I did a bit of research on the problem that gamers have when the games they have bought are frozen and in some cases their entire account is deleted full stop. The culprit appears to be the automated software used to prevent accounts from being hacked into. Unfortunately this can be triggered by a mistake made when logging into their account by the user. This is not common but it can and does happen and when it does it is a nightmare to resolve. This is partly because Steam has acquired millions of customers over a short span of time which has outgrown its customer complaint resources.

Whether you like digital downloads or not, the fact is you have little or no choice if you want buy and play new games today. But at least know what you are signing up to when you open a Steam account.

A quote from a lawyer specialising in consumer rights.

You do not own your games. Whether bought through Steam, Origin, or any other digital download service that requires a live account to play them, you are at best renting those games, with no guarantee that you’ll be able to continue to do so. And those bans can be issued without a stated or proven reason – it’s in the agreements you click “Agree” to when you sign up an account, or buy a new game.

If you are prepared to give away your rights as a consumer in order to purchase and play your games that’s up to you, but please be very careful when logging into your account.

Regards Cari.

Really? We don't own them? That's why I really prefer owning the disc. At least on GOG I can copy the executable file on CD.

You do own them because you clicked the "Buy" button when you bought them, not the "Rent" button. None of this "you dont own it" would ever stand up legally but they'll try it on until they are forced to move - like the refunds.

This is getting confusing, I included a quote from a lawyer specialising in consumer rights. But if this is out of date, then I apologise but when I bought a game to download I’m pretty sure there was one download button, not two choices.

I know that this license issue has been challenged in the German courts and I believe also in the EU court of justice as well. But as Steam is based in the US and comes under American consumer laws the results are unclear.
However I think we do need to clarify the issue for our members if we can. It’s not a situation between whether you like steam or not, it’s to know your rights or the lack of them if you are unlucky enough to encounter problems in the future.

Steam has to abide buy the law of whatever country they are trading in (as does any company) so being a US company won't make any odds outside the US.

I think when Steam works, as it always has for me then it's great. It's when something goes wrong it seems sadly lacking (going by other peoples' experiences) and Steam themselves don't seem overly bothered about improving the situation. This is one of the reasons I won't buy full priced games from them - I only ever buy heavily discounted games.

MJ2C, I have NEVER complained when something worked, but Steam has their thing set up where anyone talking to STEAM cannot say exactly what they want to say. We can ONLY say what STEAM 'allows' us to say, i e in the drop down when I want to say my problem was with my inability to play my games, ALL I could say was "I had problems with 3rd party games' OR 'I had problems with STEAM games', neither of which was true. My games (when I was able to play them) played perfectly. Still Life, Tesla Effect and Pandora Directive (which I got free for buying Tesla Effect and already had 2 copies) were flawless. I could not complain that Steam was not allowing me to play my own games or why I felt that way.

Why would someone put their game on Steam when there is GOG ?

Steam is the highest revenue generating source for developers and publishers. Believe it or not, they are the favorite among most people.

And another point to mention is that GoG often refuses games that you all are asking for. I know the developers personally that are being denied because GoG feels they have two small of a fanbase. Sometimes things are not always what they appear to be.

GoG does have things to fix, too. They often leave it up to other gamers to help with tech problems, and in my opinion, the gamers did not set up GoG nor do they make the rules there. GoG people themselves need to help gamers with problems and explain how things work.

What I found out from all these DL sites is you REALLY have to research the game and see if it works for your system, before you buy. The sites as much say that....
caz

I've been with GOG from the very start and in my experience their "support" system has been absolutely top class from Day One
And I've never had to wait more than 24 hours to get it