Valve Restricts Steam Service For Non-Paying Users

WYP

News Guru
Valve have chosen to limit access to certain Steam features as a means of protecting our customers from those who abuse Steam for purposes such as spamming and phishing, Meaning that users will need to spend $5 on the service before they can use them.

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Read more on Valve restricting the Steam Service for new users here.
 
Frankly I approve of this. I don't even know where they get my username since I don't put it in my signature or anywhere that obvious but every week I get friend requests from people who "my friend wants to trade with you, click this link". I'm tired of it...
 
as above, 100% approve of this, I get randoms all the time with lvl1 private profiles spamming random links.

£5 is a fair price for stuff like chat and social functionality.
 
as above, 100% approve of this, I get randoms all the time with lvl1 private profiles spamming random links.

£5 is a fair price for stuff like chat and social functionality.

So your saying that people need to pay up to use a chat feature, thats a bit mad imo.

The principle behind valve decision is good though, but it wont stop all of the spammers. As long as you play any mp game on steam your name can get written down and shared by those people even if you never have it on a signature.
 
I can approve with the idea, but I don't really like the fact that you have to pay in order to use the features of the software. I mean, I have some games on Steam, like COD and CS:GO, but I don't play all that much and for me to actually have to pay for something I barely use, just in order to "have" the functionality, is a bit reckless in my eyes.

Look at Origin, does it have these issues?... I don't know, I don't think so. Yet, they don't do this. But then again, Steam and Origin are completely different and Steam offers more than Origin, I think anyway... in terms of al these sell/buy/trade thingys going on.

Someone will most likely go on about me for this post, but this is just my personal opinion on it :)
 
This is definitely a good thing, although restricting the ability to chat to friends doesn't make that much sense (regardless of a user having spent the required $5).
 
I can approve with the idea, but I don't really like the fact that you have to pay in order to use the features of the software. I mean, I have some games on Steam, like COD and CS:GO, but I don't play all that much and for me to actually have to pay for something I barely use, just in order to "have" the functionality, is a bit reckless in my eyes.

Look at Origin, does it have these issues?... I don't know, I don't think so. Yet, they don't do this. But then again, Steam and Origin are completely different and Steam offers more than Origin, I think anyway... in terms of al these sell/buy/trade thingys going on.

Someone will most likely go on about me for this post, but this is just my personal opinion on it :)

If you read the news you will discover that you don't have to spend 5 bucks to use the social features. You have to spend 5 bucks on the steam platform for those to be unlocked. That includes buying games. Since you have cod and cs:go you're good to go.
 
It's an excellent idea, I mean who has steam these days who hasn't bought a game on it? or has a game registered to it?

Any concerns about over-restriction seem completely moot at this point. I wouldn't concentrate on that as a bad point at all
 
FINALLY

I'm fed up with being added by people who're trying to get hold of my account. The first step was adding a capcha to sending inventory items but now this is even better.

For once, steam seems to have made an effort.
 
Never had all these spam messages people are talking about.
But i have no problems with this set up..
You get steam.. you buy a game.. You talk to friends to play said game..

you do not get steam. not buy anything. talk to people about the weather/game trades/other bull..

honestly if you have no games on steam then what buisiness have you got to talk to any one using steam..
I do understand there are SOME (rare situations) where you may want to have steam and not pay for any games but still want to use the functionality..

I.E
A man and his wife find a free to play game on steam. and decide to play it together whilst one of them is away on a trip.
At home they just have 1 steam account they both use on seperate computers at the same time for different games.
To play the free to play game online together they make a new account for one of them..
They try to communicate via steam but cannot.. Now they have to spend £5 to enable the feature but gain a game on an account that may never be used again (JOY)

also you cannot Gift a steam game to some one who has not bought a game already. "some one mentioned that last month"

so I can see 1 small issue with it, but apart from that i think its a good idea.
perhaps you could also Manually add a player your self to your steam list and then you can talk to eachother bypassing the £5 thing.
 
FINALLY

I'm fed up with being added by people who're trying to get hold of my account. The first step was adding a capcha to sending inventory items but now this is even better.

For once, steam seems to have made an effort.
Dosent realy stop them though thay can just buy a steam gift card to get unrestricted and use it on there real account.
 
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Dosent realy stop them though thay can just buy a steam gift card to get unrestricted and use it on there real account.

As long as they remove these people who find loop holes like that then they will eventually get sick and tired of having to spend money to harass people..

Perhaps a better idea would be a they have to buy something and make a refundable payment amount of say £1 which has to be processed for a set length of time. "cannot be bought with a pre paid card"
Which appears in your PayPal/credit card statement as
"STEAM VERIFICATION PAYMENT"
this payment gets refunded in 10 working days or something. and if it is reported as a illegal transaction "because paypal was hacked or cc stolen" then the account is shut down.

if payment was not from a stolen hacked account then you have the account users details. and any form of harassment/scamming can be delt with accordingly. perhaps something allong the lined of shutting down any and every steam account associated with the card/pp account? "although even typing that out i can see a million ways that could back fire" so maybe only 1 steam account per pp/cc
 
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I've never had any issues with the spamming. Not once have i ever gotten anything.. I have know about the issue but never been effected by it
 
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