Steam Developer Claims Valve Hasn’t Assisted with ‘Racist’ Harassment Issues

With its bright color scheme and cheerful cow mascot, *Milky Way Idle* might not seem like a game that could spark intense outrage among players. However, one of the developers has revealed that the game has become the target of a persistent harassment campaign, ignited by the ban of a single player.

*Milky Way Idle* is currently in early access on PC and also available as a web browser game. Like many idle games, it allows players to earn experience points, gather resources, and craft items even when they’re not actively playing. What distinguishes *Milky Way Idle* is its multiplayer aspect, enabling players to trade items, explore dungeons together, and form guilds.

Upon its initial release on Steam, *Milky Way Idle* received a warm reception. Many players likened it to *Runescape*, praising its engaging gameplay loop. One review humorously noted, “You set up your actions once, walk away, and when you come back, your in-game dude has built a house, fought a dragon, and probably filed his space taxes.” Another added, “This game basically plays itself, and somehow makes you feel like the genius.”

Things were going smoothly for developer Cheze until June 2025, when he banned a particular player from China who had been sending him rude messages. This ban followed a series of lighter penalties, including temporary mutes and short-term expulsions from the game.

In an email, Cheze explained that the player was upset over a balance change that affected a feature they enjoyed. Similar to recent reactions in other games, the player was responding to adjustments made on the test server before they went live. Cheze reported that the player resorted to calling him derogatory names.

What Cheze didn’t anticipate was that this ban would escalate into a cultural conflict. The banned player identified as a “whale,” someone who spends a significant amount of money on games. Cheze noted that this incident “sparked a massive drama” because many players from China come from a gaming culture where “whales” are treated with deference, often leading to acceptance of abusive behavior.

In a post on a game development forum, Cheze clarified that he did not intend to generalize about an entire culture. While players from all backgrounds can react strongly to game changes, the majority of those rallying around the banned player were indeed Chinese.

Following the ban, *Milky Way Idle* faced a wave of negative reviews on Steam, with hundreds of users expressing their dissatisfaction. Some complaints focused on game balance, while others criticized the introduction of a Battle Pass. A recurring theme in the reviews was frustration over the developer’s moderation practices, which some players felt suppressed valid criticism.

Cheze stands firm on his studio’s zero-tolerance policy for harassment. He asserts that the review bombing was “unquestionably” a reaction to the ban rather than gameplay issues, noting that the negative feedback began flooding in within an hour of the player’s ban.

As time passed, more reviews suggested that the developer harbored an anti-Chinese bias. One review stated, “Dev/owner/admin/whatever went off the wall, mass banning/targeting Chinese community. Doesn’t matter the reason, this is blatant racism and just messed up beyond belief.” Another lamented, “Didn’t expect my first actual review on Steam is on a cow idle game but this current timeline is crazy.”

The harassment didn’t stop at negative reviews. Cheze reported that during this period, the global chat was inundated with defamatory comments, insults, and even comparisons to Nazis. He found the accusations of racism perplexing, especially since half of his development team is Chinese, and he has lived in China for many years. “We literally spent endless effort working with volunteers to translate tens of thousands of words of in-game text into Chinese,” he stated.

While the harassment has lessened since the initial months following the ban, Cheze claims it still persists, often laced with nationalist sentiments. He shared a support ticket he sent to Valve, seeking assistance, which included links to numerous vitriolic Steam posts, mostly in Chinese.

Cheze’s public posts aimed to express his frustration with Valve’s lack of support. Although some players were banned, he felt that many abusive messages remained unchecked. He noted that Valve’s response times were slow, and a significant portion of the harassment originated from the browser version of *Milky Way Idle*. Valve’s conduct rules expect users to be “good online citizens” and not disrupt others’ enjoyment of the platform.

As far as Cheze is concerned, the backlash against *Milky Way Idle* has weaponized nationalism. He believes that cultural differences play a role in the behavior exhibited by some players, suggesting that in certain cultures, paying customers may feel entitled to act superior, while businesses in the U.S. might be more inclined to address abusive behavior. Cheze emphasized that the disruptive players represent a small fraction of the 20,000 users from China.

“I want the focus of this discussion to remain strictly on the toxic behavior of the harassers, and Steam’s systemic failure to protect developers from it, rather than condemning an entire demographic of people,” he wrote.

What could potentially bring an end to the harassment? Cheze suspects that some players are still waiting for a formal apology from the developer, which he has no intention of issuing. “We find this wildly unacceptable, as we are the ones on the receiving end of a massive amount of abuse, which was initiated by a player persistently harassing our staff,” he stated.

Cheze mentioned that he has reached out to Valve multiple times, but most responses felt scripted, instructing him to manually flag individual reviews. “We want Steam to actually enforce their own rules and protect indie developers from organized harassment,” he concluded.