valve looks to take advantage

[norseamd]

Valve is now restricting use for every account that has not spent any money yet. Thing is even purchasing a physical game and activating it on Steam is not going to life the restrictions regardless of how many games you buy. And the cause for that is quite basic as you are not spending any money at Valve even if they might still make money off the developers and publishers for using Steam on any games they sell in the physical box at any businesses.

And I have noted earlier the total disregard for consumer right and EU law, their messing around with Steam sales to prevent consumers from understanding wise purchasing, and more.

The fact is Valve is not some Messiah overlord. We went through this already with Google and you would think some would actually have the tact to understand that the 2nd time around.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/valve-limits-new-steam-accounts/

 

[master_shake_]

so if you only buy retail games in a store and activate them ion steam your account will be restricted?

From now on, there will be two classes of Steam accounts: “regular” accounts that have made purchases of $5 or more, and “limited” accounts. These limited accounts are prevented from sending friend invites, opening group chat, voting on Greenlight games or leaving reviews, participating in the Steam Market, and more.

oh noes look at all these "restrictions"...

lol

 

[mnewsham]

Not an issue for the majority of steam users, and to those who aren't willing to pay $, they probably arent the ones using the features that are being blocked anyway

 

[norseamd]

Yes.

Same if you play free to play games even if you have hundreds or even thousands of hours into Dota 2 or Team Fortress 2 or any other game.

They had already introduced limitations on the numbers of friends and other shit you could have based on your Steam level which was basically a way to get you to pay even more money for shit other than games to line the pockets of Gabe and his pals.

 

[Ichinisan]

I think you're misinterpreting it. I think even having a retail purchased game registered will allow you to use Steam chat and other services. The idea is probably that you should have at least one paid item on your account to discourage spammers from using the messaging system with hundreds of throw-away accounts.

 

[lxskllr]

I think you're misinterpreting it. I think even having a retail purchased game registered will allow you to use Steam chat and other services. The idea is probably that you should have at least one paid item on your account to discourage spammers from using the messaging system with hundreds of throw-away accounts.

Without reading the article(cause I don't much care), this sounds plausible. Of course, it doesn't have to be benign. DRM is DRM, and the holder of the keys can do as they please. If not now, anytime in the future as it suits them.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

This is the opposite of a problem. So many spammers will be outed.

 

[SparkyJJO]

OP is complaining for the sake of complaining. What "rights" are being infringed on, hm? If you want to use THEIR service, you abide by THEIR rules. This isn't rocket science.

 

[norseamd]

I think you're misinterpreting it. I think even having a retail purchased game registered will allow you to use Steam chat and other services. The idea is probably that you should have at least one paid item on your account to discourage spammers from using the messaging system with hundreds of throw-away accounts.

From now on, there will be two classes of Steam accounts: “regular” accounts that have made purchases of $5 or more, and “limited” accounts. These limited accounts are prevented from sending friend invites, opening group chat, voting on Greenlight games or leaving reviews, participating in the Steam Market, and mroe.

There are a few ways to lift these restrictions. Spending $5 USD or more on game purchases, adding that amount to your Steam Wallet, purchasing a Steam gift of that amount, or adding a Steam Wallet card to your account will all remove the restriction. Activating a retail game, playing free demos, or playing a free-to-play game will not remove the restriction.

Actually it does look like activating paid games is not going to give your account full privileges although everything in Steam is already gamified with the Steam Level which does place limitations on what you can do in the Steam software.

 

[waffleironhead]

I think you're misinterpreting it. I think even having a retail purchased game registered will allow you to use Steam chat and other services. The idea is probably that you should have at least one paid item on your account to discourage spammers from using the messaging system with hundreds of throw-away accounts.

I think he is reading it correctly.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3330-IAGK-7663#

"CD Keys, retail purchases, and gifts do not remove limited user restrictions. See How do I gain access to these features? below for more information."

 

[SPBHM]

to be honest these restrictions are not very relevant to the games functionality or anything, and most people will spend more than $5... but it just shows how relying on just Valve can be a very bad thing, having options like GoG and Origin is a very good thing.

I don't remember having a problem with spam on steam, but I haven't played online games on steam for the past few years,

 

[Markbnj]

Doesn't really impact anything I need Steam for, and if it inconveniences spammers then I'm good with it.

 

[Paladin3]

I'm not sure charging what they feel is appropriate for their services is really looking to "take advantage" of anyone. You should change the thread title because it makes you sound juvenile.

 

[Ichinisan]

Just sounds like a good way to shut-out spammers and bogus reviews.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I only have one steam game, a paid-for retail copy that activated on Steam. I guess I'm going to be limited to not being able to send friend invites now? That's really going to make me want to spread Steam, and get my friends on it, let me tell you. Valve is just shooting themselves in the foot here.

 

[Grooveriding]

Maybe this will help to curtail the random friend invites I'm constantly getting from 0 accounts in eastern Europe.

 

[norseamd]

Now I only actually made my account on Steam because some of my physical games actually required me to have my own Steam account to play anything. And that was way back in 2010. And I never even purchased anything on Steam until the Steam sale last July in 2014. That is was close to 3 years of using Steam without ever once actually spending money on anything from their services.

And keep very well in mind we do not actually own any of these games or software.

 

[mnewsham]

Maybe this will help to curtail the random friend invites I'm constantly getting from 0 accounts in eastern Europe.

Its worse when you have a few hundred dollars worth of inventory for counter strike or DOTA or TF2. I get 4-5+ level 0 steam users sending me invites daily.

 

[norseamd]

Its worse when you have a few hundred dollars worth of inventory for counter strike or DOTA or TF2. I get 4-5+ level 0 steam users sending me invites daily.

So why not just start limiting accounts under 4 weeks old or under 100 hours of gametime?

 

[JamesV]

I only have one steam game, a paid-for retail copy that activated on Steam. I guess I'm going to be limited to not being able to send friend invites now? That's really going to make me want to spread Steam, and get my friends on it, let me tell you. Valve is just shooting themselves in the foot here.

Really?

So if Steam didn't do this, you would tell all your friends about this great service? You'd tell them to buy all their games there, and they would listen because you are the expert with one game on it?

You must be quite powerful and I hope you use your powers for good and not evil.

Steam is a great service. If it's ever sold to an EA (god help us), that might be another story, but Steam protecting itself by making marketers spend $5 before advertising in forums, or making EA spend $5 an account to post positive reviews of something they produced...that is a smart step imo for Valve.

How many DLC's did you end buying for Half Life 2? How many alternate weapon skins. Did you pay $60 for Counter Strike or Gary's Mod? I'd look long and hard at Valve before making them out to be an EA; you do the gaming community a disservice.

 

[Ichinisan]

So why not just start limiting accounts under 4 weeks old or under 100 hours of gametime?

Spammers would have absolutely no problem dealing with those restrictions.

 

[Bubbleawsome]

I don't see it as a big deal. There are so many games under $10 that are very good games. I've put nearly $250 into steam wallet without buying games, so maybe I shouldn't talk, but I don't see it as a huge deal.

 

[Newbian]

I use steam to play the games that require it and not as the social media option they have added the past few years.

Honestly the only thing this would had caused problems for me if I hadn't bought a few games through it was the voting but then again I only do that during the steam events to get some freebies.

 

[Puppies04]

Doesn't really impact anything I need Steam for, and if it inconveniences spammers then I'm good with it.

Said pretty much everyone who had a brain.

 

[Homerboy]

backfire post of the year?