An Idea to change account names

[Robotic ***** User]

Hey so I really love steam but I really wish I could change my account name since I have an Account Name that I don't want anymore but I can't change it anymore so here is my suggestion & idea to let us change account names.

First you would have to press a button that would let you change your account name then you have to do these three steps to verify its you

*Verify your email address

*Put in one of your backup keys

*Scan a QR Code that they give you via the Steam App on Mobile

Once you finished those three verify steps then they let you change you account name you can finally change your account name but you can only do this once per year which is the downside so you would have to pick an account name that you have to deal with for a year.

What do you think of this Suggestion / Idea?

[Thermal Lance]

Yeah, appearantly the codebase is built like a jenga tower and adding such a feature is a hell of a lot more complex that most people would realise.

At least that's what I understand from it.

[Reggaejunkiedrew]

The reason we can't change account names is because it's the primary key in the database for user accounts. Normally, and especially nowadays, this would always be a separate UUID, but Steam is very old and for one reason or another, they used the account name.

In some systems, this might not be a big deal, but Steams gigantic, and their database structure is probably so complicated that this is a much bigger undertaking than most people realise, it'd require significant downtime of the entire platform to pull off and it'd be very easy to screw up, taking even more time as they restore from backups, it could bring Steam down for days. Screwing with a database and this important this old is not something taken lightly.

[Pierce Dalton]

Reggaeјunkiеdrew eredeti hozzászólása:

The reason we can't change account names is because it's the primary key in the database for user accounts. Normally, and especially nowadays, this would always be a separate UUID, but Steam is very old and for one reason or another, they used the account name.

In some systems, this might not be a big deal, but Steams gigantic, and their database structure is probably so complicated that this is a much bigger undertaking than most people realise, it'd require significant downtime of the entire platform to pull off and it'd be very easy to screw up, taking even more time as they restore from backups, it could bring Steam down for days. Screwing with a database and this important this old is not something taken lightly.

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

[Robotic ***** User]

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

Reggaeјunkiеdrew eredeti hozzászólása:

The reason we can't change account names is because it's the primary key in the database for user accounts. Normally, and especially nowadays, this would always be a separate UUID, but Steam is very old and for one reason or another, they used the account name.

In some systems, this might not be a big deal, but Steams gigantic, and their database structure is probably so complicated that this is a much bigger undertaking than most people realise, it'd require significant downtime of the entire platform to pull off and it'd be very easy to screw up, taking even more time as they restore from backups, it could bring Steam down for days. Screwing with a database and this important this old is not something taken lightly.

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

Yeah I agree I believe there is also issues with Steam Servers in general & I think its time for an upgrade they need to fix the bot issues in not just steam but in games too ESPECIALLY in games like TF2.

Valve really needs to upgrade their servers to prevent bots from cheating in older games.

[Ben Lubar]

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

Reggaeјunkiеdrew eredeti hozzászólása:

The reason we can't change account names is because it's the primary key in the database for user accounts. Normally, and especially nowadays, this would always be a separate UUID, but Steam is very old and for one reason or another, they used the account name.

In some systems, this might not be a big deal, but Steams gigantic, and their database structure is probably so complicated that this is a much bigger undertaking than most people realise, it'd require significant downtime of the entire platform to pull off and it'd be very easy to screw up, taking even more time as they restore from backups, it could bring Steam down for days. Screwing with a database and this important this old is not something taken lightly.

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

If the problem is one user wanting a different login name, it would be easier and cheaper for them to just create a new account and re-buy their games. Redesigning the entirety of Steam would be quite an expensive overreaction to what is basically a non-issue.

[Ben Lubar]

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

Yeah I agree I believe there is also issues with Steam Servers in general & I think its time for an upgrade they need to fix the bot issues in not just steam but in games too ESPECIALLY in games like TF2.

Valve really needs to upgrade their servers to prevent bots from cheating in older games.

I'm genuinely interested in how you think that works.

[Robotic ***** User]

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

Yeah I agree I believe there is also issues with Steam Servers in general & I think its time for an upgrade they need to fix the bot issues in not just steam but in games too ESPECIALLY in games like TF2.

Valve really needs to upgrade their servers to prevent bots from cheating in older games.

I'm genuinely interested in how you think that works.

Whenever I think about the whole tf2 bot issues I don't the issue with TF2 itself I think about the steam servers because what do you need to run tf2 you need steam and what do you need to do to use steam you need a steam account which to me I think people make these programs to where bots can easily create accounts run tf2 and well you know.

Unless there is another way that am unaware of if that's the case then let me know.

[Pierce Dalton]

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

If the problem is one user wanting a different login name, it would be easier and cheaper for them to just create a new account and re-buy their games. Redesigning the entirety of Steam would be quite an expensive overreaction to what is basically a non-issue.

Of course, it wouldn't be worth it just for that. There are many things that can be improved, though.

[Brian9824]

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

I'm genuinely interested in how you think that works.

Whenever I think about the whole tf2 bot issues I don't the issue with TF2 itself I think about the steam servers because what do you need to run tf2 you need steam and what do you need to do to use steam you need a steam account which to me I think people make these programs to where bots can easily create accounts run tf2 and well you know.

Unless there is another way that am unaware of if that's the case then let me know.

Cheaters exist in all games, its not a steam thing. Accounts for games should also be easy to make, you'd be hard pressed to find any free to play game where you can't have a new account up and running in a minute or two. All it takes is a new email usually.

Nothing at all to do with steam's servers or backend.

[Robotic ***** User]

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

If the problem is one user wanting a different login name, it would be easier and cheaper for them to just create a new account and re-buy their games. Redesigning the entirety of Steam would be quite an expensive overreaction to what is basically a non-issue.

Of course, it wouldn't be worth it just for that. There are many things that can be improved, though.

Yeah I agree

I do think if they want to keep things simple then they should remove account names and change it to where they give us like a login key that we can't change and we use those login keys to simply well login I think that should be simple for them to do right?

[Robotic ***** User]

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

Pierce Dalton eredeti hozzászólása:

A lot easier (and safer) to make Steam 2.0 and simply start migrating users to the new platform.

If the problem is one user wanting a different login name, it would be easier and cheaper for them to just create a new account and re-buy their games. Redesigning the entirety of Steam would be quite an expensive overreaction to what is basically a non-issue.

I disagree

Yes I could make an account am re-buy all of my games but the issue is I have so much games ESPECIALLY games that you can't buy for example I have the original gta trilogy games on Steam BUT rockstar games removed those games meaning that you can't buy those games anymore you can only buy the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ remastered same with dead by daylight's stranger things dlc because of license issue meaning that if you don't have the dlc then your ♥♥♥♥ out of luck the only way to get it is if you go to cd key store like cdkeys & then you would pay for it the only problem is that its expensive like $100 expensive so having rare games plus paying for all 90 or 100 games just because you don't like account name is ridiculous.

I think it should be best to make "Steam 2.0" to not be just to be safe but to also add cool features like changing account names and you say that, that would be expensive but lets not forget Valve is a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY them paying for servers is like pocket change to them.

There was an issue that I was a bit hesitant to say but I remember there was this streamer who played Dead by Daylight and came across a hacker which is you know fine and all. But there was something that is a bit off and confusing too this hacker managed to make a fake steam transaction DLC pop up to this streamer called "Toilet Paper & Hand Sanitizer" for $3.79 which is a bit weird and this streamer kept closing that pop off but it kept pop up again and was trying to auto confirm that transaction but failed because he thankfully did not have his credit card linked to Steam but if he did those hackers could've LITERALLY taken this dudes money now weather thats a game issue or a Steam Issue is the part that's confusing to me but I would let you decide and as far am aware this did not work if you have the Microsoft Store Version of the game.

[JPMcMillen]

The only issue with a "Steam 2.0" is that moving that much data from one database to another is going to take a lot of time. That either means that they would have to take the whole thing offline and nobody could do anything with Steam till it was done, or they could try to come up with some system to move people over in waves while allowing people in both databases to still access Steam unless they were part of the current wave being moved over.

Believe me, it takes time to do that. Years and years ago I worked for a small credit card company. We got bought by one of the biggest banks in the world. When they decided to migrate our customers to their system, during the WEEK it took to do that, the cards could still be used but nobody, and I mean NOBODY, could access any account information. Nobody in customer service had access and this was before even the big bank had a web site that customers could access.

[Ben Lubar]

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

I think it should be best to make "Steam 2.0" to not be just to be safe but to also add cool features like changing account names and you say that, that would be expensive but lets not forget Valve is a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY them paying for servers is like pocket change to them.

Hardware costs nothing compared to engineer time. Engineer time is what there's a shortage of.

[Robotic ***** User]

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

I think it should be best to make "Steam 2.0" to not be just to be safe but to also add cool features like changing account names and you say that, that would be expensive but lets not forget Valve is a MULTI BILLION DOLLAR COMPANY them paying for servers is like pocket change to them.

Hardware costs nothing compared to engineer time. Engineer time is what there's a shortage of.

Fair enough

I think a more simple option is instead of requiring a account name they should just remove account names and just use email address to sign up I think that we would be a more simple option and maybe a easy way to do it.

[JPMcMillen]

roboticalien eredeti hozzászólása:

Ben Lubar eredeti hozzászólása:

Hardware costs nothing compared to engineer time. Engineer time is what there's a shortage of.

Fair enough

I think a more simple option is instead of requiring a account name they should just remove account names and just use email address to sign up I think that we would be a more simple option and maybe a easy way to do it.

That's what they did originally, used the email address you gave them when signing up as your login name.
They switched to a user created login name as the system didn't have a way for people to change their login name if they changed their email addresses. In fact, the discovery that there was no easy way to change login names was that they wanted all old accounts that used an email for logging in to be forced to change it to something else.