Slashdot Mirror
Valve Takes the Offensive on Warez Users?
Drull writes "It's claimed by a poster on filefront.com that Valve might have released a "Warez" version of Half-Life 2 to monitor and ban those who attempt to use it. This is the news from some guy with a filefront account, so take it with a grain of salt.
The RIAA and MPAA should take a lesson. Valve has done a pretty incredible thing. They have done a solid job and snuffing out pirating while managing to avoid pissing off their consumer base. They have offered a product that is not crippled and have managed to protect it without resorting to using the government in the form of the judicial system to act as their personal thugs. This is the way companies should protect their IP, not by using the government as their own private band of thugs.
If this pans out to be true, Valve could be in serious legal trouble. I totally sympathize with Valve in their efforts to combat piracy, but the moment they toy with other people's computers is when class action lawsuits occur. There are times that you just *can't* take the law into your own hands.
I'll really feel sorry for those people who perhaps used this (if real) file to "no cd" their legitimate versions thinking that they were trying to save themselves some Steam hassle only to hose their system/accounts.
I think the idea has merit - unleash a "modified" version via warez or bittorrent that could track the people using illegal copies of the game. Though I find it hard to believe a forum post about it. I ran a quick check on a few bittorrent sites and the only HL2 files I have seen are from the leaked source months back.
It took two hours to get HL2 actually up and ready to play on tuesday, even though the installer actually put the bits onto the disk from the CD in under 15 minutes. And now, to actually play the game, in single player mode, it still takes several minutes from the time I click on the icon to start the game before I can even choose to load a saved game -- this time is spent starting Steam, then verifying that my copy is legit.
And then, even when I'm not playing, Steam pops up and sends messages to my screen. So far, they've been related to HL2 and Steam, but how long will it be before Valve is advertising their new game? Or somebody else's new game, available through Steam? Or how about some new energy drink to drink while playing their game?
Don't pretend that everybody likes Steam. It seems clever enough, but really what it is is an advertising, piracy prevention and sales portal. And if you want HL2, to actually *buy* HL2 rather than pirate it, it's forced on you.
IF Valve is, indeed, running such an experiment, it's pretty unlikely that Gabe Newell (or anyone at Valve) would immediately fess up to it to some unknown joker on the Internet - WHILE they're trying to catch people.
:)
:)
However, this is a pretty neat idea - since Valve knows that people are going to pirate the game, the proactive step of CONTROLLING the version that gets pirated by modding it so that they can track it anthen releasing it BEFORE anyone else can do the same pretty much ensures that they'll get the personal info (name, credit card #, address, etc.) of lots of pirates, and then they can choose what to do with that info.
The first option that comes to mind is emotionally satisfying to but a horrible business plan - they COULD use that personal info to PERMANENTLY BAN that person from using Steam/HL2, ever. Although that might make Gabe & crew feel good for a few minutes... they just potentially lost ($50 x #_of_pirates).
The second option, which is BOTH emotionally satisfying AND a good business plan, BUT is ALSO only quasi-moral and barely legal, is to use that personal info to contact the pirates directly and extort^H^H^H^H^H^H encourage them to buy a legal copy immediately, otherwise Valve will turn their info over to the authorities for prosecution. This not only "sticks it to the pirates" but also generates additional revenue (($50 x #_of_pirates) - ($50 x #_of_stupid_pirates)). Heck, if they went the extortion^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H encouragement route, why not "encourage" them to buy the $90 package instead?
The third, and most likely option, would be to turn all of that personal info over to the authorities and make a huge example out of all of them, thus instilling the Fear of Valve into all pirates everywhere, which would hopefully reduce the number of pirates and create a Utopian society for all.
All that said, though, I doubt there's any truth to the story, since, again, it kind of defeats the purpose of having a sting-operation if you TELL EVERYONE you're running a sting!
"It's claimed by a poster on filefront.com that..."
uh huh. well, it's claimed by a poster on slashdot.org that Natalie Portman pours hot grits down my pants.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
i thought this has been debunked elsewhere..
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
"Monitoring warezed HL2 files on torrent networks" is not the same thing as "Valve populated torrent networks with warezed HL2 files."
Gabe could be saying what he did just to put the scare tactics out there. I would think that could be pretty effective, up to a point. It seems to me that Valve had several options for ways to make HL2 a bit more secure than the average release, by way of options like having the HL2.exe check the MD5 on the Steam.exe, and vice-versa, or other you-get-my-back-I-get-yours dual anti-piracy measures. Considering that I got over five years of playtime out of Half-Life and various mods, I think paying for HL2 was a very wise investment, and feel that people who pirate it just need to pay up and stop harming a developer that gave modding the biggest kick in the pants since inception.
.gcf files, nothing executable) and pull some form of identifying mark from the user. If you pirate software, and the company swipes something identifying you personally - as long as it's nothing that could be considered "theft" of data or records - morally, you deserve what you get.
"Let's let people mod our game. And what the hell, we'll buy the leading map editor for our format and give it out for free." iD didn't do that. Everyone else followed Valve's lead here.
The way I would like to see Valve approach this, would be to let people get a taste of the game with the pirated version (maybe the first 1-2 chapters) and then lock Steam down tight, wipe out a few of the required game files (like the
I hope Valve does have some kind of a crackdown in progress, we'll have to see where it goes from here. Gabe never replied to my question about the "post-Steam" future of Half-Life 2, which is my only real concern about the authorization system.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Surely Gabe means that they're tracking people using the warez version, and the experiment is to do with that tracking? I think he's just badly phrased the reply.
A way to stop drug users, supply deals with Coke and Speed mixed with Anthrax http://www.usafe.af.mil/direct/sg/anthrax/Pictures /anthrx22.jpg/.... And watch to see who develops sours and boils. ----- "Clutch my testes, bloody squirrel humpers!!" -Happy Noodle Boy
Side note: it's depressing how much my idioms have changed after living in Saskatchewan for five years.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
" This is the news from some guy with a filefront account, so take it with a grain of salt "
/. questions the accuracy of some news submission, they should look at the accuracy of their own comments, News submissions, and what users title their submissions.
I think that before
some one needs to change "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." to something like,
"We think we're un-biased when we report stories that are different than how we feel, but thats not what gets subscribers paying the bills, and thats what maters"
burn karma burn!
I follow the SDK and GDN principles.. Spelling Dont Kount, Grammer Dont Neither
I'm not really getting this... It's easier to patch than to reverse-engineer, so I presume the warez version of the game is supplied with a crack that fakes out the Steam authentication so that it doesn't know it's being tricked. Nobody who is interested only in the single player game will connect to another computer online.
How can they expect to track people? Bittorrent? The only tracking information specified in BT is IP address, and most people have a dynamic IP which can be changed by unplugging their modem for 10 minutes.
And what's the penalty? They're banned from the service they don't need? So what?
Well, putting out bogus copies of pirated materials is nothing new, but this is a bit risky. On the one hand, they may net a few would be pirates, but on the other hand they risk alienating a lot of people who just don't know any better. And in the end, those professional pirates who'll be out selling the bogus copies to the unsuspecting will still have their money and are unlikely to be caught.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
I, for one, welcome our new Valve masters!
there goes another keyboard... coffee all over it and the monitor as well.... please warn people by wrapping your posts in sarcasm tags in future... ;)
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
I think if this story has any merit, it's simply Valve trying to save face in light of the embarrasing flaw/trick with steam which allows anyone to download and activate HL2 for free. http://www.nforce.nl/nfos/renderer/ls-black.php?id =79200
If this is true, it actually could end up hurting Valve in the end. For instance, lets say someone downloads a copy of HL2 and plays it. In the process, they are banned from Steam. They decide that they like the game and perhaps would like to play CS:Source or DoD:Source, and so they try and purchase the game. Valve, having locked the potential customer out of Steam, will have lost a customer. Now, you're probably saying that people who download games have no reason to buy them, but this is not true, especially in this case, considering that many people buy the game for CS:Source and DoD:Source. I myself first played an illegal copy of Half-Life, but then bought the game because I liked it and wanted to play TFC. This is only considering the fact that Valve could track the users...
Now, how is Valve going to track the user? Look on their computer for a Steam account and ban all accounts found? What if one of their friends had been over playing on their box, logged into steam, and there were two accounts on the machine? Ban both accounts? I know I was showing my friend the CS:Source beta when he didn't have it, I saw my account directory still on his machine last week. What if the user of the pirated software didn't even have Steam? Ban his IP? Not practical due to dynamic IP's. I know, many people have broadband connections with static IPs, but still many don't. Also, if a user owns a steam account, it's a good bet that they have purchased a product, such as HL or CS:CZ. If someone can find in the Steam EULA where it allows Valve to revoke use of a product that a user already owns, please post it in reply to this. Direct quotes only please. So, in summary, this is either bullshit or a pretty stupid plan... I'm betting on the former.
Far from this Steam activation deal encouraging me to buy the game rather than use a warezed version, it's done precisely the opposite. I was going to buy the boxed version of it to avoid the horrors of Steam (have you ever READ the T&Cs for it?), but now it transpires that it's Steam or no HL2 I guess it's no HL2 for me. For starters my gaming PC is not, nor will it ever be, connected to the internet, but that's not the only thing:
One, Valve's LAN-gaming policy is retarded -- you have to apply a month in advance if you want to play a Valve game at a LAN-party, but at the moment it's not enforced. However, all they need to do is disable the "offline play" mode on Steam...
Two, what happens if at some point in the future Valve go belly up? What good then your $60 piece of software?
Three, this is just another step towards some sort of stupid broadcast flag/induce act piece of moronicity.
Four, the only people inconvenienced by this (along with every other piece of product activation ever created) are people who paid for it. People with warezed versions are saved the hassle (and in the case of the CS:Source Emporio release, occasionally get extra features).
So long, Gabe -- I waited years for HL2, but I guess I'll never get to play it now.
This sentence no verb.
If the time is spent trying to connect to one of Valve's broken servers, then it will still take time to timeout when not connected to the internet. So it isn't a good test as to what is happening during that period.
I downloaded Steam yesterday, and registered. I didn't download any games (yet), but it's a real piece of crap. Awful UI, confusing as heck, and it takes up a slot in my system tray. Sorry Valve, I don't like reserving a portion of my screen so you can put an icon (ad) in the corner of it full time.
I may still by HL2, but there is a good chance I will not. If it didn't require Steam, I would have bought it already.
Yeah, won't help for online play, but what kind of idiot plays pirated games online anyway?
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
At least Microsoft provided the option of activating the product over the phone.
The fucking crowbar is rubbery and of no use at all despite Gordon's best efforts. Most frustrating anti-piracy since starforce. Damn you valve!
I swear this article was posted earlier, but now it is listed as being posted today at 2:00pm, even though the earliest responses are from 3 hours prior.
Somehow this jumped to the top of my page. Was it because it shifted to front page or something?
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
"Slashdot: Rumors for Nerds. Stuff that may or may not be true."
In releated news, due to piss poor QA you HAVE to install Counter Strike if your trying to install HL2 off of the retail CDs. If you dont select Counter Strike (which is on disk five) the installer will look for the final file "hl2.ico1" on disk four and not find it (because its not there) forcing you out of the installer after swapping four disks. If the game wasn't so good I'd be REALY pissed off, as it stands I just take my aggression out on head crabs.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
... on my eyes. Argh.
From what I've seen, the warez version, somebody has cached the current files from steam, and patched client.dll so the software gets the expected returns without having to actually phone home to steam.
Valve Employee #1(who may or may not exist): Wow, look at that
Valve Employee #2: Whats that Phil?
V-Emp#1:Apparently, Bob Barker just registered 30 of those bit torrent Half Life 2's, in 13 states, all at the same time!
V-Emp#2:Ah. I why they though people would actually put real information into an obviously illeagal copy.
V-Emp#1:Well, they did take a lot of acid before decideing on it...
X
Hahahahaha -- why was this not a major /. news item?
Surely there could be some better story about halflife 2 than some DRM spun rumor from filefront...
Pirated copies of Doom 3 and NFS Underground 2 were availabe a week or so before the official release date, tempting many potential but impatient customers into becoming pirates. Valve has done an excellent job by atleast delaying pirated versions beyond the official release date. A quick survery of P2P forums shows that many impatient pirates are becoming customers!
for a sleepy little village in Mexico, Warez sure gets a lot of coverage on the web.
It's the difference between an operating system and a game. Few people rely heavily upon the ability to play a game (and if you do, you've got more problems than just game activation). Inability to re-install an OS on the other hand can be a major problem. If you're stuck somwhere without a phone or 'net access and you need to install XP, you're up shit crick.
Both Microsoft and Valve can decide when to stop authorizing their software (and likely will at some point). Of course the consequences of no longer being able to install an OS are a LOT bigger than not being able to play a 10 year old game. You also have to admit that Microsoft has a much spottier reputation with taking unfair advantage of their monopoly power. Valve doesn't have that reputation, so people are more willing to trust them.
AccountKiller
This is the news from some guy with a filefront account, so take it with a grain of salt.
If you don't trust the source, why did you post the story?? Trying to pull a "Dan Rather" here?
What?
I won't buy these games, don't like steam with their DRM and other shit.
No money for Valve with their fine Linux support (only playable with cedcega 4.2).
bah bah
Who is this Slashdot guy you're talking about? He sounds like a real flip-flopper.
Not totally. They do give you a grace period on a fresh install of Windows XP before it stops working without activation. So your not up shit creek as you say if you can't activate it right a way.
I really doubt that they actually made this. I think it is more likely that Valve is just tracking the IPs that connect to the torrent. As some of you know, with some BT clients, you can see the other IPs that are connected to you.
You make a good point about the option of activating XP over the phone.... but correct me if I'm wrong, I think this was how the current *successful* cracks for XP activation work. By entering in the generated code that you would have received over the phone. This was the point of weakness for the XP activation.
There were other "hacks" that involved physically replacing DLLs, but that's changing the OS and it could be detected easily by Microsoft...
The worst part is that according to the linked forum, no one says Valve has released a warez version to fool pirates.
End of story, IMHO.
This is the official word:
"We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off."
Then it's assumed the "experiment" was to release a warez version. The "experiment" can of course be anything, like leaking an invalid key to some IRC channel. But that would be nowhere near spreading a warez version. It could probably mean something else too as "keeping track" is quite ambiguous.
The FileFront guy goes on with
"Therefore, I strongly suggest that you DO NOT participate in these illegal activities as it would only lead to your own harm."
Why, the most common cracked version doesn't even connect to Steam. How would they be able to do anyhting? And if you loose your account, you're free to make a new one. Maybe they ban by IP ranges, but that's risky for dynamic IP's and nothing like that is even mentioned.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
If we're thinking of the same thing -- Microsoft was locking warezers out of security patches. Even the most rabid anti-M$ ninny would probably concede that they're not obligated to give free ice cream to users with bad serial numbers, but by denying security patches for worms and whatnot they're creating headaches for all their legitimate customers, and all other computer users.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
If "Valve" releases a bad CD crack, so be it. It's not really from Valve so there's no recourse. If that's what they're doing, I don't see a problem with it. Makes the pirate's job that much harder.
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
this is a dumb response from some idiot with a website.... I will say one thing. After purchasing a LEGAL copy of HL2 (and downloading the massive amount of content) I decided to watch pftop on another monitor. Single player Half-LIfe 2 did about 600M worth of chatting with valve while I was playing the game.
Turn them over to the authorities? Isn't that like selling coke to someone, then turning them into the authorities? Either cracking and releasing their own game is legal (and hence, downloading and playing it is legal because they, the copyright holders, are personally GIVING it to us) or it is illegal (perhaps under some twisted interpretation of the DMCA), and thus they would be just as vulnerable as the people who played it.
IP banning should be ok, but if that is what they're doing they picked the WRONG time to do it. With so many people pissed off about authentication issues, I'm sure many of them are using cracks and thinking to themselves, "This isn't wrong; I'm just trying to play the game I paid for." If these paying customers get permanently banned because of this, then Valve is shooting themselves in the foot with a rocket launcher.
Slashdot: Failed Car Analogies. Amateur Lawyering. Anecdote Battles.
I wasted 3 nights trying to get halflife2 working... it would have been nice if they used all that anti-piracy code that detects that you are legit and running the game properly BEFORE you play.... WHY WHY WHY oh WHY dont they check WHILE you play as well then? It'd be nice for customer service, for example - my onboard optical audio caused the game to lock up about 10 seconds into the game... why not check after 60... maybe after the 1st intro - basically just send a heartbeat to steam saying that the game is running properly. If that test fails 5 times then you bet your A** you have a really pissed off customer and you should probably auto-pop-up a chat dialog next time that steam account is accessed. Of course there would be options to disable that, but it would be a nice customer service edge and very easy to implement granted you have to connect to play single player anyway. Just my 2 cents.
-Kyler
The guy who wrote the article blew it way out of proportion, and entirely too many "news" sites have picked up this little unverified tidbit as truth.
-phixxr
ungggghhhh
This is assuming the warezed copy runs. Not hard to make something called "Half Life 2 installer.zip", with a bunch of large files inside but all it does it send a message to the HL2 blacklist (or install something on your machine to make HL2 blacklist you).
Basically it would be a trojan.
Its just like the authentication scheme on the T2 super duper edition DVD (the one with the HD-WMV version). Why should i have to contact MS to play a f-ing movie that i already paid for?
This is a bad trend. Soon enough ill have to have a net connection so my bed can authenticate me to go to sleep.
I want 2D games back.
I hate software licensing as much as anyone on
Uhm, I'm confused - what exactly is it that Valve is offering "in exchange for the authentication hassle"?
If you're stuck somwhere without a phone or 'net access and you need to install XP, you're up shit crick.
Nope, because MS has a grace period. You don't need to have a mobile phone or something nearby right at that time. And you have to be a pretty poor isolated fella if you can't contact the outer world for over a week / month or whatever it is.
I can't see why people have so hard time accepting this. It's basically just a replacement for a CD key verified by a server. Just more flexible. Since it's an important piece of software.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
You get like 30 days or something to activate. So yes, if you're away from a net connection and a phone for 30 days after installing XP, you may have problems.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I bought the original Half-Life to play DOD with friends. Then they released Steam(ing pile of DRM ad delivery garbage). For months I couldn't play the games because updates broke video compatibility. Then all of a sudden it worked, for a few weeks, then it broke again with security issues when connecting to other hosts. Then a few weeks later it works again (after more fixes are retrieved). It is a nightmare!
Everyone cries about Circuit City and their failed Divx initive. Steam cries of the same thing. It's an advertisement and upsell delivery system.
After suffering thru Steam, I would chuckle if people cracked the Steam software delivery system, or reverse engineered the Steam authentication system so rouge servers could auth clients on private networks.
I am proud to admit that Steam/DOD/HL started working just in time to deliver ads for HL2.
Warez puppies dissapointed me, they didn't manage to unlock the preload of HL2 or crack the authentication garbage.
Southeastern Virginia REPRESENT!
One big difference is that I can use HL2 on any other machine once I registered.
While with XP, I can't just reinstall XP on my brand new machine with out having to deal with Microsoft support.
The internet is a requirement to play Half Life 2 for purposes of registration. I think it was as of Tuesday at least? Hopefully that helped answer your questions.
If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
Have someone confirmed this? sounds suspiciously like a false alarm!
Don't get me wrong, I've been singing a verse or two of "Fuck Valve, Fuck Steam" since the WON auth servers went down and I think that this is a shitty tactic.
There is, however, a world of difference between the two. Has Valve ever been legally found to be a monopoly?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
It is worth pointing out that the Source engine is loaded before the title screen comes up. The background is an actual in-game location, so the engine needs to be loaded first. That is why it takes a long time to load.
Together, we will drive the rats from the tundra.
If Valve prepared a special version of HL 2 and released it with the intent of it being distributed, does that not legitimize the usage of it?
If they did release a warez version for free with no restrictions it would be public domain. Those sharing and copying the halflife2 warez could not be sued/prosictued. I want a copy!
bash-2.04$
bash-2.04$yes "Don't you hate dialup connections?"| write USERNAME
Cream of heat, right? Or was it oatmeal.... something like that.
Look behind you...
In related news, last night in #teen-chat, cHeRrYbLossOM697 responded to the question "a/s/l" with "200/m/NJ". Although sources have not yet been confirmed, jounalists are now saying that we may have uncovered the oldest living human.
A return of quality Portman and grits stamp-jokes! Not the inferior "Soviet Russia" or "overlords". Yay!
For the first time in a long time, the final version of the game was first played by the people who bought it, not the pirates. No security is completely foolproof, but I think that's about as close as you can get these days.
I bought this game, opened it, and it doesnt work because of a firewall i dont control. So i can return it and i'm screwed with a game i cant play! So as soon as i see a pirate version, im downloading it.
I'm not sure I understand the point of this "experiment". People with steam accounts that can play the game already own it regardless of where they downloaded it from.
If you already own the game on Steam, that's probably the one case when downloading the game from bittorrent (for whatever reason) is legal. So, banning their accounts would just be canceling accounts of people who did buy the game, but letting people who didn't play as much as they want.
Rockstar Games contacted a friend of mine because he left the GTA Vice City in his torrent software for over a week. It didn't help that his IP had a PTR record that pointed directly to a website with contact information...
companies are apparently watching.
Yeah, problems...
Like you're stuck on Gilligan's fscking Island.
Or, if you actually read the source on this, that poster was reading more into Valve's response than was said.
They only said they're monitoring it and responding, not that they'd released it.
It's easy to monitor who's sharing a file on BitTorrent without seeding a single bit, never mind being the original seeder...
i just saw three seeds of the full game in suprnova.org...
- live from Costa Rica !
The only reason half the people in the world own computers is to fucking play games.
I too think this is a neat idea and I wouldn't be surprised if other companies pulled stuff like this too.
The one problem is... sometimes I will install a cracked version of a game I own because it becomes extremely inconvenient and/or unfeasible to put the CD in the drive to play. One quick example.. running a dedicated Doom 3 server. Sure, now you don't need the CD in the drive anymore, but when the game first came out, you did.. which was simply ridiculous since no one should have to buy an extra copy of doom 3 just to run a dedicated server, especially since having more dedicated servers actually helps the developer (free resources to allow more people to play online).
So in the end... since legit customers may want to disable the CD check, Valve cannot assume that everyone who is running a copy of their game with the CD check disabled is pirating it.
The entire Half Life 2 release and drm fiasco (not to mention the reported technical problems) is going to hurt Valve and Sierra/Vivendi in the long run. The best outcome would be for Valve and Sierra to gets burned enough that Half Life 2 can be used as an example of how not to release a game.
It is not difficult to get usage information for a dynamic IP address, it just takes a subpoena; and for a lawyer, getting a subpoena is usually pretty easy. The RIAA ran into a bit of trouble because they were trying to bypass the proper subpoena process.
It's not difficult but it is costly - and how much would Valve want to spend just to ban someone from Steam?
Furthermore imagine someone is indeed tracked down via subpoenas and banned. Now that same person wants to join Steam later on - so they just use a fake name/address!! What is Valve going to do, use ANOTHER subpoena for every valid subscriber to verify name/address? I doubt you could even get a subpoena through to do that!
So Valve is either using the IP address or some kind of cookie-like system - what other technical means do they have to accomplish what they are trying to do?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
of the current law. Please cite your cases.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur
Besides the fact that these warez could be virused, tweaked with cheats like autoaim or autododge, etc. I would hope that anyone playing a great Linux port (such as UT2004, thanks icculus!) is properly paid up.
To be quite honest, I'm pretty pleased that Bungie/M$ has put their foot down on Halo2 hijinks, it's good that there's a level baseline (where slow stick 'mouselook' is compensated by some constant autoaim) and a fairly cheat-resistant environment.
(Now if only H2 matchmaker had better gametype and map combos.. 8x8 on Zanzibar is a bit crowded.. UT2004 still 0wnz pure multiplayer...)
And in a month, none of those people who complained will care one bit.
Indeed, they'll happily be playing the cracked version instead.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
ROFL! Really though, I bet the Professor could figure something out, he always does...
music lover since 1969
It can't just be my browser? I've hit this thread freshly twice, and both times got a side-bar advert "Half Life 2 - in stores now". Next to a story about how if you warez it you will burn in hell. How fortuitous!
Is this a typo? The most expensive MMORPG ever made cost under $10 million to develop. I don't see how this can be accurate. I'm assuming that is a typo and should read $4 Million (still an impressive expense for a game)instead of $40 Million.
A HL2 torrent released so they can monitor and ban IPs that connect to it? I doubt it, as that's a legal minefield - you don't even need to be a lawyer to see how a smart pirate is going to make Valve look like fools in court by arguing that by connecting to the torrent and, by the nature of bittorrent, sending just one byte of the game down his pipe, they were displaying conscious intent to give him the whole game for free, thus whipping their case out from under them.
.zip full of large junk files with an .exe that just 'calls home' and gets your Steam ID banned? I doubt this too, as all it would take would be for one vindictive hax0r who just got his Steam account wiped to rename the home-calling .exe as something perfectly legal and start serving it up over Kazaa and bam!, anyone who downloads it gets their Steam IDs hosed. I can't see Valve being stupid enough to run the risk of being liable for something like that, even if it's not likely they would be the ones in the wrong in the eyes of the law in that situation - they'd definately at least be seen as irresponsible for making such a move so easy to perform.
Or, as someone else suggested, a
Or there's option C. That this is bullshit scaremongering. My money's on the latter.
And since when did rumours in jumped-up forum posts become news, anyway?
Bad Slashdot.
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
The ONLY thing that will make be appreciate or even accept being stuch with Steam would be if VALVe chruns out some new HL2 levels every now and again.
meh, you shoulda bought the pro version for many mroe reasons but for being bale to install without a phone line or internet is one of them.
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Follow these steps to unlock Half-Life 2 via Steam and plan without a valid cd-key:
i s/
1 Launch Steam.
2 Right click on Half-Life 2 in the 'Just Released' list and click 'Purchase'.
3 Enter the following cd-key and click 'Next':
(removed due to lameness filter, just use all "*")
4 then it gets to 2 bars. pull out four network cable or disconnect four modem.
5 Let it keep going. don't crash steam. then it finishes you should get a message
saving ''Servers are busy and then Half-Life 2 will appear in Your 'My games' list.
Now put the network cable back in or reconnect your modem Do not attempt to
run the game. if you do. a message will appear saying. "Duplicate cd-key' and the
game will disappear from your 'My Ganes' list.
6 Right click Half-Life 2 in the 'My games' list and click Properties. Change
automatic updates to 'Do not automatically update this Game' and then back to
'always keep this game up to date'.
7 now you should see a message box saying 'Unlocking Half-Life 2 game files'.
When this is finished (should take between 5-10@ mins) Steam will update the game.
8 wait until the update is finished. and then open the following encrypted GCF files
using GcFscape and extract all files to 1 directory:
- half-life 2 content.gcf
- source engine.gcf
- source naterials.gcf
- source models.gcf
- source sounds.gcf
9) Once this is done. Copy your Counter-strike: Source 'bin' folder and paste it where
you have extracted the Half-Life 2 files.
10): Create a shortcut of hl2.exe on the desktop using the -steam command.
(eg. ''C:\HL2\hl2.exe'' -steam)
11): Now run the shortcut on the desktop. You should now be able to play Half-Life 2
and without running through steam.
-- Download GcFscape from:
http://countermap.counter.strike.net/Nemes
NOTES:
This method night not work with the empirio release. since that release was a pack
of a already installed game. most likely you'll have to wait till reloaded or another
game group does the retail of this game so you can put this method to use.
You can stop by #halflife2 in efnet and thank them for this method!
Show me a court case where this has happened and I'll tell people to worry.
I'd wager that a jury won't agree with your lawyers slicing of the hair. When you connect to Steam, do you not "agree" to a license to use it? When you start downloading an app on a .torrent you have no license. You are violating the copyright holders claim to have a license. But if they are party to, and/or facilitate you in getting a copy of their copyrighted work(s), all bets are off.
Also, Your DVD has a nice little part that says something like this is authorized only for private viewings, no distribution, etc. So, if, the copyright holder gave me a special DVD that had a notice saying I could copy it and sell it, then I could. It's all civil issues, or was, until the MPAA/RIAA bought the government.
Now, I'm not advocating piracy, I have many times in the past defended anti-piracy acts, and I think piracy hurts the things I use like Linux. But I think your lawyer friend is one of many lawyers, and if they all agreed on anything then we wouldn't have court now would we.
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
The online activation aspect of Steam is what's pissing off people that are inconvenienced by its delay or retail tie-in. They're not harping about Steam's online distribution aspect.
Valve's activation scheme is a whole lot better than Microsoft's Product Activation, how can this not be obvious to you? Valve is binding activations to accounts, whereas MS links it to machine configuration. You can install and activate Half Life 2 on more than one machine if you wanted to.
I think what the gp post was refering to was why in the friggini name of all that is good does this game have to require internet access to play the offline portions of the game. I agree that this crap is getting out of hand, and I for one will vote with my wallet (nevermind the fact that I can't play it on my machine anyways).
Follow these steps to unlock Half-Life 2 via Steam and plan without a valid cd-key:
i s/
1 Launch Steam.
2 Right click on Half-Life 2 in the 'Just Released' list and click 'Purchase'.
3 Enter the following cd-key and click 'Next':
(just use all "*")
4 then it gets to 2 bars. pull out four network cable or disconnect four modem.
5 Let it keep going. don't crash steam. then it finishes you should get a message
saving ''Servers are busy and then Half-Life 2 will appear in Your 'My games' list.
Now put the network cable back in or reconnect your modem Do not attempt to
run the game. if you do. a message will appear saying. "Duplicate cd-key' and the
game will disappear from your 'My Games' list.
6 Right click Half-Life 2 in the 'My games' list and click Properties. Change
automatic updates to 'Do not automatically update this Game' and then back to
'always keep this game up to date'.
7 now you should see a message box saying 'Unlocking Half-Life 2 game files'.
When this is finished (should take between 5-10@ mins) Steam will update the game.
8 wait until the update is finished. and then open the following encrypted GCF files
using GcFscape and extract all files to 1 directory:
- half-life 2 content.gcf
- source engine.gcf
- source naterials.gcf
- source models.gcf
- source sounds.gcf
9) Once this is done. Copy your Counter-strike: Source 'bin' folder and paste it where
you have extracted the Half-Life 2 files.
10): Create a shortcut of hl2.exe on the desktop using the -steam command.
(eg. ''C:\HL2\hl2.exe'' -steam)
11): Now run the shortcut on the desktop. You should now be able to play Half-Life 2
and without running through steam.
-- Download GcFscape from:
http://countermap.counter.strike.net/Nemes
NOTES:
This method night not work with the empirio release. since that release was a pack
of a already installed game. most likely you'll have to wait till reloaded or another
game group does the retail of this game so you can put this method to use.
You can stop by #halflife2 in efnet and thank them for this method!
- It's ok if game developers make it so you can't play the game you bought from them, because games don't really matter.
- It's fine if the game I purchased stops working at some arbitrary point, because playing games doesn't really matter.
- It's ok for Valve to abuse their customer base, because Valve isn't a monopoly.
Ok, so if that's right, let's just not buy games from these companies, because obviously games don't matter. Let's see how much game developers appreciate that attitude.Or-- how about when I spend money on something, that I get value for my money... like, say, a working product? By spending money on it, I've demonstrated that it matters *to me*. By nature, activation is an annoyance that demonstrates that the developer has no problem hassling and annoying their own customers, and possibly rendering their own product unusable, in the hopes of squeezing out a few more pennies. On principle, we should boycott products with activation, and since HL2 has it, and since (according to you) games don't matter, it's a good place to start.
(Disclaimer: I don't have HL2 because I don't have a Windows machine anymore. However, if I did, after hearing that it requires activation, I still don't think I would buy it.)
Don't compare Steam to Kazaa, it doesn't spy on you. If you could pay for Kazaa, it probably wouldn't either.
Presumably, people will not tolerate "content delivery" software that attacks competing software on their computer. Also, even a lot of clueless end users despise spyware. One would hope that major companies like Sony would not bite themselves in the ass PR-wise just to deliver a few banner ads to your desktop (considering how much profit would come from selling music etc. downloads).
Of course, amazingly stupid things are done all the time by otherwise sensible companies. Which is why we have to make a big noise every time they try to screw us. Also, if running a bunch of different Steam-like apps at once hoses your computer so none of them work, it's similar to the "tragedy of the commons", in that no one company has intended to make your computer nonfunctional (why would they want to when you use it to buy media from them?) but all together they bugger it up.
I don't mind the concept of Steam, but they really should have provided an alternative for users with NO internet connection (or a really slow one, like 33.6), as rare as they may be. It could be as simple as a phone call to tell them your CD key and get a code to punch in to activate. Those people wouldn't need multiplayer anyway, after all, so Steam wouldn't be needed for that.
Freedom: "I won't!"
> This is the news from some guy with a filefront > account, so take it with a grain of salt. Dear Slashdot, WHY ARE YOU PUTTING THIS ON THE FRONT PAGE OF SLASHDOT? This is happening more and more often lately. Please wake up - bloggers are not journalists. I already consider you to be a fairly unreputable source of news because you seem to think otherwise, and because you check stories without checking it out first (case in point: the Fallujah Google Images thing). Eventually if this shit continues, the rest of your reader base may think the same.
This doesn't invalidate their copyright at all. They own it and are allowed to copy and distribute it under whatever policies they desire.
What it _DOES_ mean, however, is that since _THEY_ are the ones to be releasing it like this, that you are not infringing on any copyrights by downloading it for free from them and playing to your hearts content, online or off. If it was distributed by them, it was authorized by them, so it's legit.
Under no circumstances could you allow your copy (or any portions of your copy) to be uploaded to other computers though... such copies would be unauthorized copies and prohibited by copyright law. This kind of makes using BT a little awkward, since you won't be able to upload, but it's still perfectly legal.
The long and the short of it is that if this story turns out to be true, Valve may have given themselves a proverbial ass-screwing they'll be unlikely to forget anytime soon, and could possibly lead to forcing Valve to close up shop (to mitigate PR damages as quickly as possible) and quietly reform under a new name.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
From the time I click the HL2 icon to the time I start to load a saved game is less than a minute. In that time I get no ad's from Steam, just the "logging onto Steam" and "Loading half-life 2" screens... that is it.
The ONLY time I got advertisements was just before launch Monday night/Tuesday morning. Now it just goes in and I play.
...is like having sex in a bus station. You're going to get what you're going to get.
If for no other reason, the point of cracking protection schemes is to see if you can solve the puzzle of the copy protection. Has nobody ever bought a crappy game they never intended to play, just for the challenge of cracking it?
I guess nobody else remembers half-tracks, nibble counting, $D6...
"Warez Script kiddies take offensive to Valve"
DOS looming?
duh.
How is this different from Blizzard banning those who play with copied/generated CD-Keys?
If you get banned, change your key... kinda simple, really. Same for Doom 3 or any other single-player oriented game with an online multiplayer mode.
In any case, you can still play the single player mode, so it's not like anyone's curbing any pirating.
Sorry, nothing special going on here.
We have secretly replaced these Slashdot mods' sense of humor with a rusty nail. Let's see if they notice!!
I just had a frightening image of Sheila Copps getting in Natalie Portman's pants...
*scrubs visual cortex*
Freedom: "I won't!"
and vice versa.. In this thread a couple of people say that they will be pirating the game because of steam.
I don't want an annual pass to HL2. I want to own HL2. I don't want to show credentials, because much like in your case, some day they may no longer work. Most likely because Valve went away.
Your analogy is a pretty good one. And it explains very well why I don't like Steam.
I'm not buying HL2 because it sounds like this Steam auth bullshit is the 21st century internet-enabled version of dongles. It's a game, not a $10k commercial software package. Get the fuck over yourselves, Valve.
Wtf? /.
Maybe you didnt notice, but most people are pissed with steam. And not just on
I'm pissed too. It took me hours to get it activated then it kept crashing for no reason. I downloaded the files again after which I could play, but now I want to stop running steam every time I want to play and there seems to be no way of doing that AFAIK.
Maybe I get cracked version for sanity.
Hmm.
If I'm not wrong, someone could do this with a legitimately-purchased copy, too, to avoid the delay involved in unpacking the GCF files.
I don't own a copy of HL2 yet (constrained in both time and money issues), but when I buy it I'll keep this in mind (presuming they haven't patched it away by then).
I believe it was either a stage select or infinite life (or maybe both) code for TMNT2: The Arcade Game on NES. The Contra code is:
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A
Think about it a moment. The Internet, as it is designed, is specifically intended to allow the free flow of information to anyone who wants to post or send it. No one who produces IP, be it a software company, music or movie producer, or anyone else, can stop -anything- that can be made into data from being distributed in this manner. What they can do is make it more difficult to do so, while making it easy and convenient to use their software. People will pay for convenience, as has been demonstrated time and again, even if a cheaper or free option is available but more of a pain.
So, the smart company doesn't say "Pirating is theft!" (Most don't see it as such and/or don't care.) Or say "Software piracy is hurting us, we won't be able to develop further games!" (Awwww, you only made $299 million instead of $300 million on it. Don't I wish I had your problem.) What they should say is "Cracked copies may be a pain and may not work. Our version will work straight out of the box." (Maybe even throw in something about how pirated copies may contain worms/Trojans. While that's not too often true, most people wouldn't know that.)
So, what's the problem here? Valve's software WON'T work out of the box, and a cracked copy WILL! They have removed the last incentive there is to purchase a "real" copy for those with any type of computer know-how. Quite simply put, the major misunderstanding that most IP companies operate under is the assumption that computer technology and the Internet are simply going to go away, or will be put under their full and absolute control. The first is unrealistic and the second unthinkable.
Just as they have had to adapt to VCR's, tape decks, CD burners, radio, and every other type of technology invented, they are going to have to figure out how to work WITH the net rather than against it. That may involve some sort of collective licensing scheme (the best solution, to my way of thinking.) It may be to stop licensing each individual copy and instead concentrate on providing value-added support for a fee, such as tech support and customization. It may be to offer copies in an easier and more convenient manner than scouring newsgroups and getting cracks to work. It may be offering webbased services available only to registered users. It may be some combination of all of the above. But one thing's for sure: The solution lies in changing their business model to adapt to technology, not in trying to change technology to adapt to their business model.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
Some guy on some other forums said that there may one day be robots in the future. As a back-up, it was hinted to in Grand Theft Auto : Vice City that "In the Future, There Will Be Robots"
That's pretty much hard evidence right there. Go ahead, post it. I'll be refreshing the page while searching for Elvis sightings.
It seems that it won't allow you to even play the stand-alone version unless you go online. I had a valid account, my internet went down, I went to play half-life 2 and Steam told me it couldn't access it. I read the instructions that said you had to have your password saved and I know for a fact that it is as I am never asked for it. Offline mode doesn't seem to work.
Anybody actually have it working?
Your Disney pass allows you to bypass the long line-ups and get into the park quicker, so your point is completely lame.
XP only required activation on Install or Reinstall (or if you changed enough hardware, how much is the subject of debate). You have to connect to steam every time to play HL. Here's a whatif.. Suppose valve goes under in 2 years (not likely but humor me). Suppose someone with a patent sues them over infringement because they have some stupid software patent that says they own everything and anything to do with any type of system that checks for activation online, and an injunction gets issued by a judge that doesn't know any better to shut steam down. Suppose 5 years from now you decide you want to get nostalgic and play HL2 and they currently are selling HL4 and don't want to activate old copies (Quicken anyone?)
Prove to me that I can legally play HL2 five years from now.
I can't prove you anything, because I'm not Valve, but it stands to reason that, when the authentication servers are taken down, Valve will probably release some sort of patch to disable their piracy protection system.
Now all you need is some sort of statement from Valve confirming this...
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
However there is a key difference between the two: Valve is trying to get away from a publisher. I wholly support them in this cause, MS did the activation system to 'track' copies and it feels much more like big brother to me than Steam. -- This doesn't mean that just because it doesn't feel like a hot poker up my ass it doesn't mean it isn't... but at least I don't feel it.. right?
Everyone else is griping, so I will too ;) I think the Steam validation is a great idea to prevent piracy and the slight hassle it presents is well worth it. For so many years we have heard crap about how piracy forces game companies to drive up the price of games though, yet this "pirate proof" game still costs $50. On top of this I can purchase HL2 directly from Steam, thus Valve and Take Two avoid having to give any money to retailers, but it still costs the end user just as much. So I call bullshit. Give us the damn discount we are entitled to. As for everyone that wants to reply, "if you don't like it don't buy it", I haven't and I won't.
You can freely play in Offline Mode. I haven't logged into Steam since I bought the game.
Why does everybody ignore this?
Please correct me if I am wrong (and I know you will) but did Valve not hire Bram Cohen to help with steam? And didn't Bram say in a recent interview (I can find it if someone wants) that bit torrent never will be, or should never be anonymous? So, Valve is paying him, do they ask him to help fight piracy on bit torrent? Obviously Valve has exceptionally more information about Bit Torrent that your average anti-piracy software company. This raises many questions/possibilities
Whats your Favorite song or artist? YourFavMusi
I haven't logged into Steam since I installed the game. Steam has supported Offline Mode play for months. If I want, I don't ever have to log into Steam, though I'd be foregoing game updates.
Again, I ask, why do people ignore this?
Didn't Turbo Tax also require online validation last year with their software?
I wonder how much companies with non-monopolies lose from this type of model. When all is said and done, between lawsuits, negative word of mouth reviews, pissing off your loyal fanbase, and money spent on creating this crap system if it was all worth it.
Personally, I think their loss protection department needs a swift kick in the rear... but I guess only time will tell.
VALVe Software spent over $40 Million to develop Half-Life 2. Show them you appreciate their work. Buy the game!
or,
VALVe Software paid themselves $40 Million to have a lot of fun while developing Half-Life 2. Show them you appreciate how much they're overpaid for their work. Go ahead, pay way too much and buy the game!
Personally, I'm tired of supporting greedy & self serving pointy heads.
Words to men, as air to birds.
you complaining loosers
i had the steam version and i was playing 15 minutes after midnight on the 15th
now quit your fucking bitching
Five years from now, even if Steam was gone, you'd just play in Offline Mode. You know, that big feature that lets people not have to be online to play?
I don't get why people are ignoring this. Is everyone just half-asleep today or something?
Slashdot is not slashdot.
All 800000 users of slashdot don't hold the same view on everything, you know.
Funny that. This impatient potential customer might actually turn into a pirate instead. Requiring online activation for single player is an insult to me as a cusomter, and it causes me problems. It seems that they are more concerned about pretending to do something about piracy, when, in fact, it only inconveniences their customers. Pirates will just use a cracked version, and it's rather tempting, I must say.
Clever signature text goes here.
Please, what you're saying is that only people "elite" enough in society to be lucky enough to have a top-grade internet connection deserve to enjoy things like this game.
Get real, indeed.
I bought the game on DVD, authenticated on Steam, and have not been online ever since. Yes, that's right kids, Steam has had an Offline Mode for several months now. But Valve bitchers have been conveniently ignoring this for some reason, perhaps because it totally destroys their arguments against Steam? Perhaps because people who hate Steam don't actually hate Steam but just hate any form of copy protection that prevents them from easily warez-ing this game?
Offering it through the store and steam means the stores will have shorter lines because people bought it through steam.
So even if you have a 300 baud connection, you still win with steam!
Yeah, a big reason is to play single player (many people buy HL2 just for that reason) without having to be connected to the internet.
Steam has had this magical feature called "Offline Mode" for months now. You don't have to be online to play Half-Life 2. Just start up the game when you're not connected, and the game will ask you if you want to start up in Offline Mode.
Wow...your argument totally shattered with basic knowledge of the subject we're talking about! I don't know how many posters I've seen bitching about having to be online. I'm amazed so many are this ignorant and simply assume things so they can have a reason to write long, pointless rants.
Before the continuing wave of "having to be online to play a game sucks" posts continues, I just wanted to point out the ignorance of it considering Steam has a perfectly working Offline Mode and has for several months now. I installed the game on Tuesday and haven't logged into Steam since. I'll only ever do it when there are updates to the game, and that's it.
So, enough with the "being online to play sucks" posts. There's an Offline Mode. It works. Just run the game when you're offline, and it asks you to start up in Offline Mode. Neat. Now stop bitching!
Namaste
I'm not talking about the movie, but can this move be considered entrapment? They released a 'warez' version to explicitly ban accounts?
or does that only apply to police?
If the Steam servers don't exist anymore, you'll still be able to install all your steam games if you made a backup of these games using the backup option in steam along with a copy of the ClientRegistry.blob file which contains the authosrisations for offline gaming. This information is available on Steam website, for users willing to install HL2 on offline computers
Now who is being screwed with Steam? The people using the cracked version without online crap and no need for the CD/DVD... or those of us who went out and bought the game with these `features`.
I know which of us feels more ripped off.
If I had the money to buy it I would. If I don't have the money and download a pirate copy and get banned, so what. I wouldn't have the game anyway. No lose on my part anyway and I still am not going to have the money to buy it, so no gain on valve's part. I don't see any logic to valve doing this. I wouldn't rip it off anyway, because I would want to participate in the multiplayer part more than anything and a ripped off cd key is not going to get me there. The game has little value to me as a single player application. I think valve already recognizes this too from their effort to do online reg. and obvious past history of the first version of Half Life. IMHO
Steam worked like a champ for me. I purchased Half-Life 2 the moment that it became available on Steam. Since then, I've enjoyed a good bit of Counter-Strike: Source and on Tuesday morning, I was able to activate/unlock my Half-Life 2. Totally painless.
Further, having already preloaded my laptop, I was able to run it there as well. No CD. No fuss. It allowed me to explore the game at the end of a work day on my way home. You can't beat that.
Despite the rumors and scuttlebutt, you do not require an Internet connection to play Half-Life after it has been unlocked. It's entirely straightforward. Yes, some users have been frustrated, but they are among the vocal lunatic fringe.
Purchasing the product through Steam also ensures that Valve gets a fair cut of the sale versus the retail box version. It's a win-win for all. Piracy does the industry tremendous harm and if Valve's system can give users flexibility while preventing unauthorized duplication, that's a great thing.
People who pirate PC games tend not to turn that piracy into purchases. That's a basic reality of something with a relatively short shelf-life. If the only way to play Half-Life 2 is to purchase the game, Valve software will sell more copies.
Go them.
Steam is about letting you play your games no matter what machine you're on, automatically distributing game updates, and preventing cheating. You're completely ignoring the reasons for it and focusing on "single player game." Yeah, we know it's a single player game, congratulations (it also happens to come with Counterstrike, the most popular online game ever made, you know...).
I'd hate to be using a warez copy of Half-Life 2 a year from now when all the Steam users have the latest updated version yet the warez kids are still playing vanilla 1.0 with its audio stuttering problems, playing against other warez kids who have probably applied cheating cracks which would have been detected by Steam.
And at least Windows will let you play single player for 30 days.
Or else you'll never get game updates, anti-cheating protection...and also warez is bad, right?
Steam already has an offline mode. This is just a way of getting out of paying for the game, as usual.
Wait until 7 years from now when you feel nostalgic and want to install Half-Life 2 on an old machine.
/me returns to playing Phantasmagoria
You can't play it offline Single-Player without activating it... and by then Valve's Steam authentication server might no longer be listening for activation requests.
You're left with a nice Half-Life 2 coaster.
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Sometimes all this stuff makes me wonder if it's really worth it. People know that the game is good, but making it a hassle to play seems a bit like bad business. If someone really wants something, they'll find a way to get it. For a few people, this means hacking and cracking till the sun goes down. However, for the large majority of thrill-seekers out there, $40 is not a big deal...that's the equvalent of maybe 5 movie tickets nowdays. Is it worth alienating 50% of your customers to eliminate 5% to 10% of the freeloaders?
It may be better to simply use religion as a model...if people like their religion and stuff like that, they give money to support it. The proliferation of all these different denominations speaks volumes that this business model must work. If people really like the games, they know that the games cannot be developed without money, so why not let the users support it. It might be worth mentioning that Linus and others developing Linux (a free product) aren't starving (that I know of), and if they were, I'm certain that they could rememdy that problem real quick with the user base they have... I think I read something like that for Wikipedia...they needed some money, simply asked their users, and voila, they got money.
I dunno...maybe I'm just dreaming.
Its good to see the games companies trying to create stronger protections, crackers need challenges and need to think of clever ways to stay ahead. I'm sure they were getting bored anyway. HL-2 has been cracked and released and is playable. Making fun of the warez scene is s0 k3wl, i bought my hl2, scr3w u w4r3z p1rate!! (aka im so lame i dont even know what the warez scene is or how i could ever find myself involved in any aspect of it outside of downloading a mp3 file from kazaa)
The "unencrypted GCF files" just magically appear in that list. Where's the part where you actually download them?
They'll notice a CD key of "****-****-****-****" downloading their game.
NOT a Borg collective? Oh cmon, are you new here?
Face it - on nearly every discussion (save Politics and Religion), there is little to no "debate". There is only mild variations of a single opinion and maybe one or two dissenters and a handfull of contrarians/trolls.
But I guess 99.9% doesn't really constitute a true collective, so I guess you are right.
Ya but I heard that as long as you're wearing a tinfoil hat during the install they can't get your DNA for the permaban.
Same guy, I was being Facisious. I completely agree with the idea that having to reg online is stupid.
Valve should do what Epic does for the UT series: once the game has been out a while, release a patch to remove the copy protection. I know they've down this for UT and UT2003 so far.
Seriously, if they promised to release a patch like that one year after the release date, I'd buy it.
The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.
--Aristotle
I am as Anti-MS as they come, but you deserve every every Insightful mod you get. A perfect in context answer, good on ya!
Sera
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
kthks.
The guy on that website is an idiot. He basically pieced together a ridiculous conspiracy theory out of nothing then went on to delete a DELUGE of comments from people pointing out his mistake (and you can be sure they were not flattering..) and in his cowardice, disabled further comments.
/. but I'm a regular so I'm used to it.
I would say that I am sad and disappointed that a story like this got posted on
I'm sure Valve was happy that there was not an illegal release of their game a few weeks or even a few days before the actual release date. (This is with exception to the beta leak, which was unfinished) It is my opinion that Valve has become stupified by other companies as well as greedy (although the greed may have stemmed from VU).
Within hours of the HL2 unlocking there was a warez version available. This version was warez version was then "nuked" as it was found to not work. A fix was later posted that fixed the nuked version of the warez. There was also a way to circumvent the steam login, but Valve finally caught onto that one and now probably logs all people trying to do that. (if that is possible; if you don't know what I'm talking about use google)
What bothers me the most about HL2 is the fact that you have to log into steam every single time you want to play a single player game. If I pay 50+ (US) I better be able to play it without having to do anything special other than putting a serial key in. So what if the game gets pirated. I haven't seen a game in recent years that hasn't been pirated, yet the more popular games still make millions and line the pockets of the game makers/publishers. I am not ncessarily promoting pirating games, but what I am saying is that a game maker shouldn't build their game completely around such protection. It ends up ruining the ease of use with the consumer. This also takes away the some of the ownership of the game. Also, what happens if the steam servers go down for some reason, be it maintaince or something else? Personally I don't like this system of having to logon to the internet for a single player game. As that is what Half-Life 2 is a single player game, yes it has multiplayer capabilities, but at the core it is a single player game. Those are just some of my views of the whole deal.
"When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty."
Users of half-life have to connect to Valve's servers to play their game or it won't work. Mp3's don't care where they're played. RIAA and MPAA have no lessons to learn here. Apples and Oranges...
2 minutes to find a no steam crack.
2 minutes to download the crack.
2 minutes to install.
Total time saved from not using steam. 3 hrs. 52 minutes.
You feel better whether you bought it or not.
-Tolerate my intolerance
Wishful
Thinking
Prove to me that they actually WILL release such a patch.
Don't speculate it to me.
PROVE it to me.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
In order to play HL2 at all, you must have connected at least once, to authenticate and unlock the game. Only after that happens are you able to play offline.
If Steam goes away, you will not be able to unlock the game. That means you will not be able to install the game on a new machine, nor reinstall to fix problems. Existing installs will still work-- but only as long as that particular hard drive and filesystem lasts.
Steam finally authenticated my cd-key after four hours on release day and I was able to play. I was p.o'd but I was happy to get into the game.
Today however... I started steam and it updated itself which was not surprising after the previous issues. I started the game and got the "preparing to play hl2" dialog then...
"The game is currently unavailable.
Please try again at another time"
EXCUSE ME? I did not think I needed Valve'e permission to play a game I purchased. I then tried CS:S and got the init dialog then... nothing.
Well I guess I'll check the Steampowered forums to see what's up. Oh but wait...
"vBulletin Message
The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later."
Valve has installed copy protection that is hurtful to the people who purchased this game. Here in Canada EB will not give me my money back, will Valve?
The irony is that the methods that they are using make no difference at all in piracy prevention. Check suprnova and you will see the game is available.
Finally, I don't see anywhere on the box that you have to agree to the steam eula in order to play HL2. Screw you valve, but only after you have obviously screwed me. I am not a criminal but Valve is certainly treating me like one.
"Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." - Denis Diderot
O.K! It's agreed then? We will all wait and watch the Slashdot wind?
I think Valve is asking for trouble. Banning keys believed legit or not burns legitimate customers and has been for years. My friend bough a legitimate copy of Soldier of Fortune, took it home and low and behold he goes to play online and the servers tell him his copy is illegal while the receipt from the retailer is still warm in his pocket. I don't see how their banning scheme is any better. As for releasing a warez version that calls him, couldn't that legally be construed as spyware because it attempts to send out personal data from your machine without your consent?
Worse still, you allocate a CD key to a Steam account then find out the copy protection system isn't working properly. But there's no way of taking back the CD key.
There's only one way out of this mess: take the DVD back to the store to get a refund and buy the download instead (tough if you don't have broadband). But this is where the fun starts: the CD key is now screwed. It can't be revoked. So when you take the DVD back to the store and get a refund, the store must return the DVD to Vivendi. If they try to re-sell the DVD then the poor sucker who buys it ends up with a defunct CD key.
The question I have is why do you need the DVD to play the game? If the DVD is scratched then it won't work. If the drive is "incompatible" (i.e. if the backdoor non-OS non-driver accesses to the drive from the shonkware that is the copy protection system) then it won't work. The download copy doesn't come with this crippleware, so why should the people who bought a real physical thing get crippled?
This is yet another episode in the War on Customers. Vivendi (for it is they who put this copy protection garbage on) seem to think that customers are just suckers who wire them money.
Me? I'm sending my DVD back to Amazon to get a refund. I'll then buy the download version. If the tens of thousands of us who are victims of the DVD scam then it will be a financial catastrophe for Vivendi. Come on brothers! You have nothing to lose but your copy protection chains!
K.
All I'd like to say is hand this guy a fucking clue....
/., how sad.
"We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off."
Does not mean, 'we are distributing it', I mean how fucking dumb is this guy? And 'accounts'? What accounts? What are you going to shut off? Your customers? Cause you can't do shit about the pirated copies. And if you had anything to do with the pirated copy, you just gave away your litigation rights.
If I own the copy and download another copy of the net this is legal! (think music terms), the only way it would not be if its stated in the shrink wrapped ULA, and that can be contested, and its PR suicide to litigate from valves point of view. I mean how would this headline sound "Valve Sues Customers".
If I don't own a copy, who cares, the only thing you can track is my IP, and that's dynamic, then you would have a john doe, case, try and get my name, and then prove I didn't own it. And the first thing I would do if I did get a legal letter, buy the game and I'm covered.
Fucking retard getting on
As for steam, I'm surprised that no one has brought up the issue of it being forced on HL1 users, I brought the HL1 way back. Now for me to play it I am forced to use steam. I never agreed to this nor was I advised of this when I first got the game. Yes I could make my own server, but it's forced by insecurity, Valve only provides an update path by steam so by default I am forced to use it.
And people think they won't abuse steam for their own good, has anybody here actually used it long term? Can we say "popup adds", "denial of service", "persistent self advertising", "silently pushed products" (unauthorized downloads of products), "marginalization of non-official content".
If the past is anything to go by Valve plans to use Steam as an aggressive marketing platform. And their attitude seems to be 'fuck the consumer', we are bigger than them.
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
My god did anyone actually read the article? Isn't it a pretty wild stretch of imagination to go from We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off to saying that they uploaded their own warez version?
More than likely they're tracking warez users as they're connecting to the server and then banning them. Novel idea. Blizzard's only been doing that for how long now?"No problem, except bring penalized for the behavior of others. "
Gee, do you have locks on your doors and windows? Do you have a car alarm? Do you use passwords and pin numbers? Are your checks on security paper? Have you ever gone through a metal detector, or had a body search? Do your taxes go towards police? How about FBI, CIA, NSA?
Face it, from the time your born to the time you die. You're being "penalized" in one form or another, for the behavior of others.
Now how does your little "crack" change the situation for the better? Hint it doesn't. The people with problem "behavior" are still out there, AND growing, because either nothings being done about them, or what is being done is being actively resisted by all the "I'm innocent, but I'll lift nary a finger to change the situation for the better".
How many people have you advised to not violate copyright? How many people have you advised to not steal? How many people basically have you advised to play by the rules of society? Have you ever gone beyound that? Turned in any crimminals? Pushed for a legal system that actually turns crimminals into productive members of society?
Helped draft laws that gave everyone a fair shake? The point of all the above is that your "solution" is no solution, and that if you want a world were games have no protective devices. Or homes, businesses, and cars have no need for protective devices, either inside or out. Were we don't need police, NSA, FBI, CIA. Were we don't need passwords, pins, and procedures, locks and security paper. Then you need to work towards that goal. Don't protect those who can no longer function in society, but give them the help they need to return to society as productive members. And stop being part of the problem yourself.
Quoth Webster:
So no, they didn't enforce piracy. Or produce it - not yet, anyway. They will effect HL2 piracy if Steam burdens the users too much, eventually.
"I think the previous posters has a point. There's difference between taking some precautions, and going overboard on dealing with piracy."
Well setting aside what constitutes "overboard". How about we tackle the more important question of "What proven, anti-piracy system(s) do you recommend that'll not go 'overboard'"?
"The whole selfish, "I got mine. Anyone who doesn't is a dumbass" attitude just reminds me of why PC gaming has gone downhill"
*shrugs*
Hey it works for Linux binary drivers. Why not games?
If you have the CD key, you get 14 days to register XP.
If you spend 14 days RE-INSTALLING an Operating System away from a phone line, you've got bigger problems.
Hehe. Nice URL.
Anyway as someone else pointed out. You can easily make backups
"Constructive criticism requires two things; pointing out the flaws and offering possible solutions"
/.
Dood! This is
what you say makes sense anywhere else, but on this site, bashing and sub 10th grade writing skills reign supreme...
"Just because something's old doesn't mean its worthless."
Nursing Homes.
Has the question of "When, Where, How is steam logging/using this authentication" been asked? is it a one off process, or does the steam software send packets to the server each time the SP is played?
This model of software distrubution will no doubt attract the attention of other distributors, so these questions need to be asked, and the groundrules laid out early on...
It is possible, without a close eye being kept on this, for the model to turn into the old "RFID tag in both the toothpaste cap and the tube" type consumer information harvesting.
Rich Gentlemen Hide - The Existential Comic
Is that the people who paid less money to get the game via Steam don't have to have the cd/DVD in their drive. I paid $80 for the Collector's edition (I wanted the DVD), so I get the privilage of being required to have the fucking DVD in my drive to play the game.
Anybody found a no DVD crack for it yet?
Speaking of that I think I'll call Valve right now and about this....
Damn, no phone support; they tell you to go to steampowered.com and there's no phone # there.
I did a domain WHOIS but unfortunately their domain registrations are handled through some sort of third party domain proxy so you can't use the WHOIS information to actually contact the company who really owns the domain. How lame.
Question everything
Now, I don't know what the big deal is but I personally applaud Valve for going this route. They have created an efficient, effective and protected method for digital content delivery. I think Valve is one of the few game studios out there that deserve my money and it really annoys me to to see complaint after complaint about a company taking steps to ensure its success.
Steam has worked flawlessly for me since installing it in april when I got the HL2 coupon with my videocard. In fact I feel that valve is so deserving of my money that I purchased the collectors edition even though I had the game for free. They put alot of work into producing what I feel is one of the best games ever produced if not THE best. If they want to track the pirates, so be it. If they want to mangle the stolen copies so that all the weapons turn into fuzzy bunnies, who cares. Honestly, anyone who has ever downloaded warez(you know who you are) knows that its illegal...PERIOD. Any judge that would allow a lawsuit from a scorned pirate should be disbarred. *whine* I stole the game and they broke it. Whatever....cry me a river.
As for the whining about a slow connection, thats what the retail outlets are for. I may not be able to play a multiplayer game via a 33.6, but I can sure as heck log onto steam long enough to validate my copy.
Complaining about Steam is like complaining about HD content providers that aren't providing an SD equivalent. Steam isn't for everyone. This is the future and as broadband becomes more ubiquitous in the world, Steam and steamlike distribution channels will be more common.
As long as they put a disclaimer in the warezed copy's EULA, then there's nothing for anybody to complain about.
Europe seems to get DVD's - perhaps people have better outfits in Europe *g*
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
This is really only targeting those with existing steam accounts. Think about it, if someone without a steam account wanted to get HL2 for free, would having themselves banned from steam deter them from atleast trying to warez a copy?
Getting banned from a network that you have no intent of paying for access to in the first place isnt too steep of a threat.
Not that I am for their treating those who purchaced a legal copy (me being one of them) like criminals, with their activation or unlocking.
:(){
Paluminum.net
"I came to realize long ago that the best way to avoid mass pirating is to provide a reasonable cost. I think if a lot of these companies realized that 12-14 yr olds don't generally have $50-60 to blow, they'd sell a lot more games. "
But the question is still unanswered. It took five years to create the game. Would a $30 price point allow for the creation of games like HL2? Are people willing to lower their standards so they can get a cheaper game?
I'm not buying HL2, and I'm not pirating it either. I refuse to buy any product that requires product activation, especially a computer game. The people at Valve are too full of themselves. It's a GAME! In a year or two no one will give a damn. Take a stand with your wallet- if you disagree with their business practices, don't buy it. Hell, I hate Wal-mart, too, haven't shopped there in five years.
Also I'm tired of all these fanboys who kept saying "oh HL2 is like Jesus with a laser gun with chili cheese fries!" "it doesnt matter if Valve is forcing us to join a cult and engage in ritual cannibalism so long as we can play HL2!!!" Quit justifying Valve's shameless grope for dollars.
This makes me think of Myth - The Fallen Lords
You could play online on Bungie.net, and it was damn fun!
But guess what? the Myth:TFL bungie.net server died in some big crash. They didn't replace it (they essentially said they didn't feel like it). So now you can't play the game online anymore!
Of course it says right on the box you can play online on bungie.net
So, for some reason it's okay for me to not get the functionality I paid for? I really question the legality of that, and the moral 'okay-ness' of it at the very least...
Sure the game is old, but I've still wanted to play it numerous times (along with a bunch of friends) back on good ol' bungie.net in a big 16 player game or whatever, but no.... *sigh*
My vote says: "Stop using excessive 'copyright protection' that substantially inconveniences legitimate users and favors software pirates!" ...
Wait a second: This isn't a borg collective? Since when? Why did nobody told me? I liked our borg overlords.
Waffles rock.
Geez everyone is bitching about halflife 2 and the required internet connection shit.
First off, almost everyone who is an avid gamer has some sort of broadband connection. You can't play these new breed of games 56k anymore, sorry.
Secondly,anyone who wants to run this game will need a fast computer. And fast computers and broadband come hand in hand. If you don't have broadband you probably don't even know what a fast computer is and visiting a website that tells you about the new computer technology won't load very well on 56k.
56k = slow computers
boadband = fast computers, informed people with knowledge of leading edge technology.
and with any blockbuster game, you're going to have lines of people waiting to get online to play.
I remember a game called Diablo 2...when it first came out people had to wait in line for hours to play, because the servers were overloaded.
bah this wasn't worth modding down
I think it's a valid point that Valve and co didn't actually upload the file themselves. They've simply devised a way to determine whether a copy being played (more likely easier to check through a CS:Source connection than Hl2 single player) is legit or not. Then they can keep track of said players (because my guess would be that these fake steam programs require a real steam "ticket" to start the process, thus showing who you are)
You can pick your nodes, and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friend's nodes
There are a couple of free online servers for it now checkout: http://www.playmyth.net/
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
"I'll assume when you say proven system(s), you mean "something that will prevent piracy""
Prevents piracy without "overload" (your word).
Assuming there's no answer to the question, and that human nature will not change. There's only one answer. Closing up shop. The only winners are the valve developers. The only losers are everyone else(1).
(1) If the complaint is that the few affect the many e.g. "overload" Then my conclusion is more of the same writ large.
Clue me in - When Microsoft used a similar form of copy protection for Windows XP, Slashdot couldn't have disagreed more. Yet when Valve takes a similar approach, they're applauded.
Perhaps because the XP crack was out faster than the HL crack?
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
My Linux Command of the Day site : LCOD
What do you do when you're idly surfing the net (or gaming online) and your dsl/cable connection dies?
Personally I reach for a single-player game...
They have done a solid job and snuffing out pirating while managing to avoid pissing off their consumer base.
Actually, they've pissed a lot of people off. If the fact that they've delayed the release of their game about 3000 times doesn't piss you off, what about the fact that they won't admit it's their fault? They would rather blame the late release of their game on a hacker, their publisher, or even their customers before they would blame it on themselves. They dealt with that hacker situation in a really poor way. After lying to their customers about what happened, they ask their customers to rat out the guy.
I won't ever buy a valve game again.
I know about those.. such as Marius and whatnot... but the fact that there's no longer the official game server to play on really bugs me. Myth was one of the very very few games I actually bought, and I played it so damn much. It's still one of my favorite games ever. The Myth TFL bungie.net server was only running for a couple of years (2 or 3 'IIRC') before it crashed...
:(
I mean, since you have to add customized game files to get onto the game servers (plus they don't have identical bungie.net functionality), people who put in their CD to play after having not played for a long time will simply be unable to get onto bungie.net, and give up there... which sucks.
Oh well...
It's true that it sucks, but at least Bungie did the semi-right thing and released the metaserver code.
l3336 copxzzz
good copy protection = reasonable price
reasonable price = cheap production or great product for the price.
great product for the price = magic
Step 1. Collect underpants
Step 2.
Step 3. Big PROFIT!
Exactly. Cost is definitely an issue in people pirating software. Look at Serious Sam. It debuted at $20 with virtually noone I know ever hearing of it before hand. Just about 'all' of my friends bought it because it looked cool and it was only $20. If it sucked, it didn't matter, they only spent $20.
As for everything else, if I bought a game, and took it home, and couldn't play it because of the developers lack of due diligence in making sure I would be able to even 'use' my product because of their method of "copyright protection", I would be back in the store shortly, throwing it at the poor retail associate, seeing their manager, and getting my money back while making sure they knew how I felt about the company they were doing business with. Then I'd go home and look for a cracked version that I could actually 'play'. This is the 'real' backfire on a company like Valve, when the retailer loses revenue and gains an unhappy customer. If a company has too much of this, they lose a distributor, piss off a publisher, and or alienate/piss off their client base.
For the most part, this isn't going to be the case, in this instance, because obviously everybody wants to play HL2. I do know people who couldn't play the first day and were 'beyond' pissed though. If this was another game, this could almost irreparably damage a company.
They should really think about that.
dude this is funny shit hehe, guys give youself a brake and stop using windows before it's too late for all of us, kapisz..
I guess we'll know how successful this argument is next year when the first round of retail sales numbers come back. And then the year after that, and the year after that. Until iD 'frees' Doom 3. Unless one or both go 'belly-up' as you prognosticate.
I'll bet that after both titles have been shipping for a year that Valve will have moved more units. Whether it will be because of Steam and it's anti-piracy measures will be just as debatable then, but something will have to account for the difference. If Steam is so much harder to use and live with, imagine the discrepancies in sales if it didn't exist...
The real deal is (sad or not) that these online activation schemes will become more pervasive as long as consumers of Windows and Consoles continue to get 'more wired.' Expect to see something like Steam or Xbox-Live from all big participants in the gaming space. The two separate architectures are going to converge in the future. The content delivery - activation service will become more and more like the content delivery - player matching service and vice versa. Imagine a world where chipped consoles don't matter, because they are all phoning home anyway.
I guess the cool part about driving piracy out of the video game market is that market pressure will be more directly felt by publishers and prices will fall, or at least stagnate as production values increase.
Read Heinlein's 1953 Revolt in 2100, now more than ever.
It seems that everyone thinks that VALVe released the warez version and is then using that to track the people who make use of it, and banning them, with all sorts of possible legal implications. If we take it for granted that this article is true, VALVe has still said nothing about releasing the warez version. They said they were running an experiment, translation: instead of openly attacking the people using/distributing the warez, they quietly observe until the later point at which they ban all these people.
I believe Blizzard has done similar things with its online services. They disallowed various cheats in Diablo 2, but didn't ban people until they had observed for awhile and determined for certain that the people were actually cheating, and they had a huge list of people to ban.
Steam will always suck at launches of major new products because they won't have the capacity.
From Valve's perspective, why pay for the amount of servers, bandwidth and admins needed to provide launch day capacity, and have those servers sitting idle, costing money afterwards. Rather, take the hit of customers having a problem signing up initially.
No, I'm saying people don't RELY on games as much as they do on an OS. Stop putting words in my mouth. If you really insist on framing it in a "games don't matter" sense, I would say that games don't matter AS MUCH as an OS because the OS is more relied upon.
As far as the trend, I think activation is a passing fad. It's not going to stop piracy one bit as there will ALWAYS be patched versions of non-online games, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. Games have gone through various stages of attempts to copy-protect them. In the 80s just about every computer game had lame-o copy protection on it to the point where they actually poked holes in a specific sector of the floppy drive so it couldn't be written too. (write to that sector, try to read it, if you can don't allow access). People got fed up with it, and it all vanished in the late 80s/early 90s. The same thing will happen again. DRM and copy protection is a losing battle because you can't control bits.
AccountKiller
Recently, one of the HL2Files.com members here, alerted me of a pirated warez version of Half-Life 2, apparently released via the Bittorent network. I immediately, forwarded this to Gabe Newell of VALVe Software. [The great man, we should all be thanking for Half-Life 2 ].
A couple of hours later, Gabe replied with the following:
Quote:
We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off.
Now, read that without the headline saying "Valve takes the offensive on Warez users"
Do you see what I'm getting at?
He didn't say he released a warezed HL2 to track piraters! He just says they're experimenting with ways to track accounts that do this to shut them off. Shut them off, I'm reading into that as keeping warezed versions from playing...why spread the thing out so they can play and then shut it down? Free giant demo? I don't think so.
He means to say that he's trying to stop warezed versions from having an account. He did NOT say that he released the warezed versions...to close warezed accounts.
This making sense to anyone?
I had a good experience with Steam. I pre-ordered the Silver Package of Half-Life 2, got immediate access to their back catalog, as well as CS:S and was able to pre-load Half-Life 2 so that at 3:00 am Tuesday morning, all I had to do was wait 10 minutes for the files to be decrypted. Now when I want to play Half-Life 2, I just launch Steam, I don't even have to put the CDs in.
But if I had bought a hardcopy of Half-Life 2 and tried to install it only to find I had to install more software that constantly has to be checking in with hq, I would be pretty tempted to say "no thank you" and take the software back to eb. (Although once I realized it meant no cd validation or codes I would probably be okay with it)
And I know it's scary to think about other companies following a similar path because then you'd have all the validation programs constantly running, but c'mon, I can't think of a good reason to be running Steam except only when you want to be playing a Valve game. My only fear is that there programs will be more of a hassle than Steam has NOT been for me.
I'd like to think that Valve will release an offline mode update to Half-Life 2 in the future, but we'll see how that pans out. If they don't, yeah I'll feel ripped off, but I also won't have any moral hangups about downloaded a crack for it should it be necessary to play.
Well, the OS is the means by which you accomplish other things on your computer, but is not an end in itself. What I mean is, an OS with nothing else installed and running is useless. It's just the pre-existant condition necessary for the running of your programs, but running the programs is what you're after. If the OS is fine, but all the applications/games that I run are crippled, it's as bad as the OS being crippled. Therefore, if I keep a Windows PC for only the purpose of playing games, then games DO matter AS MUCH as the OS. In fact, if the game could run independant of the OS, then the OS would be completely irrelevant.
However, I don't really want to argue whether the OS is more vital than a game, but rather I'm saying that it's beside the point. Activation is a bad thing in that it's a vendor purposefully crippling what he's selling. If what he's selling is important enough (to me) for me to spend money on it, than it's important enough to get upset about the vendor crippling it.
If it really weren't important, no one here would be buying Half-Life anyway, and the vendors wouldn't be spending their time coming up with copy protection. Obviously it matters. Once you admit it matters, then whether it matters AS MUCH as the OS is irrelevant.
Here is an even bigger clue for you. Slashdot often has consensus and if not that, at least a popular opinion. And in the case of product activation the overwhelming majority of the posts condemn XP activation, while a very significant fraction (perhaps a majority) have nothing against Steam.
The basis for comparision - 4-5 rated posts in those articles about XP activation and steam that I read.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
So, as you can see, VALVe Software have released a test "warez" version aimed at catching people out. These people will have their accounts deleted and will be banned from Steam.
Therefore, I strongly suggest that you DO NOT participate in these illegal activities as it would only lead to your own harm.
VALVe Software spent over $40 Million to develop Half-Life 2. Show them you appreciate their work. Buy the game!
As the saying goes: BURN YOU WAREZ MONKEYS!
If they have Steam installed and a legit, I doubt they are going to run a warezed copy of HL2. Also, so what if a warezed account gets banned? They can just go set up another one in like 5 minutes. What are they going to do if you made a previous transaction on the account with your credit card? I bet they won't blacklist the credit cards because what happens if they want to go legit and pay? They are going to refuse the money? I bet not.
Why is some immature forum post front page news on Slashdot? This looks like something a 15 year old would write. Really. "BURN YOU WAREZ MONKEYS"? Credibility is gone right there. This is a game company fanboy who perceives Valve the same light some of us older guys may have felt about Carmack (I know, not the same, Carmack really is a god! lol) back in the day. We all know nothing of value comes out of these kids.
Fanboyism does suck. I'll never forget posting to a BF 1942 support forum about my Radeon 9700 and getting 50 replies like "ATI SUCKS MAN YOU NEED TO GET AN NVIDIA D000D!!" and not a single suggestion about my particular error.
Just like any other company in america. they want the bucks from the game thats cool, but as stated what happens to the poor fucks who buy the game after its been released for 5-10 yrs later. And this company goes tits up???? I agree that protect your shit but seriously, no matter what is done to protect the stuff privateer's will have it cracked and distributed within 5-7 days. So unfortunately the game comps and such get fucked in the ass. Face it, illegal software and such will always be here. Until the internet is gone then illegal software will flourish. This issue is the same shit over and over again.
By the way I will be one of those people who will have to wait to purchase this game because I am a poor fuck on dial up and have a 450mhz machine. I work hard for my money but I am poor.
I wish I could play the new games but unless I get rich I wont ever be able to.