Valve Bans Another 30,000 Steam Users

bryhhh writes "Valve has announced that they have banned another 30,000 steam accounts which had been used to try to illegally gain access to Valve games without a valid purchase. Only last month 20,000 accounts were banned for the same reason, only this time Valve states that, 'The accounts that are disabled today will not be reactivated'."

Comments

No complaints

[Richie1984]

It seems Steam is really proving useful in preventing illegal use of Half Life 2 and, once certain bugs are ironed out of Steam, I can see it being used across the board as the main deterrant of pirating games. Whether this is a good thing or a bad thing is another discussion entirely.

The only things I would be concerned about are ensuring that of the 30000 banned, all of them are actually banned for valid reasons and not due to any error. Valve has said they wont reactivate these accounts, so once it's gone, it's gone.

Re:No complaints

[88NoSoup4U88]

preventing illegal use of Half Life 2

If you're aiming at the multiplayer part of the game : Such thing has allready been established by giving out CD-keys, and authenticating them with a master-server before one can connect to a server.

For the single player part there is allready a non-Steam version floating around Warezland, so it isn't really countering it much.

I much more appreciate Steam for it being able to instantly supply me the latest patches to the game, and not ending up searching for the right files.
Also their stance on the mod community, and some of statements VALVe made in the past about how they see Steam to be in the future : Sounds very promising.

The only thing that I don't like about Steam is the possibility of it going to have a subscription fee : It's just -too- easy for them not to do it.

The day Steam will be subscription-based, will be the day I'll stop using Steam : Until then, I think VALVe did a great overall job on Steam/HL2.

Re:No complaints

[88NoSoup4U88]

But you aren't seriously thinking that Steam will ever supply games made by id Software, Epic Games ?

I am already doubting if it will ever reach beyond their own userbase ; I see Steam to be a viable platform for 'amateur' modmakers to get a bit of a financial reward for your hard work (but i might have conflicting interests ;) )

it's mine i can do whatever...

[sponga]

Quote: Moofie http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=129610&t hreshold=1&commentsort=3&tid=204&tid=98&tid=133&mo de=thread&pid=10811750#10811793 "Since I bought it, I can crack it legally. Anybody who thinks different, well, they're wrong." Valve doesn't seem to agree with you....

Re:it's mine i can do whatever...

[norculf]

You have the right, but Steam gives them the power to "disable" you if you do it, and there's nothing you can do about it. It might be possible to crack Steam for good, but you could never use it online after that. In other words, no patches, and no CS:S.

Re:The real reason...

[wizbit]

You mean he bought it at a retail joint or online? Not that he "bought" it at a lan party for $1, right? And I assume his legally obtained code was never used and afterward safely tucked away and not provided to anyone on, say, IRC as well, correct?

Re:Is Anyone Surprised? Didn't Think So...

[norculf]

Thats a nice rant, but you're way off. It's not actually inconvenient to have your games automatically installed and updated just by logging in to Steam. The only people Steam hurts are the ones who want to cheat or steal. I'm sure it will be cracked, and all of the cheaters and theives will play CS:S on their cracked servers, and it will suck because everyone will be using aimbots. Have fun with that.

Refunds?

[rsilvergun]

If I buy it online, and you ban me, do I get a refund? How about if I send you the box I got at EB? Better question: If I'm banned from Steam for pirating HL2, does that lock me out of HL1? This is why I don't want activation in games (or the OS, for that matter). Presumably, if you piss off the company, they can lock you out of dozens of your legit products. Imagine pirating 1 EA game (or having your kid do it) and finding every EA game you own doesn't work anymore.

No matter what steam does for you...

[zarthrag]

Please don't mod me troll for this, But if you changed "Valve" to "Microsoft" and "HL2" to "Windows XP", there would be ALOT more cries of foul-play.

I don't approve of Valve suspending accounts that are potentially associated with even ONE paying customer. Steam is a (overall) good thing, but I think it's gonna go a little too far.

Re:No matter what steam does for you...

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

But if you changed "Valve" to "Microsoft" and "HL2" to "Windows XP", there would be ALOT more cries of foul-play.

This is all too true.
I saw a troll making a very long post about this once. His basic point was that, unlike the rest of slashdot, the games section is populated by windows pc gamers, more so that regular tech heads. Most of these are young and innocent when it comes to IP issues. Kind of like a missing link between regular users and frequent slashdotters. Anyway, these gamers do love their games and the companies that make them and will brook no critisisms of them. They're also more likely to be confused by comments slamming windows XP, as they still regard it as "Way cool! I have a computer with XP!"

Steam is ridiculous. It's only working because half life 2 is huge. I really can't see it working for other games. The only reason consumers put up with it is because of the hype. the hype is also the reason comments critisising steam are modded as troll in the games section.

Paranoid people might consider the gamer influx into slashdot to be the forerunner of a mighty luser invasion. I consider it just a diversification of the slashdot ecosystem.

Re:No matter what steam does for you...

[iainl]

In which case, I must be in a minority of a minority. I don't have any real problems with the XP activation at all, as it has been remarkably painless every single time I've used it, even when I've had to phone my code through rather than use the internet authentication.

But Steam really annoys me, because it gets in the way. Authenticating Steam takes a lot longer than even the five minute phonecall of XP, let alone the 30-second internet method, and what is more Steam requires that you keep doing it. Microsoft don't kill your XP machine if Windows Update doesn't like the look of your auth string, either, it just refuses to let you have the service pack. Finding someone has stolen (or generated) your Half-Life CD-Key can kill all your Valve games.