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[Arkam]

Pretty unreasonable. I have a Steam account purely for TF2, which I got for free. I have no other interest in Steam and will never buy a game.

Now I can't add people if I decide to play it again.

So you use their service and dont think its fair to give them $5? If you have played more than 1 hour you would have gotten your worth. Besides its REALLY REALLY REALLY easy to spend $5 on steam games when they are on sale.

Seriously, this is a good thing people. I use to operate F2P games and I BEGGED upper management to allow me to implement something like this. (I was only asking for $1). When users have zero financial investment there are horrid consequences. This is not making Steam a sub model, its simply adding risk for abusers.

Good on you Valve!

 

[Shiggy]

A new revenue stream. Never bought anything on Steam despite having more than 100 games. Then again, the client is so bad that I don't even bother about most of these features.

 

[MUnited83]

Is it confirmed indie bundles would work? I mean... retail games are basically steam keys too, no?

There's essentially no difference between a key from a indie bundle and a key from a retail title. So one could get a cheap 10 cents steam key easily to validate a bot. Ergo, making retail activations lift the limit wouldn't really work.

So why do activated retail games not count? I mean you pay at least as much as for a digital copy, no?

I'm not a PC gamer, but that sounds like they want to make more from it than just verifying real users...

Read above.

 

[RionaaM]

So why do activated retail games not count? I mean you pay at least as much as for a digital copy, no?

I'm not a PC gamer, but that sounds like they want to make more from it than just verifying real users...

It has already been said, because of bundles with lots of games for $1.

I wonder how would people react if Microsoft or Sony put things like friends invite behind a paywall.

I think they already did...

 

[Reebot]

Pretty unreasonable. I have a Steam account purely for TF2, which I got for free. I have no other interest in Steam and will never buy a game.

Now I can't add people if I decide to play it again.

Sorry to blow your mind but you aren't actually a customer of Valve's, so they probably aren't too concerned.

 

[Nightbird]

I'm not even sure i spent 5$ on Steam itself. I always went for Keys and Humble Bundles, so i don't remember. I guess i'll have to install Steam tomorrow to give it a Look.

 

[cyba89]

I wonder how would people react if Microsoft or Sony put things like friends invite behind a paywall.

You already have to pay $50 a year there to play something with your friends.
A one-time $5 payment wouldn't hurt them too much I guess.

 

[Dawg]

There's essentially no difference between a key from a indie bundle and a key from a retail title. So one could get a cheap 10 cents steam key easily to validate a bot. Ergo, making retail activations lift the limit wouldn't really work.




Read above.

Oh, right. I misunderstood your post, my bad ^^

 

[Hylian7]

Good, although I will miss amusing things like this.

 

[Wallach]

I wonder how would people react if Microsoft or Sony put things like friends invite behind a paywall.

It's not really the same, because the platform costs don't start at the same point. To even boot up Microsoft or Sony's OS at all you've already paid in.

 

[CecilRousso]

Great move. $5 is pretty much nothing, and it will help against [unassigned]. I've barely been bothered by that since I started using Steam in 2007, but have gotten 5 or 6 of those friend requests the last two weeks.

$5 that you will be able to spend on whatever you want on Steam is not a paywall.

 

[Anustart]

This is why I love valve. Everytime improve protection.

 

[Maintenance]

Thank god, spammers can go to hell.

 

[Armaros]

No, it's not a lot. But it's still paying for basic functionality, especially since activating retail games - you know, games that you paid for and due to used DRM are forced to use Steam - doesn't cancel the limit. So I can have tons of retail games activated on Steam and Valve would still regard me as a spambot.

I wonder how would people react if Microsoft or Sony put things like friends invite behind a paywall.

I guess having to buy a console to get on their network is not a pay wall. Or paying for gold and ps+

Edit also ITT : "I am a loyal valve customer that has paid zero dollars for hundreds of hours of game time on Valve games, how dare they!!!!!"

 

[SteveWinwood]

Good, although I will miss amusing things like this.

you change the hook?

its me your brother hylian

 

[Zimbardo]

great move. anything that helps cut down on spam is good and $5 is nothing.

 

[Hylian7]

you change the hook?

its me your brother hylian

How many ladies are we talking Steve? This is important.

 

[fluffydelusions]

I get invites every day of people trying to scam me out of my TF2 items. I'm glad this is coming.

same pretty much. Hopefully this stops that

 

[Reallink]

I wonder if they surveyed a ton of bot accounts and determined $5 was enough to wipe out most of them vs $10.

It's probably too low. I don't know what sort of spam or malware/fishing links they peddle, but $5 seems a low barrier of entry that would pay for itself many times over with a single bite.

 

[Tagyhag]

Good, spammers were annoying and if someone isn't willing to pay a measly $5 for some amazing games that you can't find anywhere else, they're not worth catering to in the first place.

Sucks for the people that got thousands of free hours on TF2 and the like, boy are they being ripped off for all that time of entertainment.

 

[Demigod Mac]

Wouldn't be surprised if it's a temporary measure and they come up with some alternate means of validating an account.

Seriously, just try and think of a way that couldn't be abused by spammers. It's pretty difficult.

And $5 for lifetime full access to Steam is pretty reasonable. It's half the cost of one large pizza.

 

[AndyMoogle]

Good, although I will miss amusing things like this.

Wow, you didn't change the hook for many ladies?

 

[ghostjoke]

I was "eh" at first but considering what it's fighting against, and the value you can get for 5 dollars on steam, reasonable. Seriously, using steam's backend and not even willing to chip over 5 dollars when you have this http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=ut2 to choose from. If this is a big enough deal to you, you might want to consider stop playing games to conserve electricity.

 

[Armaros]

Good, spammers were annoying and if someone isn't willing to pay a measly $5 for some amazing games that you can't find anywhere else, they're not worth catering to in the first place.

Sucks for the people that got thousands of free hours on TF2 and the like, boy are they being ripped off for all that time of entertainment.

All that game time wasn't worth 5 dollars, not even with the chance to make money off of Valve games because of the market, apparently.

If you have played any of valves f2p games for hundreds of hours as people here have said, you made back that 5 bucks in item drops.

 

[Ingueferroque]

Does this mean I can't use the phone app to talk to a few friends?

What? It's using the same account. So, did you spend more than $5 on Steam with your account?

 

[desmax]

I'm fine with it. Seems like everyday there's a spambot trying to add me

 

[Miles Quaritch]

Pretty sneaky...

Build up a huge user base, put out two very popular free to play games and then demand people give you $5 to use basic functions.

I mean, they could just ask people link a CC/DC to their account instead of a cash payment, but hey, they felt a cash grab was a better idea.

 

[pinkurocket]

Well. It's a bit silly since you can easily build a library with games from bundles etc. It's a bit of an awkward step to have to activate your steam account by spending 5$ before you can add your purchased Steam keys in such a case... But at the same time this is good because it's so annoying to get random friend requests that are obviously just fake accounts trying to steal mah stuff!

Edit: oh woops you can still activate keys even with a free account, sorry.

 

[mrlion]

I haven't had any spambots sending me friend requests either. This is cool I guess...

 

[Sendou]

I mean, they could just ask people link a CC/DC to their account instead of a cash payment, but hey, they felt a cash grab was a better idea.

So what about people who have neither? Or have no desire to share their CC information with Valve?

 

[Ingueferroque]

Pretty unreasonable. I have a Steam account purely for TF2, which I got for free. I have no other interest in Steam and will never buy a game.

Now I can't add people if I decide to play it again.

Since you have no interest in Steam and will never buy a game on it, I guess there is no problem then?

 

[Cozmogramma]

So he got a thousand hours of entertaiment out of steam and this is not worth $5 for him?

The thousand odd hours of gameplay he's enjoyed for nothing should soften the blow of having to cough up $5.

Of course it's worth $5 for him. It's worth much than that. But he can't pay those $5 now or any time soon, and neither can I. And we shouldn't be forced to pay that, but now we have to if he wants to be able to use basic functions and features.

Besides, Valve already got their money when I gifted the game to him in the first place.

 

[Krappadizzle]

Thank fuck for this.

 

[Gr8one]

Are these friend requests a TF2 thing? I feel kinda left out missing all the spam invites ;P

 

[Red Hood]

Can't say it's too unreasonable. But do you have to buy directly on Steam or are authorised resellers okay too? Either way, no problems for me. Sounds like a fair solution to the problems (though I fortunately don't have those problems).

 

[MissileTrick]

What? It's using the same account. So, did you spend more than $5 on Steam with your account?

I usually get keys from Amazon, and if I understood correctly it wouldn't count right?

 

[Orniletter]

That's shitty. I gifted CS:GO to my brother last year and he's been playing it for 300 hours, and 700 on TF2 before that. Now they remove basic features from him to use and he need to pay $5 to be able to use those features again. That's really fucking shitty. But I guess that's just Valve being Valve.

Your brother got 1000 hours of entertainment literally for free.

I'm sure he won't mind spending 5 bucks in return.

 

[Forsaken82]

I have been on steam since the beginning and hardly ever get random friend requests...

Must be because I don't play Dota 2...

 

[Visualante2]

Another crappy move from Valve imo. I appreciate the group think is in favour of this and I expect to be hammered for it. Valve built their empire on treating their users like Kings. Now they are slowly turning their back on that.

 

[SteveWinwood]

I have been on steam since the beginning and hardly ever get random friend requests...

Must be because I don't play Dota 2...

its definitely tied to having an open inventory and stuff in it

automated scanners and what not

 

[MUnited83]

Well. It's a bit silly since you can easily build a library with games from bundles etc. It's a bit of an awkward step to have to activate your steam account by spending 5$ before you can add your purchased Steam keys in such a case... But at the same time this is good because it's so annoying to get random friend requests that are obviously just fake accounts trying to steal mah stuff!

? You can still add your steam keys even if you're limited.

 

[darkside31337]

I was "eh" at first but considering what it's fighting against, and the value you can get for 5 dollars on steam, reasonable. Seriously, using steam's backend and not even willing to chip over 5 dollars when you have this http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=ut2 to choose from. If this is a big enough deal to you, you might want to consider stop playing games to conserve electricity.

I seriously wonder how people would feel if Apple did something similar locking features on iOS unless you forked over $5 at some point on the store.

You can play F2P games without spending money. You can play games gifted to you by friends or family relatives without spending money. Like I agree $5 is not much but its still shit for those people it does impact.

 

[Woo-Fu]

This seems like a good idea except for the fact that unless I'm reading it wrong activating steam keys that come with retail purchases wont unlock it either which kind of sucks for people out there that just buy physical copies of games and don't want to spend money in the steam store directly (people without credit cards for example). Like if you are trying to prevent bots from making accounts for free it seems like allowing keys from retail purchases to unlock your account would accomplish the same goal.

People without credit cards can use debit and/or buy pre-paid. The only people who can't put $5 into Steam are the people who don't have $5 and change to begin with. People who don't have $5 and change have better things to do with their time than build friend networks on Steam.

I seriously wonder how people would feel if Apple did something similar locking features on iOS unless you forked over $5 at some point on the store.

As if those people haven't already paid Apple more than $5, lol. Bad comparison.

 

[Htown]

If this stops the friend request spam I'm all for it.

 

[Hylian7]

Another crappy move from Valve imo. I appreciate the group think is in favour of this and I expect to be hammered for it. Valve built their empire on treating their users like Kings. Now they are slowly turning their back on that.

Go take a look at that screenshot above. I get at least 1-2 of those (most of them much less entertaining and more stupid) a week. It is really annoying. $5 is nothing, you can stand to spend $5.

 

[Tagyhag]

All that game time wasn't worth 5 dollars, not even with the chance to make money off of Valve games because of the market, apparently.

If you have played any of valves f2p games for hundreds of hours as people here have said, you made back that 5 bucks in item drops.

But that money that you get back can only be used on more games, and then you gotta pay for internet costs too! Valve just being Valve.

 

[Hylian7]

I seriously wonder how people would feel if Apple did something similar locking features on iOS unless you forked over $5 at some point on the store.

You can play F2P games without spending money. You can play games gifted to you by friends or family relatives without spending money. Like I agree $5 is not much but its still shit for those people it does impact.

Last time I checked, (unless you are talking about SteamOS), Steam isn't an operating system. These are completely non-comparable things.

 

[SteveWinwood]

i mean im definitely not for requiring money spent to access steam features

i just cant think of a better solution

im just imaging captchas everywhere *shiver*

 

[Sendou]

Go take a look at that screenshot above. I get at least 1-2 of those (most of them much less entertaining and more stupid) a week. It is really annoying. $5 is nothing, you can stand to spend $5.

Not only annoying but there have been accounts lost due to phishing. This is an actual thing that will prevent some of the account stolen in the future.

 

[MillionStabs]

Wow, this is the most harsh restriction.

It makes sense, since free games have trading cards which bots could farm for money, albeit relatively small amounts