So who is to blame in your humble opinion?
Poor article which mixes the sheer concept of reselling keys with scams and credit card frauds.
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It's Polygon. Were you expecting a good article? Lol.
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Honestly, I used to. Now they seem mostly concerned with politically correct bullshit and becoming a "global media hub" or something.
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Indeed. The article started about credit card fraud, but then went into key trading.
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The article is about the gray market, which is basically key reselling. It's entirely relevant to talk about credit card fraud and key trading.
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Yup ... on steamgifts.com/trade legit and non legit stuff is being traded. (> but of no importance since no one "loses" anything).
Also non legit stufft is being sold/traded here for the 1st/2nd/3rd ... time > that ends up being taken back/removed.
There is no reason to point out trades where nothing happens (since no one cares unless some company does).
- is there any source how many Steam Gifts (those in your inventory > end up being removed?) i wouldn't know
probably neither Polygon since Valve keeps everything regarding their sales hush hush ... even changes occur
at will with 0 reasoning and as surprise (see last few months).
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I blame the phisical stores and publishers, that keep the price of digital games at 60$
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wow ... that thought didn't even cross my mind, since i usually don't buy games for that price (with some exceptions)
(not Evolve ofc. got that for 6$ lol)
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+1 to that - can't answer the poll, because there is no option to me to choose.
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That's only applicable to the latest AAA games though. Digital prices tend to drop a lot faster than hard copies, and indie games arent priced that high.
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well maybe im wrong but the games that were revoked werent exactly Gone Home
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Are you saying Gone Home is AAA or indie? I really don't know and don't intend to find out because I have a backlog and don't play many newer games.
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From what I remember, there have been a couple of indie game revokes because the devs said the keys were "stolen"
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Yay agree with this
And anyway somehow traders (Buyer) just didn't really noticed where the game keys comes from.
The seller either can saying lies about where the game keys is aquired or the seller alone buy from someone / some place, which they didn't know it's legal or not
How do de heck we can know everything we bought on the planet earth is something 100% legal / clean either is physical or digital goods ?
But it is the Thieves who shud be blame at most
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Eh, I completely disagree.
A buyer, just like a seller has the responsibility to make sure that what he's buying is legit.
As you know I sell keys which I obviously buy at some point myself, I could take the easy route and buy tons and tons of them for as low as $1.50 each, being fully aware that those keys either originated from a scam or CC fraud (which is way more common then you'd think)
This practice would technically (and by your logic) mean that I as a buyer got duped, while in reality the only reason I got them was because they where cheaper then all other keys on the grey market, the greed of the buyer is just as much to blame as the person committing the initial fraud/scam, since the scam would never even happen if there weren't plenty of buyers around who don't care where it comes from as long as it is cheap.
Exactly the same logic applies to games, remember when dayZ came to steam, and how thousands of people got scammed after buying a copy for 8-10 keys while the lowest price possible was 14 keys?
The majority of the buyers hide behind their ignorance and think "I didn't know that" is a valid excuse which absolves them of being involved in CC fraud while they could easily find the lowest available price for the game, and come to the conclusion that that game being offered to them 30-50% cheaper then any other trader by a guy with 1 game in his account might just be too good to be true/legit.
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The easiest controllable fix to prevent keys being removed, is to have them sold legit in the VERY FIRST PLACE.
Just look what measures Valve has taken since recently ...
Traders and other folks sure want to profit, save cost and most traders don't have in mind to steal/rip off people ...
Nor would such info reach the attention of the media > meaning (Uplay/Origin/?) was ridiculously careless.
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Shogun Master
General Konyo (^^)\
.
-- What does the mind & heart say --
hm.. awright............ I slain him later :DDDD awokaokwaokawok
→ pssssssssttt this is secret of the heart ;)
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Yay and Nay
We know something game we bought are legal because we buy it directly from authorized Reseller → Steam Store / Origin Store / Greenman Gaming / GamersGate / and... etc... etc...
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We don't know something game we bought are maybe legal or maybe illegal because we buy it from : Website (Unauthorized Reseller) → G2A / Kinguin / Ebay / etc.. etc...
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But not everyone in this SG site having Credit Card & Paypal, or having enough cash at their PP & CC always cash ready by the time something games are comes up in a big sale (which means : U should wait another mightbe 6 months - 12 months until the games u wanted to come in a big sales again)
So............... the fastest way is :
Found traders in SG or another website who sold something discounted game u wants, right ?
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And the problem is we not always know the seller is legit or no
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U mightbe know about MonochromeFire case ?
U know what was happened to me (well it's another trader seller tho, not Mono) ?
This is happened for real
I was bought game code from someone trader in this SteamGift, someone who has been registered for something like 1 Year, having 150 Rep, The first trade ever is about 10 months ago, the game i bought from the seller was just fine.
The seller alone made many thread and many people bought from him → No problem at all (no invalid key / no revoke / no scam report)
But until finally he turn into the darkside (become scammer), he was selling to me Invalid code
So............ how......... ? To know someone seller can be really trusted (selling legal or illegal) ???
Yeah that's sad though hearing a trusted seller in SG have turn themself into the darkside.
Mightbe I should change my game provider to
COUGH erhm.... erhm....
General Konyo, The Shogun Master ? (^^)v muehehehe
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Holy shit dude are you seriously having a conversation with yourself in my absence?
Anyway in short, what you're saying isn't wrong, but it's completely beside the point i'm trying to make.
If you as a buyer have a choice when you're looking for a game you're planning on trading for:
Trader A: wants 14 keys for game X
Trader B: wants 14 keys for game X
Trader C: wants 15 keys for game X
Trader D: wants 14 keys for game X
Trader E: wants 6 keys for game X
If you choose trader E without having a realistic explanation as to why his price is way lower then any other trader offering the same brand new game then you as a buyer are at fault too, with that good of a price that no one is able to match a buyer should question the intention of the seller instead of just thinking "nicee I got a great deal for this game I don't know/care where it came from"
I'm not sure about other countries, but this is basically how EU law looks at buying fraudulent/stolen goods, in fact a buyer of stolen/fraudulent goods runs the risk of a higher sentence then the person that's offering them here, yet for some reason the online community always blames the seller and the buyer who should have known better is the "innocent victim"
The same innocent victims then go cry on forums that their steam account got a community ban that they totally didn't deserve while in fact they are just as much a part of the CC fraud/theft as the person who's selling.
About the monochromefire case yeah I do remember that, but that's just an really rare exception in which you cannot blame the buyer, what i'm referring to however is extremely common and goes unnoticed most of the times yet people love to make a big deal out of it once it goes horribly wrong.
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Yay right
Suspicious price = Suspicious stuff
That is easy to detect
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but I just wanted to get a DEAL!!
guys I activated a code from there just fine, that site is LEGIT!
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Did anyone read this part?
"My only concern was finding out where my particular game key came from. D, who claims to be from the Netherlands, said they got the key on a trading site called Steamgifts.com, a forum where users of the Steam online marketplace gather to exchange codes and in-game items."
Not only did they completely misinterpret what SG is, but it also sounds like this D person didn't activate the game and needs to be suspended!
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You're not required to activate games you trade for, just win from giveaways.
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It says Steamgifts, not Steamtrades
And this is why they need to be separate websites.
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He says in the article that he traded a TF2 key for it, so we can at least conclude it's from the trades section of the site. I guess the name Steam Gifts just carries a lot more recognition.
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Wow, I've read this whole article for a bunch of bullshit..
None of them even bothered to check out what SG really is.
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Nothing wrong with that especially since the latest update the domain-name to TRADES is:
now: http://www.steamgifts.com/trades
before: http://www.steamtrades.com/forum < redericts to
Other than that it doesn't point out the gifting aspect, but that isn't the point ...
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lol nah ... never seen anyone suspicious around here sur
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Wow, this whole article gave me a headache to read
Truth behind Polygon: they have no idea what the fuck they write about.
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GIMME YOUR MONEY AND I'LL DEVELOP 'WINNING GAMES ON SG SIMULATOR 2015'
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Coming to Steam Greenlight and Early Access soon™
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Boy was that some rough English.
Anyway, I'd say that although the cause of these incidents are, of course, the fraudulent traders and scammers, the "fault" insomuch as the responsibility for this, in my opinion, lies on the sources themselves. Not only are companies like Ubisoft, EA Games, and Valve exacerbating the issue with their uncooperative activities (moreso the others than Valve), they are not adequately monitoring the issue and checking for fraudulent activities. Moreover, although it is a problem caused by fraudulent purchases, I would also argue that it is the responsibility of the users themselves to keep their credit card information secure. Nevertheless, the responses on behalf of the sources are inappropriate, in my opinion, and the victims of fraud should not be penalized for the scammers' fraudulent purchases.
Overall, I think it's pointless to try to lay blame on any single party. In the end, this is an issue affecting all parties and it requires concerted action in order to help combat it. Simply blaming one side and demanding change from them without changing yourself, or without helping facilitate that change, only breeds more conflict. Without the combined efforts of all responsible parties (excluding perhaps the scammers, who probably don't give a shit), no lasting change it likely to occur.
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I liked the article. It gave me some new perspective about these "key reseller" websites. I was ignorant to some aspects of them.
That being said, like on ebay, the blame is on the criminals, of course. They're the ones who cause the trouble to both the consumers and to the services and developers, who have to deal with the complaints when the keys don't work or are revoked.
Where the stores are to blame (i.e. the mass purchase of keys not raising a suspicion - or didn't it? They were revoked after all) is the exception...
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Interesting though it should be noted that Steamtrades generally has the rule of having to install/activate what you get in a trade on your account.
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http://www.polygon.com/2015/2/9/8006693/the-truth-behind-those-mysteriously-cheap-gray-market-game-codes
Heyo guise, just wanted to share this fun read with all fellow marketeers/participants. ʅ（ ´◔౪◔）ʃ
My unhumble op: i'd blame the source itself (for not checking) and the unsafe
containers for games (KEYS e.g. 1234-FKCU-OPNO-TRST) which is only a
way to make reselling less attractive in general
+poll added for fun
(removed steamgifts [shady-bizness123go] as possible
poll answer, can't beat da horse you're riding on can ya?)
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