Steam banned account

[Pixel Daimyo]

There something I always been wondering. But has there ever been a case where someone lost their entire account because steam banned the person? Like, they lose access to their games and everything. And I mean a whole account banned, not ban from some forum or that one game.

Cuz if people can lose their entire account, that tell me I should change my approach and look at the values of my digital games. Because our games are suppose to have value and if our account can be lost due to Steam moderatorion decision. This tell me the steam game we purchase are basically worthless and we shouldn't put money for games even if it on sale. And I have a lot of games. Like too many.

Anyway, that my thought process.

[King of Games]

I think it happened once, but Valve usually won't delete your account unless they figure out you inherited from a dead relative lol

[Pixel Daimyo]

If i ever died, I'm giving it to my brother.

[d3str0y3r]

Yes it is possible for Valve to terminate accounts, this is covered in the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

However they do not just terminate accounts for the hell of it. It take some serious violations before it gets to that point. Valve has a lot of other restrictions that they would use before doing so.

Keep in mind this is not something exclusive to Steam, all platforms can and have terminated accounts.

[[☭]-Soviet-Triumph-]

I think that one guy who originally hosted a network of cheating bots in TF2 and made his source code public got all of his accounts(he had alts) banned and got explicitly told by Valve that he's not welcomed here anymore, and I know some dead mass killers who got their accounts deactivated, but as you can see these examples are extreme cases.

But game subscriptions on Steam are basically worthless, that was always the case. You don't exactly own them, Valve made it clear. And ideally you shouldn't put money for games you won't be able to play even if it's on sale, because like, what purpose do they serve besides maybe to inflate one's ego because big numbers good.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

Because our games are suppose to have value and if our account can be lost due to Steam moderatorion decision. This tell me the steam game we purchase are basically worthless and we shouldn't put money for games even if it on sale. And I have a lot of games. Like too many.

Anyway, that my thought process.

There are many different kinds of bans and moderation can only act on certain ones like forums or screenshots, etc. For instance, if you violate the community guidelines enough, you can earn a community ban which will restrict your account from being able to post and reply on any of the forums or hubs, but you'd still have your account and games.

You really need to be doing something illegal or harmful to lose your account. If Valve believes you're using the account to launder money, fraud, scam other users, etc, they would most likely take more extreme measures up to and including deleting the account. That would cause you to lose access to everything and anything on the account.

Chargebacks would result in purchase limitations.

Spamming Support can earn you a ban from opening Support tickets.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Just be a decent normal human and there shouldn't be any worry over the status of your account. I've been myself for over 20 years on Steam and aside from an occasional, and deserved, temporary forum ban, I'm still here with all my games.

[[☭]-Soviet-Triumph-]

^ Great explanation.

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Chargebacks would result in purchase limitations.

This bit alone says how much they're unwilling to hand out total bans like OP described, to most services chargeback is like you handing over divorce papers to them.

[Pixel Daimyo]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Just be a decent normal human

Errrrr.....im in danger.

[Chronocide]

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

There something I always been wondering. But has there ever been a case where someone lost their entire account because steam banned the person? Like, they lose access to their games and everything. And I mean a whole account banned, not ban from some forum or that one game.

Cuz if people can lose their entire account, that tell me I should change my approach and look at the values of my digital games. Because our games are suppose to have value and if our account can be lost due to Steam moderatorion decision. This tell me the steam game we purchase are basically worthless and we shouldn't put money for games even if it on sale. And I have a lot of games. Like too many.

Anyway, that my thought process.

It's not called a ban when you lose access to the account:
https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4F62-35F9-F395-5C23

[ุ]

Only known instance was a user who got permanently community banned for repeated instances of racism.

He spent three years appealing, while harassing forum users, and making threats against both forum user's lives and steam support's lives.

Support said enough is enough, and locked the entire account down. The guy said he was going to meet with officials about possible legal methods of addressing it, but nothing had been heard since.

[Ferox_Stormdragon]

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

If i ever died, I'm giving it to my brother.

You cannot give your account to anyone, it is explicitly forbidden in the TOS

[Pixel Daimyo]

Originally posted by Ferox_Stormdragon:

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

If i ever died, I'm giving it to my brother.

You cannot give your account to anyone, it is explicitly forbidden in the TOS

I'll be dead by then. How would I know?

But you're giving me some new questions. What would steam do if one hundred years has pass? Would steam shut the account down? What if I was alive after 100 years? What if I was in cryostasis?

[Ben Lubar]

If you're using a family member's account, that's not going to get the account deleted. Locked, maybe, if the way you're using it looks significantly different from how they used it, or unable to recover the account because you're not the actual owner, but Valve's not going around looking for accounts that are held by someone with a different name than the person who made the account in the first place. Names change all the time anyway.

[Chika Ogiue]

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

There something I always been wondering. But has there ever been a case where someone lost their entire account because steam banned the person?

It depends on your definition of ban, but yes, Valve have removed full access to accounts as a punishment in the past. For example, when Borderlands released a bunch of people made a very public display of using VPNs to access the game early. Valve disabled their accounts for about a week to make an example of them. People who were detected as using VPNs to buy out of region would also get their accounts fully disabled -- permanently. Although, if they then pleaded with Steam support in a polite manner, they could get their accounts back.

Today, the severest punishment that most people can expect is to have the majority of account features removed. Meaning you can only play single player games and non-VAC protected games on the account. Buying new games, registering cd keys, using the marketplace, etc., all of that is disabled.

These days, you'd have to be a real toxic piece of crud (or do something that would likely land you in prison, anyway) to get an account fully disabled to the point of not even being able to log in permanently.

Originally posted by Ferox_Stormdragon:

You cannot give your account to anyone, it is explicitly forbidden in the TOS

Contrary to belief, Valve are not monsters. They aren't going to ban a deceased loved one's account simply because a relative is now using it.

[rawWwRrr]

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Just be a decent normal human

Errrrr.....im in danger.

Then I would suggest losing your account should be the least of your worries.

[Pixel Daimyo]

Originally posted by rawWwRrr:

Originally posted by Pixel Daimyo:

Errrrr.....im in danger.

Then I would suggest losing your account should be the least of your worries.

I'm a gamer. My account is my highest priority. And gamers in general aren't exactly known for being normal and decent.