Steam made me a pirate!

[Fangface74]

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.

 

[RetiarySword]

Wow, I was expecting to come in here saying 'Just buy the games you fuck' but you do make a good point.

 

[Dessembrae]

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

 

[megapenguinx]

I hate it when companies do the whole no exception thing.

 

[ZeroMachine]

There should never EVER be no exceptions to rules. No exceptions!

... wait...

*cough*

Anyways, I'm usually against this sort of thing but considering what happened to you it's not that big of a deal. But I still think you should email Valve and explain your situation. This seems like an exceptional situation.

 

[J-Man]

Write to Valve, post on their forums, etc. You'll eventually get your account un-VAC banned.

 

[Ace of Spades]

This is why I don't buy games from Steam. Steam screwed me over more than once, and for that, I take my business elsewhere.

 

[Fangface74]

Anyways, I'm usually against this sort of thing but considering what happened to you it's not that big of a deal. But I still think you should email Valve and explain your situation. This seems like an exceptional situation.

I don't think this is an exceptional case, I understand that accounts get hacked daily, but to take away from the wronged party is, well....wrong.

They received a number of emails from me providing proof of purchase, the IP I play from and all manner of 'What about if I....." scenarios, they just won't budge.

J-Man, have you managed to get a VAC ban lifted? It'd give me hope if you have.

 

[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.

 

[hypercube]

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

Problem is, even if you buy a hard copy of a game that requires a Steam account, that hard copy is forever tied to your Steam account by the serial. If someone hacks your Steam account, they've got that game even though you're holding the fucking disc in your clenched fists. Clenched with impotent rage.

This happened very recently with a friend of mine, but luckily he managed to get it back by providing Valve with a ridiculously long list of evidence that it was his account. Turns out someone had hacked his account and then sold it to someone else. Someone who buys games from pirates...

 

[Beowulf DW]

There should never EVER be no exceptions to rules. No exceptions!

... wait...

*cough*

Anyways, I'm usually against this sort of thing but considering what happened to you it's not that big of a deal. But I still think you should email Valve and explain your situation. This seems like an exceptional situation.

Exactly!

Besides, Valve should know that they only have something to lose from such practices. They'll only lose more and more customers as incidents like this continue to occur. They stand to gain much more if they make their games a bit more accessable. Yeah, there might be an increase in piracy, but it would probably only last for a brief time as people start to realize that it's not worth the risk anymore, and any increase in piracy will likely be eclipsed by the amount of new and returning customers.

 

[DragunovHUN]

To be fair it's kinda your fault for letting your account get hacked. It doesn't happen unless you're not careful enough.

so now I sell copy's of L4D and the Orange Box

Do not sell games that you have already registered to your account or you're just as big of a douche as the guy who hacked your account.

 

[wordsmith]

Out of interest, how did your account get hacked? Did you annoy a hacker or something?

 

[rvdm88]

i got a warning (and my post removed) once because i suggested to use a shotgun as a effective acne removing tool.
Can you believe how thick those admins at steam forums can be sometimes? xD

 

[airsoftmanic]

i must say that i sympathise with you as my steam account was banned for no reason what so ever (only had it for 3 days and never used it before) so i had to make a new one and that got banned as well (also for no particular reason) so i gave up on steam and did the old method of buying games (eg. in a store) and i found it to be more pleasing as ive got certian software that allows me to play games without the CD once its installed so ive got a big shelf full of cases that make me feel like a collector.
on the subject of piracy, i see it like this. if you just pirate stuff to find out if its good or not, look for a demo first. thats what they are there for. if no demo, then pirate but delete it after a few days and decide whether you want it or not. this would include compatability issues as well (i did this with World in Conflict which didnt work on my computer at the time thus saving myself £30).
selling pirated copies is a massive NO. pirating one copy for yourself is fine since there is no negative loss to the company that made the game. selling copies to other people is denying profit for the company and therefore will induce loss.
if all else fails, just make a new account and delete your old one. its a pain in the ass but at least you wont be banned.

 

[Chieffw]

I am not really familiar with the Steam system because I don't own a credit card or like FPS multiplayer hence Steam is pretty much useless FOR ME personally.

But I have a large experience with account hacks from World of Warcraft, where an account gets hacked, robbed and left to bot and get banned afterward.

Blizzard Entertainment has a zero tolerance towards hacking, and states that actions are taken against the account from which an offense has been committed rather than against a person

But I would like to remind you of a very crucial part of any company without exceptions. Public Relations cannot be handled by a machine, which is why when making an appeal, you will always have the human factor in your favor. You will be talking to a person with human emotions, one of which is compassion. When you explain the situation in a kind enough manner, and in a way that shows your sorrow, you will always pluck a heart string in the somebody who reads your e-mail.

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.

 

[the_tramp]

Well that sucks. I honestly can't think of what to say other than numerous emails to Valve explaining the situation. Although it seems that you've already acted and are just venting here without asking for advice.

Err... trying to stay on topic. I believe that your case is one of the justifiable reasons for piracy. However you've sold your Fallout 3/Orange box and therefore transferred ownership to another person in exchange for money so by that logic I do not agree with what you've done.

 

[Fangface74]

To be fair it's kinda your fault for letting your account get hacked. It doesn't happen unless you're not careful enough.

If you can think of a way to make passwords unguessable, you would become very rich, very quickly. I use 3 passwords for home & work accounts and it's all been fine, it's just in the gaming part of my life that I got unlucky.

Out of interest, how did your account get hacked? Did you annoy a hacker or something?

Nothing I know about, been playing CS then Source, TF then TF2 for years, without incident.

 

[ShadeOfRed]

This is probably the best thing you could of done with this situation. Pirating VALVe's games and then selling them, screwing them back over. Very well played.