According to the support staff at Steam, it is a violation to sell our games and selling is prohibited. I quickly informed the support staff that these games were not purchased from Steam, but in fact from Warner Bros International, and EA Games. Can someone please tell me what Steam helps us with ? I`m fed up with all the Steam kuck, numorous passwords, installations, updates, stalling my computer, i want it off my PC. It does me no good, but cause a problem. Now when i sell finished old games, the person i`m selling to, cannot install it, because according to Steam the product Key has been used. If i cannot install a game without installing Steam, i will return it for a refund.
Steam ToS Specifically Section 2, Part E Paragraph 2. In short, stop buying Steam games or just deal with it.
Sorry to hear you are having problems with Steam. Unfortunately if you want to play games that are Steamworks enabled then you will need to have Steam installed - no way around that really. If you buy a game from elsewhere you will need to check first if it is a Steamworks game. I'm afraid that the days of buying games that are not covered by this kind of license are almost over. Most publishers do not want the used game market to thrive (or indeed exist).
You may find that you will never play a lot of PC games. Any game that you play multiplayer will most likely require an account creation of some sort which will tie the account to the serial key, with no hope of unlinking it. I'm fairly sure games that are singleplayer but require an internet connect will be the same. It's not just steam that does this. Besides, no-one should be buying second hand PC games imo, simply because of the CD key. If I bought your game and you kept using the CD key, then I have no game, and you have my money. That's not really a good situation for me.
Just another part of pc gaming we can't trade like the console gamers can. On the plus side in the Steam sales you can pick up a top game for £3 quid or less which kinda makes up for it. I have a few Steam accounts it would be possible I think to activate a game on a secondry account and then just give them the account.
If you intend to sell a game after playing it, create a new steam account for every game you buy, put the username and password on a label in the box. Still against Steams ToS, but does allow any one who own the physical box to play the game.
Very interesting, thanks for all the advice. Although we buy and pay for the game, it seems like a much better option would be to download and crack the game instead. Well done Steam, you the reason torrents strive.
This is such a ridiculous thing to say, and stinks of ignorance. If anything steam has reduced the use of torrents by making games far easier to access by allowing you to download a game on the spot, and with games regularly reduced to ridiculous prices on sales (though admittedly standard prices are a bit on the steep side). Reasons for torrents before Steam: Ubisofts DRM Lack of Demo for a game. Being too cheap to buy the game from anywhere at any price. + others I can't think of off the top of my head. I doubt you could list more than a few multiplayer games released this year that aren't locked to an account of some variety with a serial key anyway, and that is increasingly the case for singleplayer games. Resale ability on pc games is very limited, everyone knows this. If you wanted to take a crack at Steam specifically there are far better attempts to be made. You will find the same restrictions with Origin, D2D and likely any digital distributor you care to name. In fact I'm pretty sure that every EULA on PC games released for the last decade has prohibited the resale of games. The fact that Steam actually adheres to this isn't a case of the big bad Valve Corp attempting to screw you out of some money. Also, you asked; 'Can someone please tell me what Steam helps us with' How about the following (to name but a few); Download games there and then (assuming they are released). Links many games to one account. Allows you to speak to friends while in different games using the steam overlay. Keeps your games updated without having to hunt down patches. Regular sales discounting games up to ~ 90% off. Sells multipacks of games, allowing you to get discounted prices. Gifting friends games instantly. But don't let any of this stop you from justifying pirating games as being Valve's fault.
I don't condone piracy but I can see your point, some games I just like to play and give/lend to a friend (we do this on all our 360 games to save money) Do I not have the right to buy a game/licence and do what I want with it? On some 360 games you enter a code to play online, if I sell the game the new owner must purchase a code to play online but can play the single player mode, tad unfair but least you get the game I like the idea of the seperate account and selling that on, can imagine Steam spotting a large number of accounts on one IP address and getting all business on someone Edward - I think Caspers comment is more a frustration remark not an out right middle finger to the people that makes games, he does buy them remember You can't deny though that if you want to play a single player mode that a torrent is easier, the online of BF3 and MW3 is only reason am buying on PC, if wasn't...well...maybe torrent time
It's because of people like you that developers are moving over to console development only. Steam is IMO one of the greatest things to happen to PC gaming in recent years. And the same thing is happening to consoles anyway, Sony are starting to link games to accounts aren't they? If steam is slowing your PC down then i would say there's something wrong with your computer.
No. You've got it all backward. Steam is just about the only reason that PC piracy is actually decreasing. It sells us games at very reasonable prices (in the sales), or lets you activate your shop bought game on the service (not all, but a lot of games). It autopatches everything for you, allows you to play with your friends, and is an all in one go to centre for gaming. I agree that having to be connected to the net is annoying, but there is offline mode if you know you are going to be away from home, and at home, who, really, doesn't have access to the net? Finally, it won't be long, before the used game market for consoles will be dead too. Many Publishers already require you to purchase a activation code in order to play multiplayer games on used copies.
I wouldn't be remotely surprised if the next wave of consoles link every game to your xbl/psn account via a serial in exactly the same way that PC games currently do. Always on connections aren't the norm yet, but with the likes of starcraft and diablo implementing them, I can't see it being too long before it is, for consoles and PCs alike.
I play mostly on 360 for single player games, so nope, PC gaming is mostly Steam related games I don't want a port on console (Orange box, Portal etc etc) I have pirated games in the days I was skint, now I have cash to play with I actually don't mind waiting for them to drop in price etc My opinion is that you should have the right to transfer ownership of the game/license. Me and a mate buy games we want and swap once completed, would be nice to do this, I have a ton of Steam games I don't play or want, he has a new steam account, if I gave him some games am sure he'd end up buying more However I 110% agree Steam and even Origin have combatted piracy in such an amazing way, maybe if they gave a little (swapping games) it would bring even more in
People never read the T&C's and seem genuinely shocked that a service doesn't work in the way that they expect.
In short. No. As annoying as it is, you agreed to the license agreement, and you should stick to it. No-one does this, but still I'm pretty sure that you are not allowed to lend a game to a friend either. Same with DVDs. I even think it works with books too, but I can't find it in the book to my left. @Casper - It's not really Steam that you have an issue with, it's just PC games in general. Just because Steam does not allow you to transfer your key, it doesn't mean you should be doing it with other games not using Steam. What Passwords? - There's 1 to log in.... Installations? - You mean you expect to play any game without installing anything? Updates - Don't you want your games updated? There are shiny bug fixes! Surely it's easier to automatically update it then you to go hunting on the games website. Stalling your computer? - Yea there's something wrong with your PC, a 920 isn't slowed down by Steam. My AMD 3000+ wasn't slowed down by Steam, and that was a single core. Maybe you have a virus?
My questions are retorical Didn't Amazon have this issue with the books, they now allow a 14 day loan, the people wanted a better sevice and they got it. Just because it's in the T&C's doesn't mean it has to be accept happily and only when people moan etc will change happen, doubt it will. Steams cheap enough and has great deals, I'm not complaining, I just like to see all sides of an argument. If games were swapped, you'd get sites and ebay auction of people selling and making profit, damaging the Steam business, something I actually wouldn't like
Even if Valve wanted to do this, they would only be able to do it with their own games, as other publishers wouldn't allow them to do so with their games, as it would harm their sales.
No but complaining about the T&C's after signing up is a bit silly, if you have an issue you should raise it before hand. Amazon loan books?! Any proof of that?!
