Steam Begins Restricting New Accounts

It's an end to all of those "friend" invites from people who have no games and a level of zero, thanks to Valve's change of Steam policy. They also cannot participate in Greenlight voting, which will cut down on the number of false votes some projects get.

The full list of restricted features are:

• Sending friend invites
• Opening group chat
• Voting on Greenlight, Steam Reviews and Workshop items
• Participating in the Steam Market
• Posting frequently in the Steam Discussions
• Gaining Steam Profile Levels (Locked to level 0) and Trading Cards
• Submitting content on the Steam Workshop
• Posting in an item's Steam Workshop Discussions
• Accessing the Steam Web API
• Using browser and mobile chat

To get access to these features, the account must have $5 USD worth of activity. Either purchasing a game/games through Steam worth $5, adding $5 to their wallet or adding a Steam Wallet Card to your account.

If your market isn't in United States Dollars, then you must spend the equivalent of $5 USD in your currency. Once it reaches that amount at that days exchange rates, you will be given access to the above listed features.

But, you may think, what if I purchase a game and do a chargeback with my bank? Then Steam never received those funds and you go back to not being able to get Trading Cards.

And honestly, with the Steam Weekly deals, you could probably get seven or eight games for $5 USD.