electricprism ,

Fine just create a digital corporation of your identity and assign rights to that instead. I hear they have the same rights as people.

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

Valve needs to be forced to allow customers to sell and trade their digital games

CutestFox , (edited )

If buying isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing

(keep a copy of mr. goldburg)

justme ,

It is worth noting here that Valve recently announced a new feature that allows Steam users to share games with their friends and family. Dubbed "Steam Families,"

New? That exists for years Oo. Or what am I missing here?

CutestFox ,

They made it useable (see the wan show on it a cople weeks ago)

JackOverlord ,
@JackOverlord@beehaw.org avatar

Previously, if you shared your library and someone else was playing any game, they would get ejected from said game and be unable to play any other game, as soon as you started to play any game whatsoever.

This made it more or less useless.

Now they changed it to where you can only play the same game as many times as your family collectively owns it.
So, if your family member plays a game you only have a single copy of, they can keep doing so, until you start that exact game.
You may still need to activate the client beta for this, but it'll be active for everyone eventually. (Don't know if it is yet, as I'm using the beta)

index ,

What's a steam account and why would i want one?

Piemanding ,

It's the biggest video game marketplace/launcher/DRM makers for PC. If you play video games on PC most games you buy would probably have to be through steam. Their parent company, Valve, is the only multi-billion dollar company I like because so far they have stayed pro-consumer.

Diurnambule ,

Which explain why game piracy stay pretty low too. Valve with steam provide a great service

Outtatime ,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

😂 this platform continues to make me laugh. Everybody worships steam but somehow all other businesses are bad.

howrar ,

Treat people well, and people will like you.

Summzashi ,

Yeah also billionaires are literally satan but Gabe Newell gets a pass for some reason lol

Outtatime ,
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Lol yep. They used to think the same way about Elon musk until he bought Twitter and started speaking his mind. Same with the orange man. They all loved him and then one day the software update went out and it was instant hate.

kylian0087 ,

Steam has mostly fixed the "service" issue compared to something like streaming services. One place to get almost any and all games. One account to access it all. Very simple for the end user. And does a load for the community as well. Take a look at proton for a example.

xerazal ,
@xerazal@lemmy.zip avatar

Yes as a long time PC gamer, I don't understand why people act as if steam and valve are gods. Like ok cool it has the most games and whatever, but they've been going downhill. There's so many random asset flips and porn games now, and their sales have been shit for years now. I remember games going on sale for 90% off during seasonal sales, and all the % off coupons they'd just randomly give out. That never happens now.

Outtatime , (edited )
@Outtatime@sh.itjust.works avatar

Exactly. This is why I buy grey market steam game codes for games now.

kbal ,
@kbal@fedia.io avatar

That's okay, I plan to be reincarnated.

WheatleyInc , (edited )

You typically don't get "ownership rights" when you purchase a game on Steam. You'll typically be purchasing a licence to play the game, which could be taken away at any point. Some Steam games don't include DRM after installation, and you'll truly own those games after downloading them. (you can search for a game here, and find the DRM used) I'd recommend avoiding purchasing games on Steam whenever DRM is included if you want to own the game you'd buy, there are a lot of online stores that sell games without DRM.

tfowinder ,
@tfowinder@lemmy.ml avatar

Can same game be with DRM on steam and without DRM on other platform.

reddthat ,
@reddthat@reddthat.com avatar

Yes. In those cases the steam DRM is usually for achievements, friend joining, and checking that it was run via steam.

There are plenty of "steam emulators" or even patchers that remove the steam DRM.

So as long as you have the files applications such as SteamEMU and Steamless are godsends in ensuring that when you "buy" a game you will still be able to play it.

Deello ,

Yes, happens all the time on gog. They don't have the same library of games but there is an overlap.

Jako301 ,

If the game is DRM free on GOG it usually only has the Steamworks DRM on steam. That one is so easy to remove that you might aswell call it DRM free since its only use is to make publishers think their game is protected.

geissi ,

You typically don’t get “ownership rights” when you purchase a game on Steam. You’ll typically be purchasing a licence to play the game, which could be taken away at any point.

That is certainly what Valve thinks and writes in their TOS but if their store has a big button that says "BUY HALO" then courts may very well decide that you actually bought Halo.
And many countries have a strict legal definition of what buying means that cannot be overruled by some company's TOS.

WheatleyInc ,

That's why the button says "purchase" instead of "buy" it's been a bit since I used Steam, so I had to check to be sure. I think there's a legal loophole there, but I'm not great with English.

geissi ,

That’s why the button says “purchase” instead of “buy”

First off, they're synonyms
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purchase#synonyms

Now, I'm certainly no expert on the US legal system. It certainly seems silly if you could circumvent entire laws just by using synonyms but what do I know.
However I have been talking about other countries where that is not the case and where the language is not English.
So It really doesn't matter whether it say "buy" or "purchase" in English when it's "kaufen" in German or "acheter" in French.

cmnybo ,

That's ridiculous. You should be free to give away, sell, or trade digital games just like you can with physical copies.

catloaf ,

In the EU, you can.

Reawake9179 ,

But only the whole account, or did that change

morhp ,

Transferring the whole account after you die is what this post is about.

catloaf ,

Not the whole account, only individual games.

Last I heard, Steam hadn't actually implemented that functionality yet, though.

exu ,
@exu@feditown.com avatar

It would probably take someone to sue them, but they would have to implement it.

electricprism , (edited )

Agree, even more so with the private cloud data. If your loved one dies and you want to visit multiplayer you created together in open world builders it would be shitty to take that away from them. Eg: Father and son played Minecraft together on LAN server or whatever (If that even is a thing)

bestusername ,
@bestusername@aussie.zone avatar

Honestly it's bullshit, thousands of dollars of games have died with my brother-in-law, and it's just another reason to pirate everything digital you can.

Don't die without a will and don't die without telling family important details/passwords.

jnk ,

Even for unexpected/accidental deaths, this has an easy fix: Put my bitwarden master password on my will.

bestusername ,
@bestusername@aussie.zone avatar

You're assuming people are organised.

overload ,

And your 2FA seed phrases

SorteKanin ,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

I mean... They're saying they can't transfer games from one account to another right? But you could just put your account details in your will and anyone could login to your steam account and access your games, right?

Sure would be nice if they had the feature. But I'm not sure it's such a big deal.

Godort ,

This is explicitly against their TOS. Whether or not you'll be found out is a whole other matter

warm , (edited )

I suppose they would only find out when the account is still in use after 130 years.

Or if they cared to check payment details and such.

jaykay ,
@jaykay@lemmy.zip avatar

What if I’m planning to live for more than 130 years, then what? Fuck big corporations /s

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

Start following the blue zone life style friend!

Lileath ,
@Lileath@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I can't be arsed to read the ToS again, but is it also forbidden to just share an account between several people?

My brother and I opened up that account six years ago and except for the times I forgot to turn my internet off to not be kicked out of games while my brother plays one we never had problems. It would be really shitty if we got into trouble for this because the account is valued somewhere between 1.500 and 4.300€ and is the most expensive thing I own except for my PC.

geissi ,

This is explicitly against their TOS. Whether or not you’ll be found out is a whole other matter

Also whether or not those TOS are legally enforceable in every single country Valve operates in.

Banzai51 ,
@Banzai51@midwest.social avatar

They can. I buy and gift games to my son all the time.

SorteKanin ,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

Gifting is not the same as transferring an already bought game to another account. Can you do that?

Banzai51 ,
@Banzai51@midwest.social avatar

It the same mechanism. They can do it, they just don't want to.

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