I don't trust Valve anymore.

[Ldude893]

I do not know how or why, but Valve has suddenly become worse overnight, sometime after the so-called "Mann-conomy update". First microtransactions (which would be okay by themselves, mind you), Polycount hats giving gameplay benefits, and crates that can only be opened by spending money - but now even trading is not safe. Valve have taken liking to disabling entire Steam accounts if their owners are accused of scamming in TF2, even if those accusations are false. The punishment for item scamming is actually worse than for cheating: VAC only forbids you from playing the game you were banned in, but account disablement takes away all of your games that were on it, and you can't do anything about it because theoretically, Valve can terminate your account anytime and for any reason.

In the example i want to bring to everyone's attention, one guy has lost his account because he refused to revert one deal, and it took him four days to get it back. Another one lost every item in his TF2 backpack because he was accused of scamming, with a warning that his account (which is worth 1000 English pounds) will be permanently disabled should he get reported one more time. Valve... what the hell is wrong with you?! I trusted you and thought you were called "the most community-centric developer in the industry" for a reason, but seems i was wrong!

Proof is in this thread

Untill Valve stop doing such things (IF they ever stop), i don't think i am going to play a lot of TF2, and neither will i spend any money on Steam. Who's with me?

[small]DISCLAIMER: i'm a bit more paranoid than your Average Joe, and i don't like such a disproportionate retribution for hat-related scams.[/small]

The guy got his account back after a small investigation. Chill out..
While I disagree with some decisions that Valve has made, they really do give out a fair apology and fair compensation to fans after making mistakes. Few months ago, Valve accidentally banned a large number of MW2 players for cheating, and as an apology for their mistake they gave all the former ban victims a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2.
Valve's not turning into a dicatorship akin to Activision, at least not yet.

 

[Snotnarok]

I'm not going to just boycott them because of something so stupidly minor.

I'm not boycotting Valve per se, i will simply stop playing TF2 (see below) and will not spend any substantial sums of money on Steam (not that i ever truly did). Maybe i'll buy Portal 2, maybe not... we'll see.

This hardly seems like something to happen to the average TF2 player.

I hope so, i really do.

So you're going to base your enjoyment over one event that has very little proof and no real backing that effects you in no way whatsoever?

That's your choice, personally if it is true the guy is a moron for doing a trade like that with someone he doesn't know personally.

 

[Scarecrow]

I think that you may be forgeting that valve made the best game ever.

 

[Kollega]

So you're going to base your enjoyment over one event that has very little proof and no real backing that effects you in no way whatsoever?

No, i mean that even wihtout this, i've kinda lost my enjoyment of TF2.

Just so you know those virtual hats are god damned expensive, some of them cost the same amount as TF2 itself. Hacking and cheating is free and only costs time, but that hat could have costed real money.

I know that. And now that i remember that you CAN trade items you've bought, it seems a bit more justified. Then again, hat prices are positively ridiculous if you ask me, and hats still aren't worth as much as that guy's Steam account.

 

[Snotnarok]

So you're going to base your enjoyment over one event that has very little proof and no real backing that effects you in no way whatsoever?

No, i mean that even wihtout this, i've kinda lost my enjoyment of TF2.

Just so you know those virtual hats are god damned expensive, some of them cost the same amount as TF2 itself. Hacking and cheating is free and only costs time, but that hat could have costed real money.

I know that. And now that i remember that you CAN trade items you've bought, it seems a bit more justified. Then again, hat prices are positively ridiculous if you ask me, and hats still aren't worth as much as that guy's Steam account.

That's your business I'm not going to judge you for losing interest in a game. Though if you're going to be upset at a company find a better reason with more than one image from a real company. Really there's been plenty of people getting their steam accounts disabled for various reasons this pic could be from any one of those.

Personally I don't care, companies have done shitty things that I've gone against like Ubisoft and their fucking insulting DRM and I will not buy one of their games with that garbage in it, that goes the same for any company.

This? It's a matter of circumstance and you're only hearing one side of the story, which I find one sided and not terribly believable.

Edit: I think everyone here is a little bit shy of psychotically paranoid, I don't think valve are about to pull away a mask revealing some nasty demon that likes screwing customers over. That's called bad business and that rarely pays off.

 

[Sven und EIN HUND]

As soon as real life money got involved I knew shit would go down.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

To be honest that guy do deserve a punishment for not acting in good faith. The trade agreement was base on the assumption that the guy will personally do the raffle and with a fix schedule. He then turns the control to a third party who wasn't involve in the trade in the first place and still thinks he deserves the hat. What a douche bag.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Wait? So he got punished for not giving something back he stole? Well i guess thats fair. For the people that has been unfairly banned for scamming i say the same as with the Anti-Piracy DRMS. Its the people who do scamming's fault that those who dont sometimes gets unjustly punished. Point your rage at them and not at valve.

 

[Ze_Reaper_Of_Zeath]

I loved Valve, with all my joy, but Valve, please don't make the sets hatbased.

Please, just because the guy next to me, has about 20 bucks to spare for a hat, he gets bonuses. I've lost my intrest in it, because TF2 has become a bit unbalanced.

 

[Aphex Demon]

What is this whole trading system and new items thing? I played it up until the player updates in which we had the choice of different items equipped, now there is a trading side of things!? Woah, sweet.

OT: Valve can sometimes be like that, I rememeber with people who used Aimbots on CSS they had a 0% Tolerence ban, therefore you were unable to negotiate the ban, which tbh seems all well and good, but I recall some people just having programs running in the background and VAC would pic it up as a hack.

 

[Aphex Demon]

as long as Valve delivers Portal 2 and HL2E3 they still have my loyalty

Yeah, I cant wait for that game

I think that you may be forgeting that valve made the best game ever.

THE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEMAAN

 

[RYjet911]

Valve lost me when they stoped updating Half-Life 2 deathmatch

It is still being updated, kinda. Whenever Counter Strike: Source gets an update it's normally engine-related, so HL2: Deathmatch gets the same treatment.

 

[RadiusXd]

Wait, so you don't like optional microtransactions, hats that actually do things and an optional trading system to get the stuff you've been missing for ages? Of course there's going to be a few hiccups at first. Remember the wrongful COD6 bans? It all got fixed in the end, give them time.

Exactly, I for one like Valve even more now, not only do we get a bunch of free content... but the 5 people who made the 'Polycount Pack' got 25% of the money it earned... 25% = 47.000$... FOURTY SEVEN THOUSAND DOLLARS! each... how can you not love someone who gives credit to the creative community by paying them such an amount of money?

that adds to 125% of the profit, may want to revisit the math.

 

[Sampsa]

These oversized countermeasures seem to be rising fad among game studios. Losing your whole account for misconduct / cheat / hack in one game?

 

[Smooth Operator]

Ya this Steam business is quite iffy, when it works well it's all very convenient, but when shit hits the fan you just might loose all your stuff.
Altho I have the Orange Box I don't use Steam due to what happened to my neighbor, he bought a bunch of games on Steam and his account got "hacked" allegedly, and he couldn't get it back even after weeks of negotiations with the Steam help center, lost all his newest games in one swoop...

They really need alot more redundancy built in for this, when you pay for something it hasto be dead certain it's yours, and doesn't just get deleted when the mood strikes an admin.

 

[Mechsoap]

well he traded the hat for something he wanted in return, now that he regrets doing it, is a part of life. So beat it. Reporting someone for a fair trade is hardly justified.