Developers and players have raised concerns regarding content moderation practices on the gaming platform Steam, citing instances of abuse and bigotry that violate the platform's guidelines. These concerns highlight significant shortcomings in the platform's ability to protect creators from harassment and maintain a respectful environment.
Developer Experiences
Bri "BlondePizza" Moore, a content creator and Steam curator, stated that abuse, particularly targeting transgender creators, is prevalent in reviews, discussions, and forums on Steam.
Nathalie Lawhead's Struggle with Abusive Reviews
Nathalie Lawhead, a designer, reported spending two years attempting to remove reviews from their game pages that referenced past sexual assault allegations. One review from 2023 called a game "cringe game, made by a liar," and another from 2024 included antisemitic language and personal attacks.
Initially, Steam moderators cleared both reviews despite guidelines prohibiting "abusive language or insults" and "discrimination." After Lawhead sought public support to report the reviews, the antisemitic example was removed. However, the other was passed again, with Steam stating it could not verify accuracy and removing reviews might be seen as "censorship."
Steam stated it could not verify accuracy and removing reviews might be seen as "censorship."
The remaining review was eventually removed only after Lawhead contacted a Valve employee directly outside the official moderation system, highlighting the extraordinary effort required.
Other developers have faced similar issues. Ethan, a developer of the game Coven, stated his game was targeted by a curator who recommended games based on developers' political views, leading to off-topic negative reviews that Steam support did not remove. Similarly, Émi Lefèvre of Studio Plane Toast noted that "anti-woke" curators and reviewers negatively targeted their game, Caravan SandWitch, due to its inclusion of queer characters, with some of these hostile reviews remaining visible.
Impact and Valve's Response
Developers report feeling constrained by Steam's market dominance, as it is essential for game visibility and sales. This dependency leaves them vulnerable to the platform's moderation policies.
The platform processes hundreds of thousands of support tickets weekly. Valve, which reportedly employs fewer than 400 people, has not publicly commented on its moderation issues or its processes.
Phi, another developer, received a response from Steam support regarding transphobic reviews that stated it was "much better to continue working on the product, while letting the community use the helpfulness feature to surface reviews that they agree with or find to be uninformed."
Steam support advised developers it was "much better to continue working on the product, while letting the community use the helpfulness feature to surface reviews that they agree with or find to be uninformed."
This response, which also mentioned the difficulty of applying "yes/no criteria" to moderation, was consistent with a response Lawhead received years later. Phi noted that Steam seemed to consider hateful comments against individuals as abuse but targeting groups as "welcome speech," and their transphobic reviews remain on the platform.
Developer Actions and Challenges
In response to lax moderation, some developers are taking their own measures, such as enhancing their security to protect against doxxing or hacking. Others, like the developers of Caves of Qud, hire their own moderators for forums to manage their community directly. Mike Rose of No More Robots has publicly challenged racist reviews on the platform. Christina Pollock, developer of Ambrosia Sky, even incorporated a derogatory comment about "brown space lesbians" into their marketing copy as a form of defiance.
Lax moderation poses professional and economic implications for developers, as negative reviews can significantly affect a game's visibility and success. Many developers feel compelled to endure the situation due to Steam's near-monopoly in PC gaming, which makes it an indispensable platform despite its moderation challenges.