I came to the realization today that Steam is evil.

So I bought a copy of the Orange Box from Half-Price Bookstore today, even though I already own Team Fortress 2 on the Computer and Orange Box on the Xbox 360, I wanted a complete collection of the Half-Life series on my PC and because of the extra maps for Portal and the mods for Half-Life 2. So I put in the disk to install, enter the CD Key but wait! Some bastard used the code and then sold the game to Half-Price Books where I bought it so now I CANT install Half-Life 2, Episode, 1, Episode 2, or Portal because I bought the game second hand.

I even checked Steam's support site looking for help but alas they said they don't take receipts from used game vendors. I'm pretty pissed about this, I mean really? I guess I will still email them and see if Valve will give me a new key but I mean still this really sucks.

I think you should blame Half-Price Books, not Steam.

Return the game to the store, tell them what happened. This isn't Valve's issue.

"I think you should blame Half-Price Books, not Steam."

Same thing happened to me when I got City of Heroes for the first time.

Why would you buy a seccond hand copy of the orange box? That's just stupid.

Wait, you bought a physical copy, right? How does that make Steam evil?

"Wait, you bought a physical copy, right? How does that make Steam evil?"

Yeah Steam is fine, I like it, 

Yeah, you should be angry at the Half-Price book store. There's a reson GameStop and other stores don't accept used PC games.

You messed up not steam mister.

Steam is great. That book store, however, is not. It ain't Steam's fault. I would try to get that Orange Box copy if you can work it out though.

Technically this isn't Steam's fault. They make it very clear that any and all activation codes for games associated to an account are forever tied too and linked to that single Steam account.

You basically fell into a trap. The shop you bought the game from should really check up and make sure that if they intend to sell second hand games that they can infact work and be used by a new player.

Why would you ever buy 2nd hand pc software?  It all requires a cd key now.

That's the person who sold it to use fault and not Steam's. If they let you use the key multiple times then people could just give the game to their friends and they'd have a full copy of the game without paying for it, which wouldn't make sense. I wouldn't buy second hand PC games for reasons like this.

Way to go! You bought an invalid copy of the Orange Box. Hardly Steam's fault.

Return it.

The OP got ridiculously owned in this topic.

Well I emailed Steam about the issue so hopefully they will respond. Yeah I know its not Steams fault but still I OWN the physical disk, I should be able to install the disk onto my computer if I own it. Second hand or not. I could understand if I didn't have the physical copy of the game, that is a different story. I should've thought about that before hand but I figured as long as I had the disk I would be fine...nope.

Valve wont help you. Take it back to the store and demand a refund.

You fail for buying a used PC game, that's just retarded.

And no, a company is not evil for refusing to support the pawnshop industry. You're kidding yourself if a company is going to split every copy of a game it sells at retail into two, without receiving any extra revenue therefrom.

If you want your money back, you'll have to go back to the store. You bought a used copy with an activation code that's already been used. That's not Valve's fault, and they won't be able to help you.

There's a reason brick and mortar stores don't sell used PC games, you know.

Steam has nothing to do with what happened to you, buying used PC games is just dumb.