this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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Steam doeen't sell games to you, it gives you access to them in your account. Everyone hated them for it back when it first came out, twenty years ago, but it's kind of forgotten by anyone who isn't nestled deeply into the privacy/ownership/right to repair communities these days.
You can still lose access to your thousand game + account by simply updating your drivers regularly.
Steam is lying -- you do own the games. The problem is that the courts are too corrupted by the copyright cartel to enforce the laws properly.
Just because they push that self-serving disinformation doesn't mean we have to parrot it!
Oh you mean in the way the world should work. Sure, i'll agree with that.
But that's not how things actually are. Right now, you can completely lose access, and unless you're a lucky millionaire with a passion for fighting unjust laws and the luck of the gods, you can't do shit to bring that account back.
But even if you lose access to the Steam account, you still own your copy of the games. Valve doesn't have the right to somehow force you to stop playing the games, assuming you still have your copy in your possession.
Remember, products (e.g. a copy of a game) and services (e.g. a Steam account itself) are two different things. I was never arguing that you owned a service, only that you own products.
Yeah. Steam can disable your account so you can not purchase new games, but you should still be able to download and play the games you already have.
Genuine question. My assumption here is that if they disable your account that you can no longer log into it to download those games. Accurate or inaccurate assumption? How does it actually work? I know I SHOULD be able to download them, but can I actually if they disable the account?
I haven't seen a situation where they completely lock an account full of games, where the person who purchased those games can never access them again. The guy above is being overdramatic.
They CAN "VAC" ban your account, though. That does not deny you access to your account in any way, and will not prevent you from playing the games online or offline* as much as you want. The VAC part of the ban is that you cannot use any Valve run servers on games that use Valve to run their servers, like TF2, DOTA, Counterstrike, Left 4 Dead, etc.
You can still play the aforementioned games online, BUT after the ban you can only play on non-VAC secured servers (aka player servers that are more likely to have rampant cheating). The ban DOES NOT remove the game from your account, delete your account, block your access to the offline portion of the game unless, I suppose, the game has an always online element that uses VAC.
*One of the annoying DRM "features" of Steam is that you can play any of your games offline as long as you log in online at least (I think) once a week or so.
Purchasing ban does exist. Seen it on Steam forum itself.
You can still download and play the game even though they disable the account.
A VAC ban doesn't remove access to your steam account. Just to one game on your steam account.
Well, that and all the games that instban you from playing if you have a vac ban on record, first example being various squad servers, and the software behind that.
Being banned from accessing services isn't the same as being prohibited from using your property. You are still perfectly legally entitled to play your game single-player (for example) no matter how many VAC bans you get.
Has nothing whatsoever to do with steam or valve....
Vac bans don't ban your steam account, just prevents you from playing CS2/CSGO