Recently Valve made some changes to the way user reviews are displayed on Steam. There was a concern that a handful of developers were able to exploit the review system too easily – obtaining Steam keys for their games and posting fraudulent, positive reviews. To combat this, Valve made it so that only reviews from users who had bought their games directly from Steam would be visible. Reviews from users who had obtained keys legitimately from Humble Bundle or from crowd-funding campaigns were not shown, and that made some developers (and users) very unhappy.
Mode7’s Paul Kilduff-Taylor remarked to RockPaperShotgun that it was “…frustrating that the idiotic behaviour of a few unscrupulous people has, once again, forced changes to a system which affects everyone.” Valve has heard our cries, and has responded with some timely new changes. User reviews can now be seen from players no matter where the obtained their keys. However, Steam’s overall user rating will only be swayed by those who purchased their keys directly from Steam. It’s a happy medium that should please everybody. We’ll see if it sticks.