An established modder deletes his account on Steam after many years of helping many players with his work. He blames Valve and their policies.
Who is the modder? The modder Kaldaien has significantly worked for more than 20 years to develop a program that corrects and improves PC ports (games that were originally released for other platforms) mainly regarding graphics and performance – the mod SpecialK (see special-k.info), also known to some as “The Swiss Army Knife of PC Gaming”.
The creator of the mod announced via GitHub in a detailed post that he deleted his Steam account after 20 years. He attributes the blame to Valve, the company behind Steam, and their policies.
The problem lies mainly in the policies
Why does he blame Valve? One of the main arguments that Kaldaien brings forth for his frustration and the deletion of his account revolves around Valve’s update policies, as he explains in his blog post on GitHub:
In 2002, the client ran under Windows 98. Over the years, the DRM client was bloated with all sorts of unnecessary and insurmountable features that hinder software compatibility. For games purchased on a Windows 98 machine, system requirements were later raised to Windows XP, then to Windows 7, and finally to Windows 10.
[…]
One no longer has the freedom to buy a game wherever one wants. One must consider whether the purchase will continue to receive patches, whether the game itself continues to support the hardware and software, and whether friends have also purchased the game online in the same store.
This implies that if players buy a game for Windows 98 on Steam and do nothing about it, it would eventually stop working. And in that case, it would not be because the developer hasn’t updated their game or the players have changed their PCs. The problem would be that Steam would no longer work on that operating system, even though the game was specifically purchased for it.
“You no longer have the freedom to buy a game wherever you want”
Therefore, the modder criticizes that gamers today “do not have the freedom to buy a game wherever they want,” as one must check whether a store continues to provide patches, supports their hardware, or whether friends also buy there.
He prefers shops like GOG, the Microsoft Store, or Epic Games, because they forgo DRM features. He also likes subscription services like the PC Game Pass, as it allows him to try many games without having to buy them individually. He views the access ending upon cancellation similarly to Steam, where games are only available through revocable licenses, except that there one pays the full price instead of the subscription fee.
What is DRM?
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. These are technical measures designed to prevent digital content – such as games, movies, or music – from being copied, shared, or modified without authorization.
DRM features in games ensure, for example, that:
- One can only start the game if online
- One must log in with their account with the provider (e.g., Steam, Ubisoft, etc.)
- The game is tied to a specific platform or hardware
- One can no longer use it when the service is discontinued
Criticism of DRM primarily stems from the fact that it restricts honest buyers while pirates often find ways to bypass the protection. Consequently, many players prefer DRM-free platforms like GOG, where they can download and use games directly without such restrictions.
Additionally, Kaldaien mentions “Valve’s lies,” to which he attributes the disappearance of his content after he deleted his account. Although Valve assures that published contributions remain despite a profile’s disappearance, Kaldaien found that
this measure was not adhered to in his case: “In less than a month, literally all content was deleted, despite their useless promise.”
He has increasingly felt that Valve is resistant to feedback. They have shown obstinacy towards serious objections regarding the Steam client and his inputs, as well as a number of significant bugs he had to “work around”: “At the end of my bitter confrontations with Valve, I simply bypassed errors in the Steam client and didn’t even waste my time reporting the bugs because there was no hope.”
At the end of his entry, he addresses a piece of advice to his community. They should think carefully about where to buy their games, as in the long term, it could be that they can no longer play the game and cannot do anything about it:
I would advise reconsidering from whom you license your software and whether long-term “ownership” of self-updating software is even possible. Given the weak guarantees and obvious lies of some stores, it may be reassuring to subscribe to an entire publisher’s game catalog for a month or buy from the Microsoft Store to take advantage of cross-platform licensing and thus avoid the headaches of PC compatibility.
That games on Steam may no longer be playable for various reasons has been a topic of extensive discussion for a long time. This is partly due to the fact that when you buy a “game” on Steam, you are not actually buying the game but merely a license for the game on Steam: Steam now reminds you that purchased games do not truly belong to you
