Widescreen Gaming Forum

So, I was a big supporter of Steam. I have like 150 games on the service. Recently though, as I have mentioned, a friend of mine lost his account, and though he did just get it back, it scared me that it was so easy to lose.

For the past few weeks I have been buying retail, and honestly it is a pain in the rear. Most stores don't stock PC games that much anymore, so I have to check 10 different stores to find the game, and they almost never have them on release day.

Steam has Red Faction 3, Batman Arkham Asylum and Resident Evil 5 up for preorder right now, all for release Tuesday. I want them all... who knows when I will find them in a store, plus these preorders have bonuses.

Still, I cannot click the buy button for some reason.

Help me make a decision.

You can always get your account back. Have no fear!

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Personally, I never buy a game that isn't at least a few months old. But I wouldn't worry about losing your Steam account. You can back up your games too - I personally have backed up every Steam game I have except for the Source and GoldSrc engine games, and I can reinstall them without needing Steam at all. It's a bit time consuming, but not all that hard to do.

I just was hit smack in the face by the fact I don't own any of these games like I own my boxed copies... when he lost his account (diabled by Valve for policy violation, not hacked) it kind of woke me up to that fact.

I mean, I knew about the terms of service and such, I just never worried about it.

I think I am over the fear now though, I really want to go back to using Steam. I just need that little push.

One of the reasons I will happily pay a few dollars more to get something from gog.com rather than Steam, and why I buy on Steam only during sales: minimize the potential loss should an account problem arise. However, I think the odds of that happening are very slim.

I'm curious. The wording of your post indicates that your friend lost complete access to his Steam account. Is that true? What kind of infraction could produce this consequence?

I should take a page from your book, cranky, and get my lazy self going on a full Steam backup. I can't remember when I did the last one...not a good sign.

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

I'm curious. The wording of your post indicates that your friend lost complete access to his Steam account. Is that true? What kind of infraction could produce this consequence?

They said he received a fraudulent gift. I believe he bought a Steam "gift" on ebay or a similar site.

He got it back eventually by arguing he did not know this was a violation, and that it was a gift he did not purchase. I think they just wanted to scare him or something.

I just was hit smack in the face by the fact I don't own any of these games like I own my boxed copies... when he lost his account (diabled by Valve for policy violation, not hacked) it kind of woke me up to that fact.

Aside from valve games, you do own them, since you can back them up and play them without steam as cranky said. I really would not worry about it.

Just make your backups and you will be fine.

They said he received a fraudulent gift. I believe he bought a Steam "gift" on ebay or a similar site.

Huh. So he bought a Steam game on some commerce site and Valve got their pants all twisted up over it? Makes no sense. How does that warrant losing one's entire account?

Anyway, glad he got his account back. I hope he gave the Valve reps an earful. :twisted:

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

Valve has a terms of service that you agree to. If you violate anything within that ToS, they have the right to disable your account. You should know that before you go on a spending spree, and you should definitely know that before you willingly violate the rules.

You can dig through the ToS to see all the various things that will get your account disabled. Some things that are as simple as stopping a payment for a game you just purchased will disable your account.

Either way, you agreed to those terms. If you violate them, it's your own fault. You can't blame Valve for that. :)

Now if your account was compromised, you can work with Valve to get it restored back to you. My cousin had his account hijacked, and although it took a couple of weeks of dealing with Valve (nothing bad, just verification stuff), he got his account back.


Even when you buy a boxed copy of a game, you don't technically own that game. You purchased a license to play and use that game. You didn't make that software, you don't own any of the data on the disc, or in the box. All you did was purchase a license to use them. If you violate that license, or do not accept it, then you are no longer allowed to use that content. Of course there's nothing they can really do to you if you have a physical copy, but that's besides the point. The point is that whether you purchase it online or via retail, you still only purchase a license to use the data. With it being online, it's easier for them to track you and disable it.


Anyway, I was one of the very early adopters of Steam (my account is a 5 digit account, created on the day Steam went live) and I've got almost $1000 in games on it, and I've never had a single problem. I've not had my account hijacked (the only place I ever log in is on Steam itself) and I've never committed any violations to jeopardize my account. That's over 6 years without a single problem.

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Valve has a terms of service that you agree to. If you violate anything within that ToS, they have the right to disable your account. You should know that before you go on a spending spree, and you should definitely know that before you willingly violate the rules.

I think everyone violates them to some degree... I know I recently did for the KotOR fix.

Even when you buy a boxed copy of a game, you don't technically own that game. You purchased a license to play and use that game. You didn't make that software, you don't own any of the data on the disc, or in the box. All you did was purchase a license to use them. If you violate that license, or do not accept it, then you are no longer allowed to use that content. Of course there's nothing they can really do to you if you have a physical copy, but that's besides the point. The point is that whether you purchase it online or via retail, you still only purchase a license to use the data. With it being online, it's easier for them to track you and disable it.

I know that, but them having the ability versus boxed retail being impossible to take back makes all the difference. Plus, court cases on these matters have ruled that no matter what the EULA says, a point of sale purchase of a physical product means ownership. They can put whatever they want in the EULA, it doesn't mean it is legally binding.

Anyway, I was one of the very early adopters of Steam (my account is a 5 digit account, created on the day Steam went live) and I've got almost $1000 in games on it, and I've never had a single problem. I've not had my account hijacked (the only place I ever log in is on Steam itself) and I've never committed any violations to jeopardize my account. That's over 6 years without a single problem.

I've had mine for quite a long time as well, since Half-Life 2 came out, whenever that was. I know my "join date" says 2007 though, because I had support change some things which resulted in that. In any case, I have close to 200 games on it and have spent thousands of dollars there. I never had a problem with the terms and such until my friend had all his games plucked away at the drop of a hat.

I did have my account hacked once, I don't even know how as it was during a period I never used it, when I briefly stopped playing video games all together. When I went back, my passworsd and contact email were changed, and someone was playing one of my games... haha. I got my account back in like 2 days though, by sending them some old credit card info. No big deal, that didn't bother me. It's not the hacks I am worried about... I'm not even worried about VAC since I never play multi.