Valve gives game developers power to issue Steam bans

Steam bans can now be requested by a particular game developer for Valve to enforce.

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Valve has been handing out Steam bans for years now, but the company has revealed it will now allow game developers to hand out bans with Valve enforcing their request.

The Steam Community describes what a developer-based game ban will entail. “In order to ensure the best possible online multiplayer experience, Valve allows developers to implement their own systems that detect and permanently ban any disruptive players, such as those using cheats,” the page says.

Valve wants no part of a Steam user’s rage as it states “the game developer is solely responsible for the decision to apply a game ban. Valve only enforces the game ban as instructed by the game developer.” In other words, a Steam user is going to have to bug the game developer that requested said ban, although if they probably have a good reason why that particular player should no longer play their game.

We have always felt cheaters should never prosper, so passing the buck to game developers could turn out to be a good thing as they will most likely be more on top of its community and its trouble makers. There are some games whose online multiplayer modes are completely unplayable due to cheaters, so having the game developers instructing Valve to do away with them will hopefully finally level the playing ground.

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  • reply
    April 30, 2015 7:55 AM

    Daniel Perez posted a new article, Valve gives game developers power to issue Steam bans

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 7:59 AM

      As long its multiplayer only, doesn't affect me.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:42 PM

        It's multiplayer only. From the Steam faq on game bans: /It cannot prevent the user from launching and playing the game offline. It cannot prevent the user from using Steam./
        It's basically just giving game devs VAC ban rights. The faq even says as much.

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 7:59 AM

      As long as the bans only apply to multiplayer, I'm fine with it.

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 8:12 AM

      Oh boy, you can hear the storm coming...

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 8:48 AM

      Does the ban still apply to all games on the Steam account? I'd be slightly concerned that this could be abused by some of the shitty smaller developers that get onto Steam. I can see VAC bans handed out for saying something bad about a game on its forum etc.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:07 AM

        the wording steam offers makes it sound like it's only for the game, "Game Ban".

        if it was all vac, that'd be fucked.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:15 AM

        I'm sorry, but this is the risk you take when posting to the forums.

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 9:07 AM

      Good. It will allow developers like Overkill to ban people from Payday 2 who cheat as in the past since the game isn't VAC protected there was really nothing they could do to punish cheaters.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:23 AM

        I hope all the I-100 players get banned now.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:04 AM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          April 30, 2015 11:43 AM

          Coop but takes a bit of 'grinding' to get the money for all the guns and masks.

          You go in and see people who have trillions in their ingame account, which would take (realistically) thousands upon thousands of man hours.

        • reply
          April 30, 2015 1:11 PM

          Yes it is, but there are people who still cheat by spawning in 1000's of bags of cash, enemies, make it so you instantly finish a game, get all the levels and achievements in 10 seconds. Can ruin your game when you actually want to play it and not deal with people trolling you.

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 9:13 AM

      Hello,
      Why should this only apply to multiplayer or even to that particular game? IMHO, any game developer should have the power to ban a single user, at their own discretion, for EVERY game, and single player as well as multiplayer. and there should be NO recourse for any banned user.
      Using Steam is a privilege, not a right, and if a user has nothing to hide, they have nothing to worry about.

      Let a user beg a developer for "forgiveness", and if the developer wants the user to "pay up", then so be it.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:15 AM

        I'm assuming a troll post? Why should a user ever be banned from a single player experience?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:15 AM

        Well that's kind of fucked. Glad you aren't in charge.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 9:17 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:06 AM

        1/10 got me to reply

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:11 AM

        That opinion doesn't sound very humble, IMHO.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:13 AM

        said noone10 ever

        • reply
          April 30, 2015 10:44 AM

          Seriously, trolling over.
          I think this could be a good idea so long as there IS recourse for the player, and actions that could be taken towards developers, of ANY size, who try to ban players without a good reason.

          Yes, like all of you, I HATE cheaters ruining games, and it's not always possible for Valve to tell if someone is cheating. The developers could know when Valve may not.
          But the individual user should be notified when this ban takes place, and for what game and reason, and have the opportunity to respond. Banning someone for a forum post, for example, should be an absolute no-no (without a good reason), and this should only be for that ONE game, only for multiplayer, and only for the protected servers, and could include timed bans as a warning. Maybe something the user is doing might look like cheating when it's not, or there could be situations where someone hijacks an account and tells the original owner if they go to Steam for help they will get all their multiplayer games banned, which I have heard account hijackers like doing. In that case, the original user should be able to go to Steam and get their account suspended until they get it back, with any bans that result immediately removed.

          But one thing needs to happen. Steam needs much, much better user support, including phone support and live chat support. I am sick and tired of sending emails for support for something completely different, only to be told to "reinstall Steam". I've sent support emails to tell Valve that parts of Steam were down, backed up by external websites on other computers that verify this, only to be told to "reinstall steam". Also, Valve needs to add more servers to Steam. Parts of Steam are still very slow, such as the Steam store or the profile page.

          Hope this helps.

          • reply
            April 30, 2015 11:07 AM

            There's no valid reason I can think of for a player to be banned from a single player game other than perhaps having stolen it.

          • reply
            April 30, 2015 11:12 AM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              April 30, 2015 11:57 AM

              There are definitely some developers who act in a rather childish way to criticism.

          • reply
            April 30, 2015 12:55 PM

            [deleted]

            • reply
              April 30, 2015 1:18 PM

              Nintendo should have been able to blow out the capacitors in my NES the second it detected a game genie was inserted

              • reply
                April 30, 2015 1:32 PM

                Knowing Nintendo, they probably would do something like this if they were capable and even remotely thought they could get away with it lol

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:34 AM

        Hello

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:36 AM

        cry more?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:38 AM

        this really made me think

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:40 AM

        F minus minus

        See me after class.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:45 AM

        i really hope you're genuine. a one off troll account just for this would be a shame.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 10:58 AM

        Are you running for president next year?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:04 AM

        Whose character account is this?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:05 AM

        Lavaman character account right?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:07 AM

        If you're going to troll dude, you might want to try to be a little more subtle.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:51 AM

        I see a lot of posts calling you a troll, but I want to let you know that I really do believe that you are that obtuse.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 11:53 AM

        You must get pwned in multiplayer games often.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 12:47 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 1:16 PM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 1:45 PM

        You are cute. Keep training for now.

      • reply
        May 1, 2015 9:20 PM

        Thumbscrews, too. Don't forget the tumbscrews.

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 12:05 PM

      This is something developers have always had the power to do if they were using their own multiplayer authentication, but I guess not if they were using Steamworks for multiplayer. So this is not really anything new - just Valve giving developers more control over their own games (and their own games alone)

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 12:42 PM

      What are the chances Rockstar actually uses this against people exploiting GTA trainers online?

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 12:45 PM

        If they are using them online then I don't see a problem with banning them.

        • reply
          April 30, 2015 12:46 PM

          I don't have a problem with it either, I was just musing about bans actually happening. Trainer usage is pretty rampant right now in public lobbies.

      • reply
        April 30, 2015 12:46 PM

        Rockstar is running their own multiplayer authentication so they could always do this

    • reply
      April 30, 2015 2:45 PM

      Holy shit, that's kind of awesome I think.

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