Valve adds constraints to games that exploit Steam’s achievement system

MANILA, Philippines – In a post in Steam’s developer-only Steamworks group, Valve announced that it was imposing a number of restrictions on games that exploit the platform’s achievement system.

Valve stated that games are going to be subject to a confidence metric to assess whether or not they are legitimate. Steam games that have yet to be considered trusted can only feature 100 achievements. Meanwhile, the game and its achievements won’t contribute to any count and won’t be displayed in the player’s profile. Lastly, they won’t be eligible for coupons.

Steam has announced more changes to address fake games. This was posted in the private Steamworks group (via @reddit) pic.twitter.com/AJxk49TJND

— Steam Database (@SteamDB) June 15, 2018

Just last year, Valve implemented similar tweaks to their digital trading card system which has its own economy. Unlike the trading cards, Steam achievements do not involve real money. They’re essentially digital trophies that mark a player’s gaming accomplishments and feats. These achievements are showcased in a Steam player’s profile for others to see. (READ: Valve to ‘allow everything’ on Steam, as long as it’s not illegal)

It’s having a decked out profile that leads players to play games that earn them thousands of achievements just by pushing button or performing a simple action. These “fake games”, as Valve called them, inflated the achievements and game counts on a user’s profile.

“Our data shows us that an insignificant number of users were taking advantage of this, but the existence of these fake games still confuses our algorithms and users,” Valve said.

Valve claims that real games would not be affected by these changes in any way and that it should only improve the Steam store experience. – Rappler.com