Recently, the story of indie developer Zoroarts went viral in the gaming community. He created the cooperative game Paddle Paddle Paddle, for which over 55 thousand users received refunds on Steam. The game itself is good — reviews are very positive, but it's short, so some managed to complete it in a couple of hours. According to Steam rules, a refund can be issued within 14 days of purchase if the player has spent less than two hours in the project.
The developer expressed the opinion that Valve needs to do something about the refund system, as Paddle Paddle Paddle had about 21% refunds. Players misinterpreted his post and decided that Zoroarts was advocating for removing the ability to refund games altogether. As a result, his project began receiving negative reviews on Steam.
Zoroarts decided to clarify his position. He is not against refunds,
“The wording of my post was a mistake, and I definitely shouldn't have included the number of refunds there. This led to a lot of misunderstanding: I have no problem at all with players requesting refunds. And before my social media post, it didn't bother me. The game always had a refund rate of about 20%, and that's normal. I just wanted to say that, in my opinion, it's wrong to refund a game after you've enjoyed it and completed it entirely. That was the only thought I wanted to convey.”
The developer also noted that he would like people to leave helpful comments when requesting refunds:
[...] many (though not all) comments on refunds are actually not very helpful. People refund with the reason “the game is too difficult,” and their comments don't help me improve or fix the game at all. Paddle Paddle Paddle is a rage game, so it was designed to be difficult from the start. I would like to see more constructive feedback.
Overall reviews for Paddle Paddle Paddle on Steam are still “very positive,” but recent reviews have become “mixed” after an attack from gamers who misunderstood the developer's words.