Offline Mode and Refunds

[Eludium]

As far as I'm concerned, playing a game in Offline Mode won't record your time spent in it. So what if I buy a game and play it non-stop for 13 days in Offline Mode? Will I still be able to refund it?

[Paintbrush Poltergeist]

Not sure. I've played games in offline mode, and when I've went back online, the times been added.

[Eludium]

Originally posted by Fwuffy Foxeh:

Not sure. I've played games in offline mode, and when I've went back online, the times been added.

Okay, thanks for the answer.

[chiefputsilao✖️ping]

Originally posted by Asteo600:

As far as I'm concerned, playing a game in Offline Mode won't record your time spent in it. So what if I buy a game and play it non-stop for 13 days in Offline Mode? Will I still be able to refund it?

circumventing steam rules/policies may result to something else.

[eram]

Offline mode counts towards the 2 hours. You cant get around the refund thing by playing offline.

[SillyWalk]

But if times are added when you get back from the offline mode, that means that the playtime is stored somewhere in the pc. Couldn't the file or whererever that info is stored be deleted/modified/replaced by a previous one before getting back online so Steam can't know that you have been playing that game offline? That would be a serious problem.

[eram]

It would be a serious problem but it's something they have worked on before the refund policy was changed. I have heard of no hacks/exploits regarding going offline to get around the 2 hour refund limit.

[ჟ٥ҝعჩ]

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[Jimbo]

Ik this is an old forum but I'd like add. There are many ways to circumvent this. People have found a way to essentially delete any game time you have on a game. People have also suggested never going back online essentially keeping the steam client from updating the real time you've played and then refunded through the web browser. Again if someone would go this far to no pay they should prob just torrent the game. But as always there are ways to play the system but it's limited and takes a lot of dedication, this is something valve can't really do much about.
Another strat would involve an online computer and an offline computer using one for refund and another for playing. Again I havn't tested this, it's all in theory. VALVE is not stupid and you will probably get your account bannd if you try any of this funny business, imagine you they see you get a refund with 1 hour go back online and then have 25 hours. There are plenty of other exploits, I have personally bought 500 games on another account so at this point it would be to late for me to this and why would I when it ♥♥♥♥♥ over the devs and the gaming comunity. I want more great games and the only way they will keep making them is if I support them with my wallet.

[Teksura]

From the Steam refund FAQ:

Abuse

Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games. If it appears to us that you are abusing refunds, we may stop offering them to you. We do not consider it abuse to request a refund on a title that was purchased just before a sale and then immediately rebuying that title for the sale price.

Most often this is cited when someone requests too many refunds, but I do not doubt that this would also count as abuse and would result in losing your ability to request refunds.



I suppose it would be possible to buy a game, download it, keep your system from connecting to the internet, request a refund through another system, and then play the full game on your offline computer... HOWEVER when you go back online and the Steam client updates your play time then you're in big trouble and will be called out on abusing the refund system.



Overall it's a really bad idea and not something that should be tried because calling it "abuse of the refund system" is the least they could do. It could really be called a fraud case.

[Jimbo]

I do know this don't worry. There are still ways of going around it but I didn't want to go into details for sake of preventing people from actually going out and doing this. calling a fraud case lol, no one who pirates games gets prosucated and abusing a system warrants a ban but not a fraud case.

There is a smart way of going about it, and I'm just scratching the surface here. Let me add here that the refund system is not a priviledge but an actual right at least in the EU. The reason they implemented was because the EU courts were threatning Steam for using loopholes in leglisation and Valve/Steam gave in. I am in the EU thereby I'm not sure if they can just remove my right to refund even if I was refunding like crazy. In the US however, it may be seen reprimanded but in Europe I'm protected. Even if it were an issue I could just use different accounts. Again a lot of effort for something that can be pirated online. People who want free games pirate through pirate tor not Steam loopholes.

[Kargor]

If Valve sees this as a threat to their business interests, repercussions can be severe, including (but not limited to) account bans, or the removal of either offline mode or refunds from the system.

[Jimbo]

did you not just read what I wrote. They can't legally have a system without refunds, this is mandatory. This just will go into calculated losses. They may ban accounts but seriously doubt they can do anything about it legally. If they want to resolve this technically it will cost a lot of clients more than they would by not fixing it. I'm talking about having an Xbox situation in which you can play online but a hell of a lot steam users play offline, it's one Steam biggest selling points. Their stuck legally and business wise, you can only hope people are too stupid to figure it out and/or have ethics.