Valve will moderate game forums for reported content on Steam, starting next week

From September 25, Valve plans on moderating the many forums that belong to Steam's games. Currently, Valve reviews reported content on Steam such as screenshots, artwork, user profiles, community groups, and user reviews, but it's down to the developers to keep an eye on their own forums and respond accordingly.

So, what's changed? It seems that an increasing number of developers have been contacting Valve, requesting help with their communities, specifically "handling posts that are reported by other players."

Until now, Valve has refrained from stepping in, stating that it "didn’t want to step on the toes of game developers that want to have their own style of communication with players and their own set of guidelines for behavior." With that in mind, developers will be able to choose to "opt out" if they have their own moderation team in place.

The planned change won't see Valve "actively perusing your community discussions or posting in threads", instead they'll only contact players if it's absolutely necessary—when issuing a warning or a ban.

Sarah started as a freelance writer in 2018, writing for PCGamesN, TechRadar, GamingBible, Red Bull Gaming and more. In 2021, she was offered a full-time position on the PC Gamer team where she takes every possible opportunity to talk about World of Warcraft and Elden Ring. When not writing guides, most of her spare time is spent in Azeroth—though she's quite partial to JRPGs too. One of her fondest hopes is to one day play through the ending of Final Fantasy X without breaking down into a sobbing heap. She probably has more wolves in Valheim than you.