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Game Forum / Action Games / Half Life 2 / December 2004Question About Steam
I bought Half Life 2 to play as a stand alone game and have no intention of playing online. I wasn't impressed about having to install Steam and creating an online account but went along with it. This has left me with two concerns: (i) Steam is created as a service which sits on my task bar, as if I haven't got enough stuff on there. As a result my computer now starts up really slowly because Steam has obviously given itself first place in the queue and tries to start before network connections are fully established. Eventually the computer starts and Steam complains that it could not connect - hit retry and its fine. How can I remove Steam from the taskbar? (ii) When I have finished the online game I will not have any further use for it and will would like to exercise my right to sell my property as second hand. However, I am concerned that I was forced to register my CD Key online against the account. Does this mean I cannot legimately sell my property on when I have finished with it. Is there a way of unregistering the product? Thanks for any advice, Cheers, Nigel >I bought Half Life 2 to play as a stand alone game and have no intention of > playing online. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > connect - hit retry and its fine. How can I remove Steam from the > taskbar? START -> RUN -> MSCONFIG choose the startup tab, untick steam. You might find a whole lot of other stuff in there that starts automatically that maybe you don't want starting automatically. > (ii) When I have finished the online game I will not have any further use > for it and will would like to exercise my right to sell my property as [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > property on when I have finished with it. Is there a way of unregistering > the product? Good question. > I bought Half Life 2 to play as a stand alone game and have no > intention of playing online. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Steam complains that it could not connect - hit retry and its fine. > How can I remove Steam from the taskbar? Double-click the icon, then choose Settings > Interface and un-itck the option to run Steam when Windows starts. It'll launch automatically when you start HL2, so there's no real need for it to run at start-up. > (ii) When I have finished the online game I will not have any > further use for it and will would like to exercise my right to sell > my property as second hand. However, I am concerned that I was > forced to register my CD Key online against the account. Does this > mean I cannot legimately sell my property on when I have finished > with it. Is there a way of unregistering the product? You'd have to sell your account along with the game.  SignatureMark. >> forced to register my CD Key online against the account. Does this >> mean I cannot legimately sell my property on when I have finished >> with it. Is there a way of unregistering the product? > You'd have to sell your account along with the game. Which isn't allowed. > > You'd have to sell your account along with the game. > > Which isn't allowed. Yeah, but it's still possible. Just be discrete;) SignatureDavid davidfirewater(a)hotmail.com Thanks for that - I had checked 'settings' but missed that checkbox! I guessed as much about the registration thing. It would be interesting to know whether this infringes on consumer rights, because in effect, Valve are denying its customers the right to legimately sell on their property once they have finished with it. I understand the anti-piracy issue but I suspect that what Valve is doing is not entirely legal - would be interesting to test though I'm not sure I can be bothered for the sake of a ?27 game. Cheers, Nigel There are no legal issues. Read the contractual agreement that you have to agree to in order to play the game. The laws concerning digital media are quite clearly defined. If you went on holiday for 2 weeks you wouldnt expect to come back and be able to sell it to someone else would you. the problem with issues such as this is that a lot of the general public fail to comprehend what they are actually buying. It is not the same as purchasing a comouter or something. To clarify, when you setup the steam you are paying for the rights to license the game for you to play, you are not paying for the actual media, valve make this very clear, in fact they give you the option to download for free. rex > Thanks for that - I had checked 'settings' but missed that checkbox! > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Nigel > There are no legal issues. > Read the contractual agreement that you have to agree to in order to play > the game. > The laws concerning digital media are quite clearly defined. *cough* in which jurisdiction? > If you went on holiday for 2 weeks you wouldnt expect to come back and be > able to sell it to someone else would you. [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > for > free. I am sure the OP and everybody else understands the difference between purchasing the media and purchasing the right to use the software. As you state the laws concerning digital media are well defined, could you please clarify: * What jurisdictions are you talking about? * What is the current status of licence agreements that can only be read AFTER purchase, in these jurisdictions? * What test cases have demonstrated that it is possible to sell a non-transferable licence to use, and in this cases, what is the actual ownership of the licence if the purchaser cannot on-sell? * What is the jurisdiction of the licence agreement for purchasers outside of the US? Whos laws would apply? Is the retailer/distributor a party to the agreement under an implied or explicit agency arrangement? I was surprised that you said that the laws were clearly defined. I would have thought that the legal status of what Steam/Valve are doing would be somewhat dubious at best, at least in many countries. But seeing as you are an expert, perhaps you could answer the questions above for me - I would love to know. TIA Peter Webb Rex, I understand what you are saying but .... (i) I believe that it is a requirement that terms and conditions are made clear before the financial transaction is completed. If they are subsequently presented and the buyer does not agree with them then the buyer can nulify the contract and receive full refund. I do not beleive that Valve are meeting this requirement. This is handled by professional companies by enclosing the media in a sealed envelope with a clear presentation of the T&Cs. So long as the customer does not break the seal then the customer can return the product to the retailer for full refund. (ii) I also believe that under the terms of the Data Protection Act I can ask that data records held about me are removed. If the company cannot demonstrate any strong reason why they should not then he must comply with the request. Beacuse Valve refuses to delete accounts I do not think they are in compliance with the Data Protection act. (iii) I understand fully the difference between licence and media but the majority of software has transferrable licences - Valve are treating software as consumable (as in your holiday analogy) which is a different approach to most companies and therefore, they should make this point very clear at the point of sale. Anyway, just a point of interest ... as I said earlier I'm not going to pursue it for the sake of a ?27 game but I might think twice about buying from them again. Cheers, Nigel Close your account, then sell HL2 ... the buyer will be required to set up a new account. I've already moved my copy across a coupla PCs ... I started through the game a second time but it was just not fun ... it's just not a game I'm gonna play more than once. Bowgus, How can you close the account. I can't see any option to do this and the Steam FAQ says you can't, only disable it (although I can't find this option either). But if the account is disabled the key still stays with the account and therefore, the key cannot be used with another account. Therefore, I thought my only option would be pass my account onto the buyer when I sell it. I'm really enjoying the game but I'm not into online stuff so once I have finished the stand-alone game (which doesn't look far off) I will be looking to sell it or at the least pass it on to a friend. So if there is a way of closing an account and releasing the key I would be very interested. Cheers, Nigel Oops ... apologies, you are correct ... a steam account name is (currently) cast in concrete. As you said, you would provide the buyer the account name/password/HL2 c/w key and the buyer would then take control of that account (name). That is essentially what I've been doing to move HL2 across PCs here so different people can play it on their own PCs. > Bowgus, > [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Nigel > Rex, > [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > can nulify the contract and receive full refund. I do not beleive that > Valve are meeting this requirement. A very valid point > This is handled by professional companies by enclosing the media in a sealed > envelope with a clear presentation of the T&Cs. So long as the customer [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > the request. Beacuse Valve refuses to delete accounts I do not think they > are in compliance with the Data Protection act. Again this makes sense > (iii) I understand fully the difference between licence and media but the > majority of software has transferrable licences - Valve are treating [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Nigel you make some good points N. rex |
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