Some guy got his account banned for buying and gifting/trading games while he was in Russia. Happened around this Christmas and the story had to reach the gaming news media in order for Steam to actually unban him (and revoking his gifting privilege for the next 20 years I think).

Yes, I know this story, thanks (one of the things that made me think more of GOG and less of Steam, actually). The worst thing in this story, however, is that Steam never explained WHY he was banned. The only info the guy found it was definitely NOT for buying and gifting games from Russia.

You can create an offline account to play single player. However, doing so means that you cannot use any DLC as that is only available to online accounts. Thus, if you think you'll want to use the DLC, it's advisable to create an online account then force the game to think you're offline (via blocking incoming connections with Comodo, etc.) if you only want to play offline.

However, also be aware that the license requirements can be truly annoying. The game is great for free-run driving but licenses and some AI races are simply not worth the aggravation.

So his account suddenly skipped to Russia and suddenly started buying/gifting en masse? That sounds like a trader using VPN to make profit, I can see why that would've triggered a response. Given the lifetime ban on gifting they probably didn't believe his story even though they unbanned him. Heck even the Xmas farmers got unbanned, but a lot of their stuff was taken back and they got a 3 month trading block.

Region specific retail copies =/= Steam specific copies. Different licensing terms. As it is, several RU keys will only give you the Russian language version of the game and if you end up adding one of those to your account, support will no longer remove such keys so you can add an English language version instead.

It's worth noting that when you add a key to Steam if you are given an error message indicating it's for a different region and you add it anyway (via VPN, etc.) Steam support will NOT provide you any help in the event of an issue and may, in fact, threaten to disable your account instead.

Adding such keys is always at your own risk. And simply, it's not worth using sites with which you cannot verify that the keys are legit and not being handed to others as well.

No, he actually moved there for like half a year or something like that.

Edit: Truth be told if I'd move to Russia for a while I'd stock up on games especially during sales, buy for myself, buy for friends. As long as I'd actually live there I don't see how that would break the ToS.

I think he was a Russian buying in Russia to start with. He was giving games to others via Steam Gifting system, though.

A lot of conflicting info here already xD

Either way I can see how an account switch to Russia, especially by a trader, would trigger a response though. There's a lot of scammers and people who try to cheat the system, I can see how the rare legitimate one might fall through the cracks that way.

Found the story.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/01/thought-do-we-own-our-steam-games/

No, you'll be fine. For one thing, you'll have proof of purchase. Even if they throw up a region error when you try to add the key (and then use a VPN) Steam cannot really disable your account as they have no way of proving that you didn't actually purchase that key in the US, etc.

For the record, I've added many keys to Steam for games not sold in my region. Some via VPN due to IP blocks, others without that need.

The only time Support got a little abrupt over that was when I kept asking them when they'd remove the IP block for Fear 3. They claimed I'd added a US only key to my account, but I showed them that I purchased it legally in Japan via one of their competitors as well as showing them that they did not IP block activation of that title in this region.

After that, they apologized. And before I could push the matter further, the game was suddenly no longer IP blocked.

I also activated a key for Just Cause 2 that came in an graphic card bundle (with thanks from someone here who traded it to me). At that time JC2 wasn't available in my region and the key added without issue.

Of course, I've never purchased a key from a CD key site, as I wouldn't fancy my chances with my Steam account if support got bitchy.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/01/thought-do-we-own-our-steam-games/

Thanks for the info, much appreciated! :)

All I see in there is a word of mouth story of a guy in who 'is in Russia', and who freely admits he was at fault for taking money for games. For all we know he's downplaying his side of the story which is often the case (especially considering the request to tell them next time when he was going to "make a large amount of purchases again")
That doesn't change the story side about how Steam doesn't tell you what you were banned for but it does leave up in the air what he actually get banned for and how faulty his actions were.

Interesting, I did some reddit background search on the Indie Face Kick bundle organizers, we have

- someone who uses SAM to cheat the system during the Steam Winter events
http://www.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/oqktx/how_many_of_these_people_do_you_think_actually/c3jayem

- someone who abused their admin power
http://www.reddit.com/r/playitforward/comments/q0lpa/how_is_this_not_admin_abuse/

- someone who pirate games
http://www.reddit.com/r/SteamGameSwap/comments/qsg38/h_call_of_duty_4_modern_warfare_w_offers/c403n34

- and the person who runs the GATT site.

Not saying it is 100% surely a scam, but at the very least it's a very dodgy bunch.

Yeah, he admits of helping his friends get cheaper games. But unless Valve has access to his bank records there was no way of knowing he got money back for some of those games he gifted before banning him. And on top of that it's really lame they did not tell him the reason he was banned even though it's kinda obvious.

Anyway, moral of the story is don't buy keys of some shoddy site and use VPN to activate those games. When even someone who physically moved there got banned, you're not safe. And a site which advertises for such key selling sites it's not etirely to be trusted.