A key for unknown game I already own: how to know which game it is?

[CaptainFlint]

I've got a key from a giveaway, but it did not say which game it was. When I tried to activate it, Steam said I already owned this game, but it did not mention the game title. It said: "Click next to proceed to installation", and I do remember that in similar cases I pressed Next, and it told me the game name and estimated size, etc., but in this particular case there were NO next button, only "back" and "finish". Here's the screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/NQdb2z4.png

I'd like to give this key to a friend, but it would be better to know what game that is, to find a person who really wants this particular game, not just a random key for who knows what. Is there any way to find that out?

[CaptainFlint]

For me all of these keys gave the timeout, except for ZT2ET-... which displayed the installation dialog (just like my own, not used key for the same pack). Looks like this hypothesis is close to the truth. The only questionable item is that GooCubelets pack key working fine, even though all of its games are not in Steam.

[WonderGamer]

One thing I do know about used keys is that when you attempt to register it, it will show a portion of the email address registered to the account you registered it to, this gives you the option to send an email to the address that is registered to that account. Only purpose I can see for this is to determine if the key was registered to your own account, otherwise you're going to send an email to the address of the account that is owned by somebody else...

Right now the best thing I can think is that keys eventually expire, I'm going to have to assume that's the case unless somebody gets to the bottom of why the timeout error happens; kind of wish a Steam representative could step in & answer the question, but it's rare for them to actually respond to these threads unless they are having to moderate the thread (in other words, they have to take care of some trouble, like trolling or abuse)...

[CaptainFlint]

引用自 cam：

I suspect that your https://store.steampowered.com/account/licenses/ lists "GooCubelets: The Void + GooCubelets + GooCubelets: The Algoorithm".

Indeed, I do have that particular pack.

引用自 cam：

I suspect also that you don't have any of the specific packs which do time out - but you have all of the included games, either individually or in different combination packs.

No, this assumption did not work. I have the following packs from what you mentioned:
Fiends of Imprisonment + Absconding Zatwor + Break Into Zatwor
Brilliant Bob + Why So Evil + Why So Evil 2: Dystopia
GooCubelets + GooCubelets 2 + GooCubelets: The Algoorithm
GooCubelets: The Void + GooCubelets + GooCubelets: The Algoorithm
GooCubelets: OCD + GooCubelets + GooCubelets: The Void

So, if you suggestion was correct, I should not get timeout for FVIE5 and L4GZE.

However, it might just be that there have been different packs with identical sets of games but different Steam identifiers. In this case the scheme you suggested could indeed be valid, because the key is probably assigned to the bundle ID and not just a set of games. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to test this hypothesis... Maybe steamdb contains some relevant information.

[WonderGamer]

Not saying I disagree with your assessment, but we still don't have an explanation as to what's causing it, probably nothing we can do to get an answer either, so for the time being I have to assume the extra keys I have that are throwing that error are not usable until proved otherwise, meaning I can use them in my giveaways that I was intending on using them in (I've already removed them from the only list I had those games/bundles listed on for giving them on request & will be holding off on adding them to the one I was intending on starting for my Twitch subscribers via Patreon).

As for the errors that are getting thrown out of what I have, this should summarize it:

Lists games after attempted activation::
• [Bundle] x3
  • Absconding Zatwor
    
  • Break Into Zatwor
    
  • Fiends of Imprisonment
    
  • They Came From The Moon
• [Bundle]
  • Brilliant Bob
    
  • GooCubelets
    
  • Why So Evil
    
  • Why So Evil 2: Dystopia
• [Bundle]
  • Brilliant Bob
    
  • They Came From The Moon
    
  • Why So Evil
    
  • Why So Evil 2: Dystopia
• [Bundle]
  • GooCubelets
    
  • GooCubelets: OCD
    
  • GooCubelets: The Algoorithm
Times out after attempted activation:
• Dawn of War II Retribution - Ultramarines DLC
  
• Dead Island: Bloodbath Arena DLC
  
• Hitman 2: Silent Assassin

The ones that are timing out are older keys (the newest one being the DoW2 key from the Make War Not Love event), which is where the assumption of expiration comes from (whether that assumption be accurate or not, it's proven only the older keys are timing out).

EDIT: Now that I think about it, you do get an error when you attempt to activate DLC for a game you don't have installed, so that might be part of the problem with the 2 DLCs, but doesn't really explain why Hitman 2: Silent Assassin would be timing out (unless it's requires an engine from another game, like a lot of the older Source games required a pre-installation of the Source engine). Dead Island is already installed, so I'm thinking rolling out the Definitive Edition & dropping the original edition (leaving us who owned the original game in the dust to have to purchase it again if we wanted multiplayer support) could be the reason for that one failing.

[WonderGamer]

引用自 cam：

I agree that you probably shouldn't use unknown keys in giveaways, especially since it's entirely possible that whoever you give them to already has the games and will have the same problem then think you ripped them off.

The giveaways would be first come, first serve, request-based, limited to 1 request per week (while keys last; same thing I did in the Glinx Group a while back) so I would expect they would look at what games they have before they request them, I'm not too worried about them requesting keys for games that they may already own. The bundle keys would only be usable for games they didn't already have anyways (2 of these when I redeemed them only gave me 1 out of 3 or 4 of the games included in the same key because I already owned the others). Currently I only have 1 subscriber to my Twitch channel, but they are also being offered to ex-Xfire Game Support volunteers (have a Group here on Steam for that old team, most don't bother with it, only a select few even look at it), haven't really gotten any requests for them since the Glinx Group locked up their member giveaways sub-forum...

[CaptainFlint]

Thank you for the investigations, cam, looks like you nailed it! Sounds very convincing to me.

[WonderGamer]

Not convincing to me & I'll tell you why. When I started redeeming these low-priced games (from IndieGala giveaways), I was redeeming one-game activation keys (before they started bundling them), the only thing that offsets this is that those keys later became grouped keys that included roughly 3 games in the same key that had already been redeemed to my account (essentially giving me the other games on that upgraded key if I didn't already have it; I made it a habit not to grab keys I couldn't use, that's kind of impossible when you don't even get the names of the games in the key anymore). When you look at the list of games above that showed the games included in them after an attempt to activate them, you'll notice that groups of games still gave an installation dialog, even if that wasn't what I originally redeemed (and considering some of those bundles have the same games, with maybe a one game difference), so the theory give still doesn't match up. Pointing out the discrepancy:

引用自 cam：

As I said: "trying to activate a key or pack to which you have all the games in the pack, but just not the specific pack which the key unlocks"

I'm sorry if that's unclear, I'll try to explain it step by step.

1. You enter the key FVIE5-ZCWXP-DJJXC
2. The steam client checks with steam's servers to see what the key is for.
3. The steam servers tell the steam client that it's a key for package #76160, which includes "Break Into Zatwor + Absconding Zatwor + Fiends of Imprisonment"
4. The steam client shows the "Product already Owned" message, because you own all of those games.
5. The steam client then tries to launch the installer for package 76160. But it can't, because although you have those games, you don't have that package. (You have package 72593, titled "Absconding Zatwor + Break Into Zatwor + Fiends of Imprisonment", but also includes They Came From The Moon. Here is a used key you can test this with: G72HN-4T9TL-G0VRH )
6. The steam client times out because it can't do anything, and wasn't programmed to handle this happening.

The detail to point out here is the speculation that "you own the games, but not that specific pack, so you get an error for that reason", would it not make sense that at least one of the first 3 groups in my list of keys that are giving an installation dialog would have been timing out if what he said was accurate? The first 3 groups listed in my list is the same with the exception of one or two games between them (even the 4th bundle has one game from the 2nd bundle), if the theory stated was correct, would it not make sense that at least two of those groups should be timing out under that theory?

EDIT: And before you say to go look at my licenses page, I'll save you some time on that, this[drive.google.com] is a copy & paste of everything on my primary account from that page.

[pl4y9r]

lol

[PPL]

引用自 CaptainFlint：

I've got a key from a giveaway, but it did not say which game it was. When I tried to activate it, Steam said I already owned this game, but it did not mention the game title. It said: "Click next to proceed to installation", and I do remember that in similar cases I pressed Next, and it told me the game name and estimated size, etc., but in this particular case there were NO next button, only "back" and "finish". Here's the screenshot:

https://i.imgur.com/NQdb2z4.png

I'd like to give this key to a friend, but it would be better to know what game that is, to find a person who really wants this particular game, not just a random key for who knows what. Is there any way to find that out?

well u press install and after it goes trow locating space on disk and starts downloading just press DOWNLOADS on bottom of screen and see what are u downloading

[CaptainFlint]

Looks like there's more to it that we thought. Today I've got a key for a game I've never had before (Hard Room), successfully activated it and then instead of the installation dialog Steam showed me the timeout message. It was a single game, not a pack (at least, it's not displayed as a pack in the list of licenses). Now I'm totally confuzzled... It seems, something is going seriously wrong on the back-end.

[WonderGamer]

I ran into the "Too many attempts" error when I was testing those keys, so I never got back to testing them. That's beside the point, the ones I did test show no timeout errors, however I did notice that some of them did not list the games in the same order you mentioned when I got the installation prompt. The odd thing is unused keys that I do own for games that are still on Steam are the ones that are timing out, not these cheap ones that have already been removed... I was going to provide screenshots of the results of every key that I tested, but I didn't get that far when Steam cut me off due to daily limitation...

[WonderGamer]

引用自 cam：

It's indirectly related, Zonitron's shady behaviour is why there are some many different packages with the same games. Zonitron's shady behaviour is why the games were removed. and Zonitron's shady behaviour is why Indiegala is giving so many of the keys away.

This same timeout should occur in any situation where "you own the games, but it's not the same package".

For example, if you own Syberia and Syberia 2 - which are both currently being given awayin the Golden Flash Giveaway - then activating a key for the Syberia Bundle should also time out: https://www.indiegala.com/store/product/syberia-bundle/8224
But I haven't paid $6 to prove it.

That's kind of the problem, isn't it? Out of my list, it's the Zonitron ones that are giving installation dialogs, the ones from bigger name companies (and older keys at that) are the ones that are timing out after stating I already own them...

[CaptainFlint]

引用自 cam：

It gave you the success message, then timed out instead of showing the install screen?

That's right.

引用自 cam：

Here's my used Hard Room key: W4IGC-5NVYP-ALHJ6

This one showed me the installation dialog. What the...

引用自 cam：

Can you share your used Hard Room key?

Sure: WTV4Z-532AV-2ZXIR
And know what? It now shows me the installation dialog as well. So, either it works differently when activating the game and detecting it as a duplicate, or there are some temporary issues on Steam which come and go over time arbitrarily.

[CaptainFlint]

引用自 cam：

There is always a slight pause while steam is retrieving the information, so it could be anything from your own internet connection, to Steam servers being temporarily overloaded.

The thing is, immediately after that I tried one of your GooCubeletes keys, and it gave me the timeout after waiting for like 15-20 seconds. And then I entered again my Hard Room key, and it displayed the installation dialog at once. A bit unlikely that Steam servers keep overloading that drastically and then immediately going back to 100% norm. I think I'll just give up trying to reverse engineer this black box. :)

[999999999]

I can't find the "Suggestion/Idea" or Steam Discussion threads that had the way to use the inspect element to find out which game it was for. If I find one of them, I'll link it.