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Mass Down Voting Attack with Bots

A topic by Must created 68 days ago Views: 146 Replies: 3
Viewing posts 1 to 3
(2 edits)

Hello, I am the developer of My Dear Sheep. Last night, my game was attacked by a total of 130 bots giving it 1-star reviews. As a result, even though it was ranked 6th among the most popular games, it is no longer featured on the homepage. My trust in this platform has been severely shaken. Even if the bot reviews are removed, I doubt the game will regain its previous popularity. In addition to the potential financial loss, the emotional damage this has caused me as a developer is significant.

In the hopes that it might help, I have disabled the game's rating system for now. However, I now have serious doubts about publishing my future games on this platform. I send my love to all my fellow developers and the wonderful users who have supported my game — and I am sincerely asking for your help.

(The suspect who carried out the attack is also threatening me through your platform. Will there be any consequences for this?)


Moderator moved this topic to Questions & Support
Moderator

Quite likely, if you report the offending ratings using the dedicated links in your dashboard. You only have to report one, if they're all from the same source. Until that's resolved, rest assured that ratings count very little against your game's position in searches.

I don't think it's natural to drop from 6th place to beyond 50th overnight. If these individuals can harm developers through your security vulnerabilities, how do you plan to maintain customer trust in the platform? This individual is threatening me through every possible platform. I am initiating legal action as of today. All the details are available in my emails. 

Moderator

Actually all games experience a sharp drop-off in searches after being at the top for a while after launch. Usually a lot shorter than a month. And I seriously doubt there's a site out there that can preempt concerted activity from bot networks. Either, way, making threats here doesn't help; itch.io staff doesn't even watch the forum. Please read the rules of this category for more details.

This topic has been auto-archived and can no longer be posted in because there haven't been any posts in a while.