Steam and VPN's

Jordan711 · 13 Nov 2012 at 18:48

So Black Ops 2 is £40 on Steam and the Russian Steam is selling for 899 rubles which is around 17 quid, so could I use a VPN to buy it from the Russian Steam and then play on UK Steam or do they ban for this sort of thing?

Or could you create a new account on the Russian Steam via a VPN then gift it to yourself?

Thanks.

bJN · 13 Nov 2012 at 18:50

As part of the Steam Subscriber Agreement, you are not permitted to use a VPN with Steam. Doesn't stop people doing it, but you are in breach of the EULA.

A Russian account may work, however I doubt it...

Kosmiche · 13 Nov 2012 at 18:53

I used a american vpn to play a game on steam on the us release date, bit different to what you want to do but I didn't get banned and it was for lotr war in the north.

kizz360 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:02

In all seriousness you can do it but as its been said before you could get your account banned

Jongo · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:04

For actually buying a game to get it cheaper from russia its a very risky thing and i personally wouldnt risk that.

KIA · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:05

You'll probably have to run the VPN every time you want to launch the game.

caz32 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:13

Is that traceable then? Cause doesn't a VPN give you a diff IP so it would be hard to track surely?

chris-82 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:17

KIA said:
You'll probably have to run the VPN every time you want to launch the game.

you dont have to its a one time deal i recently got borderlands 2 from a polish site i however did not know it was against steam eula. :eek:

Spook187 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:21

Why do the Russians get it that cheap.

caz32 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:25

Spook187 said:
Why do the Russians get it that cheap.

Iirc its because they have the highest amount of piracy then any other country but not sure

Spook187 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:30

caz32 said:
Iirc its because they have the highest amount of piracy then any other country but not sure

Russians are pure peasants, biggest cheaters in games, i'm pleased i don't have any Russian friends lol

caz32 · 13 Nov 2012 at 19:32

Idd, if you look at pirate game releases I THINK most of them are cracked by russians

Vanilla · 13 Nov 2012 at 20:48

I used to remote desktop into my steam account on a PC in the UK and buy games when I was living in Australia, where games were much more expensive.

I did use a UK credit card though.

niggyg · 13 Nov 2012 at 20:50

I wouldn't risk my Steam account on it. If your going to do it then use a newly created Steam account so you won't lose a bunch of games if they ban the account.

neoglow · 13 Nov 2012 at 21:03

Its times like these that I would just love to know the absolute truth. I mean, all the talk of banning accounts is speculation. What I mean is, do Valve actively use a software system to look for users that use a VPN to buy Steam games and then actually ban/close/end the users account.

It just seems to be a bit OTT to me, say for example you have legally bought games - no matter how many, 1 or hundreds - on Steam and then one day you use a VPN to get a cheap game. Can they really ban your account, meaning the games you have legally paid for are now gone?!? I find that hard to swallow as surely you have paid for the goods and now own it, they cant just take it away from you can they?!?

I would love to have a real honest conversation with Gabe, and say do you actually ban accounts that use a VPN, yes or no. Or CAN you? Is there some law/right that prevents Valve from actually banning accounts even though they would like to as they know full well people use VPN keys.

Something, just something tells me No. Otherwise it would be common knowledge pretty quickly that all these sites selling cheap Russian Steam keys are useless as you do get banned 100%. So they wouldnt sell them any more.

Just my 2 pence.

KIA · 13 Nov 2012 at 21:20

chris-82 said:
you dont have to its a one time deal i recently got borderlands 2 from a polish site i however did not know it was against steam eula.

You were only able to do that because they relaxed the DRM restrictions after the game was released. It's still possible to limit RU versions of Steam games to RU IP addresses.

Glaucus · 13 Nov 2012 at 21:43

caz32 said:
Is that traceable then? Cause doesn't a VPN give you a diff IP so it would be hard to track surely?

They don't need to trace you. They have you account and details which are registered in the uk, so when you buy a game from Russia it'll be flagged.

It is common knowledge go read there forums several people have had their accounts blocked.

What's legal isn't tested untill it goes to court and who's got the money to do taht.

They also don't need a program to track you. It'll simply be you have a uk account and purchased a game in Russia.
Make a Russian account and always use a VPN and I'm sure you would be absolutely fine.

However lots of people haven't been banned, so it may work on a one off your ok and serial people get banned.

Diplexbullet19 · 13 Nov 2012 at 22:31

Best advice would be, dont buy it. Ever.

StriderX · 13 Nov 2012 at 23:29

Although Steam is an off-market company, they still need to make deals with on-market companies, not surprising run by a bunch of lawyers.

I doubt Gabe or his team actually cares (there are legitimate reasons for VPNs after all, off on a rig in a location that doesnt allow it, etc etc). but in the end they still need to sign off on deals which usually come with booksize amounts of paperwork and agreements.

Technically they could just falsely ban fake accounts/cheating accounts and blame it on them, job done.

Even if you buy it from Russia, Steam still gets a percentage, not the biggest, but they I doubt they would mind, its not like millions of people bother.

Why we don't just consolidate Ratings agencies and all this turd into one group is beyond me, there should BE NO BLOODY REASON for this crap today in this globalised world.

Same with TV and Movies, I know its a silly position but I cannot be ass'd waiting a week or even a MONTH for something to air from the US, it boggles the mind.

Reed · 13 Nov 2012 at 23:58

I did quite a bit of reading regarding this subject when i was looking into unlocking XCOM early on steam.

The common consensus seems to be that if you are simply using a VPN to unlock a game earlier than your timezone would normally allow (games usually release earlier in the US for example) than the chances of you getting permanently banned are slim to none (people had been temp banned/ suspended pending investigation but when they came clean pretty much everyone reported that valve reactivated their account).

When it came to purchasing games on steam through a VPN and in a different currency than the common reports/tales were that the chances of you being permabanned rose dramatically and that valve took a pretty hard stance. This is all anecdotal evidence of course but the approach would seem to make sense (no one can blame someone for trying to access a game they legitimately purchased in their own timezone earlier if people from other timezones were were playing it, the same cannot really be said for trying to essentially scam valve). Either way, use a VPN at your own risk.

Note: the above only refers to purchasing games through steam itself, when it comes to purchasing a serial key through a foreign website then its a whole diffirent story again.