I'm an indie developer. My game is like 10 years old. I've accumulated a small army of mentally ill people who are obsessed with the game, the forum, and me. Some of these people I've had to ban from my forums dozens of times (they keep buying new accounts). The trend now is that after these people have played the game for 2000+ hours, it's not fun anymore and they demand new updates. Since they're not getting that, they post negative reviews about how I've "abandoned the game" and it's dead and I'm a greedy fuck for selling it.

Now, obviously, I should ignore these people. I would love to do that. But their obsession means that they're able to practically monopolize the front page of steam reviews. This is exacerbated by a pathological sorting algorithm.

I've been looking at the same 3 negative reviews on my store front for months:

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Straightoutofcompton/recommended/250340/

He has played the game for over 100 additional hours since the review went up. I'd like to think customers can see through this, but that big red thumbs down is what most people look at.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/itwasallforyou/recommended/250340/

Whole paragraphs about how I'm a greedy capitalist, how the community is full of autocrats - it's all appeals to emotion, there's no substance. I addressed the implied factual claims, but that doesn't do shit - people are moved by gossip and emotion. This guy has owned the game for 5+ years prior to steam. Think about that, 5 years for $20. Not recommended.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/Kalphiter/recommended/250340/

This guy has been harassing the game and community for YEARS. I had to ban him 15 times (not exaggerating) from the forums for repeatedly verbally assaulting one of the moderators - he just kept doing it over and over. He runs a subreddit dedicated to hating on the game. He's written tens and tens of pages hating on the game. He replies to every negative review discussion to stoke the flames. His stated purpose is to cause financial damage to me. He's probably going to find this thread and read it while jacking off to my suffering. He's obsessed - not in a joking way - in a serious, mentally debilitating, should-probably-be-on-meds way.

The comments to these reviews are filled with psychopaths that I've banned from the forum - many of them multiple times. Some of them for blatant computer crimes (ddos attacks). I ban them because they're assholes and they just post that as evidence of "censorship" - trying to lump me in with all of those soviet block greenlight early access scams.