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Valve Launches Public Beta Of Steam
Thanks to several readers for pointing out that Half-Life developers Valve has launched the public Beta of Steam, their "broadband platform for the delivery and management of digital content." It currently includes free downloads of the new Counter-Strike 1.6, as well as the original Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic, Opposing Force, and more. This audacious move to build a truly popular digital delivery content system by Valve, already through an extensive closed Beta stage, also indicates Steam users should "..stay tuned for a blast of HL2 full-motion goodness."
Wow so valve is in the DRM biz now? Oh wait this is DRM with neat shinny things on it!!! That makes it better! Right? Right?!?!?
HL was the last valve product I will ever buy
Just because they mention DRM their evil and you're going to boycott them? Maybe what they mean is that they will use their technology to prevent anyone who's using stream from applying hacks and cheats and runing other people's expiriances. DRM isn't always bad.
--MBCook
Or they could be using to lock down systems that have it installed to not only prevent cheating, but to become some player in the game content delivery field. Similar to the soon-to-file-for-chaper11 console company Infinium. DRM is ALWAYS bad.
IntoNetworks.com - To bad they went belly up.
Oh, come, come, come. Without a monster or two, it's hardly a quest... merely a gaggle of friends wandering about. - Owl
Palladium is now: next-generation secure computing base
Valves DRM is called: Digital content management.
Whether you call it dung, manure, stool, feces or whatever the fact remains that it's still SHIT.
Move along folks...
oh, it's a game! When I first read the title I thought they were using a euphemism for "vaporware"...
FREE HALFLIFE.. of course, you will need a Vmware, Win4Lin, or Windows box to install it.. but sweet :P
If I remember correctly you have to have a version of Half-Life currently installed.
AZTEK
Is this PowerPlay modified, finished, and rebranded?
some comments about PowerPlay here( it's the second item listed on the page, about half way down)
not only do you NOT need hl, but with it, you can(for now, at least) play halflife without buying it, as well as tfc, and cs. No need for a cd-key either.
That is a great pun indeed. However I would like to point out that anyone who is thinking about unbreakable copy protection, digital content delivery system sending binary digits (bits) which are impossible to copy,* or other perpetum mobile for that matter, might consider getting a clue and educating oneself. Crypto-Gram and some books could be a good start.
Of course I am not talking to anyone from the Slashdot community, as I am sure everyone of us is perfectly aware of everything I am talking about. I am saying it in case someone from this steampowered dotcom is listening.
__________
*) also acceptable would be: a lossless compression of random data, a one-time-pad cryptography without key distribution problem or with reused keys or keys shorter than cleartext, immortality drug, perpetual motion machine, prove of the existence of omnipotent superbeing, strong artificial intelligence on Turing machine, homeopathy, magic, multilevel marketing that works, et cetera ad infinitum, ad nonsensum... I think you get the point already.
Karma: Positive (probably because of superiour intellect)
There's no excuse. Their software is cross platform and so should this be.
Valve? I don't think they're a "cross platform" development house, as a rule. (Not like id is.) I'm pretty sure Half-Life 2 won't run on anything but Windows.
The servers will definately run on Linux. The clients on the other hand will be entirely up to Linux users to figure out. Until Linux desktop users provide a market for games (i.e. they actually start buying proprietary software), there is zero incentive for game publishers to support Linux, and I can't blame them (there is very little "common good" argument to be made for game software which is typically non-reusable).
On the other hand, if there is a Mac version, that is 80% of the way there considering Mac OS X is now unix.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Steam has been on a public Beta for at least the last year and for at least 2 versions.
I sometimes have to use a Dial up connection a lot.
This means I have to travel somewhere else to do the bigger downloads and then transfer the files onto my disk of some sort.
This is ok with Gentoo (wget portagesnapshot.tgz && emerge -ufp world). M$ still provide `mass install` support as well as the auto updaters - this especally helpful when reinstalling afresh every 5 minutes.
But auto updaters like this completely foul the system as they don't provide support for sneaker-net. What a pain in the neck.
A blog I run for the wealth
I installed it 2 weeks ago, and I still don't get the point. Sure, it combines some stuff together, but does it make sense?
Let's see:
1. Instant Messaging- No, please! Not another! I use already trillian because my friends have split up between all 4 known protocols. No need, no need at all to have another one.
2. Server Browser- nice, sure, but naturally for HL and mods only. Beginners can use the in-game browser, advanced players a tool like Gamespy or ASE. They cover almost all games and have advanced filtering systems and other toys. No need, no need at all to have another one.
3. Automatic updates- nice, but it requires to have the steamdemon running all the time, then suddenly starting a 90 MB download like the latest HL-patch without notifying you. If you are a beginner and play alone, and you are happy with your game, why upgrading? Never change a running system! If you are a geek or suddenly can't log in to your favorite game server because he switched to another version, well off you go to d/l the patch. Is there a need to have a tool watching in realtime if there might be an upgrade? No need, no need at all. Sucks bandwidth and processor time for being idle 99.9% of the time.
4. Access to special Valve stuff, like Movies. So, they reinvented ftp-Servers? One URL: http://www.valve.com/movies. And please, with a screenshot or sth, modern browsers are capapable of that, and some additional information. Do I need a special tool telling me there is a 500 MB movie and if I want to download, I can just click on the name? No need, no need at all.
5. Game download. Well, I think you can guess what I will write about it, you should by now. 2 words: Website. Credit card.
Just for the record: HL is for me the greatest game ever so far, and I am sure HL2 will meet my high expectations (and will push id from the throne, finally).
I am just disappointed of the steam-Hype.
Uh, who said anything about DRM? DRM stands for digital rights management. I don't see anything on that site mentioning that they would restrict use or distribution of the digital content in question.
There are many ways to "manage" digital content, including, but certainly not limited to, keeping all your installed mods up-to-date and the ability to download any mod without fumbling with version numbers and DLLs and maps to get to play for the first time.
It might be a good idea to keep your terms straight.
No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness. --Aristotle
If this wasn't HL/CS we were talking about here, I'd probably have little tolerance for Steam. Why do I want a program running in the background for some game I might play once a week? If every game in the future runs like Steam, its not going to be pretty. Not to mention the whole dial up thing, thank god I migrated to broadband when I did.
vaporware! :)
the computer is online
i am not at it
what a waste of ressources
It seems like Steam is nothing but a DRM scheme full of hot air.
See my post here...
"Anyway, long story short... is a phrase whose origins are complicated and rambling...." - Abraham Simpson