Widescreen Gaming Forum

The ambiguity of the supposed incident we are discussing doesn't help clarify things, so let's apply the Steam case to the mall metaphor. What exactly was the offense? A customer bought a product offered by a mall store from a retailer outside of the mall. How does that qualify for a total ban from the facility?

I'm pretty sure there is more to it than just that. There would be no way for them to track a gift code going over ebay if it was purely legit (I.E. something like me buying the OB and selling the extra HL2 code that comes with it for a few bucks) There's no possible way for them to track that somebody payed me money for it before sending it.

My personal guess is that someone fraudulently had gotten a ton of codes to sell and valve just wiped them all out.

I do fully agree that it should not warrant a ban, there is no reason why they cant just take the game away. Though now how would you guys feel if they had the ability to physically delete a game off of your hard drive in such a case? They cant just remove it from your steam account if you have it installed already. I'm pretty sure that would not go down well with most of you, so what would be an alternative?


And I've gotta say, I personally have gotten a steam account disabled, I was young it was when steam first came out, My mom would not let me buy HL2 the day that it came out, I had to do my massive amounts of homework first which ended up taking me all weekend. So I stumbled upon this claimed method to get HL2 for free, you put in 000... as the credit card number and cancel at a certain place. Long story short my account got disabled for credit card fraud. I had learned my lesson.

I also think there should be a warning system, 3 strikes or something like that. I can see why they do not want you on their service for say doing a charge back after buying a game. But I do agree that losing all of your games retroactively is basically abuse.

There's really no reason to be worried. Don't do anything that violates the terms of service and you'll be fine.

I don't agree with this one.
One could probably one day have a paiement problem of some sort
it happens when you forget to check out how much money is left on your account for example. And there's other cases, It happened to me that one day I went into the red (even though I had money on other accounts in the same bank) because I wanted to check out my internet account and it was in maintenance and I should have checked earlier.

So this means I think a payment issue can happen to anyone at some point in their life ...

[quote]There's really no reason to be worried. Don't do anything that violates the terms of service and you'll be fine.

I don't agree with this one.
One could probably one day have a paiement problem of some sort
it happens when you forget to check out how much money is left on your account for example. And there's other cases, It happened to me that one day I went into the red (even though I had money on other accounts in the same bank) because I wanted to check out my internet account and it was in maintenance and I should have checked earlier.

So this means I think a payment issue can happen to anyone at some point in their life ...

Unless it is some astronomical amount, the bank will put through the amount anyway and just put you in the red, or further in the red, and charge you a fee accordingly.

The payment problems steam will disable your accoun for are calling the bank and stating the charge was fraud and you want it removed. People who get irate when they buy a game and it doesn't work right away will do this, thinking they are smart.

My personal guess is that someone fraudulently had gotten a ton of codes to sell and valve just wiped them all out.

If that was the case then of course it would change the discussion. Based on StingingVelvet's description, though, his friend got in trouble simply for buying a game from ebay or some other outlet. Even if the seller had committed some massive code fraud against Steam, the buyer would have been a victim just like Valve, and this should have been Valve's message to SV's friend:

"We are sorry. The title you have purchased was obtained illegally by the selling party, and thus cannot be activated or used on your Steam account. Please contact the payment processor or your credit card issuer to request a refund."

People who get irate when they buy a game and it doesn't work right away will do this, thinking they are smart.

That must be the same kind of smart as when people try to get away from cops to avoid being pulled over. ;)

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

If that was the case then of course it would change the discussion. Based on StingingVelvet's description, though, his friend got in trouble simply for buying a game from ebay or some other outlet.

The thing is though how would steam even know that it was from ebay etc?

Yeah, I can ask him for more info, but from what he told me he bought a key for a game from ebay, put the key in which unlocked a game (FEAR 2), and then about a week later his account was disabled. When he called support, they told him that he was a part of a fraudulent transaction, and he assumed that was the one they were talking about. He told them he bought the game code from a legitimate outlet, ebay, and provided some links. Eventually they gave him his account back, sans the game he bought.

Not sure what that adds to the debate, but there you go.

Yeah, I can ask him for more info, but from what he told me he bought a key for a game from ebay, put the key in which unlocked a game (FEAR 2), and then about a week later his account was disabled. When he called support, they told him that he was a part of a fraudulent transaction, and he assumed that was the one they were talking about. He told them he bought the game code from a legitimate outlet, ebay, and provided some links. Eventually they gave him his account back, sans the game he bought.

Not sure what that adds to the debate, but there you go.

Thanks for the clarification, StingingVelvet. I'll stick with my previously stated view that the account disabling was an excessive and inappropriate reaction on Valve's part. Your friend was treated like a criminal first, customer second, and that's just wrong.

At times it baffles me how the software industry treats its customers.

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

Heres my guess, Guy buys steam game off of ebay, Seller buys the game off of steam on a jank account, creates a gift gives the buyer the key, then does a chargeback on Valve. Seller makes 100% profit off of his ebay sale, and Valve gets nothing and then suspects that the user who registered the key is the seller.

I also do think its harsh but If thats the thinking that valve is using, then I can understand why they would want to do that.

Your friend was treated like a criminal first, customer second, and that's just wrong.

At times it baffles me how the software industry treats its customers.

As I said, it's now standard practice. And it's not just the software industry that does it, either.