Slashdot Mirror
Half-Life 2 'Interview' - False Activation Claims?
An anonymous reader writes "According to a mini-interview with Valve's Gabe Newell at Nerdsahoy.com, Half-Life 2 will use a form of online product activation to prevent more than one install per copy." Newell also allegedly comments on distribution, saying "...our marketing will mostly lean towards [Valve's online 'content delivery system'] Steam as the method of acquiring the game." Update: 09/02 14:34 GMT by S : Unfortunately, many signs point towards this being a fake, fabricated interview.
"it uses a system much like Windows XP"
Newsflash: 20 days before the official release date of WinXP, a no-activation version was already installed in millions of PC worldwide.
Maybe they could decrease the number of online gamers, even that was proven impossible. A huge percentage of online HL gamers use a pirated copy and a CDKey "they got from a friend".
^_^
God, that's going to be annoying if you don't have internet access for some reason. Buying a game only to not be able to play it until you post off a card and get a response would be crazy, especially for overseas customers.
I hope it's like Windows XP where you get 30 days to activate your HL2. If that's what happens there might be nothing stopping me from installing an illegal copy, playing it for 30 days then reinstalling/giving up.
"About the only thing left to try is hardware DRM, but even that's not fool-proof (X-Box)."
Xbox Live! service + XBox hardware = no mods, no cheaters. There's the odd bugged game that can be used in various evil ways, but the actual combination of a locked-hardware set and a locked-network is fairly strong.
Sure, you could possibly crack it, but it's so improbable as to be impossible.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
That the source is kinda dodgy? As one AC mentioned, it's not a site anybody's really heard about, and it was submitted anonymously. Combine this with the way it reads. While Mr. Newell often made amusing responces to questions, they tend to at least have more humour than what was found in this interview. Not to mention the way the questions were posed. 8/27/03 Interview with Mr Newell for comparison
The first thing I do when I buy a game with a CD-Key is take out my trusty Sharpie pen and write the key on the CD.
You need a license to have a dog, but any fool can have a child!
If you stick it on the Jewel Case you can use a more brutal machine to stick it on than if it was the sensitive CD.
Plus you can get the jewel cases made ahead of having the CDs pressed.
But I agree, this is annoying move from Valve.
Like all copy protectin, the only people it will annoy is legitimate customers.
"No CD Present" - "Yes there is, it's on the shelf in the box"
5 minutes and a trip to
http://www.gamecopyworld.com
later
"ahh, no-cd bliss"
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I was really looking forward to HL2. I had the date marked on my calendar and everything. However, with this news, I doubt I'll buy it at all. I've avoided buying Windows XP because of the whole issue, and continue to run Windows 2000 to play games. To me, the "upgrade" wasn't worth letting someone else tell me that I was "allowed" to run it, even after I've already paid for it because of a hardware change. What if I lose my internet connection after the change? I'm stuck until I make a call? I'm sorry. That's just ridiculous -- to me -- that I would have to fool with that, again, after I've paid for it, free and clear. Unfortunately, I've just tried this new "Steam" product, and I thought, "Hey, this will be great! All these games for free! It will even be perfect for LAN parties because we'll finally be able to play Counter-Strike even though not everyone has bought it." Then I realize that for one thing, there are ads every time you launch a game. Not big ones, but ads. "Fine," I thought, "this is a free product. I get what I pay for." On top of this, the other thing that bugs me is that it's "phoning home" every time I launch a game. Again, it's free, and I guess that's part of the deal, but if we don't have an internet connection at the next LAN party (and sometimes we don't), then we can't play Counter-Strike for free. The bottom line is that I like to install my games both at work and at home, so I can play on my own time at lunch, and occasionally after work. I take my saved games back and forth while I beat a new game to death. If Valve tells me that I can't do that without paying for two copies, that's their perogative, of course, but it's also my perogative to not buy it. It seems ridiculous to me that I can't treat a video game like a book, and take it "where I want to go today." Product activation "like Microsoft" indeed. It looks like Valve will inherit my Microsoft buying habits, and I don't buy anything from Microsoft any more.
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."