Do steam have the right to ban a player

[mjs warlord]

FIRST the reason for this thread.....


If you look at the discussions page for the game SATISFACTORY you will find a thread titled "feedback".

The posts by the author are huge , 1 person even put the posts into a word processor and it came back as over 13,000 characters , as you can imagine he got a lot of abuse from people who read these threads , some accused him of being on drugs and some were very abuse to him.

All i did was say the author had done multiple huge posts and needed to get a life , i think that somebody in the office is over reacting to what i have said as i do not feel that i have done anything wrong , if you check my profile you will see that i am 66 years old ....

Maybe they do have the right to ban me from future discussions but i do not feel that they have the legal right to ban me from using games that i have purchased through the steam client.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If i got banned from a high street games shop regardless of the reason why , i would still have all my games " on disc " at home so would be able to carry on using them.

QUESTION.....

Does steam have a legal right to ban ANY player regardless of the reason why.

Can they legally prevent a player for example , myself , from using the 80+ games that i have purchased since i started using their client a very long time ago.

 

[Colif]

reasons they ban accounts - https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/4F62-35F9-F395-5C23

Game bans - https://help.steampowered.com/en/faqs/view/46DB-4CEC-F7E9-49E5

I don't know if a game ban can extend to the lvl of restricted account

 

[mjs warlord]

Thanks for your quick feedback Colif , i clicked the top link and from what i have read it seems that i may have over reacted a bit , if i read things correctly it seems that steam can ban a player from community , i take it they mean they can block you out of discussions BUT only the devs of a game can ban you from using a game.

So i guess the worse case senario is i could be banned from discussions but they cant stop me using my collection of games.

 

[Pifanjr]

I don't think Steam bans accounts of accessing all their games just for posting insults. If that happened, you can contact Steam support and probably get it turned into a "harassment ban", which only limits your ability to interact with the community for a limited amount of time.

As for legally, I'm pretty sure Steam has the right to lock your account if you break their terms of service.

 

[Colif]

devs can also only ban you from the online part of a game, not the actual game.

Does the system for "permabanning" only apply to online multiplayer games, or any type of game?
The banning system only applies to multiplayer games. The new feature of displaying bans on Steam profiles therefore also only applies to multiplayer games.

Does this mean developers can take my games away from me?
No. The developer can only impose restrictions consistent with VAC, such as preventing online play and/or prevent the trading of items for that game.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I'm pretty interested in finding out what happens here. Let us know how this pans out for you. One thing I'm wondering is if they ban your account and you can still play your games, would you still be capable of re-downloading your games if you needed to?

One thing on a similar line: I know if you have an Oculus Quest 2, it's linked through your Facebook account. If your Facebook account gets banned, you lose access to all the games you bought through that account, and you're screwed. I have friends who were terrified of losing their investment just because they were worried about getting banned for their political ideology.

 

[mjs warlord]

Hi wooden ... i have been asked to comment on their decision to tag me dis respectful i have not yet had a reply .... watch this space

 

[Colif]

Semi related: once there is a metaverse, excommunication will be so painful for those that want to live in it.

 

[mjs warlord]

Hello wooden saucer you asked me for an update so here it is ....... steam said according to their records the disrespect warning was issued by the games maker and not by them , the thing is ..... other players on the discussions page have said to him ... stop this ****ing nonsence my eyes are bleeding ..... and others made reference to him being on drugs ..... and their comments are still their

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Hello wooden saucer you asked me for an update so here it is ....... steam said according to their records the disrespect warning was issued by the games maker and not by them , the thing is ..... other players on the discussions page have said to him ... stop this ****ing nonsence my eyes are bleeding ..... and others made reference to him being on drugs ..... and their comments are still their

Were you banned from playing the game, or just the discussion on the forum?

 

[mjs warlord]

Only given a warning about being disrespectful so i guess the best thing for me to do when somebody posts B.S. is for me to make no comment

 

[ZedClampet]

Only given a warning about being disrespectful so i guess the best thing for me to do when somebody posts B.S. is for me to make no comment

The only reason I've ever seen Steam actually ban someone, and I've been on hundreds of game forums, is because that person cheated in a multiplayer game or cheated someone in an item trade. I've never once heard of them moderating forums. That's strictly up to the game developers themselves and their community managers.

If you just got a warning, I wouldn't worry about it.

But the bottom line is that you aren't going to be banned from your game(s) unless you do something really serious.

I got banned from a forum once for calling out a developer for changing the name of their game and reselling it as a new game. I contacted Steam, and they reversed the ban, but asked me not to go back to that forum while they investigated the developer's behavior. Next thing you know, the game wasn't on Steam anymore. And once I accidentally cheated Steam out of a game, and they flagged my account and wouldn't let me purchase anything. I contacted their customer service and explained that my card had been stolen and my bank had reversed the game charge accidentally. They got back to me within minutes and apologized for locking my account and told me everything was fine, so I've actually been very impressed with how Valve handles its business.