Valve Games

[pandaking23]

I'm going to be get a new computer soon and I'll have to reinstall all my games. Sadly I bought Counter Strike Source so long ago and I've lost the little CD key+control sheet that came with it. I do have a legit steam account.

I was wondering if I will need my CD key or if I can install it via steam thus avoiding the Cd-key thing.

Or if there was a way for me to find the CD-key on my computer. Yes I have looked at regedit but the numbers in the "key" section didn't look right. They were only numerical and on my hl2 and TF2 they were "12345678901234".. Soo.. yeah..

Basically,
1. if I install these games on a new computer can I use steam to do it to by-pass the Cd-key inquiry?
2. If 1 is not possible is there a way to find my CD-keys on my current computer. (The regedit keys didn't seem to be right.)

 

[Kraynor]

Your cd-key is saved to your Steam account server-side so you should be able to download and install using Steam just fine.

 

[Pershing121]

so how does valve stop someone form sharing their cd key with friends or an online community and thus sharing the game for free with a bunch of people?

 

[gho3t]

so how does valve stop someone form sharing their cd key with friends or an online community and thus sharing the game for free with a bunch of people?

Simple, a cdkey will only work once. Then that game becomes permanantly locked to your account.
This is what makes steam so versatile, you can go to a mates place, log in, download and play the game. BUT your mate then cannot play the game without your account, its greyed out under his account. Theres technically nothing stopping you "lending" an account to a mate but you wont be able to play at the same time. Its inconvenience that stops people pirating, same would be true for torrenting a non-steam game.

 

[Pershing121]

but what if two people log on to the same account at the same time?

 

[Kraynor]

The second person gets disconnected and the account gets flagged for investigation of account sharing, which could result in a ban and deactivation of the cd-keys.

 

[Pershing121]

wow that's heavy. I smell a lawsuit.

 

[mi1ez]

It's not really heavy. It's blindingly obvious the law is being broken- you wouldn't have a leg to stand on!

 

[pr2thej]

I sometimes offer to let my mates into my account to look at games i want them to get into, its just a case of messaging them my user / pw and giving them a few hours install / play time. (very trusted old friends, mind)
Its an illegal use of my account, im aware of it sure....but then again if they go buy the game then Steam wins so im sure they wont have too many complaints

However when 2 people are playing the same game and trying to save money by not buying it twice then you are looking at something similar to a piracy issue.

 

[Pershing121]

"It's not really heavy. It's blindingly obvious the law is being broken- you wouldn't have a leg to stand on!"

you could say your only sharing your account with a friend or letting him borrow it or letting him try a game, and accidentally steam popped up and logged in when you started ur desktop, or he forgot to uninstall it, etc. plenty of such ruilings could be made look at sony and their securom stuff being sued over or all the battery recalls they had to deal with.,

 

[Pershing121]

"However when 2 people are playing the same game and trying to save money by not buying it twice then you are looking at something similar to a piracy issue."

so letting your friends borrow your game or buying used games is somehow better?

 

[Chronobodi]

it's that they can't play it at the same time, pretty much, and they have to buy their own copy anyway. Same thing with letting your friend borrow your xbox games, or ps3, whatever.

 

[bookworm8at]

"you could say your only sharing your account with a friend or letting him borrow it or letting him try a game"

you are not allowed to share your account with a friend, or borrow the games you have activated on steam. Your account may only be used by the person who created the account. Please read the license agreements you agreed to.

This is a common miunderstanding about steam: Buying a game on Steam is more like buying a season ticket to a amusement arcade than it is to buying a game license.

You are paying for a service that allows you to play the game as long as Valve is offering the service. You do not have any license to resell or borrow it. You don't even have the right to play it - if valve would remove a game you paid for after a few years, then that would be perfectly legal.

Personally I think it makes no sense anymore for a game publisher to keep selling game licenses, when digital distribution has become so easy. If you have something of value, the worst way of making profit from it is to sell it.

 

[gamerguy1]

Yeah,

Steam is amazing. I have had a Steam account for 5 years. Buying games, the downloads are quick, but redownloading them is slower. But having the luxury of redownloading the games as many times as you want is very convenient.

I would just buy it again CS source cant be too expensive.

 

[tallguy1618]

I have two computers at home I use for gaming. One's more powerful, so that's the one I use regularly. What's great about Steam is that it will let me log in in offline mode for the other one and a friend and I can play LAN. This is especially fun in L4D. The people saying that's piracy, you really think I should have to buy two copies of the same game?

 

[bookworm8at]

"The people saying that's piracy, you really think I should have to buy two copies of the same game? "

As I said above, you are not allowed to have someone else use your account, so what you are doing is Copyright infringement. If I think you should buy another copy is a totally different matter.

I personally think the current laws against Copyright infringement /piracy were not made to prevent fair use of software in the way you are doing it. Play with your friends and have fun.

 

[tallguy1618]

So you're telling me that if I have a friend over and we want to play LAN, I have to buy an extra copy of the game and use 2 different accounts as opposed to just using my 1 account on both computers?

 

[bookworm8at]

Correct.

"You may not reveal, share or otherwise allow others to use your password or Account."

http://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

 

[Flakes]

but if your friend had an account with steam which and had bought CS:S he could log in at your house with his Username/Password and play over the LAN with you, steam doesnt stop you installing the game on multiple computers.

 

[pr2thej]

"However when 2 people are playing the same game and trying to save money by not buying it twice then you are looking at something similar to a piracy issue."

so letting your friends borrow your game or buying used games is somehow better?

What crawled up your arse? I know its illegal but its akin to my mate playing a demo of the game which will lead to a sale.

So yea....it is better than blatently trying to rip of a developer.

 

[tallguy1618]

Guys, Valve would have made Steam check CD keys across LAN if they didn't want you to be able to do that. I'll say that again: If Valve didn't want you to be able to do LAN with the same account and 1 copy of the game, they would have made it so that Steam would check for that before letting you play. They're not stupid. They just know that the majority of people will use it right and even though some will abuse it, they will not punish everybody because of it.

 

[Guest]

Umm me and my Bro both like half life so we had to get steam but we have different accounts so since HE registered the games on his account I can't play them and I own other games on my account that he can't play. There is no way around this right?

 

[AmanOsan]

Its bullshit that XBL or PSN or Steam can delete a game from their servers and not let you play it again AND they overcharge for many items. (Mostly older) They are raping people left and right and the victims just ask for more.

They should allow the CD key from any game they "sell" to be linked to an account. I bought Quake 3 years ago but have to buy it again if I want to have it linked even though I have the CD key still. I also wanted Quake 1 lined. That did not have a key, so make is crazy cheap like 3$. The packs they sell are cheap, so I bought the Quake pack.

I know that you are buying a "license" to a game, but I bought one for prince of persia for Macintosh back in the 80s(?) and I can still play it.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

In reality, Steam, Valve, etc. aren't going to remove access to the games you've bought as long as they stay in business. Should something happen whereby they go bankrupt, expectations are that they'll release something to make the game playable for you without having to go online or with their platform, however that's speculation.

I've lost and rebought tons of games too, just something that I view like having to buy a new controller or mouse if one breaks down.

The prices are pretty decent and they all have sales that make the games very cheap, if you think a game is expensive, then don't buy it from them, they can't be expected to have the best prices on every single game they offer. Not Costco, WalMart, or any retailer has the absolute best price on all their carried stock, why have that expectation with Steam or Valve?

Unfortunate, but this seems to be a good system that addresses the threat of piracy while still giving buyers some advantages over the traditional box method. What would be a better system if you are unhappy with this that both protects against piracy AND doesn't burden the buyer too much while offering some other advantages? Can't really thing of a better way to do both. If anything the damned pirates should get most of the blame and outrage as they forced this on us all, if it were not for them, there would be no need for copy protection or DRM of any kind. It's always the bad guys that make it tough for us all.

 

[FinalDrive]

If steam removes a game you have purchased from their servers you still own that game. I am not aware of any that have been removed but I would imagine they would give a notice on the client about an impending removal. The steam client gives you the option to download and backup the data for the games, so if it were removed you could still install it manually. Games can still be played while not connected to steam too, they will just not update or allow multi-player.