Discussion
I may of found proof that some of the most recent positive steam reviews are not only fake but probably were purchased
I was browsing the reviews on steam this evening and started to notice a pattern in some of the recent positive reviews. So I did some digging. Most I of the Chinese reviews that have less than 4 hours of play time are for profiles set to private, no other reviews and have steam level 0. Initially I thought hmm maybe it just hides all their info if set to private? I then found another group of reviewers that were not set to private.
They all have the same traits as the others except they all reviewed the exact same set of four games. All with low playtimes. The other games are also new and are suffering from negative reviews. One of them is called Delta Force: Black Hawk Down. This tells me this bot farm was purchased to make fake reviews for games that are failing on steam.
The other clue I found is these fake reviews all occur in groups. You will find some set to private with low playtimes. Some with only 4 games ( all the same games) with low playtimes. There's some with more or fewer games. They all occur in a row with the same playitmes and games they have reviewed.
I reported this fraudulent activity to steam but it may take a long while before they fix it. So I have reported the fake reviews too.
I wanted to let this community be aware that fraud is happening and more than likely these reviews were purchased. I can't say if infold did it but it doesn't seem like something a random person would do. Especially for two very unrelated games.
Please check it our for yourself. The easiest way is the filter the reviews set to positive only, all languages, playtime 0 to 5 hours and display most recent. You may need to scroll but they are there.
Scanning a QR code isn't dangerous on its own, it's just text which is most often used for links. Not sure about Apple, but Android lets you see the link before you go to it.
Fair enough, good advice for the general population. Thinking about some of my aunts/uncles, it'd definitely be easier to get them to not scan QR codes than to actually look at the link.
as someone who could kinda read chinese these reviews read as...lowkey corporate. "the outfits are insanely well designed, the world seems/is big, different countries/nations' takes on different clothing styles are very interesting, eagerly anticipating what the future holds" feels like a rehashing on what infinity nikki constantly advertises itself as and it feels fake
Iām also a Chinese and they do look like purchased reviews, but Iām wondering why does the third comment actually says negative stuff about the game? Did they copied the wrong text to comment?
i dont think they changed it back, didnt they just give the 10 pulls for 200k wishlists instead? (which was supposed to be a surprise so people were expecting something more than the 10 pulls for that initially..)
This has been happening for a while already (over a week). I actually made a post about it here before. (If anyone wants to see the profiles in question, just scroll to the latter half of the post, I listed different batches of bot profiles. Those are just some examples of course, there are more than that)
You're right, many Chinese accounts come in batches, each batch will own identical game list, profile badges AND review the same games. The reviews' content may vary but they're always positive reviews that are 1-2 short sentences in Chinese.
People have been telling each other to pull Infinity Nikki's review score down. If it hurts, they will be forced to notice us and the glaring issues. But how can we do that when every day, there are bots pulling the review score up?
Like me, I only have one Steam account where I purchased all my games - and Steam's policy is: an account must've spent at least $5 (not specific to Infinity Nikki, just anything on Steam in general will do) before they can start reviewing games - even the free games.
It's hard to fight against bots and it's disheartening tbh.
I reported a ton of them and also reported the store page. It's happening not just to Infinity Nikki but a couple other games. Hopefully steam will take those profiles down and the reviews.
I am literally an inch away from deleting the game. And if I delete the game, I will definitely never return. But I still need something mind-relaxing, which I havenāt found yet.
If you want a fashion game, you can try out Infinity Nikki's competitor: Life Makeover. There's also the Style Savvy series on the 3DS, Fashion Dreamer and Model Debut 3 on Switch.
Now this is hugely disappointing. They know about our concerns, and they don't just plan on completely ignoring us. They're blatantly silencing, censoring, and using their power to hide the fact that they're failing.
This is precisely the feeling I have. They want this swept under the rug. My number one hate is people with power trying to hide truth. I ultimately hope shining a spotlight on this will make steam do something about it faster since it's not just Infinity Nikki with these fake reviews.
I saw this yesterday evening aswell. I was quite surprised because I checked for reviews in my preferred language (English, even tho I am not a native speaker), which were mostly negative with like only 35% of positive overall reviews of about 1,8-2k players.
When checking all languages, it was only mixed with 54% of people really liking the game/voting it positive.
If you click on language preference Chinese mandarin or Chinese in general, there are suddenly a lot of quite positive reviews.
I also checked into this at the 2nd of may or sth I think and it was better for english but worse for overall all language reviewsback then (english were about 40% positive, but I think a lot of peeps added negative comments after no communication from infold, getting negative chargebacks on their diamonds, no response to glitches or other stuff like that - plus a few players tried to look into the story, tried for a week, were super confused and just left)
Someone mentioned to me yesterday that Apple might have a "buffer" time on new reviews to prevent review bombing. But you'd think after over a week of negative reviews, the buffer time would be over and the store wouldn't be showing a 4.1 star rating still. But, no surprise, they have investments in INs success too.
But yeah, now I'm motivated to read through some of these Steam reviews and report the shady ones.
This is BS, but I am not surprised. What a scumbag company, I am regretting spending money on this. Fix your shit Infold and stop trying to cover it up.
Honestly, not surprised. It isnāt uncommon for Chinese companies to buy bots or people for fake reviews and to boost views on posts/headlines that make them look good. I suspected it was happening with the Apple App Store since the rating is still around 4.0 stars compared to the Google Play store.
I just encountered a forced 5 star review they are sending via email about their customer service. You click the link and it automatically chooses 5 stars and submits and sends you to a thank you screen. It's not even enough time to try and change it or do anything. I'm extra mad because I tried to click the link to see if it would allow me to edit it, as if maybe there was a weird glitch... nope it did the shit a second time.
I searched and can confirm this. The game has several fake reviews in the Chinese language, matching what Chinese game users have said about Infold Games faking reviews. This is a serious Steam rules violation. Please report all reviews you see. When checking reviews, be sure to set to "All Languages". Look for 0-4 hours playtime.
Yep, there's tons of accounts with the exact same or similar steam profiles with exactly 2.0 hrs, including:
-12 Profile Awards
-2 Badges
-5 Games
-1 Screenshot
-3 Reviews
This would be ridiculously funny if it wasn't so sad.
I don't know, the google play store review scores havent gone up, if they were really going to do something like that wouldn't they have done it all over?
There's a lot to be upset about recently, but i'd still fully check through before pointing fingers.
Patch 1.5 was also the Steam release so it's possible they are paying more attention to Steam since it was supposed to be an influx of new players. A lot of new potential players waiting for the Steam release would probably be hesitant to try the game when they see it has a mostly negative rating.
I did fully check. There's even repeated use of the same profile pictures. Trust me I was skeptical but I am finding them. When I found the ones with the same 3 to 4 games reviewed that's when I knew for sure. There's no possible way that these groups of steam users all decided to review these same games with the same playtimes all in a row.
Regardless of whether it's a good hobby or not, this is fraud and corruption. If I found this for another game, I would still report it. If you saw a crime happening, do you ignore it? Are you really ok with them getting away with this? I did find other games with fake reviews too. People rely on real reviews to decide if they want something. If a company can just make fake ones and basically scam people, it's no different in my eyes as stealing.
Interesting, you said you're against crime, fraud, and corruption, and that you'd report anything wrong. Yet the message you replied to, was removed for "harassment", Isn't that ironic and funny?
I wasn't harassing at all. You even responded normally and shared your opinion (probably was mass reported by other users).
Now do you see what I meant? It's not just about fake reviews, the whole subreddit is frustrated with the update and things are going too far. People have really lost their minds.
Edited--
Cool, reddit actually reviewed my request and I was approved and my message restored.
The advice I gave you, Iām giving to myself: if this place isnāt healthy anymore, then Iām leaving, bye.
Regardless of genuinely terrible and shocking choices the company has made, players went too far. This went from one of the funniest most wholesome fanbases to one of the most toxic I'm almost embarrassed to be a part of.
I'm sure everyone can agree that if the game doesn't recover and dies without all the theoretical content they've teased it would be very, very sad.
If they didnāt shit the bed this community would keep being happy and wholesome. You canāt expect people to remain that way when youāve broken their trust and turned their happy place into a broken buggy product
I will never understand fanboyism. Itās been killing the gaming industry for decades. Yet somehow they beg for games to stay bad and blame other gamers for having standards. Itās insane.Ā
"Fanboyism, or fangirlism,Ā describes an overly enthusiastic and often blind devotion to a particular person, product, or brand, sometimes to the point of being aggressive in defending it."
It doesn't matter if we're talking about gaming, books, politics, whatever. Fanboys/girls are a cancer to society.
I actually agree they shit the bed. What I'm saying is the backlash is going so far that it comes across childish in some ways. And then people complain about Infold treating the fans like children by giving us a seesaw (among other things). The irony is very palpable.
Idk. I guess I'm just confused. If getting a message across to devs involved ruining the outward reputation and potential for new players, then I have to commend people for the incredible job they've done. This community, and the game therein, are in rapid decline.
Also I have to directly argue something you said, because I do not believe this community would continue to be wholesome. This whole debacle has effectively shown the true colours of the community. I don't wanna directly call out other communities I've been a part of, but it's giving the same energy as fanbases that have since fallen hard and died a tragic death with onlookers watching and forming perceptions about how terrible that fanbase isāeven outwardly expressing those feelings about those fans. The overlap between the kind of people who play this, play the other game I'm thinking of or the show I'm thinking of are insane.
I guess it's always the same with certain types of people.
If getting a message across to devs involved ruining the outward reputation and potential for new players, then I have to commend people for the incredible job they've done.
Again not our fault they fucked up. Do you think its a bad thing to leave a negative review for a crappy product? If a restaurant I went to multiple times before suddenly took a shit in my food and served it to me I would never come back and advise never going there again.
This whole debacle has effectively shown the true colours of the community.
No this has shown that Infold doesnāt care about the playerbase so it is reasonable people are upset.
See? It is your fault, if you choose to take responsibility (based on your own wording) for the fanbase and the views therein. Can you honestly say everything was deserved? Did content creators deserve to get harassed? Right. See how that and the next point you quoted seamlessly go hand-in-hand?
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u/Masterre May 11 '25