Integration of your account with another after one passing away

[Twister]

I saw this conversation a lot lately and i thought Steam was always the good guys and messaged them giving my two cents about the thing and they redirected me here.

Probably in the future there will be a legal matter somewhere in EU or US. I bet a gamer will take someone to court for something like this but that's not for now or this discussion.

For now i want to propose to Steam to do something in this matter. Somehow to join even in a small matter two accounts after someone is passing. I bet there are smart people at Valve that can bring a great idea to reality.

All this is coming from the fact that i have a little boy and can't wait to play games and show him all this universe and why not maybe after me not being around somehow in a wholesome way the accounts will be connected somehow.

Maybe it's a stupid idea but i said it's worth mentioning.

[no154370]

Since Facebook never implement your idea

Then no way will gaming platforms implement your idea

[Crazy Tiger]

İlk olarak Twister tarafından gönderildi:

i thought Steam was always the good guys

And another one who fell for Valves marketing...

Anyway, Valve has no real way of knowing whether someone is actually dead. Plus that they don't facilitate merging accounts.
There are already hijackers who manage to find enough proofs of ownership to delete hijacked accounts. Can you imagine if they can be merged?

[Tanoomba]

Licenses you buy for games are non-transferable. They can not become part of someone else's collection under any circumstances. Best you can do is just leave your login and password to your son so he can continue to access your account after your passing.

[nullable]

Things not working the way you want doesn't necessarily mean the other party is the bad guys. The problem a lot of people have is they don't seem to really understand software licenses and as a result most of their arguments about ownership are based on their own favorable assumptions and false premises.

That being said, Valve isn't monitoring accounts and deleting them if users die. There's no way for them to know. And if you, family or friends provide all the necessary information to maintain an account after passing you have all the power to accomplish that. But if you care more about specific implementation on your terms than the real world outcomes then that's on you.

[Gwarsbane]

İlk olarak Twister tarafından gönderildi:

I saw this conversation a lot lately and i thought Steam was always the good guys and messaged them giving my two cents about the thing and they redirected me here.

Probably in the future there will be a legal matter somewhere in EU or US. I bet a gamer will take someone to court for something like this but that's not for now or this discussion.

For now i want to propose to Steam to do something in this matter. Somehow to join even in a small matter two accounts after someone is passing. I bet there are smart people at Valve that can bring a great idea to reality.

All this is coming from the fact that i have a little boy and can't wait to play games and show him all this universe and why not maybe after me not being around somehow in a wholesome way the accounts will be connected somehow.

Maybe it's a stupid idea but i said it's worth mentioning.

Merging accounts should NEVER happen because this will cause lots of issues.

You being able to take over a loved ones account after they passed away should be able to happen BUT legally this won't happen unless laws are changed/passed that force companies that license their stuff, to transfer those licenses to a family member or someone who the person designated in a will. So chances that this will ever happen is slim to none unless people can convince the EU to change things (they seem to be one of the easiest ones to get laws passed/changed in favor of people.

It should require linking to an official death certificate on a government website. One that can't be searched, and each one has a super long and complicated url that would make is very hard to just brute force guess, making it harder for scammers to just pull one up to try to use for scamming. Maybe even have those links go inactive after a year, because after a year if you have not used it to transfer the licenses, well too bad.

A problem with this is that it would require every country to implement something like this, which would be difficult, and just photo copying a death certificate is not enough because scammers could easily fake one and sent it into a company.


But with that being said.... if you really want someone to have their steam account after you have passed away, just write down all your login info, and whats needed to connect to the account, including access to a cell phone and e-mail address if needed and make sure you keep it updated every time you change any of that info.

Its not like Valve knows who sitting in the chair behind the keyboard so as long as you have all the proper login info, Valve will never know someone different is accessing it.

The only time they might suspect someone different is at the keyboard is once accounts start hitting the 80/90/100 years old point and are still active. The oldest known human lived to around 122 years and its highly doubtful that they would create a steam account the day they are born when Steam was first created.

But till then... again there is no real way for Valve to know someone different is behind the keyboard. Even changing countries is not enough, because people move. People change their names (both first and last names).


So there are problems, but there are also ways around those problems, for now. If you want real change to happen, then laws need to be changed/passed.

More people should really consider putting pressure on governments to make these changes because well just look around you at everything that is licensed to you. Software, games, music, movies and so on (and yes this even includes stuff on CDs/DVDs/Blu-rays/4k discs/cartridges/computers/consoles, it was licensed to you). You might "own" the hardware but you are not the one data was licensed to.

[Nx Machina]

It is always odd when people want to paint Valve as the bad guy they forget the following.

You are creating a single Steam account and agree to the SSA which is a single user agreement.

Secondly can you merge the following accounts?

Ubisoft accounts? No.

Blizzard accounts? No.

EA accounts? No.

GOG accounts? No.

Rockstar accounts? Yes.

[Rin]

So what happens if you get hijacked or you know, give away your info willingly like so many do? Someone could just go claim thousands of "dead" accounts and account trading would stonks.

[Blitz4]

I believe your question is a security concern.

Best answer: Use Playnite or GoG, not Steam

Still buy games from steam, but use playnite or gog to open your games. playnite or gog is what you use anyway if you own games outside of steam, plus steam isn't updated or as modern as playnite or gog. Then you'll need some "plugins" for playnite:

• https://github.com/mtkennerly/ludusavi
  
• https://github.com/TCNOco/TcNo-Acc-Switcher
  
• https://github.com/Lacro59/playnite-successstory-plugin
  
• https://github.com/felixkmh/DuplicateHider

EDIT: sample ♥♥♥ of one of playnite's views: https://imgur.com/a/WpF7Kis

[Spawn of Totoro]

İlk olarak Crazy Tiger tarafından gönderildi:

İlk olarak Twister tarafından gönderildi:

i thought Steam was always the good guys

And another one who fell for Valves marketing...

To be fair, Valve never marketed like that. Users just assumed it as Valve tended to things similar to what they wanted.

İlk olarak Rin tarafından gönderildi:

So what happens if you get hijacked or you know, give away your info willingly like so many do? Someone could just go claim thousands of "dead" accounts and account trading would stonks.

Exactly the issue that would arise.

[Blitz4]

i just got rick rolled. reading a profile.