Any possible future class action. The big hypothetical one being, what if Steam shut down and deprived everyone of their bought games.

Yeah i get what your saying, and i see how not being able to re sell the games could be a problem for some people. But for me its ok cos i never really re sell my games anyway (I have been collecting my games for years xD), but yeah that would be a problem for some.

But for your other worries, they really cant just take away your games for no reason, as if they did do so without a reason no matter whats in that TOS you could sue them.

And if they where to shut down (I cant see this happining), you could still play your games in offline mode.

But yeah i understand how DD is not for everyone :D.

PS: i missed the last part, but like someone else said even when you buy a game in the shop you are still just renting the license to use the software xD

while steam is DRM, they can not take access to your games away. You can allways choose to play in offline mode, or even with out internet. Steam (besides GoG) is probably the best there is going to be on online distribution as they let you back up your games to harddrive or dvd. and you do not need internet to play said games.

I am 100% baffled to the ignorance in this thread. The idiot posted this(with all due to respect) has no understanding to what this added peice to the TOS means, and the amount of misinformation in this thread is staggering. So let me correct almost all of you.

1. If steam goes under do I lose my games?

- NO!!!!!! You DO NOT lose your games, it's specificially said in the FAQ a special website for your login is designated and you can download / keep your games.

View the steam FAQ before you all make such bold accusations that the new TOS is so people don't sue them, if they don't live.

2. The new legal agreement is to stop people from suing when bad things happen!!!!!!

FALSE. The point of stopping class auction suits, is to stop greedy lawyers. For example, some person needs 2 million in reperations for some product that didn't work as it was suppose too. Instead of taking this to arbitration, a class suit is opened. Therefore more people are brought into the case. So let's assume there's 10 people involved within the case now. The lawyers take the company to court, and say that reperations need to be 20 million (10x2). (Sounds good right?) Now when the lawyers win the case, THEY TAKE 15-19 MILLION and then have the people divide up the rest of the cash.

DOES THAT SOUND FAIR? This change is what's preventing this. People ARE STILL allowed to take Valve to arbitration over disputes.


3. But... if he doesn't agree to TOS his account is gone!! BAD VALVE!!!

Is everyone blind or what? This should just be common sense. YOU'RE DISAGREEING TO USING STEAM. That's what the TOS is saying, in order to use steam you must agree to these following components. Why would you get to use Steam but disagree to every rule it gives you? Why should you get to avoid all rules.

Let's use a real world example. Let's say you went to buy a Car. You find the one you like, and go to sign for it. Yay the car is yours! Now let's say you need a loan to help you pay for the car, you go to the location and you're asked to sign a paperwork. You read it, and say "No I don't want to sign it!!!" -- Therefore you don't get the money.

It works just the way this does. Why should YOU get to keep using Steam, if you disagree to Terms and conditions... This isn't a program where you get to pick and choose what you believe in. It costs Valve money to run the service, they're allowed to make any rules they want.

4. But.. if you get banned, YOU LOSE ALL YOUR GAMES!!!

ONCE AGAIN FALSE. If your account is locked, you lose digital access rights to your game THROUGH STEAM. If you still have a valid CD code / Retail discs that have alternative download means, (Disc / Download backup) YOU THEN STILL HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR GAMES.



Stop being so picky people, and actually learn about the topic.


/end rant

1. Can't argue with this (aside from the fact that they're not legally obliged to do anything if something were to happen).

2. Maybe that's the main point but it also restricts the rights of consumers.

3. The main problem with this is that they can change the rules at any time and if people agree to the old rules but disgree with the new rules, they lose their games.

4. Oh come on, are you stupid or what? There's very close to NO games on Steam you can get elsewhere with the Steam keys. If retail games support Steam activation, it's always because they REQUIRE Steam, and if you buy something from Steam, it's almost never possible to use the CD key elsewhere. In the end, if you lose access to your Steam account, you lose access to practically all games on your Steam account, too. AFAIK some EA games can be registered on Origin but that's about all you can do about it.

I really dont know how i ended up quoting you cos i was ment to quote the2real4mafol with that :-/ .

But anyway i will reply to some of what you said.

1. "Anyway, they CAN take my games away for no reason if they want"

Please id like to know how they could take away your games without good reason?. And even then they couldnt take away your games as you could still play them in Offline mode or redownload them and use your CD Key that you get when you buy the game from steam.

2. "AFAIK Steam offline mode isn't a proper offline mode, you still the internet to log in first and only then you can go to this so-called offline-mode. Right...?"

Yes it is a proper offline mode.  Yesterday i plugged out my internet and i started up steam, it tried to connect to my account when it couldnt connect it gave me 2 options 'Retry' or 'Go offline' i clicked to go offline and steam started up while i had no internet and i could start and play all my games.

So yeah thats how you canplay games with no internet using steam.

3. "if you buy something from Steam, it's almost never possible to use the CD key elsewhere. In the end, if you lose access to your Steam account, you lose access to practically all games on your Steam account, too. AFAIK some EA games can be registered on Origin but that's about all you can do about it."

No once you have the CD Key you can redownload the game from any place that will allow you to and use that CD Key again.

When you buy a game on steam it gives you a cd key so you have nothing to worry about (Except maybe for some valve games??).

1. But thats just it they are not going to ban your account for no reason. And even if they did ban it by mistake (Not likely to happen but might) im pretty sure it would only take talking to someone at valve to get it fixed.

3. Yes with some games (All EA games, and i think UBISoft allow this too but im not 100% sure), but with the games that dont have their own DD service you would have to re download the game from some where else like a torrent site (Perfectly legal since you own the CD Key) then when you install the game when it asks for a CD Key you could use your steam cd key there and then still play that game online and stuff but without steam. As for games that use steam for there DRM (Such as Skyrim or Alan Wake) im not sure about, i guess if you got banned for some reason you could always use a crack to remove the DRM i mean you did pay for the game so it is yours.

Well you US people better stop gifting us EU people games.. cause:

http://steamunpowered.eu/valve-taking-action-against-gifts-from-usa-and-russia/

People in the Steam gifting-scene from Russia and USA claim that they have received emails from Valve, urging them to stop gifting to players from Europe. On some accounts, buying games has been completely disabled.

This is completely unacceptable. For most of people, buying games via a USA-gifter has never been about getting the game cheaper (at least not for Germans). It has always been about getting the uncut version of a game.

Here’s the rest of the text from the reddit user lighthaze.

“I see Valve’s problem from a monetary point-of-view (games are cheaper in Russia / the USA than in Europe), but I think it’s hypocritical of Valve to use the advantages of globalization, while prohibiting it’s users from doing the same.

As an adult German I am allowed to buy uncut games. Why won’t Valve let me? The German community has been asking for an age verification system for years now and we have gotten basically no answers at all.

Hello XXX,

In order to prevent further deactivation of your account by our system due to suspected fraud, do not use other accounts to deliberately circumvent regional restrictions or prices of games with the intention to send these to your main account via the gifting system.

Please do not buy games in regions in which there is a price difference to your home country and do not use VPN or proxy software to circumvent these limitations.

Such activities are not support by the Steam support and accounts using such actions may be closed and excluded from buying games on Steam.

We are creating the prices together with the publishers and try to keep them up to date.

All prices and limitations of low violence versions are done by us and have a legal background.

If you or your account can be connected again with such activities in the future, a permanent deactivation of your account cannot be ruled out.

*Best wishes,

Steam Support Team

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So there goes our christmas STEAM Secret Santa....