Valve Dismisses Complaint Over Offensive Steam Review: “This is Clear Racism”

After raising concerns about a negative review that criticized the automation sim Little Rocket Lab for including “Muslims,” Mike Rose has stated that his complaint to Steam has been “rejected,” allowing the review to remain.

Earlier this week, Rose addressed the issue of hateful and irrelevant reviews on Steam, and in a post on December 10, he shared an updated note attached to the review in question, which the author has since modified to include more specific complaints.

“This review was previously flagged by a developer, but that has been cleared by a moderator,” the note states. “You cannot flag it again unless the reviewer changes the review.” It’s important to note that Rose is referred to as a “developer” due to his Steam account status; Kyle Schmitz, the actual developer of Little Rocket Lab, has not been involved in Rose’s comments or responses to the reviews.

Rose expressed his frustration, stating, “Valve has now rejected my complaint, confirming that ‘I don’t like Muslims’ is a valid reason to leave a negative review on a game on Steam.” The review now reads: “Also has Muslims… No one is asking for this type of stuff, in a building cozy game.”

“I’m genuinely at a loss about what to do,” Rose admitted in a response to his post. “This review, ‘Has Muslims, thumbs down,’ is now just sitting on the Steam page for Little Rocket Lab, and I can’t remove it. Anyone checking out our game will understandably think, ‘What the heck?’ and there’s nothing I can do.”

I reached out to Rose for more information about his interaction with Valve and his experiences on Steam. He mentioned, “We’ve seen an increase in terrible reviews. I’m sure you’ve noticed it too while browsing Steam pages. In all my time in the gaming industry, I’ve never had a flagged review removed by a Valve moderator.”

Rose believes the solution is straightforward. “Racism is explicitly against Steam’s guidelines. ‘Has Muslims, not recommended’ is outright racism, so there shouldn’t be any debate about it.”

As of now, over 1,800 people have engaged with Rose’s post, many criticizing Valve for its lax approach to moderating Steam reviews and forums. Some have compared this situation to the ban of the arthouse horror game Horses, questioning where Valve draws the line on acceptable content.

Valve’s guidelines for Steam reviews clearly address this type of language, stating: “Do not direct abuse or insults at other players, developers, or groups.”

Following the ban of Horses, Steam also lost the game BrownDust2 due to “the platform’s policy requirements,” citing an issue that “cannot be reasonably resolved.”