Valve Now Allowing Banned Players Access to Games

Apparently, Valve had quietly implemented an account policy to allow banned players to access their games months ago.

Valve’s apparently updated its account policies to allow banned players to access their games. Previously, users who had been banned from their Steam account were locked out from playing their games, bringing up complaints about Steam’s DRM.

Valve’s change in policy was quietly implemented, according to a recent forum post by Steam forums Volunteer Moderator Heffebaycay, about two months ago. Heffebaycay’s response spawned out of a thread regarding EA’s recent policy change also allowing banned players to access their game.

Under the new policy, banned Steam members no longer have their accounts disabled but now have “account locking” set, meaning that while they’re able to access their games, they will be unable to buy games, redeem codes, or trade items.

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HEXiT , April 26, 2012 2:53 AM

if they get banned for cheating then the ban should stay in place for that game. as its the only real deterrent to playing with cheats enabled. locking them out of the account is a little harsh but they cant exactly complain when they get caught and are made an example of. so yeah ban em from playing the games they cheat on. if they do it again and again then close them out permanently.
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mi1ez , April 26, 2012 10:36 AM

ban them from the online multiplayer portions still, but give them offline modes.
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guanyu210379 , April 26, 2012 8:29 PM

"...they will be unable to buy games...."
I don't think this is a good idea...
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contrasia , May 1, 2012 10:57 PM

I agree with Mi1ez and HEXiT. Ban them from playing online, but not from single player or offline. If it's a multiplayer only game, then ban them from playing the game completely! They accepted the terms and conditions when they hit that install button, if they break them it's their own fault. There is absolutely NO REASON to give them leeway and allow them to ruin the experience for everyone else. If they moan, tough. There are far more loyal buyers out there than there are cheaters, and cheaters ruin the game and the experience.

EA only said yes to letting them back because they NEED people to use Origin. If it doesn't get enough *ahem* steam, then it'll never pickup and it'd fail as the online system they want it to be. There really is no reason why Steam should do the same. I can only imagine they allowed EA to implement their own terms for their specific games on Steam as part of an agreement into allowing Steam to sell their games. If not, then Steam is being insanely silly. If anything they should be increasing the effectiveness of their anti-cheat system that's already in place (VAC), and making it so it's more feasible for ALL the games they host that involve online play.