14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has now enabled developers to ban individual users from their video games on Steam.
Steam has always supported multiplayer bans, Valve's anti-cheat system being one of the reasons the application gained widespread popularity back in the day, but the newly implemented feature allows developers to make use of their own anti-cheating systems.
The game bans are not issued automatically and are enforced by Valve, not the developers, but the company has stated that they will be enacted at the developer's request and discretion, and that the game developer will be solely responsible for the decision to apply a game ban.
This means that developers will be able to enforce certain rules and monitor their multiplayer communities in ways that go beyond Valve's capabilities, which will likely translate into less hackers and cheaters, as individual developers are directly responsible for their communities, and interested in having a balanced multiplayer environment.
Unfortunately, as usual with Steam, the announcement is short, cryptic and doesn't really cover abuse or certain problems that are due to arise from miscommunication or simply bugs, as has been the case multiple times with Valve Anti-Cheat banning innocent users without them being able to contest it in any way.
For the time being, there is simply no information on how the system works
"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," the announcement states.
While some people see this as a positive thing, offering small developers more control over their games and player bases, and thus enabling them to weed out those who would mar the experience for those playing fair, there are also individuals voicing their concerns over the Internet.
Since there have been many incidents where irked developers banned users who criticized their games, deleted negative comments, and issued DMCA complaints against YouTubers, it's likely that the new feature will see some abuse too.
Furthermore, there is no information on how this will work with single-player games, and whether bans will only apply to the multiplayer side of things.
There is also an issue of bad timing, as Valve has always been criticized for offering horrendous support to its users, and this comes right after the company's controversial move to introduce paid mods to Skyrim, ignoring an extensive community that had thrived on free mods for five years.
The decision was rebuked by gamers and retracted after less than a week, and now everyone is waiting to see how Valve's new policy will affect users.