Valve’s solution to Steam review-bombing makes no sense

I was target of a review bombing campaign years ago, when I released Telepath RPG: Servants of God on Desura. I had committed the sin of pricing a role-playing game higher than what some players wished to pay, and the offended crowd took it upon themselves to down-vote the game en masse. They hadn’t played it for as much as 10 seconds, but they felt entitled to let the world know that the game was not worth its asking price, badly damaging its score in the process.

Regrettably, review bombing has not gone away, with Firewatch developers Campo Santo serving as the most recent high-profile target. I was excited to hear that Valve had finally decided to undertake measures to combat this corrosive phenomenon on Steam, but the actual proposal quickly tempered my enthusiasm. I’ll be blunt: Valve’s chosen solution makes little sense and is unlikely to succeed.