I’m pretty sure I’m done with Steam gaming, haven’t launched a game in almost a year, and generally want to move away from DRM.
So I had the idea I could just “give away” my Steam account.
Create a new email address without personal info attached, tie it to the Steam account, remove my payment info from Steam and just post the email and password somewhere (maybe here) for the first lucky person to claim.
Would that be safe, or is it possible to recover the changes I made before and get access to my private info? Or is there a better way to give away my games?
It should be fine. You’ll have to be thorough in removing personal information. I would prioritise giving it to someone I know rather than a complete stranger.
Everyone else seems to be very concerned about the terms of service, but I don’t know why ToS is of utmost importance to everyone suddenly. Anyone would gladly share their streaming service passwords, would previously rip CDs or DVDs, use VPNs to circumvent porn restriction laws in their country, lied in sites/apps to sign up as a teen, etc…suddenly Steam ToS is somehow sacrosanct.
This came up recently when Steam confirmed your account cannot be left to anyone else when you die. The conclusion everyone seems to mention there is: if you leave your username and password in your will, how would Steam ever know or enforce this?
Go ahead. Do what you want.
I don’t think it’s so much a concern about violating the ToS as it is the consequences of violating it. Valve may be able to lock the account or close it if they have good reason to suspect the account has a new owner. An example of solid evidence of this may be changing the payment method for purchases, such that the name on a credit card doesn’t match the previous cardholder name on the steam account.
But if the new owner doesn’t plan on making new purchases on the account, it would probably be more difficult to confirm the account was transferred.
I never gave out passwords for my accounts that I paid for no one is getting access to shit I pay for because if something goes wrong and the account is banned then I’ve pissed money down the drain.
They’re talking about giving away their account. They don’t care about what happens to it, except maybe in the sense they’d prefer someone who wouldn’t waste it.