Option to change your Steam ID

[hack shad]

Even if it is not visible once modified, I am sure that several people in my case are stressed at not being able to change their Steam identifier while on many other launchers like the Epic Games Store or Uplay this option is available. Although it is for security reasons that we cannot modify it, I would like you to start working on an option to modify it. Because when I created my Steam account I was never able to choose this identifier and as I cannot transmit or copy all the data from my account to an account where I could have chosen it, I would like Valve and its technical team is getting to work to add this option.
Thank you for listening to my opinion.

[Mad Scientist]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

There is no need fo use the search feature. Valve moderation agrees on this.

In addition, this question has never been officially answered by Valve so most of the previous threads are sadly useless. All of the previous answers about their database are entirely based in meritless speculation with zero actual experience.

It's been answered before, not seeing it by them recently doesn't change that information.

The overall immense hostility to contrary information really needs to stop. You've been told by programmers and people that have operated databases that some are not setup to be able to change everything, especially given SteamIDs are tied to multiple things, including things on a Developer/Publishers side. Such changes could easily result in product/license loss for changing the SteamID or be used for ban evasion where SteamIDs are stored on a Dev/Publishers side which would only encourage people to change IDs; this goes against their "creating a false identity for the purpose of misleading others." part, especially if something happened to a well-known account and someone wanted to assume that ID to phish/scam people, as popular people would undoubtedly change their IDs once people recognized them & started spamming requests to them, making identity theft basically a thing by such a terrible idea.

I'd rather see people stop backing things that would assist bad actors almost exclusively to keep being an issue on the service.

[Tito Shivan]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

I have seen that comment and also the reddit posts complicating the question. A literal 15 year old post simply saying "No we cannot," especially with testimony showing the opposite, leaves the question up in the air.

There's more recent references of Support stating account names cannot be changed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/botnso/changing_your_login_name_is_apparently_possible/

Update: I sent a ticket to the support and i got this response:

Currently, Steam account names cannot be changed. Our team is aware that this isn't ideal for some users, and may implement tools for updating account names in the future.

In the meantime, you can change your persona (Nickname/community name) at any time - your Steam account name is not displayed to other users.

So it seems the official policy is still to not allow account name changes, besides a few exceptions (namely a few users deadnamed by their former account names).

[Brian9824]

Tito Shivan님이 먼저 게시:

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

I have seen that comment and also the reddit posts complicating the question. A literal 15 year old post simply saying "No we cannot," especially with testimony showing the opposite, leaves the question up in the air.

There's more recent references of Support stating account names cannot be changed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/botnso/changing_your_login_name_is_apparently_possible/

Update: I sent a ticket to the support and i got this response:

Currently, Steam account names cannot be changed. Our team is aware that this isn't ideal for some users, and may implement tools for updating account names in the future.

In the meantime, you can change your persona (Nickname/community name) at any time - your Steam account name is not displayed to other users.

So it seems the official policy is still to not allow account name changes, besides a few exceptions (namely a few users deadnamed by their former account names).

I also question those exceptions. People claiming something without proof isn't really proof. I can make 1,000 reddit threads with fake accounts claiming Steam will give you free games if you tell them you are an aspiring youtuber trying to get started.

Doesn't mean its actually true.

[Redoxeon]

I made my steam account with a friend and set mine as a joke thinking I could change it later. Probably should have deleted and started over right then, but I wanted to start playing games so I didn't.

I get why they're not changeable but my login name still bugs me. Luckily it's a tame, inoffensive joke, it's just cringe now.

[Anonymous Helper]

Redoxeon님이 먼저 게시:

I get why they're not changeable but my login name still bugs me. Luckily it's a tame, inoffensive joke, it's just cringe now.

Why does it bug you? Unless you reveal it to public no one other than you will know what it is.

[Spawn of Totoro]

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

I also question those exceptions. People claiming something without proof isn't really proof. I can make 1,000 reddit threads with fake accounts claiming Steam will give you free games if you tell them you are an aspiring youtuber trying to get started.

Doesn't mean its actually true.

Well, Valve has surprised up before with what they ad/remove. Wouldn't be the first time, so I wouldn't discount to out of hand.

Though Valve Time doesn't mean with in our life time either.

[William Shakesman]

Tito Shivan님이 먼저 게시:

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

I have seen that comment and also the reddit posts complicating the question. A literal 15 year old post simply saying "No we cannot," especially with testimony showing the opposite, leaves the question up in the air.

There's more recent references of Support stating account names cannot be changed.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/botnso/changing_your_login_name_is_apparently_possible/

Update: I sent a ticket to the support and i got this response:

Currently, Steam account names cannot be changed. Our team is aware that this isn't ideal for some users, and may implement tools for updating account names in the future.

In the meantime, you can change your persona (Nickname/community name) at any time - your Steam account name is not displayed to other users.

So it seems the official policy is still to not allow account name changes, besides a few exceptions (namely a few users deadnamed by their former account names).

If it's stated policy, people are going to keep asking. That's the price of it, especially when there are exceptions, which means it CANNOT be a mechanical impossibility. However, at least that's a sensible story with a beginning, an end, and a cost.

But I cannot pretend I do not find it amusing people want to hurl accusations at a marginalized community because their testimony gives lie to their own fanfic explanations.

[Brian9824]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

But I cannot pretend I do not find it amusing people want to hurl accusations at a marginalized community because their testimony gives lie to their own fanfic explanations.

What does them being a marginalized community have to do with them making claims without providing proof that goes against what actual steam employees have said in the past?

Anyone should question if someone makes random claims and refuses to provide any proof of their claim. I mean you are hurling accusations at people who say it isn't possible, yet blindly believing someone who says it is possible with no proof.

That isn't exactly logical.... It sounds more like your trying to justify a decision you've already reached, and don't care about logic or evidence and will listen to anything without proof if it fits your pre-conceived notion.

The facts are Steam employee's have said in the past its not possible, and no one has actually provided any proof that it is possible. Just some random claims that carry no weight without any proof to back them up as anyone can claim anything they want if they don't have to provide any evidence.

I mean here take this rock, it cures cancer and you'll live forever. Believe me because i'm part of a "marginalized community".

[Tito Shivan]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

especially when there are exceptions, which means it CANNOT be a mechanical impossibility.

It was never said it was a mechanical impossibility, only that it was a very complex process highly prone to errors.

The kind of thing you can do on one individual case but it result very complex to do so at a scale.

[William Shakesman]

Tito Shivan님이 먼저 게시:

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

especially when there are exceptions, which means it CANNOT be a mechanical impossibility.

It was never said it was a mechanical impossibility, only that it was a very complex process highly prone to errors.

The kind of thing you can do on one individual case but it result very complex to do so at a scale.

Valve never said either that it was a mechanical impossibility nor that it was a very complex error prone process, not once. So we have no proof either way. I HAVE seen people here argue it is impossible, at least without completely breaking Steam's database structure, but people here get weirdly emotional about the idea of people ever possibly having their account name changed so some of that may just be a bit of the usual excess mixed with their own lack of experience or knowledge about the issue talking, to the point of insisting others are lying without evidence.

Either way, it could be a database issue, it could be a "valve time" thing where nobody has bothered putting in the legwork for a feature that doesn't make money, it could be as you say a giant pain in the ass that people could do manually, but the point is we don't know and can't know without official word. Hence, people are going to rightly keep asking. This may be the best solution, if they describe the database issues, they're probably going to get those same people all googling databases and becoming overnight experts and offering suggestions. Every choice has a cost in customer service.

[GloriousZote]

nullable님이 먼저 게시:

Steam isn't obligated to operate the same way as Uplay or Epic.

Go on and suggest for the suggestion forums to be removed, since you clearly don't like them.

[Tito Shivan]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

Valve never said either that it was a mechanical impossibility nor that it was a very complex error prone process, not once. So we have no proof either way.

This is the oldest reference on the subject I found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/wcl4j/steam_to_allow_username_changes_in_the_future/
https://i.imgur.com/tFER4.png

Hi Ryan, We don’t currently have the facility to change account names, as it is still used as a primary key for various pieces of data. Once we get everything referenced off the internal account ID we’ll make available the ability to change it.
Thanks John[/quoted]
The lenghtier explanation once posted on SPUF seems certainly to be forever lost.

[Mad Scientist]

GloriousZote님이 먼저 게시:

nullable님이 먼저 게시:

Steam isn't obligated to operate the same way as Uplay or Epic.

Go on and suggest for the suggestion forums to be removed, since you clearly don't like them.

Users often don't realize that many things go aren't as simple as "do this because i want". Often this means they don't understand programming or that older databases might not be made like more modern databases that anticipated things, or were made as example from others.

Once a database is made, changing stuff usually isn't as simple as changing an entry, when its tied to several things.

Only the account name would be more friendly in comparison to an actual steam id.

[William Shakesman]

Tito Shivan님이 먼저 게시:

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

Valve never said either that it was a mechanical impossibility nor that it was a very complex error prone process, not once. So we have no proof either way.

This is the oldest reference on the subject I found:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/wcl4j/steam_to_allow_username_changes_in_the_future/
https://i.imgur.com/tFER4.png

Hi Ryan, We don’t currently have the facility to change account names, as it is still used as a primary key for various pieces of data. Once we get everything referenced off the internal account ID we’ll make available the ability to change it.
Thanks John

The lenghtier explanation once posted on SPUF seems certainly to be forever lost.

Aha! I stand corrected. THAT quote I have not seen. Then the primary key bit is indeed true. The only proof I HAD seen was just a one line "it's not possible" from a Steam employee on the old forums, which I had assumed was the only thing anyone had. Good to see more of an answer given.

They clearly seemed to intend a change at the time, but we know how Valve time works.

[Brian9824]

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

Valve never said either that it was a mechanical impossibility nor that it was a very complex error prone process, not once. So we have no proof either way.

Sure we do, if you've ever worked on a SQL database then you would know changing the primary key of a database is very complex and prone to error.

Furthermore we also know Sony did the same thing and it was.... surprise very complex and had lots of errors, some of which they were never able to fix where it broke progress in some games, wiped their achievements, etc and that was in a much smaller database with far less games then it would be for steam.

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

I HAVE seen people here argue it is impossible, at least without completely breaking Steam's database structure

That's because it is, since your not familiar with SQL databases you'd have to re-create the table, then migrate the data into it, rebuild your index's, foreign key relatinships, re-optimize your database, etc.

Primary key's are major, changing them is a massive red flag and something that any DBA will advise you against unless you have no choice.

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

Either way, it could be a database issue

We already know its a database issue, again that was confirmed years ago on the old forums which has been mentioned repeatedly.

William Shakesman님이 먼저 게시:

but the point is we don't know and can't know without official word.

Then its a good thing we have an official word. You keep ignoring it, but as multiple people have pointed out we did get an official word. You just refuse to acknowledge it.