Valve will now be implementing a new system to limit accounts which have not spent 5$ or more in order to combat spam and phishing within the Steam service.
In order to curb malicious activities in Steam, Valve has placed limits on users who HAVE NOT spent $5 in their accounts or added an equal or greater amount to their Steam Wallet. Limitations include:
- Sending friend invites
- Opening group chat
- Voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items
- Participating in the Steam Market
- Posting frequently in the Steam Discussions
- Gaining Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards
- Submitting content on the Steam Workshop
- Posting in an item’s Steam Workshop Discussions
- Accessing the Steam Web API
- Using browser and mobile chat
This means that new accounts that do not meet or yet to meet the minimum spend value cannot perform the activities above. Valve cites the following reason for the limit implementation:
We’ve chosen to limit access to these features as a means of protecting our customers from those who abuse Steam for purposes such as spamming and phishing.
Malicious users often operate in the community on accounts which have not spent any money, reducing the individual risk of performing the actions they do. One of the best pieces of information we can compare between regular users and malicious users are their spending habits as typically the accounts being used have no investment in their longevity. Due to this being a common scenario we have decided to restrict certain community features until an account has met or exceeded $5.00 USD in Steam.
B2G says: While many of us who find convenience purchasing games through Steam, there is a sizable Free-to-Play market notably from the DOTA2 crowd that only have accounts for use with this game. We’re still observing what other impacts these Steam limits will have but for now, the main take here is that there should be a huge drop in people creating Steam accounts to scam other people.
Source: #1
21 Comments
well if it’s just $5…
well if it’s just $5…
Does it have to be in cash amount or they can check the amount of purchased games?
YES PLEASE!
YES PLEASE!
Must be in purchased games via Steam or Steam Wallet. Retail codes don’t count. Still figuring out if items sold in the community market then use for purchase count though.
They used to do that anyway…
Heard of this instance: friend didn’t get his account activated until he purchased a game or two from steam.
They used to do that anyway…
Well the account is activated but you won’t get access to profiles, adding friends, sending invites, etc. if you don’t meet the account value limit. Not sure how this affects the F2P community that just uses Steam to access DOTA2.
Yup. That’s what happened to him. Was surprised.
What do you think about this limit implementation? Good?
Well, I have already invested in pc games (much cheaper compared to consoles) so I welcome this initiative to safeguard our accounts. Plus, a USD 5.00 requirement either in purchased games or steam wallet isn’t really punitive if your intention is to access f2p games.
the mighty quest for epic loot.. sounds like a nice game haha
I bought Stick of Truth and Quest for Stuff because those kinds of titles. I dunno, I’m a sucker for creative marketing. :3
It’s a Pay to win game so Goodluck if you plan on playing it.
Yes, I can see they’re still allowing full gaming features for F2P-only accounts. The only problem I see here right now is with the DOTA2 inventory that interfaces with online betting sites via Steam API which is blocked for limited users. Still waiting for a backlash from that though. Still, agreed. Its a good implementation especially for us that put a lot in our libraries.
YES YES YES YES! 😀 bawas troll sa dota2 😛
$5 only
But I never spend real money on videogames and I only use my account to play F2P games Like Dota2. Steam doesn’t like to recognize people who doesn’t want to use real money.