Question regarding using Steam in China

[aleh1811]

Hello guys, thanks is advance for the help.

My situation is like this. I currently live in China and because of the gobernment set censorship system that very widely and indiscriminately censors content I may have to install a vpn to work.

All my games are purchased in China, and the card that i use is chinese as well. But Its possible that in the future i may have to connect throught Hongkong, Japan or the US to access work related information that otherwise I would not be able to get.

I have been trying to at least notify Valve of the situation but they have made it remarkably difficult to find a way to contact them directly (no easily accessible email).

I of course have never used and will never use the vpn to either buy games only available in other countries or buy them at cheaper prices.

I would like to know how to aproach this situation and if they are going to end up banning my account.

Thanks a lot.

[Hualuo]

I am also a Chinese，and the vpn I think it very easy to use。

[aleh1811]

Its easy to use. I am just afraid it will get me banned. I am not sure how policy is regarding this topic, but I think Valve must certainly be aware that using VPN here is a necessity for many and its beyond our control.

[Hualuo]

Yes,you are right.

[aleh1811]

what is your experience, have you had any problems for using vpn?

[Brujeira]

My advice would be to stop trying to talk to Valve about it unless you do want your account locked. You are in breach of the terms and conditions that you agreed to when you created the account.

Look, I'm not without sympathy for you guys but the situation's totally clear. If Valve want to continue to do business in China then that means working within your government's rules - and that means censorship. If you want to keep access to your account then you need to stay within Valve's rules which means not using a VPN to change your location in order to get stuff that's not available in China.

I'm not going to tell you to stop using a VPN, but you should seriously consider not contacting Valve and alerting them to the fact that you've broken the terms and conditions.

[Hualuo]

Yes,I often use vpn to play games,and also l find that sometimes it doesn't work

[Hualuo]

qwq

[aleh1811]

Well, it doesnt seem like a situation that would work well in the long run, but thanks for the answer anyway.

I would still like some info regarding the topic. If anybody else has information that they think would be usefull for a person in my sitatuation i would really like to hear it.

Also i have never used the vpn to get access to games that are not available in china. But i steams starts automatically every single time and even when its off it will realize if i change my location.

[Hualuo]

I know i had say something worry,because i am only 15

[TorMazila]

Valve support is easily contacted via "help->steam support" - done that on many topics, like pricing policy (russian prices are mostly cheaper than in other xUSSR republics while we have the same region in steam = russians can simply resell games to other xUSSR ppl) and some others not game-/refund- related topics. BUT. The support is for support, not for decision-making things and policy changes. That is indeed, if you say "I'm the violator" they are supposed to ban you or get fired for not doing that :).
I guess you can "edit out" your posts as well. To sound like "what if a customer is forced to use VPN to ..." - but anyway, if the store says "the product is not available in your region" and you do things to use it - you're definitely violating something, not only your governments rules but publisher licenses as well.

Once, 20 yrs ago, we had a lecture by some IBM director of (I don't remember what) who worked in Asia, the funny part I still remember was:
- How many licensed copies of WordPerfect are in China? One, the others are illegally made copies. How many licensed copies of WordPerfect are in Russia?
("we don't know, man" was visible in the hall)
- None. They are copies of the Chinese version.
(people start smiling and laughing)