Steam made me a pirate!

[s0denone]

The important thing is to firstly sound like a well-spoken aristocratic gentleman/woman in terms of wording and sentence structure, and secondly to show them that this means a whole lot to you.

Now this might seem like an evil way to exploit people's compassion, but remind yourself that you are being screwed over by a zero-tolerance system.

This pretty much sums up everything I had to say.

 

[Art Axiv]

Eh?
This is starting to bug the hell out of me. Either you people are all computer illiterates or am I a tech savvy God or something.

You got hacked because you pissed off the wrong people? What's wrong with that? People just can't go around hacking other people like that. And the people that actually have the skills to basically hack any home computer don't. Go. Around. Hacking. People.

They go for bigger things.

I've befriended and pissed off tons of hackers and programmers in the scene (if you don't know what the scene is, well, lets just say that if there's a Internet Mafia, then the scene is basically that. But with nerds.) when I was in it. And I never got hacked. Having a router, a dynamic IP and knowing that if the lights start to flicker then there's something wrong with the bandwidth has saved me tons of time.

And again I'll point this out. Steam didn't made you a pirate. You took that path. People might be forced to do something they don't like, but when you actually do it, then it's entirely your choice.

I wish internet was made of you. Sarcazm off, I'm serious.

 

[MercurySteam]

There's the major malfunction. Even at least a downloaded copy is better than buying it legit, and having people lock-up all you games like they're your parents. For some reason i dont really like Steam, and finally this thread has helped me figure it out. If people use Steam, then they will never have 100% control over their games, (this is probably why games are cheaper on Steam).

This is why people like Skullptura exist.

 

[Endangered Puma]

I find it rare that someone on a game says someone else hacked into there account and stole all the crap that that really happened. Most of them are just to shameful to admit they gave there info out to untrusty characters. In my opinion though you should be about to register IPs to your account. So you have 2 computers, you get them both registered and only those 2 can log into that account.

BTW, quick opinion or pirating, if you are sure you were never going to buy it in the first place I don't feel so bad.

 

[MercurySteam]

Richard, alot of what you have said has really gotten to me.

I hear people always talking about how Steam guarantees people that they will be safe. I don't remember being warned to set up my computer as an impregnable fortress and take a 8 week virus defense course before signing up.

All i ever see is Steam telling you not to give your password out. Even if a keylogger took his password, it doesn't make it that he GAVE OUT his password.

If i was Fangface74, I'd be way more pissed, spending all that money just to get kicked in the balls. He didn't even rant. If you think he is bad, then maybe you should look for the other people that have been screwed over by Valve. I can't guarantee you that they will be as graceful though.

And just cause you can keep yourself safe from hacking, doesn't mean everyone else can in the same manner.

 

[monkey jesus]

I registered just to post on this (link looked interesting after I watched ZP).

Fangface74: Ring Valve it's a lot less effort than the hassle of shilling dodgy software and posting on forums for validation.

Some security points:

Richard Groovy Pants is right nobody has taken the time to hack your home system for your Steam ID, it's also not likely to be a keylogger unless all you ever log into is Steam on the PC. Email accounts to spam from and internet banking logins are a lot more valuable.

Most single issue account hijacks come from phishing sites. Pay for or free av, an enterprise level firewall and IDS and anything else you think of offer no protection for this.


Richard Groovy Pants: If you joined "the scene" (seriously?) directly from your dynamic IP and counted on watching the LED's to protect you then you were in the wrong place.

 

[Erana]

I wish that one's steam profile would be seperate from one's actual games.
What bothers me is that, when my computer decides to be a jerk and not let me on the internet, I can't play my steam games, dispite the fact that they are on my computer.

I don't mean to be horribly blunt here, but you've heard of 'Offline Mode' right?

If the Hard Drive that my Steam folder was on wasn't sitting in front of me now, completely inaccessible, i'd be able to play games at home from Steam, and i don't even have the interwibble.

As i finished Half Life 2, Episode 2 the other day hehe

When I try to get it into offline mode, it just flashes some message too quickly for me to read, because it is quickly replaced by some message that tells me that there's an error.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I wish that one's steam profile would be seperate from one's actual games.
What bothers me is that, when my computer decides to be a jerk and not let me on the internet, I can't play my steam games, dispite the fact that they are on my computer.

This fact alone soured me to the entire process. I picked up Half-Life 2 during my first deployment to a warm and sandy place without internet. I come to find out that in order to simply start the game I had to be connected to the internet. That was in 2004, and I didn't even try to play the game again until 2006 (where I found that it was good).

I'm always torn on the service. It's incredibly convenient when I have a good connection to the internet, but the moment that's gone I can't even play a single player game.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

To be fair it's kinda your fault for letting your account get hacked

You could apply this to bank heists too. I mean, it's their fault for being such an appealing target, isn't it?

No not really. A Steam account can only be stolen if your password gets keylogged (either at home or in an internet coffee), or your password is something stupid like 12345 or password, or you tell it to someone claiming to be a Valve employee.

I bet you're the kind of person who wonders just how people manage to hack the DoD networks - they must be stupid enough to have keyloggers and hand out passwords to everyone who asks. Keyloggers and social engineering techniques are just a few of the tools in the hacker arsenal.

That said, most people who actually know what they're doing probably won't waste time screwing with a home user. Just like I know how to slash tires and yet never seem to do so because it isn't worth the effort even if someone has made me angry.

 

[Slakah]

You can still play all your games in single player mode:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?s=ea8b11b275f13ac3a16515d5033916b6&ref=4044-QDHJ-5691

 

[DragunovHUN]

I bet you're the kind of person who wonders just how people manage to hack the DoD networks - they must be stupid enough to have keyloggers and hand out passwords to everyone who asks. Keyloggers and social engineering techniques are just a few of the tools in the hacker arsenal.

Ok then mister expert hacker, how would you go about stealing a Steam account without relying on the owner's stupidity? Bruteforcing obviously wouldn't work with a half decent password.

That said, most people who actually know what they're doing probably won't waste time screwing with a home user. Just like I know how to slash tires and yet never seem to do so because it isn't worth the effort even if someone has made me angry.

Exactly what i'm thinking. If you know how to hack a Steam account with methods other than what has been mentioned already, you'd go for Valve's databases like the guy a few years ago who managed to steal users bank details from Valve. Measily user accounts with a few games are just unnecessary risk.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I bet you're the kind of person who wonders just how people manage to hack the DoD networks - they must be stupid enough to have keyloggers and hand out passwords to everyone who asks. Keyloggers and social engineering techniques are just a few of the tools in the hacker arsenal.

Ok then mister expert hacker, how would you go about stealing a Steam account without relying on the owner's stupidity? Bruteforcing obviously wouldn't work with a half decent password.

That said, most people who actually know what they're doing probably won't waste time screwing with a home user. Just like I know how to slash tires and yet never seem to do so because it isn't worth the effort even if someone has made me angry.

Exactly what i'm thinking. If you know how to hack a Steam account with methods other than what has been mentioned already, you'd go for Valve's databases like the guy a few years ago who managed to steal users bank details from Valve. Measily user accounts with a few games are just unnecessary risk.

A brute force approach would in fact work just fine - given time that's ALL it takes to crack any password. Any security mechanism left to itself is going to do nothing more than delay an incursion, and since the average computer user probably won't ever notice something is amiss you'd have all the time in the world.

But, again, I don't think anyone who knows what they're doing would bother with the home user for something as silly as a vendetta from losing at a video game. Still, blaming the user for the fact their account was hacked is just silly. People sit and use computers riddled with keyloggers, more generalized spyware, adware and a whole host of other nasties without even realizing it every day. People are often used to giving out information that they don't think can be misused. If the user knowingly allowed the scenario to happen, THEN they are at fault. Otherwise, I'd say at best the whole ordeal provides an excellent learning experience for everyone involved.

 

[Faeanor]

this is one of the main reasons why i NEVER by full games or even expansions via digital distribution!
xbox live arcade games yes, DLC like maps and small expansions yes. But never full games.

second reason is that i don't really feel like i "own" the game unless i have a hard copy...but that's just me

Hard copies mean a lot less when you can't use them because they need to be activated online and you can't for whatever reason.

If your steam account got hacked odds are that you were at a website you shouldn't be. Or one of your friends is a jackass. I've seen too many people get hacked to know not know that 99% of the time it's their own fault somehow.

 

[Danny Ocean]

This was sparked by johnman's "Pirate copy of Fallout 3" thread

In a nutshell:

My Steam account got hacked, by the time (just over 3 weeks) Valve let me know it had indeed been hijacked and had reset my password. Logging in I found my account VAC banned. I was told that the ban would not be lifted and no information would be provided; like the type of cheat used or on what servers (like I give a shit), so now I sell copy's of L4D and the Orange Box to buy my honestly purchased Steam games again. Googling this situation shows Steam doesn't budge on this issue except in exceptional situations.

To all at Valve, I love your games, but take an unjustified, hard stance with me...expect the same in return. I'm not proud, but I've done nothing wrong yet receiving a penalty.

Just walk into Gabe's office and give him a slap.

 

[theultimateend]

this is one of the main reasons why i NEVER by full games or even expansions via digital distribution!
xbox live arcade games yes, DLC like maps and small expansions yes. But never full games.

second reason is that i don't really feel like i "own" the game unless i have a hard copy...but that's just me

If you pay SnH on top of the game cost Stardock sends you a real copy alongside with the digital one on the day its released .

At least they do on their next game (that I want) so I'd assume that's standard.

Only on a forum filled with prepubescent males would you hear rape being compared to your Steam account getting hacked.

You make a good point. In absolutely no way even when looking at the base concepts are they similar at all.

It's like comparing apples and interstellar space travel.

...oh wait no it isn't.

Although I do enjoy your logic. By that reasoning there has never been a forum that discussed entertainment in the history of the internet that wasn't 'filled' with prepubescent males. That's quite a statement, far more ridiculous than comparing forced sexual acts with forced intrusion into someone's goods.

Nobody said they cause the same amount of trauma they were merely stating in principle that they are similar. You can't blame someone for having a 'weak password' anymore than you can blame a woman for being a woman (or in rarer cases boys for being boys). Which is true. I'm quite certain any person, man, woman, young, or old would agree to that. Well within reason.

I can't believe the amount of asshattery in this thread...

OP shouldn't sell illegal copies of the games.
and
Those blaming him for being hacked are morons.

Being the victim of theft is never the victims fault, unless he walks around with a sign saying "My keys are under the figurine on the porch and I won't be home for the next two days". The only one to blame in this incident is THE DAMN HACKER! I've heard of other people who's also been stabbed in the eye by the companies after their account for games and such gets hacked. Everyone seem to always blame the victim.

See? This person is positing the same point yet I don't see you going all high and mighty on them? Is it because they didn't use the terminology that sparks your wrath response?

Everyone always seems to blame the victim indeed, annoys the shit out of me. *High fives MaxRaine in the metaphysical sense*

Steam didn't make you a pirate, you did.

Well unfortuantely your a little loose here. Because it could be easily posited that he/she hasn't pirated since they legitimately owned a copy of the games and those were taken from them.

If I bought your car and you tried to take it back without refunding me you'd be hard pressed to do so. However in the world of digital products there isn't enough laws or precedence in place so companies can basically steal from the people who are actually supporting them.

If you buy something digital and because of actions of the company you can no longer use that product you should be supported in your decision to acquire it in less legitimate means.

They are plenty reasonable reasons to do just about anything, regardless of if it has a ridiculous title (Piracy...seriously?) or not.

 

[out0v0rder]

The situation does suck.

Why must you become a pirate though? You can apply this situation to just about any company and not just valve, even companies that don't make games.

If someone walked into your unlocked house and stole your copy HALO 3 out of your room, do you think microsoft would replace it?

It's not in any companies agenda to replace stolen purchases. Sad but true, as far as they are concerned, it was your fault.

(surprisingly, EA replaced my crysis warhead serial with NO VERIFICATION from me after I got hacked from visiting a shady website, EA is turning a new leaf here guys)

 

[matrix3509]

Like -616- said, there not going to help me, they're quiet clear on this

And to all the "You've only got yourself to blame" crew...one question;

how exactly?

Because you don't know how to effectively protect your account of hackers.
Or maybe because you downloaded a virus without knowing and it key logged you of your password.

how exactly is it his fault that a keylogger took his details without his knowledge? No matter how careful you are, there is always the chance that you could get an E-STD.

Really?
It never happened to me or other people who are conscious about Internet that I know off.

It's his fault for being careless.

Edit:

I also would like to say that I'm a pirate, I go to malicious sites, I've been playing WoW for 2 years now and I never got any problems with anything.

I know how those programs work, I know how hackers access accounts, and I know how to defend myself.

So by this logic, anyone who might get their bank account broken into because their bank was robbed deserves to lose all of their money because they used that bank? I may hate humanity but I'm not that heartless.

Oh and just because YOU know how to protect yourself doesn't mean everyone else does. It also means that no one has specifically targeted you yet. Every means of protection has ways of getting around them.