After making a couple of moves to clear the air surrounding the “pay for mods” program, Valve is making another change in favor of developers. Starting today, developers will have the ability to ban out anyone from playing their games.
In what seems to be a passing on of the torch, Valve has given developers the ability to ban anyone causing trouble. Valve recently put up a statement on Steam stating:
Because nobody likes playing with cheaters.
Playing games should be fun. In order to ensure the best possible online multiplayer experience, Valve allows developers to implement their own systems that detect and permanently ban any disruptive players, such as those using cheats.
And even though the devs are able to carry out their own forms of punishment, Valve will still be the ones laying down the actual hammer. The developers are only able to detect and single out the disruptor, and if they do, Valve will ban them.
“Game developers inform Valve when a disruptive player has been detected in their game, and Valve applies the game ban to the account. The game developer is solely responsible for the decision to apply a game ban. Valve only enforces the game ban as instructed by the game developer.”
This also seems like an act that will lay off some extra baggage for Valve. With the thousands of games on Steam, it is impossible for Valve to try to keep track of all the agitators out there. Furthermore, it would be a lot easier for a game’s own developers to detect any kind of problem going on within their system.
Recently Valve has been making a lot of decisions to try to tilt the scale in favor of wanting to involve developers of every sort. These new rules seem to give the devs a lot more control of what’s going on in their communities, and as a creator, what else could you ask for?
