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I want to play some of the Steam dating sims, but I don't want to get derisive messages from my Steam friends when they see messages like "Nzall has started playing Tank Dating Simulator". Do the Steam rules allow me to create a second Steam account that I can play games on I'd rather not announce to my friends that I own them?

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    Tank Dating Simulator ... that is an unusual combination of words.
    – Vegard
    Mar 15, 2016 at 15:53
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    @Vegard it randomly appeared in my frontpage caroussel. It appears to be a parody of the high school dating sim genre with a barrage of WW2 references.
    – Nzall
    Mar 15, 2016 at 16:10
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    It seems to directly influenced by Hatoful Boyfriend, a visual novel where a human girl attends a school populated by pigeons, and Kantai Collection (aka Kancolle) a browser game where World War II combat ships are personified by cute anime girls. The former may be the most popular Japanese visual novel published in the west, while the later is only available in Japan, but immensely popular there.
    – user86571
    Mar 15, 2016 at 16:44
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    Omg it is real. store.steampowered.com/app/379980
    – ave
    Mar 15, 2016 at 16:55
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    @Vegard Not nearly as bad as Shower with your dad simulator
    – David says Reinstate Monica
    Mar 15, 2016 at 18:59

3 Answers 3

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Yes, it does. There isn't anything in the Subscriber Agreement against it.

In fact, you can use the same mobile phone number on multiple steam accounts too.

Also it is clearly stated that you can (and recommended to if you are setting up a dedicated server) create another account:

For security reasons it is recommended that you create a new Steam account just for your dedicated servers.

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    Also, big picture allows hot switching between accounts.
    – ave
    Mar 15, 2016 at 16:06
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    If I were the Steam CEO, all I would be thinking is that more accounts will generate more money. So no reason to deny multiple accounts.
    – Dzhao
    Mar 15, 2016 at 17:14
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    @Dzhao It's good that you're not the Steam CEO then. Off the top of my head you're going to have increased support and infrastructure costs and bad people might think up multi-account scams that cost you money.
    – OrangeDog
    Mar 15, 2016 at 17:27
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    @OrangeDog Point taken. Although definitely take my point with a grain of salt.
    – Dzhao
    Mar 15, 2016 at 17:29
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    @Matt Thrower You can actually set them up so that games are shared between them. I was in the same situation as you and that's what I did.
    – AndrejaKo
    Mar 15, 2016 at 23:19
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It is allowed, but it might not be necessary. You can manually add the game's executable as a non-steam game, and name it whatever you want.

This way, it never shows on your public profile: non-Steam games don't have hours tracked, neither show up on the recently played section of the profile page. The only place it will show up is if one of your friends goes to that specific game's store page, you will be in the "Friends who own this game" section.

For more information, see this page.

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It is allowed but not necessary. On your friends list click the arrow next to your name and select offline mode. Then your friends can't see your activity until you sign back into online mode.

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    Except for the fact that it shows in the list of what you're playing, and what you've recently played, which is available from your Steam profile.
    – MattR
    Mar 16, 2016 at 11:55
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    Even if you're always offline when playing? I thought it would only show up under owned games, which means nothing on steam, I'm sure everyone has quite a few they don't play. I did not check our verify so I could be wrong
    – Evan
    Mar 16, 2016 at 12:13
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    Offline mode in Friends is separate from Steam being Offline.
    – MattR
    Mar 16, 2016 at 12:26
  • Gotcha, you're right then
    – Evan
    Mar 16, 2016 at 12:58

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