Downloading Games Not Just For Pirates

Guild Wars did it best by spyrochaete · 2006-01-31 07:36 · Score: 4, Informative

Guild Wars optionally distributes its client over the web and on BT. When you launch the client you can enter a prepackaged product key or click a button to purchase one in a web browser. This is a great solution for all parties! Players don't have to repurchase the game due to broken media, and Anet prevents abuse since "pirated" copies cannot be played without a purchased serial. It's still recommended, however, to download the client from a trusted source.

Re:Guild Wars did it best by zerocool^ · 2006-01-31 08:35 · Score: 2, Interesting

Except at my house, where my internet provider rate limits both BitTorrent traffic and cumulative traffic. BitTorrent is rate-limited network-wide, and total traffic is limited on a per-port basis, where they start dropping 1/x packets, where x is approaching 1 until they stick you where they want you.

This sucks, as my wife plays WoW, and everytime they release an update, she has to either wait for the in-game bit-torrent-esque thing to download it at literally 3KB/sec, or go wait in line at file planet for 3 hours. And even then, when she downloads a big patch, it kicks everything else offline - AIM for instance, because of the way it's ratelimited, AIM packets are more likely to be left behind and never re-requested.

And even with all that, they're trying to push the whole "One port, One computer" thing, so that they can charge me $40/month for every device in the house, including my laptop, my work laptop, my media center, and my tivo. Fuck them.

Ugh. I hate my network provider. Anyway, sometimes the distribution model sucks.

~Will

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sig?
Re:Guild Wars did it best by Asmor · 2006-01-31 08:53 · Score: 1

Ditto on the GW comment. I woke up one morning and decided to take the plunge, bought the game. I kid you not, I was playing in less than 10 minutes! The game only downloads what is needed as it is needed, so it didn't have to download N gigabytes of content, just enough to load character creation screen. Then, I assume, while I was making my character it loaded the pre-searing levels.

Sure, it's a mild annoyance when you have to download a new area the first time you visit it, but it's very quick.
Re:Guild Wars did it best by oh_bugger · 2006-01-31 09:19 · Score: 1

Why don't you move to a different ISP?

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Go home and shave your giant head of smell with your bad self
Re:Guild Wars did it best by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 09:27 · Score: 2, Interesting

He probably lives in the USA, where so-called "free market capitalism" has had the glorious success of causing high-speed internet access in many places to be controlled by a single local monopoly.

Funny how socialist Europe and Korea do so much better at providing a competetive communications marketplace where a variety of companies compete on quality, price, and service, while the supposed capital of the world economy languishes in the 1990s.
Re:Guild Wars did it best by WWWWolf · 2006-02-01 07:35 · Score: 2, Informative

Kind of reminds me of Linux version of Neverwinter Nights - the game comes with "aluminum-reinforced Windoze brand coasters" which, upon closer inspection, have some mysterious .cab files and shit like that that Linux tools have very little clue about - but if you want to play the Linux version, you just download a gigantic tarball, uncompress, and enter the serial number from the back of the manual.

Um, okay by voice_of_all_reason · 2006-01-31 07:37 · Score: 1

Fine. As long as I can burn an installable copy onto DVD-R for backup purposes. If not, I'll stick with the Myth or Class version.

//arrrrrr

Re:Um, okay by gEvil+(beta) · 2006-01-31 07:42 · Score: 1

I think you can usually burn a backup of the install CDs that will install the game okay. It's just that they won't work when they do that damn CD check on launch. Maybe things have changed in the few years since I stopped playing games, though...

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This guy's the limit!
Re:Um, okay by PFI_Optix · 2006-01-31 07:47 · Score: 1

I like Steam's approach (I know, I'm a heathen). I just keep all my game data backed up on my file server.

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120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Re:Um, okay by artemis67 · 2006-01-31 08:55 · Score: 1

That's the worst part about Steam, whether you bought the CD's or you bought it through Steam, is that the game won't launch unless it gets verification through the Steam server first.

So, what happens if Valve goes out of business tomorrow? All Steam apps are then rendered worthless, even single-player.
Re:Um, okay by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 08:58 · Score: 0

I've always wondered why all those warez crackers waste their time cracking games instead of contributing to free software. They serve no real purpose with their work. If copy protections were so annoying people would stop purchasing those products, period. But again, those crackers surely aren't that bright when they choose to run Windows over something that actually works (OS X, BSD, GNU/Linux, Solaris, BeOS, you name it)
Re:Um, okay by Ahnteis · 2006-01-31 12:48 · Score: 1

THEN you go download the pirate version.
Re:Um, okay by ajs318 · 2006-01-31 22:27 · Score: 2, Insightful

Where's a mod point when you need it?

Most of the {closed-source} software in use in the world is pirated. The big corporations know this and turn a blind eye to it; because they know that it's effectively free advertising, and free training, for their products. If Caz sees Shaz's pirate copy of Word, there's a chance -- a slim one, but a chance nonetheless -- that she might buy herself a copy; there's even a chance that Shaz might win the lottery or something, have an attack of conscience and decide to pay for all her software. Daz, meanwhile, downloads a shareware graphics editing program that the author has crippled. It will only cost him £50 if he wants to buy the full version, rather than £500 for Adobe Photoshop; so that's a £450 saving. Twenty-eight days later, of course, the program disables saving -- and rather than pay for the full version, he simply gets a pirate copy of Adobe Photoshop. Now, in Daz's mind, he has saved £500!

By swallowing piracy, the big players are reinforcing their monopolies; smaller companies might be more than able to compete with full-priced software, but not when what is rightly or wrongly touted as "THE industry standard" comes effectively for free, so they go out of business. I'm sure if I was feeling in a more RMS-ish mood I'd say it serves them right for selling closed-source software; but I also think it's wrong to shoot someone in the back. Really, if they're going to be defeated in the marketplace, then at least they deserve the honour of being defeated in a free and fair marketplace. At the moment, the market for software is neither.

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Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Re:Um, okay by KDR_11k · 2006-01-31 23:14 · Score: 1

More likely situation: What if you move into a student home that allows only HTTP traffic?

Answer: You're fucked, Valve has officially stated they don't care about people whose connection doesn't allow Steam.

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Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Re:Um, okay by KDR_11k · 2006-01-31 23:22 · Score: 2, Interesting

Free software is abolutely not competitive in the games market. There are only a handful of opensource games and many are just blatant ripoffs of commercial games. They usually have development times that approach years while the actual output is well below a commercial game in quality. Sometimes the core gameplay gets tweaked enough over the years that it plays as well as the commercial counterparts but the interface and graphics are still horrible. Many genres are lacking from the opensource lineup, while you'll see many games with only multiplayer or randomly generated content you'll rarely see one that has a defined set of levels you play through and get an ending afterwards.

A cracker group can make hundreds of games playable per year. With opensource software they might get one game done after two to three years and it won't measure up to anything available commercially.

Never mind that cracking requires a different skillset than software programming.

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Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
Re:Um, okay by toxicity69 · 2006-02-01 01:22 · Score: 1

Use TotalRC www.totalrc.net to route the gaming traffic through http port 80 then.
Re:Um, okay by KDR_11k · 2006-02-01 05:04 · Score: 1

Back when I was in such a home they had packet filters in place to prevent that. Other product activation schemes have phone hotlines for people without internet connection...

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Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.

crappy cliffhanger summaries by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 07:39 · Score: 2, Funny

"...and the irritation at this was nothing compared to the real bombshell."

Which was?!? Leave it to Slashdot to end the summary with a cliffhanger like that. I guess I'll have to wait for the dupe to find out what happens next...

Re:crappy cliffhanger summaries by wan-fu · 2006-01-31 07:48 · Score: 2, Informative

That's because as is typical of /., the article summary is cut and paste directly from the article itself. The paragraph in question occurs on page 3 of the article if you want to skip ahead to it.
Re:crappy cliffhanger summaries by 1337W422102 · 2006-02-01 12:00 · Score: 1

If you don't know what they mean, then you obviously haven't used Steam. And I don't mean old-school enter-any-CD-key-cand-get-all-of-Valve's-games-for -free Steam. I mean new-school tough-to-pirate enter-CD-key crashes-during-updating-causing-you-to-have-to-rei nstall-7-CDs-worth-of-data Steam.

well, sure by syrinx · 2006-01-31 07:40 · Score: 3, Funny

I would think that it's tough for pirates to download games... I can't imagine you'd be able to get much bandwidth out there on the high seas.

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Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

Re:well, sure by evil-captain-bob · 2006-01-31 07:47 · Score: 1

You'd think so, but you'd be surprised as to how crafty we are.
Re:well, sure by Kesch · 2006-01-31 08:03 · Score: 3, Funny

Yarr, us pirates have been hijacking shipments fromm Japan. Recently we got a nice satellite internet setup with gyro-balancing to keep her steady on stormy waters. BTW(By the waves), we also pirated the subsription. 'Tis no problem now to pirate all the games and peg leg fetish videos we want.

--
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Re:well, sure by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 10:56 · Score: 0

Saaaarrrrsgaaaarrrd
I 3 Lucy and the foxymonkies
Re:well, sure by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 22:40 · Score: 0

And BitTorrent wouldn't work at all in the engine room of a ship ..... 'cos you'd be on the wrong side of a firewall!

It's better..... but by OctoberSky · 2006-01-31 07:41 · Score: 2, Interesting

It's better now than when Steam initally launched (IMHO) but it is still really lacking.

After reinstalling Windows recently to start things fresh I put all the games I play back on, disk by disk while I browsed the web. That is, all but one game, Day of Defeat: Source. I forgot to back it up and dread having to go through all the bullshit Valve is going to make me go through to get it back.

Honestly, if I had a disk I would probably be playing it again.

Re:It's better..... but by PhrostyMcByte · 2006-01-31 07:51 · Score: 1

whenever a game update comes out steams servers will be flooded and may not let you connect. But steam won't let you run outdated versions, so you are stuck not being able to play anything while you wait for steam to finally do its thing.

the only good thing i've found about steam is being able to install games onto other computers while away from home.
Re:It's better..... but by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 07:52 · Score: 0

Steam is better now than at CS1.6 launch. (although still a bit annoying in it's preemptive downloading of new products)
If you know your Steam password (not the key from the particular game, but just your overall account password), they already keep tabs on what keys you own and they will give you the key and game even without the disk - just log on to Steam and in the My Games sections, click "Download" on the one you want to install again.
Re:It's better..... but by Tim+Browse · 2006-01-31 07:52 · Score: 1

I did this recently (reinstalled my PC), and the 'bullshit' involved downloading the Steam installer from Valve and running it, and then logging on to my Steam account. I marked the games I wanted installed from my games list, and forgot about it for the rest of the day while it downloaded all the data. That was pretty much it.
Re:It's better..... but by DeathFlame · 2006-01-31 07:56 · Score: 1

Bullshit? Like what? The fact that you purchashed it is linked to your steamid, so there will be no BS invovled. Just redownload it, it won't make you purchase it. (I think)

Just like HL2, CS:S and everything. No need to pay once it is linked to your account.
Re:It's better..... but by Soybean47 · 2006-01-31 08:06 · Score: 1

Yeah. The "bullshit" he's talking about consists of "clicking on the game" and "waiting." It's highly technical and complex.
Re:It's better..... but by syousef · 2006-01-31 08:23 · Score: 1

Waiting each time he has to install to play a game he's already paid for.

Yeah I see no problem with that. Every gamer has hours to waste redownloading everything they've already bought.

I'd sure call that bullshit.

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These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Re:It's better..... but by Soybean47 · 2006-01-31 08:34 · Score: 1

If you have broadband, it's faster than installing from CDs. It's certainly more convenient.

Also, this is nowhere near the point, but most gamers have surprisingly large amounts of free time.
Re:It's better..... but by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 09:03 · Score: 0

Then back it up, dumbass, because you can.

Jesus, that's the whole point.
Re:It's better..... but by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 09:13 · Score: 0

I find it hard to believe that anyone has more bandwidth to/from the internet than they do to their CD-ROM drive. Even if you do have a miracleNET (TM) connection I doubt that Valve's servers have the bandwidth available.

In the past I have found steam to be an invasive resource hog and will consequently no longer allow it on my system. Or to put it slightly differently I am offended enough by valve that I will not even pirate one of their games. And yes I did pay for the original half-life so I could play CS with some friends.
Re:It's better..... but by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 11:03 · Score: 0

I usually get around 2000KB/s to 2500KB/s granted not as fast as dvd but still close enough.
ah the wonders of living in a modern dorm at uni of Florida with a gigabit connection.
But cs majors dont come here though, stupid ICARUS
Re:It's better..... but by syousef · 2006-01-31 12:23 · Score: 1

Just what are you smoking?

There are a LOAD of disadvantages to steam, most really obvious and all well documented.

1) If your internet connection is down, so is your game.
2) If you're out of bandwidth for the month, you can't play your game.
3) Bandwidth is not free.
4) No internet connection is going to be faster than CD.
5) If Blizzard go bankrupt or decide to start charging for the use of their servers you're basically at their mercy. It'll happen in the near future and the argument will be that people pay to play already.
6) When the game is no longer supported, you can no longer play it.
7) Imagine the increased traffic if each hardcore gamer had to re-download their entire game collection each time they got a new rig or had to reinstall the OS.

Steam is a model of greed, not good software distribution! It's not progressive or forward thinking, it's garbage. How hard is it to download a damned patch off the net and double click the exe. Only thing I have left to say is I will not buy these games. You know where you can stick your steam, Valve!

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These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Re:It's better..... but by Babbster · 2006-01-31 14:45 · Score: 1

It's worth noting that Steam has nothing to do with Blizzard (your #5). Steam is brought to us by the good folks at Valve.

I would also mention that while I'm sure there are people stuck with monthly metered bandwidth, the vast majority of people are unlimited in terms of total downloads/uploads. Many get hosed by their ISPs where they limit the bandwidth (speed) available to certain applications/ports but that's another topic entirely.

I'm a Steam Hater from way back (and haven't played HL2 despite a strong desire to do so because I'm keeping my PC Steam-less) but I think the bandwidth issue isn't a strike against Steam - more likely, it's a good reason to switch ISPs.
Re:It's better..... but by Locomorto · 2006-01-31 20:01 · Score: 1

This is complete and utter bullshit. You have obviously never used steam, or if you have, certainly not long enough to experience any of the 'problems' you list.

1. If its a multiplayer only/multiplayer component then yes. This is true of (almost) every other multiplayer game as well though.

2. No, in most cases you would just have to pay extra usage fees or simply have your connection capped at around 56k speeds (I find though that its actually faster then what one could expect from a 56k service (eg you get the maximum therotical limit). Even if it was not able to be used, you can click on the go into offline mode and play it like that. Of course, you can only play a single player game (maybe with bots on CS/DoD

3. Yes, but its cheaper then packaging a game and leaving a cut for the stores AND publishers (although this merely replaces the publisher tbh).

4. Well this is not completely true, I would like to see your cd drive compete with a gigabit connection (or higher). But for most people this would be true, however advances such as ADSL2+ could bring this into line. In any case, you still have to factor in the time from, "I am going to purchase xxx" to "I just started installing it". On an online distribution service like steam, this is a matter of minutes (easily under 10). With going to a physical brick and motar store it could be hours. Yes it could also be minutes for some people who live 10 minutes away and can just leave everything. But for most people, it would involve them having to finish up whatever they are doing, or obliged to do in the near future, then driving to a store 15+ minutes away. Find a park if its a shopping center/mall and walk to the store - 10+ minutes. Find the game, wait in line and purchase it - 5 minutes. Walk back to the car and drive home 20+ minutes. Thats 50+ minutes assuming a 15 minute travel time. And it might be hours before they could iniate the proccess in which time they could have downloaded the game to the point where they could start playing (steam does this). So no, it is quite likely to be faster, at least for the inital purchase of the game

5. Well one, this isn't blizzard ;). Two, almost any online game with cd key authentication (almost all), could simply refuse to authenticate your cd key if you hadn't payed their new $x dollar fee. So this is in no way limited to steam/et all.

6. Again, not neccesarily. A online service like steam would likely by then have new games (even if the half-life series flops), and the others almost certainly would. This would mean they could continue to have that game in a back libary, disk space is cheap, and these games wouldn't need to be on many servers (low demand), and would most likely be smaller then there newer compatriots anyway. Also, you could probably use their offline mode ad-naseum.

7. Well they let you do this already, so it can hadly be that much of a problem :).

See, your post is nothing but FUD. Oh, who says it has to be windows anyway ;), M$ Fanboy alert!!!

P.S. I use steam, and have bought games from it, but only after the release of HL2. It seems to be up 99.9+% of the time, and is only getting better.

--
Stopping Content Restriction Annulment and Protection means not calling it DRM.
Re:It's better..... but by syousef · 2006-02-01 08:12 · Score: 1

Yeah sorry for getting that wrong. Money sucking company X or money sucking company Y. Who cares. They all have one agenda: Make a buck, and oh if you have to provide a service of some sort to do it so be it.

Bandwidth however is a finite thing. It doesn't matter if you get it from company X or company Y either. (Well it may matter to your bank account but in the grand scheme that's your choice, provided you live somewhere where you can get unlimited bandwidth - not something you can assume is true for everyone, so your statement that you should just switch ISP is kind of the equivalent of "let them eat cake").

Clogging up the existing bandwidth with this unecessary traffic however is unforgivable and assinine. You have to ask why a company would do this. The only reason is that they wish to turn it to their advantage in the long run by charging money.

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These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Re:It's better..... but by syousef · 2006-02-01 08:25 · Score: 1

Counter arguments:

2. Many if not most ISPs gouge for extra usage

4. What you think everyone has gigabit or ADSL2? How many people do you know that exceed 20 or 30 gig a month? They're not the usual user either.

5. I'm not willing to install HL2/steam to find out, but if single player isn't already crippled how long before it is until it phones home and authenticates? How long till some company decides it's costing money so lets charge for this? If you can't see the agenda you're being obtuse on purpose.

6. It's not necessarily true that a company will fold. How many game companies have in recent years? So lets be generous and say your odds are that 50% of companies you buy games from fold. Now in a couple of years 50% of your games are unplayable. This is okay with you?

M$ Fanboy alert!!!
then
P.S. I use steam, and have bought games from it, but only after the release of HL2. It seems to be up 99.9+% of the time, and is only getting better.

This sums up your maturity level nicely. Who's the "fanboy" again??? Do you have any idea how stupid this makes you look, or how much it undermines the post for anyone reading? Fact: Most PC gaming still happens on a Windows platform. Fact:Most games are still written for Windows first or Windows only. As for steam who cares that it seems to be up 99% of the time for you. You're a sample size of one, dipshit. "It works for me, if it doesn't work for you, you're stupid" is the sign of a truely socially inept wanker, and totally unhelpful to anyone. Shave the patchy 2mm face fuzz, get a real job, and grow the fuck up.

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These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Re:It's better..... but by CentraSpike · 2006-02-01 11:13 · Score: 1

Some of the comments here seem a little uninformed (with regard to the current state of steam)

For instance it is possible to use steam while not connected to the internet, it has an offline mode so you can still play single player games. Probably multiplayer too on a LAN (haven't tried it though)

Also, they recently added a back up option so that you can backup your games (plus all the patches, maps, etc you've downloaded). Admittedly, I just checked and for me this is 10GB of stuff to back up. But I do use this as i'm always reinstalling my game machine when i think performance has dropped off a tad. Redownloading use to take a very long time - pretty much a whole day.

Personally I like steam - i've nevered bothered selling a game on when i've finished with it - and it saves me having to go to the shop.

"here-and-now of fast download speeds" by SoCalChris · 2006-01-31 07:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

Speak for yourself. I live in a rural area, the best I can get is 84kbps over an 802.11b connection from some small ISP 30 miles away. I'm sure there's plenty of other people here in the US in the same boat as I am, living in a rural area without access to broadband.

Online distribution is fine, just make sure that the product is still available on regular media that I can order online, or pick up at the store.

And before anyone suggests moving, living in a small valley just a few miles North of Yellowstone far outweighs not having large bandwidth available.

Re:"here-and-now of fast download speeds" by slaker · 2006-01-31 08:07 · Score: 1

I lived in an urban apartment 25 miles away from downtown Chicago, and the best connection I could get was 14.4 dialup. No other options. I lived there for five years. If I still lived there, I still wouldn't have any faster access. I actually broke into the telco panel in the building to re-wire all three of my lines (which got me to 16.8 for a while) at one point.

Broadband access is not universal. 56k is not universal. 28.8k is not universal.

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-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K

As a Steam user. by Kesch · 2006-01-31 07:47 · Score: 3, Interesting

I actually had Steam before HL2 when they bundled it with the new Counter-Strike release (7.0 or something like that... My brother is the one who actually plays it.) I was able to preload HL2 onto my comp. When it came time to buy, I only had to tap in a credit card number to make it work. I heard bitching all around from others about the painful Steam experience associated with HL2, but for me it was actually quite pleasant.

I also find it cool how they are serving up mini-content such as a free HL2 side scroller prior to the actual game and the free bonus level "Lost Coast." Plus, all those little apps hide under one button instead of further cluttering up my desktop and start menu.

My brother also recently bought another game using some service known as direct2drive which also lets you download the game directly. I don't actually know how that went, but it seemed easy. He's not that computer savy but still had it working the same night.

IMHO, these services get an A+ from me. I look forward to more distrobution models such as Steam (The one consequence I can see is having a million downloaders clogging up your machine.)

--
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.

Steam & 2nd user games? by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 07:48 · Score: 0

Anyone one know what happens when you buy a 2nd user version of, say, halflife 2 and the current owner has registered it at steam? ebay has this title cheap enough now, but I don't want problems with steam.

Re:Steam & 2nd user games? by IntergalacticWalrus · 2006-01-31 16:42 · Score: 1

Steam games are strongly tied to Steam accounts. The CDs that come in the retail box are really just "pre-downloaded content" so that you'll only need to download the new/changed content when you'll install the game. What you _really_ want to buy is someone's Steam account, NOT the retail box.

Keep in mind that destroying the used games market is part of Valve's plan.
Re:Steam & 2nd user games? by KDR_11k · 2006-01-31 23:55 · Score: 1

If he paid Valve money (10$ or so) to unregister the CDKey it'll work. The EULA explicitely grants the right to sell the game.

--
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.

Lockin by Lord_Dweomer · 2006-01-31 07:48 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'm all for new and innovative distribution systems, when they help things rather than hinder them.

Now, Valve is the pioneer with Steam, and while there are some great parts about it...unfortunately the downsides outweigh them significantly.

Downsides
Unreliable - I'm sure many here remember the first day woes of Steam as fans the world over all tried to access Steam for the first time only to be out of luck as it was down. This would have been fine, since there is a great single-player game in HL2....except for the fact that you need to connect to Steam initially to gain access to that.

No Hard Copy - While its great to be able to download the game whenever you want, this is a huge problem for people who like to sell their games when they move on to the next one. You can't sell your license to the download.

Lockin - This is my biggest gripe with them. Valve has proven time and time again to be a greedy company. Why should I trust them with this system, especially when they have a lot of my personal details? Additionally, this system lets them begin the process of charging for every single thing they can. For example, you now need to pay for the full versions of DoD and NS. That would not have happened without Steam. In the future, I'm sure all the good mods will be sold through Steam, thus taking what was once done out of love by fans and given out for free to enhance value of the game (and drive core game sales!) and turning it into yet another money making tool rather than the 'added bonus' it used to be considered by the community. And if you think charging for mods is bad, wait until you head down the EA path and start adding additional weapons that are useable in the core game but only if you bought the expansion. Can you say "pay-to-upgrade weapons in FPS"? Yeah, not fun.

All in all, digital distribution online is the way of the future. I just don't trust a company like Valve to handle it.

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Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!

Re:Lockin by spyrochaete · 2006-01-31 07:57 · Score: 1

You're right to criticize the reliability of a service like Steam. Reliability is a 2-way street. My internet connection at home is a little shoddy, and it really sucks when I can't play a SINGLE PLAYER GAME while my internet is down.

I disagree with you that there is no hard copy. True, you don't get nicely pressed discs or manuals (though HL2 only came with a quick reference card) but you don't have to deal with DRM to make as many copies of the game as you wish. If you don't mind connecting to the internet every time you play (though many do mind) then it's actually an improvement.

Finally, I also disargee with you about DoD. Yes it's unfortunate that you must pay for what used to be a free mod. However, Valve was so impressed with this independent team's work that they hired them, and now they sell DoD as a value-priced standalone product. This essentially takes the game out of the hands of the hardcore and into the hands of the public - those who don't own HL2 and\or those who don't know how to install mods. I say good for the DoD team for making a business out of a hobby.
Re:Lockin by DeathFlame · 2006-01-31 08:03 · Score: 1

How much are you paying for NS? Because that's still free. Fact is, valve bought CS and DoD and they are the ones upgrading them to source/releasing new material. They can charge what they want. And they charge a) because they can (and people will buy) and b) to pay for development. The NS team has comments on their front page about how funding is hard to come by, and without it NS would have been done a while back. When does a mod become a seperate game?
Re:Lockin by jchenx · 2006-01-31 08:12 · Score: 2, Interesting

No Hard Copy - While its great to be able to download the game whenever you want, this is a huge problem for people who like to sell their games when they move on to the next one. You can't sell your license to the download.

That's actually one big reason why game companies LIKE download-distribution methods like Steam. There was an earlier Slashdot article where publishers frustrated by second-hand game sales.

Now, Valve COULD implement a method where you could sell your license to download. They would just take in a percentage of your sale. However, they may lose out on potential revenue. Would they have made more money forcing the other person to buy a new copy? Maybe not, if the other person will ONLY buy the game if it's signficantly cheaper than retail. My guess is that companies won't want to take the risk, so we'll never see something like this in place. (Boo!)

Lockin - This is my biggest gripe with them. Valve has proven time and time again to be a greedy company. Why should I trust them with this system, especially when they have a lot of my personal details? Additionally, this system lets them begin the process of charging for every single thing they can. For example, you now need to pay for the full versions of DoD and NS. That would not have happened without Steam. In the future, I'm sure all the good mods will be sold through Steam, thus taking what was once done out of love by fans and given out for free to enhance value of the game (and drive core game sales!) and turning it into yet another money making tool rather than the 'added bonus' it used to be considered by the community. And if you think charging for mods is bad, wait until you head down the EA path and start adding additional weapons that are useable in the core game but only if you bought the expansion. Can you say "pay-to-upgrade weapons in FPS"? Yeah, not fun.

There ARE benefits to the lock-in system. Remember, physical media isn't foolproof. If you accidentally break or lose your media, and no longer have a receipt (or its long after the return period), then you're out of luck. But distribution systems have the possibility to remember your purchase forever (or as long as they last). The Xbox Live Arcade system is one good example. Your game downloads are tied to your account. Heck, you can even play it on your friends' 360. When you log out, though, it'll revert back to the trial version (which is very much a "viral" marketing move). I think that's pretty neat and a nice added feature, despite not owning actual physical media.

But I do understand a lot of the lock-in disadvantages, as you describe. Especially if the company goes down under or decides not to support their download scheme anymore. You can say MMOs have much the same problem. I'm sure there were a lot of unhappy Asheron's Call 2 players, when that game went south. *poof*

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-- jchenx
Re:Lockin by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 09:35 · Score: 0

> Valve has proven time and time again to be a greedy company.

That was all I needed to read of your post, li'l Slashbot.
Re:Lockin by Warpedcow · 2006-01-31 09:36 · Score: 1

No Hard Copy - While its great to be able to download the game whenever you want, this is a huge problem for people who like to sell their games when they move on to the next one. You can't sell your license to the download.

Well, you can certainly sell your Steam account to anyone if you want to, for the value of all games you have registered. If you really sell every game when you're done, just create a new steam account for every download.

For example, you now need to pay for the full versions of DoD and NS. That would not have happened without Steam.

Baloney, Valve bought the rights to DoD and NS, they would have charged for them with or without the Steam implementation. Valve has every right to purchase the rights to successful mods. Many believe the reason modding flourishes so much is that people hope Valve (or some other company) will buy the rights to their mod, and they can retire with millions.

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moo
Re:Lockin by Lord_Dweomer · 2006-01-31 13:25 · Score: 1

"I disagree with you that there is no hard copy. True, you don't get nicely pressed discs or manuals (though HL2 only came with a quick reference card) but you don't have to deal with DRM to make as many copies of the game as you wish. If you don't mind connecting to the internet every time you play (though many do mind) then it's actually an improvement."
Except you missed my point...when they have it set like this, you don't OWN the game, you're RENTING it.
"Finally, I also disargee with you about DoD. Yes it's unfortunate that you must pay for what used to be a free mod. However, Valve was so impressed with this independent team's work that they hired them, and now they sell DoD as a value-priced standalone product. This essentially takes the game out of the hands of the hardcore and into the hands of the public - those who don't own HL2 and\or those who don't know how to install mods. I say good for the DoD team for making a business out of a hobby."
Ok...first off, do you seriously think it was only the hardcore who knew about HL mods? Counterstrike....Day of Defeat....Natural Selection....I would wager that the vast majority of players were well aware of those mods. I don't care what price the mod is, the fact is they took what was formerly done out of love for the game for free, and turned it into something where people do it for the money. They've damaged the exact part of the culture that made it so wonderful. They've basically said....hey, if you want to change things in our game, we need to be getting money in some form....so we'll lend our marketing muscle to a couple mods, and charge for them and take most of the money and give the mod team some peanuts". Additionally, it leads to things like BF2, where people only play on ranked servers, and you need to pay $500/mo to EA to rent one. Since ranked play is crucial to the game experience as it unlocks weapons for you, it becomes more scummy. Of course, you can always just buy their expansion and have access to all the new guns in the vanilla game where others can't get them!

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Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Re:Lockin by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 13:36 · Score: 0

Awww, did he insult your favourite company, little fanboy?

Valve IS greedy. Why else would they charge $40 for an electronic copy of counter-strike 7 years after the game was released?
Re:Lockin by spyrochaete · 2006-01-31 15:18 · Score: 1

"Except you missed my point...when they have it set like this, you don't OWN the game, you're RENTING it."

Well, isn't that true even of games that don't require the internet? That's the beef with copy protection like Safedisc or DRM. Consumers can't win. Either they must be connected to the internet to play or they can't make copies of their storebought media. Ultimately the decider comes down to which is the most likely inconvenience - a scratched\lost CD or shoddy internet. As the internet improves this ratio slides and alternative means of copy protection are favourable.

Plus, I bought my copy of HL2 used. The original owner just deleted all his personal information and gave me his logon and password. There's no trace of his personal or billing info.

"Ok...first off, do you seriously think it was only the hardcore who knew about HL mods? Counterstrike....Day of Defeat....Natural Selection....I would wager that the vast majority of players were well aware of those mods. I don't care what price the mod is, the fact is they took what was formerly done out of love for the game for free, and turned it into something where people do it for the money. They've damaged the exact part of the culture that made it so wonderful."

You're correct that I've underestimated the popularity of CS. It is singlehandedly responsible for "mod culture" and it was obviously accessible enough that a zillion people installed it successfully. In Valve's defense they bundled CS:S for free with HL2.

That being said, not only was CS a trailblazer for free mods, but also for "professional" mods. CS sold copies of HL, plain and simple, and ultimately it was sold standalone on store shelves just as DoD is now. Valve hasn't closed off the free mod community. Look at Garry's Mod or FakeFactory's high res texture mod. Those are hugely popular free mods. Whether Valve does the community a favour by employing the best indie devs and giving them budgets is debateable I guess. And I haven't heard of Valve restricting the use of any CS-related service except for the ad agency that broke the EULA by injecting Subway ads into games.
Re:Lockin by njvic · 2006-02-01 01:07 · Score: 1

Except you missed my point...when they have it set like this, you don't OWN the game, you're RENTING it.

And what's the problem with that? By using the software you are buying into their business model as far as it extends to that software. (Perhaps distributors/producers should make it VERY obvious though that parting with cash does not constitute ownership).

It's a free market you live in. The supplier can choose any method they like to distribute their software, and also set the parameters surrounding the use of that software. It's proprietary software, and with it comes all the usual horrible evils.

If you don't like it, don't pay up! Play something else.
Re:Lockin by Lord_Dweomer · 2006-02-01 13:48 · Score: 1

Ok, yes, I understand I have the option not to purchase it and vote with my money. Unfortunately they happen to make one of the best games currently out there, and that is causing me a great deal of frustration. I held out for a while, but finally gave in. The bigger problem though is that now the rest of the industry is seeing that it is fine to do this. When they all collude to lock people in with this, the free market is no longer working correctly. That is my bigger fear.

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Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!

The real bombshell by MachDelta · 2006-01-31 07:49 · Score: 0, Troll

Oh, you mean how it took four fucking hours to register the damn game, AFTER 30 minutes of installing it? Yeah that was a damn lovely suprise. Bravo Valve, for leading the way on mass frustration of customers. I'm sure Blizzard wouldn't be nearly as good at it as they currently are, without Valve's trailblazing efforts. Now what was that comma... oh yeah: /golfclap

Here's hoping digital distribution gets 'figured out' before it gets 'fucked up' (again).

Re:The real bombshell by lunchlady55 · 2006-01-31 08:14 · Score: 1

The gluttony implied by complaints of having to wait "four fucking hours" for a video game should make you ashamed. Some people don't have medical care / food / a place to live, and another segment of the population can't wait four hours for a video game. If you happen to be an American, thanks. You've made me ashamed to be an American.
Re:The real bombshell by cornface · 2006-01-31 08:20 · Score: 4, Funny

The gluttony implied by complaints of having to wait "four fucking hours" for a video game should make you ashamed. Some people don't have medical care / food / a place to live, and another segment of the population can't wait four hours for a video game. If you happen to be an American, thanks. You've made me ashamed to be an American.

If you accidentally cut off your foot with an axe, don't cry about it and rush to the hospital, you selfish glutton. Some people don't have legs!
Re:The real bombshell by kaffiene · 2006-01-31 08:35 · Score: 1

Why the fuck was that modded "troll"???

FFS - I had exactly the same experience - install from CDs, install steam, wait for steam updates to download, wait for steam to install updates, wait for steam to download HL2 updates, wait for those to install.

About four hours is correct. Then the game itself is like an interactive waiting simulation - why the hell were there so many loading screens? Walk for a minute, load, walk for another minute, load...

I thought PC games were past this kind of crap.

Personally, Steam is the reason I will never shell out another dollar for a Valve product. And HL2 is the most overrated piece of crap "game" ever.
Re:The real bombshell by Cstryon · 2006-01-31 08:54 · Score: 1

PFFT. I never had a problem with Loading screens in HL2. I think your box just sucks. my teh 1337 b0x0rz ran HL2 with out a problem. Plus the game Rocked in General.

--
Indoctrinate : to instruct especially in fundamentals or rudiments Educate : to develop mentally, morally, or aestheti
Re:The real bombshell by jeeperscats · 2006-01-31 08:57 · Score: 1

The gluttony implied by complaints of having to wait "four fucking hours" for a video game should make you ashamed. Some people don't have medical care / food / a place to live, and another segment of the population can't wait four hours for a video game. If you happen to be an American, thanks. You've made me ashamed to be an American. What that hell was that? You are the one who should be modded troll.
Re:The real bombshell by gknoy · 2006-01-31 10:22 · Score: 1

[Half Life 2] is like an interactive waiting simulation - why the hell were there so many loading screens? Walk for a minute, load, walk for another minute, load...

I thought PC games were past this kind of crap.

If you're a PC gamer, you owe it to yourself to invest in Good Hardware. "Minimum" system requirements almost NEVER are what we would consider "adequate".

I've played the HL2 demo, and it behaved the way you described. So did Far Fry, and the Doom3 demo (though that DID scale very well). Battlefield 2 takes over a minute to load a level on my machine. This bothers me, but I know that it is because my hardware is over a generation old.

Games like Half Life 2, Battlefield 2, and almost any "modern" game requires a Very Beefy machine to run in a snappy fashion. Don't blame the game makers -- they are specifically targetting that market.

If you were dissatisfied with Half Life 2's performance, a LARGE part of that is almost certainly the quality of your machine. You should have the equivalent of what would run you about $1400-$2000 in new-machine-specs (ie, if you were to spec out a new machine from NewEgg parts, or some vendor's prebuilt one) in order to get Very Good performance.

Our hobby is a performance-enthusiast culture. It requires either the money to get the Best Gear, or the willingness to tolerate suboptimal performance.

For what it's worth, my machine is NOT what I would consider top of the line:
AthlonXP 2200, 1 gig ram, Geforce 6600GT.

It runs World of Warcraft, but chugs a bit. I have to turn off some shader options to get the resolution I desire. Battlefield2, HalfLife 2, and Far Cry all run decently -- once things are loaded. They take Freakin' Forever to load. I'd play HL2 on my machine (if I had the money: See WoW addiction ;)), and then be willing to maybe visit it again when I had better hardware. I'd love to see CS:Source.

something's wrong... by sm.arson · 2006-01-31 07:52 · Score: 2, Informative

Players could download Wolfenstein 3D from a number of FTP sites and BBS file areas, and play the whole thing for free. If they liked it, the game encouraged players to send id a set donation of a few dollars.

I'm pretty sure that you could only download the first episode of the game for free, and when you registered the game you were able to download the rest. The entire game was NOT offered simply for free. Seems like an important fact they could have checked. I know this isn't an oprah novel but, come on people!

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for great justice, this sig has been moved

Re:something's wrong... by Ayaress · 2006-01-31 08:44 · Score: 2, Informative

You're right. The same applied to Commander Keen, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and even Shadow Warrior. They all had the first episode (usually out of three) free, and the rest you had to pay for. Some of them (Duke Nukem, Doom) also had certain weapons, items, and enemies placeholdered out in the shareware version. There was no donation about it. These were not free games, they were basically demos - get part of the game now, buy the rest if you like it.

I like Steam by doodzed · 2006-01-31 07:54 · Score: 1

I like steam if only because when my apartment burned... I still had my valve games. When I reinstall... I can just log into steam and my games will download. At work... I can install whatever I want without lugging the disks in and risking their destruction.

Steam is good and will be better when friends start workign again. How hard can that be? It has been a long time since friends worked.

--
It's not the size of your stack that matters, it's how you push and pop

Wolf3D 4 Free? by CyberVenom · 2006-01-31 08:04 · Score: 2, Informative

The article claims that Wolfenstein 3-D was completely free with a donation requested if you liked the game. This fits well for the thought flow of their article, but is entirely untrue. Wolfenstein 3-D had only the first episode available for free, with a registration fee required before Apogee (id's publisher at the time) would send you the rest of the game in the mail. This is the model that their earlier Commander Keen games had used as well. It did not rely wholly on the selfless donations of patrons - the payees received something for their money; the other 2/3s of the game! In my opinion the success of Apogee and id had far less to do with community spirit and donations than it did with game addictions and allowance money - but of course, that wouldn't be as warm-and-fuzzy of a tidbit for a "downloaders are historically good people" article without this "slight" misstatement of facts.

Funny... by JonLatane · 2006-01-31 08:07 · Score: 1

I recently reformatted my Windows partition to start fresh as well.

Before the reformat, I had HL2 + Deathmatch, CS & CS: Source, DoD: Source, FarCry, Doom 3, and a bunch of other, random games.

After, all I installed was HL2 + Deathmatch, CS & CS: Source and DoD: Source. Why? Because I couldn't find those damn CDs or the CD keys for the others.

When I went through this "bullshit," which was last Friday at 3:00, I just downloaded a 708KB installer and entered my Steam ID and password. Then I told it to download my games again, and by 8:00, it was all done. I even got in a round of CS before I went out that night!

Re:Yarrr! Matey! by vertinox · 2006-01-31 08:15 · Score: 3, Funny

I would think that it's tough for pirates to download games... I can't imagine you'd be able to get much bandwidth out there on the high seas.

Not when ye have a Galleon loaded with 20 cannon, 100 vicious men, and a cargo hold filled to the brim with ye backup tapes traveling at 5 knots due to a ragin carribean storm!

Yar! Thar be ye bandwidth!

--
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)

GarageGames by Eightyford · 2006-01-31 08:31 · Score: 1

GarageGames seems to be doing pretty good with their shareware downloads. Gish is amazing.

--
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters

Pro Gaming by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 08:39 · Score: 0

During last years CPL The night before the source tournament valve released an update for source. The cpl staff had to scramble to simply recompile the servers to allow for the update. If users wern't locked into a content distribution system they would be allowed to play the game how they wanted. Have you ever not updated a game because the new patch caused bugs?

Re:Yarrr! Matey! by dadragon · 2006-01-31 08:51 · Score: 1

High bandwidth sure, but what about latency?!? Even dial-up is faster!

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God save our Queen, and Heaven bless The Maple Leaf Forever!

The GOOD sites let you re-download by Asmor · 2006-01-31 09:02 · Score: 1

I remember a long time ago I bought Mutant Storm 2 from Garage Games. Maybe a year (and, more importantly, a new computer) later, I was bored one day looking at various games and suddenly remembered I'd purchased that game so long ago. So I did a little research, found the site I'd bought it from, tried my usual login info and bam, there was my account page with a download link and my product key.

Now, granted, this is only good so long as the website in question sticks around, but for something like this I think an offsite backup is much more comforting than having a CD (which, incidentally, I could always burn the install and key onto one if I ever so deigned). It's more convenient, and more idiot proof. I like the chances of them sticking around better than I do the chances of me keeping track of one random CD among hundreds.

Steam by Anonymous Coward · 2006-01-31 10:00 · Score: 0

Perhaps slightly off-topic, but I never bought HL2 because of Steam. If I can't have my game on physical media that I can easily install on a new machine then you WILL NOT get my hard earned cash.
Steam also prevents my friends and I from playing a LAN (only) game. And there is no reason in the world why single-player should need to phone home. A LAN game should also not have to phone home. My gaming buddies (who did buy HL2) still bitch about Steam, after how long?
It's an interesting concept, but Valve really screwed up on the implementation. Perhaps some others have done better, but I still like to have physical media. Now, if you let me d/l a burnable ISO (or similar) maybe we can talk.

Valve is not the pioneer here . . . by greenreaper · 2006-01-31 10:12 · Score: 1

We've been doing this over at Stardock since 1998, and 2001 for games. GalCiv II betas have been going out via digital distribution for half a year now. And we've been partnering with independant groups since . . . what, 2003? Remember Gish? Uplink? Frontline Command? We got 'em.

What bullshit? by jayeffaar · 2006-01-31 10:25 · Score: 1

I had to re-intall windows on my PC last week. To re-install my steam games, all I had to do was to re-install Steam itself (a quick download, followed by a quick install), sign in and select the games I wanted to re-install from the list. It took a few hours to get them all in (HL2 is a pretty big download) but the next morning I was up and running again. Yes, you have to trust that Valve won't fuck up and lose your account but when it works, it couldn't be much simpler than that...

direct2drive by jayeffaar · 2006-01-31 10:31 · Score: 1

The problem with D2D is that since they use modified executables for the games they sell and they're not the games' primary distributor, they tend to lag behind when releasing patches (or just don't release them at all). At least with Steam, you know that Valve will distribute patches as soon as they're available.

NetHack by unforgettableid · 2006-01-31 13:03 · Score: 1

Downloading games isn't just for pirates anymore. It's also for adventurers.

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Who do you trust?

Strategy First is not Russian. by SWestrup · 2006-01-31 14:12 · Score: 2, Informative

It was an interesting article, but I was surprised to see they named Strategy First (http://www.strategyfirst.com/), a company I helped found, as being Russian. Strategy First started in Montreal and still has its head office there. Although we have a reputation in Canada as being more socialistic than the States, we're definitely not part of Russia.

Trygames.com by owlman17 · 2006-01-31 16:34 · Score: 1

http://trygames.com/ has big-name titles. You can download the trials, which are different from the "trial" trials, then pay for the keys if you like it. The trials are actually the full versions, but are time-crippled. You can check it out.

Re:Trygames.com by Supercrunch · 2006-02-01 02:52 · Score: 1

Yeah, I've used Trygames recently to purchase games for my kids. In my mind, downloadable games are the perfect choice for kids since they ALWAYS scratch their CD-ROMs. Unfortunately, the Trygames catalog is pretty disappointing -- several of the kids' titles are over 10 years old.

Digital distribution is not a sale, but a renting by dupont54 · 2006-01-31 21:23 · Score: 1

Before embracing digital distribution, I strongly suggest that you read the fine prints.
If you read the Steam Subscriber Agreement, you'll see that with your $40 or so, you have never bought a game, not even a license to play the game like all for the other games you might have. What you have paid are subscription fees to access some contents on some online service.

And the differences are significant:
- First, usually you can transfer a game license, but you can't transfer a Steam subscription (section 1).
- Secondly, a licence cannot be changed by the publisher without your consent, while a Steam subscription can be (this include additionnal fees) (section 4.b and 12).
- Lastly, a licence cannot be terminated by the publisher unless you fail to comply with its terms. On the contrary, Valve can terminate your subscription at any time for any reason (section 13 and 13.c.2).

So here you are. You haven't bought HL2, you are just renting it for a flat fee from Valve, and you just don't know how long your renting will last... And worst, contrary to all your previous games, they can technically enforce their legaleses.
I just can't understand why people are defending a company with such a deceptive agreement, especially when this company marketing line is "we are the good-ol' friend of the gaming community".

Lineage 1 by FirienFirien · 2006-01-31 22:53 · Score: 2, Interesting

Lineage 1, you might recall, was a subscription-only product. In the days of yore it was a pain to download the gig-sized package and then patch with goodness knows how many extra files (Episodes 1-n); with your account you could opt to have a CD sent to you for free. Ebay always had a run of these CDs when a new episode came out, because you could get the content online with the autopatch, and sell off the CD cheap to some unsuspecting person who was interested.

Lineage 1 came out in 1998; digital delivery is by no means new!

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Browsing with +2 to insightful posts and a higher threshold makes the average post seen seem a lot more ingenious

Hell yeah... by meringuoid · 2006-01-31 23:59 · Score: 1

Wolfenstein 3-D had only the first episode available for free, with a registration fee required before Apogee (id's publisher at the time) would send you the rest of the game in the mail.

'Twas the same with Doom. The first part of it was free to download, to copy around, it was on every magazine coverdisk for months... I got to the point where I knew my way around Knee-Deep in the Dead better than I did my own high school :)

Never really got into the other two episodes, when I finally did get around to getting the full version. Sure, it was still Doom, but it just wasn't the same...

--
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.

Similar attitude here by Lonewolf666 · 2006-02-01 00:49 · Score: 1

I don't completely refuse to buy it, but the amount of money I am willing to pay goes down drastically when the game is linked to something like Steam. Instead of 50 Euros, Valve might get 20 from me. If the game gets that cheap someday ;-)
I don't think that is the sort of revenue they were planning for.

--
C - the footgun of programming languages

Simple SSo by rmccann · 2006-02-01 00:50 · Score: 1

There ARE benefits to the lock-in system. Remember, physical media isn't foolproof. If you accidentally break or lose your media, and no longer have a receipt (or its long after the return period), then you're out of luck.

Copying a CD or DVD is quite simple, cheap and fast. It is not a fair trade to trade all the disadvatages for the convience of not burning 5 CDs.

can't buy in a store by mrbongo · 2006-02-01 01:28 · Score: 1

i am currenly working in south america. I went to the local computer store where they had about 100 copies of age of empires and microsoft flight simulator for 60$ ( neither of which i was looking for) I then went to the closest thing to a best buy which is the street market where you can buy a random selction of games ranging from diablo to the newest titles (never sure what language they will be in) for about $2.00. As a result If I want a good game I have gone online I seem to play guildwars, or steam titles, although I did plan a trip to the states to pick up civ 4.......... anyway without online distribution my only option here would be piracy. I was about to start a rant about price points and gloabl distribution with piracy implications but I think I will drink a coffee instead.

Double Purchase and Permanent Email by wickedj · 2006-02-01 08:51 · Score: 1

I had purchased Half-life before Steam was released. Then Steam came out and I used that to install Half-life on a rebuild of my gaming rig. I ended up using my cd-key for that. Then I bought the silver package of HL2 when that came out. The silver package of HL2 also contains the original HL along with some other mods. I tried to give my original HL cd to my brother but unfortunately, the cd-key is tied to the Steam account and now, I just paid for two copies of HL and I have a useless cd just sitting there. I talked to Valve support about it and they pretty much said, tough luck.

The other issue I have with Steam is that my original account name is an old email address I no longer use. I went to change it but Steam won't allow it. Sure I can update my "contact" email but my account name will always be an old, dead email account.

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Downloading Games Not Just For Pirates

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