Cyber-bullying in games and Steam

[Kosieh Barter]

Hello,

First, sorry for possible bad formulation, bud this problem is quite difficult to explain.
Friend of mine has several serious problems with some person (lets talk now with non-specified people). This person constantly threatens him for permament ban (or VAC ban) on most servers that attacker knows.

At this time, Victim has attacker blocked, but I'd like to know how this can be solved.
Lets talk about some conditions I know - for example

Victim suddenly meets attacker on some server, which leads for ban on that server and possibly on other servers that attacker (and victim) knows. The problem is that attacker has some will which he could use to decrease victim's personal gamming freedom.

The other problem I've encountered is constant spying. Attacker possibly spies in groups who is who to locate victim. Problem is, that this person had problems before, namely really bad imagination, where is the real world and where starts the virtual world.

Last thing, attacker has no will to forgive, which I consider is vindictive behaviour.

According to law, I am not sure how kind of law acts here - if there is majority of US law or continental law, because this problem occured in Europe. INMO this looks like cyber-stalking and in Europe, this has quite serious outcome.

Thanks for any help.

[Tev]

• VAC bans cannot be handed to another user on a standard user's behalf. VAC bans are handed out to those who cheat on the servers, if it's been detected so.

So technically s/he could only get certain server bans, but that would require the host of the server to hand out the server ban to him/her.

It is kind of weird if the supposed attacker can convince people into giving this victim the supposed ban, at least more than on one server. - Given that there's not multiple servers run by the same person.

I would have to say the victim should put profile visible to Friends Only for now. If the victim is part of any small groups where you can see users individually under [Friendslist] -> [Groups] -> [Select Group Name], the attacker (given they're also in the same group) can see their status / game regardless - and I, if I was the victim, would thus probably contact the Group Leader, if they could do something about it.

Reporting the user is of course recommended as well.

[Tito Shivan]

Blocking the user is the first step. Which your friend has already done.
If your friend hasn't yet. Report the user conduct through his Steam profile.
You can also contact your local authorities if you wish.

Also no user can VAC ban anyone. Your friend needs not to fear from that.

I'd advice your friend to 'go under' for a time. These kind of people have usually short memories and will move into something else if they miss their target for some time. Also not

[Kosieh Barter]

Theutep, Thanks for Your reply.

At this point, AFAIK, attacker has some relationships with some servers.
How much, I'm not able to say it, but there could be chance that attacker succeds.

Victim is member of 4 groups, two of them are official, the last two is a clan group and a server group, where victim is admin. Of course, Attacker is blocked and removed.

About reporting - it must be victim or it can be anonymous? I'm asking because victim is affraid of attacker's possible behaviour. Anyway, I will take that in mind.

Thanks again.

[Felix]

Originally posted by ƓƹǶ³ Barter:

About reporting - it must be victim or it can be anonymous? I'm asking because victim is affraid of attacker's possible behaviour. Anyway, I will take that in mind.

It should be the Victim who reports the behaviour, but Valve will not give out the names of those who have reported this player.

[Kosieh Barter]

Thanks again.

I'm still considering how this could be done, because as I said, this occured in Europe.

Anyway I will follow steps You told me here, so again, thanks.

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

Have them make another Steam User account... then never use chat or voice communications and act as a user instead of as an admin on their own server.

Sounds like a tic-for-tac with two admins banning each other.

Welcome to the real world.


If Steam is the medium, then just use offline mode all the time and leave all Steam groups and change your Steam ID (afterwards).

Steam support may also be able to change the Steam username ***after*** the above is done.

[Sierra Oscar]

Valve treat harassment as a serious matter, as is outlined in the Steam Online Code of Conduct.

Defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others.

As has been said - server administrators have the freedom to manage their servers as they so wish. However if you feel this really is an ongoing issue involving personal harassment, abuse or the likes being continually directed towards your friend then he/she should not hesitate to contact support to report the issue.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Tabris:DarkPeace:

Steam support may also be able to change the Steam username ***after*** the above is done.

I'll confirm this is incorrect.

Steam username can be adjusted by the owner him-/herself.
Account name cannot be adjusted by even the help of Support, nor is changing it even necessary.

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

If they cannot change it, then the person, or persons, after them will be able to find them again... so I would argue that it is neccessary. Steam Support can do anything that is required if you put enough of a case forward.

[Kosieh Barter]

It seems there is a how-to or sime kind of it?

About steamID, I doubt, this is changeable.

Nicks or better said names can be "removed". I tested that and it is possible, but this needs to change name at least 10 times.

[Tev]

Originally posted by Tabris:DarkPeace:

If they cannot change it, then the person, or persons, after them will be able to find them again... so I would argue that it is neccessary. Steam Support can do anything that is required if you put enough of a case forward.

[Add a Friend] -based search will come up with results using the account -name, but if the person's status isn't visible in public. Does it really matter?

Also, it's been confirmed Support cannot change account name.
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1558-QYAX-1965

Originally posted by Support Topic:

Your SteamID and Steam Account Name can not be changed, even by Steam Support staff members. Your Steam Community ID can be changed at any time in your Steam Community settings, under "Edit my SteamID page".

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

Yeah, point taken.
It's mostly just the historical posts, etc.

Honestly, I think it's just two admins facing off over the Internet; and one doesn't have a thick enough skin to be an admin.

They also mentioned other 'issues'... so maybe they should just stop gaming like I do every so often.

Just go a month without launching Steam, and if they need to game.. well society has several other outlets, including old-school titles on DVD-ROM that don't require Steam to play.

Too much of a good think I reckon.

[Tev]

While simply not using Steam is an option, I don't think that option should be a forced one due to cyber bullying.

You can't really escape bullying anyway, the only way to go around it is to make it stop or bear with it hoping it'll stop. Awfully many choose the latter.

The steps the person should take have been given here either way. Just hoping for the best now.

[[AU] Tabris:DarkPeace]

I took a break and had an idea. If they add some of us (me anyway) via Steam as a Friend maybe we can help out in other ways. I've hosted my share of servers and seen only a small slice of what the darker side of the 'net is like...

... but I think you're right Teutep; this is not a technical problem at its heart, so it shouldn't have a technical solution.

[Kosieh Barter]

If I could ask, what that means? Could You please tell me more? I'm quite curious about this.