# Steam Trolls Players With Bans Wrapped Up Like Christmas Presents **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 26, 2023, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143 "2023-12-26T02:49:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/1 "2023-12-26T02:49:40Z")
[Link](https://kotaku.com/steam-dota-2-cheating-ban-valve-1851103392) > Video game companies have gotten very creative when it comes to punishing cheaters, from cutting their parachutes’ strings in Call of Duty to blowing them up in Grand Theft Auto Online. But Valve just set a new benchmark for trolling players: sending them permabans wrapped up like Christmas presents. The video of the loser opening the ‘gift’ made me laugh harder than I have in forever. This is some epic level trolling. Anyways. Just wanted to share the holiday cheer. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/2 "2023-12-26T03:23:39Z")
According to the video it’s not a permaban, he’s just banned until January 18th. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/3 "2023-12-26T03:39:17Z")
Not sure where you saw that, but the video where the gift is opened says permanently banned. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/4 "2023-12-26T03:56:52Z")
The guy says in the video: “What? I got banned? 'Til 1/18? What?” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/5 "2023-12-26T03:58:50Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > The guy says in the video: “What? I got banned? 'Til 1/18? What?” - Maybe that’s Jan. 2118. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/6 "2023-12-26T04:48:11Z")
If you watch in full screen, the red text at the bottom says banned until 1/18/2038 ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/7 "2023-12-26T04:50:42Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > If you watch in full screen, the red text at the bottom says banned until 1/18/2038 - I like mine better. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/8 "2023-12-26T05:06:56Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > 1/18/2038 Which is of course the year 2038 problem when Unix runs out of numbers to measure time. A little like the y2k thing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/9 "2023-12-26T13:46:32Z")
Why do videos of this exist? For what reason was anyone recording from the start? This smells like a set-up. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/10 "2023-12-26T15:32:53Z")
Streamer on Twitch. There’s programs that let you snip the last X minutes of a Twitch stream as an uploadable clip, so someone watching thought it was funny and snipped it. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/11 "2023-12-26T23:40:37Z")
Okay. I see it now. Jan 18, 2038. So 14-ish years which is effectively the lifetime of the game. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2023, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/12 "2023-12-26T23:49:17Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > which is effectively the lifetime of the game. More than that. It’s also the last day of the universe, according to the 32-bit Unix time epoch. The calendar inside many computers rolls back over to 1907 when this value is exceeded. So, this may be Steam’s way of saying “to the last day that can possibly be stored in our systems.” > **[Year 2038 problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem)** > > The year 2038 problem (also known as Y2038, Y2K38, Y2K38 superbug or the Epochalypse) is a time formatting bug in computer systems with representing times after 03:14:07 UTC on 19 January 2038. > The problem exists in systems which measure Unix time – the number of seconds elapsed since the Unix epoch (00:00:00 UTC on 1 January 1970) – and store it in a signed 32-bit integer. The data type is only capable of representing integers between −(231) and 231 − 1, meaning the latest time that can be prop... ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/13 "2023-12-27T00:06:07Z")
I was unaware of that interesting bit of trivia. So the Y2K bug, but with actual teeth. I have no doubt there are plenty of legacy systems out there still running 32-bit nix kernels. Ignorance fought in a lighthearted thread! ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2023, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-trolls-players-with-bans-wrapped-up-like-christmas-presents/995143/14 "2023-12-27T00:26:30Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > rolls back over to 1907 when this value is exceeded. Correction: 1901, not 1907. Trying to multitask, which I am not nearly as good at as Unix is. Although my internal calendar won’t overflow in less than two decades.