I know this is a big issue for some, but clearly you have not done your due-diligence when it comes to knowing what services you allow to run on your machines.
1. This isn't beyond curiosity. Just because I read about Hitler and the Holocaust doesn't mean I have more than a passing morbid curiosity in the history.
2. You can be really good AND visit these sites all day. Unless VAC trips on you (and being "really good" never gets you caught, they look for specific actual hacks and vectors, not just some K:D ratio), it will never check your DNS.
3. The DNS entry it's looking for isn't "www.hacks.com", it's looking for the call-home function of the hack itself; because hackers don't pay (imagine that) the hacks themselves need DRM.
You have to be caught by VAC (using a hack) and then you need to have a current call-home function to a known hacking service/program to get tripped up by this. That's why it "only" caught ~500 users, this isn't some massive dragnet to ban anyone who's googled the words "counter strike hack".
*and there was no advance notice? *and you had no way of backing up all these old games? *and all your computers stop working the day before the shut down? *and video games become illegal? *and we reach the heat death of the universe?
Yeah, I bet you VALVE-APOLOGISTS will really be loving your DRM then.
Did you really hit "Preview", then re-read your comment, only to go "yes, implying a gay teen shelter is different because they have sex with boys is exactly what I meant to say."
Because I refuse to believe anyone would link their username to such a terrible comment.
But the reality is that far more students are "left behind" because teachers on the ground are asked/forced/allowed to create their own curriculums, and not every teacher is good at that.
To be unfair (by picking only a small bit of your post) I have to say the problem here is with the teachers then. Yes creating a syllabus and cirriculum to teach a wide array of children is hard. Teaching is hard. Teaching, is hard.
There isn't some magic test or bullet that will just absolve people of this hard work. Teaching is one of those strange jobs that's: incredibly difficult, incredibly important, while being incredibly undervalued.
We need better teachers. This of course implies we need to leverage teachers with the ability to BE better, with things like proper funding, support, etc.
Imagine trying to make a "demo" for something like The Stanley Parable, or Journey, or Gone Home. Even games such as Counter-Strike would have a strange demo, or Mario Party. When do you stop the user? How much do you let the play before asking for money?
Nothing is stopping people from putting a big "buy" button on the first screen, but not all games are easily sliced up into individual levels.
Are there a lot of games that let you play offline? The only Origin games I can name off hand are BF3 and SimCity5. Both won't work without internet. I know there has to be more Origin games but I do not follow EA publishing.
Because I don't want to lug my computer (and all the hookups and wire management) around the house when I want to play a game. Paying for a "second machine" is a luxury I will be able to afford, and it's what this will be.
This isn't essential to anyone, you can drag your machine to the TV if you want, but this is a nice luxury afforded to us through the power of software and TECHNOLOGY.
This doesn't have to the end-all machine/OS/system for all people playing video games forever, always. Stop trying to make it sound like SteamOS is looking to be the only source of video game entertainment in the known universe.
This is what I'm most excited for. No longer will games like GTA need to be "scaled down" to run on console hardware, only to be "scaled back up" during the PC release. They will just release it for Steam, and if you cannot run it well enough: you have the option to go upgrade your machine.
No more "generations" holding back the technical muscle of games.
On the flipside, there really is something to be said about the games that come out near the end of a console's life cycle. Look how good (for the hardware) some games can come across on relatively meager hardware.
It better not be episode 3: after this long, I expect a full game which takes me 12+ hours to finish.
Why do you expect this? Is the length of time a game is in development representative of how long the game should be? Could it be that they just have scrapped the project multiple times?
I don't want a short 4 hour game as well, but saying it/better be/ at least x hours is kind of a strange way to look at art.
Personally, I just don't feel right sitting at my desk with a pad in my hand
I felt the same way, but now that I've started using controllers I cannot imagine going back. Having that kind of control on games that require controllers (usually console games) AND being that close to the screen seems to just... really help with the response times.
I worry that moving back to the couch is going to make me slow and such again. Perhaps it's just the eyesight going....
The idea here is that the Steam platform itself is the reason to choose it over PS3.
Just talk to anyone who plays Skyrim on consoles, then tell them about all the cool shit they are missing out on via Steam Workshop. The few people I've discussed this with seem quite interested, and a bit bummed they don't have it on PC.
HL3 (or any game) doesn't need to be exclusive to SteamOS, but if it was just hands down the best version, that alone is the kind of "exclusivity" that other consoles cannot match. Trying to advertise this fact might be a bit hard however.
And I re-read your comment a few times to make sure nothing was going over my head, what did I miss here? I'm seeing people say: "I don't want SteamOS/Box/Controller, it just means they aren't working HL3.", which seems to put more emphasis on a single game, than it does changing the platforms we play games on.
If HL3 is the -only thing you want out of Valve- then I have to say you are becoming a minority.
I can't wait for HL3 as well, but I would trade HL3 for Steam any single day of the week, pound-for-pound Steam has brought more to PC gaming than any single story could ever hope to*.
I mean don't get me wrong, I love me some Valve games (except Dota, I haven't drank that koolade just yet), and am happily looking forward to their next one but: is this really what you want out of Valve?
Steam so far has increased the pleasure of PC gaming by so much it's really hard to think of the mess PC gaming was before Steam. They've made communities easier to get going and foster, they've made more games available than the paltry offerings at Gamestops nation-wide, while adding features that enhance the games themselves. Just look at the workshop and tell me that you'd rather have Valve JUST make video games.
I really want HL3, but I'm not going to start the conversation that they are better at video games than they are at infrastructure - I don't want to admit what side I'd throw my hat into.
Just note that the ABXY buttons on the Steam Controller wouldn't be the ABXY you'd push on a 360 controller. There are 4 top buttons and 2 back buttons, as well as having the circlepads click.
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Most, if not all, anti-cheat programs do this.
I know this is a big issue for some, but clearly you have not done your due-diligence when it comes to knowing what services you allow to run on your machines.
This is incorrect on a few levels.
1. This isn't beyond curiosity. Just because I read about Hitler and the Holocaust doesn't mean I have more than a passing morbid curiosity in the history.
2. You can be really good AND visit these sites all day. Unless VAC trips on you (and being "really good" never gets you caught, they look for specific actual hacks and vectors, not just some K:D ratio), it will never check your DNS.
3. The DNS entry it's looking for isn't "www.hacks.com", it's looking for the call-home function of the hack itself; because hackers don't pay (imagine that) the hacks themselves need DRM.
You have to be caught by VAC (using a hack) and then you need to have a current call-home function to a known hacking service/program to get tripped up by this. That's why it "only" caught ~500 users, this isn't some massive dragnet to ban anyone who's googled the words "counter strike hack".
Because more information is usually better than not having this information?
The AC you replied never said this is better or worse, so stop trying to color their arguments to make your own comment look better.
This is what I want to make sure. So far there hasn't been any evidence that info is being transmitted to Valve.
BUT WHAT IF THEY SHUT DOWN?*
*and there was no advance notice?
*and you had no way of backing up all these old games?
*and all your computers stop working the day before the shut down?
*and video games become illegal?
*and we reach the heat death of the universe?
Yeah, I bet you VALVE-APOLOGISTS will really be loving your DRM then.
You're going to have to try a lot harder than this.
Agenda?
Christ you people read into things.
the jokes on you he was just PRETENDING to be retarded.
Therefore, we are no longer their customers.
This is my sentiment. Rip in peace SourceForge, was fun while it lasted.
Knocked that one out of the park champ.
Is this really the comment you wanted to post?
Did you really hit "Preview", then re-read your comment, only to go "yes, implying a gay teen shelter is different because they have sex with boys is exactly what I meant to say."
Because I refuse to believe anyone would link their username to such a terrible comment.
Did you miss the AC checkbox?
Are you 15?
What is your secret to ignorance here?
But the reality is that far more students are "left behind" because teachers on the ground are asked/forced/allowed to create their own curriculums, and not every teacher is good at that.
To be unfair (by picking only a small bit of your post) I have to say the problem here is with the teachers then. Yes creating a syllabus and cirriculum to teach a wide array of children is hard. Teaching is hard. Teaching, is hard.
There isn't some magic test or bullet that will just absolve people of this hard work. Teaching is one of those strange jobs that's: incredibly difficult, incredibly important, while being incredibly undervalued.
We need better teachers. This of course implies we need to leverage teachers with the ability to BE better, with things like proper funding, support, etc.
Not all games are this easy to do this for.
Imagine trying to make a "demo" for something like The Stanley Parable, or Journey, or Gone Home. Even games such as Counter-Strike would have a strange demo, or Mario Party. When do you stop the user? How much do you let the play before asking for money?
Nothing is stopping people from putting a big "buy" button on the first screen, but not all games are easily sliced up into individual levels.
Shut up or log in, there is probably a good reason you posted this as AC.
Are there a lot of games that let you play offline? The only Origin games I can name off hand are BF3 and SimCity5. Both won't work without internet. I know there has to be more Origin games but I do not follow EA publishing.
Because I don't want to lug my computer (and all the hookups and wire management) around the house when I want to play a game. Paying for a "second machine" is a luxury I will be able to afford, and it's what this will be.
This isn't essential to anyone, you can drag your machine to the TV if you want, but this is a nice luxury afforded to us through the power of software and TECHNOLOGY.
This doesn't have to the end-all machine/OS/system for all people playing video games forever, always. Stop trying to make it sound like SteamOS is looking to be the only source of video game entertainment in the known universe.
This is what I'm most excited for. No longer will games like GTA need to be "scaled down" to run on console hardware, only to be "scaled back up" during the PC release. They will just release it for Steam, and if you cannot run it well enough: you have the option to go upgrade your machine.
No more "generations" holding back the technical muscle of games.
On the flipside, there really is something to be said about the games that come out near the end of a console's life cycle. Look how good (for the hardware) some games can come across on relatively meager hardware.
It better not be episode 3: after this long, I expect a full game which takes me 12+ hours to finish.
Why do you expect this?
Is the length of time a game is in development representative of how long the game should be? Could it be that they just have scrapped the project multiple times?
I don't want a short 4 hour game as well, but saying it /better be/ at least x hours is kind of a strange way to look at art.
Personally, I just don't feel right sitting at my desk with a pad in my hand
I felt the same way, but now that I've started using controllers I cannot imagine going back. Having that kind of control on games that require controllers (usually console games) AND being that close to the screen seems to just... really help with the response times.
I worry that moving back to the couch is going to make me slow and such again. Perhaps it's just the eyesight going....
The idea here is that the Steam platform itself is the reason to choose it over PS3.
Just talk to anyone who plays Skyrim on consoles, then tell them about all the cool shit they are missing out on via Steam Workshop. The few people I've discussed this with seem quite interested, and a bit bummed they don't have it on PC.
HL3 (or any game) doesn't need to be exclusive to SteamOS, but if it was just hands down the best version, that alone is the kind of "exclusivity" that other consoles cannot match. Trying to advertise this fact might be a bit hard however.
And I re-read your comment a few times to make sure nothing was going over my head, what did I miss here? I'm seeing people say: "I don't want SteamOS/Box/Controller, it just means they aren't working HL3.", which seems to put more emphasis on a single game, than it does changing the platforms we play games on.
Who cares?
If HL3 is the -only thing you want out of Valve- then I have to say you are becoming a minority.
I can't wait for HL3 as well, but I would trade HL3 for Steam any single day of the week, pound-for-pound Steam has brought more to PC gaming than any single story could ever hope to*.
*Quake 3 is an exception.
True but with enough linkage they can become one and the same. Try to say "windows" without secretly meaning "Microsoft".
Why?
I mean don't get me wrong, I love me some Valve games (except Dota, I haven't drank that koolade just yet), and am happily looking forward to their next one but: is this really what you want out of Valve?
Steam so far has increased the pleasure of PC gaming by so much it's really hard to think of the mess PC gaming was before Steam. They've made communities easier to get going and foster, they've made more games available than the paltry offerings at Gamestops nation-wide, while adding features that enhance the games themselves. Just look at the workshop and tell me that you'd rather have Valve JUST make video games.
I really want HL3, but I'm not going to start the conversation that they are better at video games than they are at infrastructure - I don't want to admit what side I'd throw my hat into.
Just note that the ABXY buttons on the Steam Controller wouldn't be the ABXY you'd push on a 360 controller. There are 4 top buttons and 2 back buttons, as well as having the circlepads click.