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Develop MomoStorm Entertainment has caused a stir on Steam by saying it will hand out free game currency to those who post a review of its game Epic Cards Battles on Steam.
Diamonds rewards for Steam reviews,” an in-game message is titled. We wish to express our deepest thanks to all players, without your support and passion, ECB wouldn’t be what it’s like today launch on Steam [sic]. We know the best way to reward you is game diamonds. Please send a screenshot of your review on Steam page.”
The reward being offered was 20 diamonds, with an additional 10 diamonds for those who wrote 100 words or more.
As Kotaku notes, the game is a mobile port and such practices – as shady as they are – are more common on mobile.
MomoStorm argued in a now deleted forum post that the reward wasn’t reserved only for those who wrote nice things about the game
We repeat, we never ask any players to write POSITIVE reviews anytime,” it said. Player is rewarded no matter positive or negative review. To gather players’ reviews, so we know how to improve it in future updates.
And to write a review especially long and informative review takes a lot of time. In our option, player’s time is precious and deserve reward for time spent.”
Regardless, the Steam community remains unhappy, and a slew of negative reviews for the game on the platform is beginning to reflect that.
