The last time, I was farming sulfur at half three in the morning on a Wednesday. Work at eight.
I had already said I was done with Rust. Enough times that the boys stopped reacting when I said it.
It wasn't the hours. It was becoming the person who said one thing, then installed it again before wipe.
I tried the obvious
I uninstalled it. That lasted until Thursday. I deleted the shortcut too, which was stupid because Steam has a search bar.
Then blockers. Cold Turkey. The hosts file. One that made me type a paragraph to unlock it. I typed the paragraph.
Every one had the same hole: I installed it, so I could uninstall it.
I did not delete my Steam account. That takes the whole library, wallet, and every redeemed key with it. Rust was not worth burning the rest of Steam down for.
Steam had the lock already
It is called Family View. Free. Official. I picked the games that stayed visible and left Rust out. Anything added later stayed excluded too.
- The lock had its own four-digit PIN. It was separate from the Steam password.
- It could also cover the store, community content, friends, and chat.
- Buying Rust again did not solve it. The new copy stayed out until the PIN was entered.
Then I saw the problem
I had set the PIN myself. Four numbers. I knew them. At one in the morning, that was not a lock. That was a speed bump.
This should be the email address of the parent, not the child, as anyone with access to this email account can disable Family View without knowledge of the PIN.
That was the whole thing. Steam's free lock needed somebody else to hold the recovery inbox.
I did not want to ask a mate to do that. I did not want to explain why I needed him to hold four numbers I had picked myself. So I built the awkward part out.
What I actually do
I generate the PIN. I hold the recovery inbox. The buyer does the Steam setup in their own browser. I never ask for a Steam password.
If the PIN is requested, I release it after the delay picked at setup: 24 hours, 3 days, or 7 days. That delay cannot be shortened.
Getting it back
The request happens from the dashboard. No reason needed. The delay runs, then the PIN comes back. If the term ends, it releases. If I disappear, it releases too.
The honest version
- It is four digits. I am not going to pretend that makes it unbreakable.
- Steam can reset it without me. That takes days and a conversation with a stranger.
- I have not tested cloud streaming. I will not tell anyone this stops it.
- This makes getting back in slow. It does not make it impossible.
Another wipe is coming. The only part I built was a way to stop having the same argument with myself when it did.
The price is next. So are the full terms.