your review may emerge as "most helpful" (thus appearing in the featured reviews) more easily and your words (and/or your recognizable name) may help convince undecided players.