Steam discussion

[x3kj 1247]

So I got it wrong, and it refers to Valve's own games, not the entire Steam library. It's still quite an incentive.

What? Quite an incentive to work several months (or years?) on software? For that? Not sure what you are smoking :P

Half life 2, portal 2, some decade old titles and some f2p games. No actual developer or business would be bribed by that...You bribe by money or hard value and not some overpriced Valve-Game-Collection. I'd rather have an icecream. :rolleyes:

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Valve has changed the Steam refund policy.

Baseline rule for refunds is

You can request a refund for nearly any purchase on Steam—for any reason. Maybe your PC doesn't meet the hardware requirements; maybe you bought a game by mistake; maybe you played the title for an hour and just didn't like it.

...

The Steam refund offer, within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime, applies to games and software applications on the Steam store.

...

With some exceptions for specific cases, full read here.

[Tonci87 163]

Valve has changed the Steam refund policy.

Baseline rule for refunds is

With some exceptions for specific cases, full read here.

Well they finally choose to comply with the EU laws, took them long enough.

within two weeks of purchase and with less than two hours of playtime

that sounds reasonable enough.

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Well they finally choose to comply with the EU laws, took them long enough.

I don't think EU laws had much to do with it. A standardized pipeline for refunds with defined rules probably benefits Valve more than not having it.

As Steam has become much less curated and everyone and their dog jumping on the early access, many more titles have become riskier buys. It helps slightly with that issue by allowing customers being able to backtrack on their potentially impulse decision. It's much easier to impulse buy something when you have a "I can return it" in the back of your mind, and even such purchases are probably not going to be refunded anyway.

You now have a grace period to reconsider in cases where it's obvious that what you thought you were paying for isn't what you actually got.

Origin and their refund policy for their own games also probably had some minor impact. Competition is good. :)

that sounds reasonable enough.

Another thing to mention which might not be obvious right off the bat, is that preorders are also refundable this way (but if I remember correctly, they were before too). Even if you preordered ages ago, you still get 2 days / 2 hours with the game when it's released to back away.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Sniperwolf572

[Sniperwolf572 758]

TB expands on my views, as to why this is an overall benefit to Valve, that I mentioned in the first two paragraphs of the previous post.

[Nuttex 10]

Another thing to mention which might not be obvious right off the bat, is that preorders are also refundable this way (but if I remember correctly, they were before too). Even if you preordered ages ago, you still get 2 days / 2 hours with the game when it's released to back away.

You mean two weeks? The way it works now, in addition to the previous policy of allowing pre-orders to be refunded at any point prior to product release, they now allow you to refund games within two weeks of initial launch (as well as the two hour limit).

Another interesting thing someone's noticed is the warning Steam gives you if you attempt to refund a game that was purchased 6 months ago or more - it says that you can't refund anything bought outside of that 6 month window. I think I may have an explanation for this: the new refund system permits automatic refunds with no reason given within two weeks (as per the cooling off period in the EU) and if you played less than two hours. However, if you fall out of that category, but attempt to refund the product within 6 months of purchase, you will get your money back as long as you provide a valid reason (what that reason might be is up to question). There has to be a reason why they put up that 6 month warning.

Also, the refund policy states that if you bought a game for full price right before the sale and then refunded it only to buy it again discounted on sale, Valve will not consider that an abuse of the system.

Edited June 8, 2015 by nuttex

[Sniperwolf572 758]

You mean two weeks? The way it works now, in addition to the previous policy of allowing pre-orders to be refunded at any point prior to product release, they now allow you to refund games within two weeks of initial launch (as well as the two hour limit).

Yep, no clue why I typed days instead of weeks. :D

[nettrucker 142]

Hi there

 

I am a bit in trouble but my steam client doesn't seem to work anymore. It seems that Steam has been under attack yesterday. I received constant error messages, languages were switched several times I had games in my cart that I haven't even purchased.  :391:I had to change my password today to log in to my account. I can't find my library. I can't launch any game.

Nothing happens if I click on my steam client icon to get access to my account.  Any ideas what I can do a part from contacting steam support.

Thanks for your help.

 

EDIT: I gotta correct myself   According to SteamDB it's caching gone wrong.

 

https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/680492664610000896

 

WTF

[the_noob 88]

Hi there

 

I am a bit in trouble but my steam client doesn't seem to work anymore. It seems that Steam has been under attack yesterday. I received constant error messages, languages were switched several times I had games in my cart that I haven't even purchased.  :391:I had to change my password today to log in to my account. I can't find my library. I can't launch any game.

Nothing happens if I click on my steam client icon to get access to my account.  Any ideas what I can do a part from contacting steam support.

Thanks for your help.

 

EDIT: I gotta correct myself   According to SteamDB it's caching gone wrong.

 

https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/680492664610000896

 

WTF

 

Sounds like damage control. ;p

 

But yeah, Steam is not a safe place anymore either. I wonder if BI and other companies will opt for their own alternatives to Steam now. Not sure how much more proprietary DRM PC players could still handle though.

[nettrucker 142]

Sounds like damage control. ;p

 

But yeah, Steam is not a safe place anymore either. I wonder if BI and other companies will opt for their own alternatives to Steam now. Not sure how much more proprietary DRM PC players could still handle though.

I have a Steam account for a month now or so. I'm still not very familiar with how everything works. What pains me the most is that I feel that I do not really have control about the games I purchased. Downloading and installing takes an insane amount of time as updating as well. Sadly the only reason why I opened a Steam account in a first place was due to the fact that gamers gate started to remove video games from my library which have been non Steam titles at the time of purchase. No warning whatsoever. They just removed it and gave me a steam access key. I've lost access to 4 games I was quite fond of. Contacting Support at gamers gate was useless. In the end my choices were to lose access to these games or to open a steam account. I hate it when things are being shoved down my throat but in the end I gave in and opened a Steam account.  Can someone give me some hints on how to access my games. Sorry for asking but I'm a Steam noob. Thanks for any help which is appreciated.

 

EDIT: I have solved my problems in the meantime but I was forced to change my password and had newly to fill out the payment terms form. WTF  I'm still struggling to see how Steam could be anything than an improvement to my gaming. Why the hell is everyone thinking that Steam is the best thing since sliced bread will be a mystery to me forever.

Rant over!!!!!! :681:

[chrisb 196]

I have a Steam account for a month now or so. I'm still not very familiar with how everything works. What pains me the most is that I feel that I do not really have control about the games I purchased. Downloading and installing takes an insane amount of time as updating as well. Sadly the only reason why I opened a Steam account in a first place was due to the fact that gamers gate started to remove video games from my library which have been non Steam titles at the time of purchase. No warning whatsoever. They just removed it and gave me a steam access key. I've lost access to 4 games I was quite fond of. Contacting Support at gamers gate was useless. In the end my choices were to lose access to these games or to open a steam account. I hate it when things are being shoved down my throat but in the end I gave in and opened a Steam account.  Can someone give me some hints on how to access my games. Sorry for asking but I'm a Steam noob. Thanks for any help which is appreciated.

 

What is showing up in your steam library ?

 

Have you 'verified the game cache' for each game that doesn't work ?

[nettrucker 142]

Solved everything. Thanks for replying. Even if it's been answered most probably a million times I still have to figure out how to do that LOL.

cheers

[chrisb 196]

Right click game in your library, 'properties', 'local files', 'verify integrity of game cache'..

 

;)

 

I know very little about steam, but I know that bit. Much better having a disc.

[nettrucker 142]

Thanks for the heads up I'm verifying now. In any case it seems now ok. Everything seems to be solved and I can access everything.

All the best

[Sniperwolf572 758]

...

EDIT: I gotta correct myself   According to SteamDB it's caching gone wrong.

 

https://twitter.com/SteamDB/status/680492664610000896

 

WTF

 

 

Sounds like damage control. ;p

 

But yeah, Steam is not a safe place anymore either. I wonder if BI and other companies will opt for their own alternatives to Steam now. Not sure how much more proprietary DRM PC players could still handle though.

 

It's not damage control, the symptoms were very obvious, it's what they say it is.

[dmarkwick 261]

Posted in error.

[chortles 263]

I wonder if BI and other companies will opt for their own alternatives to Steam now. Not sure how much more proprietary DRM PC players could still handle though.

Probably a matter of how pressed-for-time (explicitly why they did so in Arma 3's case), and how big the game is (since Ylands is not Steamworks), and how much of a difference "leaning on someone else's backend" would shave off development time/costs.

And being proprietary is no guarantee of being safe even in the short term, much less in perpetuity... anyone else remember the old DayZ (standalone) source code leak?

[Guest Freerider]

Any advice on how to fix the Alt + Tab option from steam, for when I'm in-game ARMA 3 ?

[R0adki11 3949]

Any advice on how to fix the Alt + Tab option from steam, for when I'm in-game ARMA 3 ?

Have you tried running Arma3 in full screen window mode?