Gaming Steam and Big Brother

[GeekyGuy]

I want to start a Steam account and take advantage of some of the great deals they often have. I also want to be able to play certain games online legit without having to go through Garena or other similar third parties. Thing is, I still have certain games on my system, such as L4D, that, let's just say I didn't pay for. How much information does Steam retrieve from my PC? Would they detect unlicensed copies of games on my PC when using their site to purchase and play games?

 

[emupaul]

if they wanted to detect you im sure yes they could, how envasive i do not know my self. You may not be ok according to this thread at a different site.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/show...ad.php?t=908761

 

[Forstride]

I pirated Audiosurf, and since it was a "no-steam" version, it didn't detect the game's files. I'm pretty sure you'll be safe.

 

[Law]

I pirated L4D to try it before buying whilst being logged in to Steam.

They don't care.

 

[Diablo1123]

Just don't run any of that stuff while Steam is running and you'll be fine.
Also if you have Left 4 Dead, its possible to set it up to update from the existing install (it'll delete the cracked stuff) if you want to save download time.

But exactly how to do that depends on what release you've got.