It really is happening here steam/valve banned, Sony banned, Xbox banned I have to use VPN services to access and play games and purchase games…
This is continuing from banning Microsoft, google sites and development/developer platforms even Netflix is under the hammer now good job Vietnam
Considering what Steam allows on their store now as “games”, I have some sympathy for the ban.
It’s like a kind of local protectionism.
I didn’t realise I couldn’t access Steam normally until recently.
Seems like just changing the DNS also works as well, but I only have tested going to the Store page on a browser. Let me know if it works on the Steam client as well.
I mainly use LibreDNS to block ADs system-wide.
changing DNS is temporary it might help day or 2 max and then it is blocked again cloudflare could work, but for me it caused more issues on long term so i use now only VPN on everything even changed ISP router to rivate own VPN router and after that havent got any issues…
yet
Little off topic but I got today asked by ISP to turn off my VPN on all devices… So did wife get phone call to turn off the VPN.
Well 6 more months and back to Scandinavia
That’s very weird (and probably scary) for an ISP to tell someone to turn off their VPN.
Best part is they said on phone that VPN affects calls and messages too so turn it off and then your phone and network is back to normal that is totally BS
To be honest, VPN in general (and specifically Proton VPN) only affects my download speed and stability when turning on for a long time. I haven’t had issues with calling yet.
Yeah it doesn’t affect on those calling and message stuff unless phone uses internet to get those then yes VPN is there.
Mostly we haven’t have issues random days full day all VPN connection gets disconnected no IP and when I refreshing connection new IP comes and all good 
I just found it so funny that telling me to get VPN off is solution by ISP and same mobile provider than my ISP other mobile providers have no issues at all
I’d had told them to pay me the same (figure out some outlandish number) salary as the employer that requires me to use the VPN if they want me to turn it off 
There is a problem with that. In a normal situation you have a customer and a service provider. In the situation where the service provider answers the authorities and it tasked to identify and suppress some activities, when you are politely asked to switch off the VPN that is an act of class because it could be the Police kicking the door and taking all you devices away, at best.
I live in a “western country” and besides the ISP, the Authorities are allowed to use trojans to monitor everybody’s activities and they can take away devices for inspection. Yes, in theory it must be authorized by a judge but often you get caught in somebody’s else survelliance or the authorization comes afterwards, how can you tell when it began? Nowadays all the crimes are prosecuted on the basis of recorded activities and files from smartphones and computers. Imagine what can happen in places where Authorities can be more direct.
Latest news steam is banning and Lock down the full steam accounts now if using VPN services, game key gifts from different countries or reseller sites with global keys. On Russian and Belarus has now been banned 20 000 steam accounts and those all have been locked down and now it is coming Vietnam too so if you have like me 20 years old steam account with 500 games and 2000 DLC no worth on risking the account to be fully banned and locked 
by VPN
I am not willing to risk my account to be fully locked and banned 
I really don’t want to risk my account getting banned, because I actually have paid games on my library.
That’s very sad 
, but at least I didn’t buy anything too expensive, I often buy games when there is a big sale.
Funnily enough, classic Doom games on Steam is a bit more expensive than GoG 
.
Yeah no point of risking anything now I even cancel my Nvidia GeForce now subscription and wait that I am back to Scandinavia again…
Home bought and payed and paperwork is now on going thing so soon moving weeks
I’d consider what my most valuable games were, download them, Goldberg Emu em, and archive them somewhere as a just-in-case. Tip-toeing only works for so long.
Unfortunately that’s the course of any digital sales front; all purchases in one place, tied to an account that can be disabled at their will, whatever that entails, and usually of no direct benefit to the account holder.
For me Steam had good will up until they got rid of Greenlight and started catering to their forum/community toxicity with paid emoticons (bait-and-switch’d), and I can’t just get a bulk refund for everything purchased prior.
Never mind their growingly-unoptimized Discord-rivaling client; yeah I love my game launcher needing 20% GPU power in the background with a full Chrome browser built-in without the overlay even enabled, let me tell you how excited I was when they removed -vgui with such great benefit to me just using Steam to launch games
I’ve heard for years not to put all your eggs into one basket with online services, and now I’m seeing some validity to that. Valve is just another money-grub company nowadays, whereas before they at least had the presentation of caring about PC gaming first.
I heard the problem of Vietnam is not just taxes (if it was, they could just resolve it quickly like it was in Indonesia), but rather that every game on Steam need to have government approval, and publishers (not Valve) need to have a cojoint with local publishers because of Vietnamese investing laws. And seeking for approvals is difficult there given the corruptions and vague censorship there as well.
So that I heard they did block Gamepass, maybe Epic Games Store and GOG would be next, but given the country’s laws I have little hope.
That is just mostly for games, if that expands to other software, I think they can and may even block free and open source software too, if they deem that these software may make citizens against censorship and such.
And sadly given that piracy in Vietnam is already among the highest in the world (even government use pirated software), these kinds of block only set back the progress of using licensed software. And during the Steam block, I heard they also blocked several piracy sites due to the pressure from international entities and companies tho.
Steam Summer Sale has arrived so I decided to buy some games!
Fortunately I could make a purchase with a DNS change and now I have the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. bundle and DOOM II :P.
I am not sure what will happen to my account considering the posts above so try it at your own risk.
I asked steam about VPN and banning and it will only be banned accounts if you use VPN and country blocked purchases not on gaming as so much so if you use VPN to bypassing country blocked games it is against TOS and it will lead to fully account banned.
This was just because I live now on 2 different country and use 2 different country stores and payments so I had to ask and they answered that way so I would still say on your own risk and if using VPN use that country server where you are located especially when buying