Recently, gamers recalled an instance that clearly illustrates Valve’s customer-centric approach. An old post by a user going by the nickname 3lizardintrenchcoat went viral on social media.
He reached out to Steam support with what he called a “crazy request”—to restore certain games to his account that he had previously bought but later deleted himself. According to 3lizardintrenchcoat, this was tied to his mental state: “I’ve had depressive and manic episodes during which I deleted a lot of games I played and loved over the years.”
When submitting the request, the player doubted that restoring the games would be possible, so he immediately offered Valve an alternative—to provide him with a list of games he had previously played. He couldn’t track the free games he used to play through his “purchase history”:
If that is not possible, could I get a list of all the games I've played over the years—both free and premium? Purchase history only shows me premium games that are still in my library. If you can help with either of these requests, it would mean the world to me.
Steam support sympathized with the situation—soon a specialist replied that the deleted games had been restored to 3lizardintrenchcoat’s account:
Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Don't worry: we understand your situation and are glad to help you with this issue. We have restored your game to your library. Please check again.
Gamers once again praised Valve for such attentiveness to Steam users’ requests. Blogger SXR123 expressed the opinion that another company in such a situation would have offered the player a 20% discount on their next purchase of $50 or more, or something along those lines.