Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Well....
"Unfortunately, Steam accounts and games are non-transferable," the support rep explained. "Steam Support can't provide someone else with access to the account or merge its access to another account.
"I regret to inform you that your Steam account cannot be transferred via a will."
https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/you-cant-take-it-with-you-but-you-cant-leave-it-behind-either-valve-says-you-arent-allowed-to-bequeath-a-steam-account-in-a-will/
There's the official EULA and there's handing the password away with a wink and a nod. I'll make sure to delete all the hentai games I do (not) own.
It'll be interesting to see what Steam does when it's been around long enough that there's no conceivable way some of the account owner as can still be alive.
Unfortunately this is likely to happen at a time where Gaben is also gone, so I'm not hopeful about the answer.
It's at least plausible that in 30-50 years, games like these will be sufficiently "retro" that there isn't enough money in the market for anyone to even bother the lawyers to object. Already there are games I played as a kid that can't be purchases legitimately (the first two Civilization games, for example), but they can be played online for free and nobody has bothered complaining. I assume those aren't even worth packaging up (and sorting out licensing, which may be complicated) and selling for 99 cents on Steam, or it'd have been done already. Other games of that vintage are still sold, though (LucasArts ones, for example).
Related: does anyone care about the licensing implications of passing on an iTunes MP3 library? The kids are all using Spotify and streaming these days anyway.
The new habit of remastering and re-releasing old games might affect that too. Civ 2 was 1996 and dropped off, but Age of Empires 2 is 1999 and just got a remaster. Being able to trivially pirate what's functionally the same game might be a problem.
Especially when some of those remasters go badly: Warcraft 3, for example, I think there are a number of people who would rather have the fresh-off-a-disc-install version of that.
I also wonder if, as the rate of graphics improvements drops off, the old games might become more valuable relative to their successors. Morrowind and Oblivion in their original forms are visually rough, but Skyrim is a 15-year-old game that is still totally fine visually. ES6 will look better, but probably not that much better, and if there are design, story, or mod opennness issues, it's much more likely that people would go back to Skyrim than that they'd go back to Morrowind in the Skyrim era.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link