SoftTofu89 Appeal (Complete)

[softtofu89]

Discord: SoftTofu#6259
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/SoftTofu89
Games: The Stanley Parable

In December 2015, I cheated to get the "Go Outside" achievement in The Stanley Parable. I set the system clock forward 5 years to get it. I am sorry for cheating. I was following a guide at the time and did not know I was breaking the rules.

I then saw that the game was invalidated on astats. I found an appeals thread on astats where I was instructed to relock all the achievements for the game and post a request to revalidate the game. I did this and started the long wait, with the last time I played the game being December 15th, 2015.

I waited an extra month just to be sure. On January 20th, 2021, I made sure the last played date on Steam said Dec 15, 2015. Then I started up the game expecting the achievement to pop. When the game started, I got a Windows pop-up that looked like this:

i.imgur.com/MVQTODV.png

I clicked "Allow Access" and the achievement did not pop. I restarted the game and it still did not pop. I thought that maybe it was because of the firewall. To test my theory, I blocked the game in the firewall settings and set the clock ahead 6 years (1 extra year to be safe), and the achievement did not pop upon starting the game. Then I allowed access through the firewall again, set the clock ahead 6 years, and the achievement popped upon starting the game. Therefore I think if your firewall is blocking the game from accessing Steam servers when it checks for the achievement upon starting the game, the achievement will not pop and there is no way to get it unless you wait another 5 years or cheat and set the clock forward.

Unfortunately, I did not save a screenshot of the last played date in Steam before starting the game. However, just now I grabbed a screenshot from exophase.com showing the last played date as Dec 15, 2015 (as of now, the last played date on exophase has not yet been updated).

i.imgur.com/GEQmVLK.png

In the end, I am just looking for the game to be revalidated on steamhunters.com and for my Go Outside achievement to count. I waited the 5 years legit, the achievement just didn't pop due to a firewall problem. I appreciate you taking the time to look into this, thank you!

[Fabio]

Hey SoftTofu, thanks for creating an appeal about this. The reason it did not unlock is because when you reopen the game, it resets the time played. So essentially, you have another 5 years to wait now. You can use the time skip method, but it will just cause the game to not count on your profile. But right now, you'd either have to wait another 5 years, or just have the game continue to be marked invalid if you wish to keep the achievement.

[softtofu89]

Thanks for the reply. I went ahead and relocked my achievements today. I will start waiting 5 years from today. Thanks!

[Fabio]

Thanks for your patience with the process, everything should be good to go. Let us know if there are any other issues!