Ah a sane post at last. I work as a game developer. I know what its like to see your games on emule, and people posting serial codes for a game you worked years to create. Half lfie 2 cost around $40 million dollars to make. Thats a serious investment, and valve are 100% justified in doing what it takes to make sure people who buy the game actually pay for the damned thing. As for all this bullshit about "what if i want to play the game is 30 years time and valve go under... whine moan". Get real... will va;ve still be here in 6 months time? YES will you have gotten your $50 of entertainment from the product by then? YES HL2 is one of the best games I've played since video games were invented.If your not buying it because you dislike the legalese in some contract, your just cutting off your nose to spite your face. Buy the game and quit whineing. If anyone is to blame, its the goddam warez dicks who make this shit neccesary.
"but most people will choose IE, or complain if you hide IE, so they don't have the option."
TOUGH. If you are the IT guy and they are the users you just tell them its tough shit. that was my policy when i was an IT guy. The work computer is work property, maintained by the IT dept, its not up to the end user to decide what browser he uses. If they complain, pull up their history folder and tell their manager how much non-work surfing they do in work time.
This game wouldnt sell a single copy if the media didnt splash it everywhere as some kind of scandal. Its just like the game 'manhunt' which the media got pulled from UK stores recently. Seriously, there are some fantastic games out at the moment, Half Life 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, maybe Pirates will be good even *cough plug* my own Starship Tycoon;) Its always pretty depressing to see that you can get a million dollars worth of advertising just by ensuring your game is sick and tasteless. Lets treat trash like this the way it deserves, and ignore it completely. there are plenty more worthy pieces of entertainmemnt out there that could be covered instead.
he isn't the only one. Check my sig, I write PC games on my own. granted its not full time, but this year it paid for a brand new car and a shiny Sony Laptop. Some of my games are on sale in WalMart. Big companies love to regurgitate this nonsense that you cant make it on your own. Its there way of dissuading there best guys from quitting to start up their own companies. As for the lawyer stuff. I've got by without once talking to a lawyer. I even do my own accounts now. Dealing with accountants and lawyers is a fast way to turn a profitable startup into a loss making one.
couldnt agree more. vene if they knocked just $5 off for the steam version it would be nice, but did they fuck? its a superb game, worth the money, but i dont like this idea fo charging so much for an online only version.
you have to be kidding. EULAS are a waste of time. you are seriously telling me you read them? I am 35, I dont have many years left;) I aint gonna waste half of them reading longwinded legalese drafted by some creep in a suit who earns ten times my salary. If I buy a printer, it should print what I tell it too and fck all else. Adding a clause in a 30 page eula that says using this printer signs my kids over for experimentation isnt exactly playing fair. fck lexmark.
not true. Ive worked at 2 big companies doing triple A games and never worked more than 55 hours a week in 4 years. You just need the confidence, organisational skills and guts to say "its 6.30pm and im off home to watch TV" I dont think long hours make for better code, they make for buggy code and an endless cycle of bugfixing. I do my code carefully and correctly the first time round. bugs are fixed as they are spotetdm, not shuffled till crunch time. If management schedule me to work on an evening or a saturday I just laugh. those arent my working hours. you mgiht as well schedule me to work underwater or on mars. poor schedules == poor producers. Those are the guys who need to be fired.
couldnt agree more. i have zero sympathy for these guys. give them 30 years hard labour. Id be quite happy about that. people whineing about murder sentences.... you onlky murder 1 guy, or at most 3000 (OBL). This guy has scrweed over maybe a million peoples inboxes. he deserves what he gets.
yeah that sounds ideal. Id much rather have a nuclear power station with a thousand years of waste problems than a few solar panels, some windmills and some tidal power.
jesus why do geeks get so excited by nuclear power. its a goddamned timebomb. you ever heard of any mass panics because a wind turbine fell over?
this is why despite liking the US and getting married there I will never holiday there again. Im sure the candain tourist industry is booming.
Re:Full review of the game is on the newsstands
on
Half Life 2 Goes Gold
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Which is total horseshit. You think PC Gamers 'exclusive' reviews actually use final code? dont be so naieve! the magazine will be allowed to play a beta copy under supervision from marketing people, and told that the numerous bugs and missing bits will be finished before it ships. In return for the 'exlcuive' they agree to give an unfinished game a 95% score, and both companies are happy. The poor schmucks reading PC Gamer usually dont realise whats going on. magazine reviews are total bullshit. if you want to know what a game is like, the ONLY way to know is to play the demo. If there isnt a demo, set suspicion=suspicion_max
I work for a major UK developer, with a publisher funding our next title. I sympatjhsie with people who dislike steam, but believe me, electronic distribution is THE future of games. Why the hell would anyone want to get on the bus to town to pick up a CD when they can donwload the darned thing? especially if it knocks off the following costs: Cost of the box Cost of the printed manual Cost of shelf space Wages of cashier in store Transportation of box Pressing cost of CD. Add all this up, and its a pretty penny. If it knocked just $3 of the game price, I'd be a happier sonsumer. I'm also much happier for the code monkeys at valve to get the proceeds of their hard work than the clueless suits at the publisher. An earlier poster knocked the nail right on the head - if the publisher had any sense they would be going into a major partnership with valve to licence steam for their other titles. The develoepr is better off without the publisher, but the publisher is better off without the distributor and the retailer. Every step int he chain soaks up some profit. Real.com make a mint from their downloadable games (including from one i wrote in my spare time). The sensible company goes WITH the online sales trend, not rowing aginst it.
I would never do what this guy has done, but I have huge sympathy for him. If you work every hour god sends on some software and the next thing you see is some pathetic little script kiddie not only stealing your work but helping others to do the same, then you want blood. I feel the same way if iI see people steal my games. I think he has gone way too far, but I have a huge amount more sympathy for him than I do the thieving scumbags who lost their home directories (if any). Its not like you can use a pirated serial by mistake, you KNOW if you had to enter your credit card details or not. If you go to a warez site and next thing you know you are reformatting, then I really can't shed many tears for you.
Agreed, there is excellent potential here. Eve online has shown how space based MMORPGS can work. SWG was ok, but sony treated the players like dirt, and if I have to tick twelve different boxes and skip 15 different patronising logos every time I log in to this I wont be playing this one either. I look forward to playing the part of a ferengi trader conning innocent starfleet ensigns out of thweir latinum, hahahahahahaha but having said that... 2007? jeez I might have kids by then. Who gives a toss till its in beta?
i agree 100%. People like to think they are stealing music for some 'higher purpose' but thats just bullshit to cover the fact that they think they can get something for free.
"Making criminals out of customers is the wrong business model"
bullshit. these arent customers, they are thieves. I make games, if you like my games buy them, if people stop buying them, ill stop making them, and there will be less for everyone (both legal customers and thieveing scumbags). Anyone buying music knows that copying it (or allowing it to be freely copied) for others is against the law. If you break the law, you get prosecuted and hopefully fined or imprisoned. as someone who earns a living creating digital content, any bullshit about "its not really theft" is no help when it comes to me paying my bills, with 70% of my customers not paying for the damned stuff.
for all these people bitching about the quality of music, i must ask if its so crap why you all insist on stroing 30 gigs of it on your hard drive. could it be because you are all taking crap and you just like stealing stuff if you think you will get away with it. I hope they catch everyone.
i couldnt agree more. the poster is obviosuly some lame ass without a creative bone in his body. Those that do create new original work expect to be paid for it. YOU DO NOT HAVE A HUMAN RIGHT TO OWN ALL MUSIC OTHERS HAVE CREATED. its not like food or water, you want it, you buy it, or make your fucking own music.
nobody owns a song? interesting. nobody owns any creative work i take it? What are you smoking? you think every musician in the world should be working in walmart to pay bills? you think good songwriters should all give up and get shelf stacking jobs. Ive read some pathetic justifications for theft in my time but this stupidity takes the biscuit.
you make free software? i guess you wish everyone else worked for nothing too? maybe tim berners lee should have worked in walmart instead, coz he wouldnt want to be paid right? where would you be then?
" In the end, the technology *never* goes away and those people find new jobs."
ncie one mate.
Hope you enjoyed whats on Tv and in the theaters tonight because thats the last content that will ever be made with such a destructive attitude as yours. Who is going to make the next Matrix? The Next buffy? Who is going to make a new album? recording studios cost money, so does film...
hang on...
you think a bunch of linux-loving "information wants to be free" geeks are going to make the next million dollar spiderman movie in their bedrooms?
No.
Grow up. people make stuff, people buy stuff. Deal with it. If you dont want to pay for it, you cant have it. Nobody needs MP3s to stay alive. you have NO rights to digital music, unless you make it, or you buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
Ah a sane post at last. I work as a game developer. I know what its like to see your games on emule, and people posting serial codes for a game you worked years to create. Half lfie 2 cost around $40 million dollars to make. Thats a serious investment, and valve are 100% justified in doing what it takes to make sure people who buy the game actually pay for the damned thing.
As for all this bullshit about "what if i want to play the game is 30 years time and valve go under... whine moan". Get real... will va;ve still be here in 6 months time?
YES
will you have gotten your $50 of entertainment from the product by then?
YES
HL2 is one of the best games I've played since video games were invented.If your not buying it because you dislike the legalese in some contract, your just cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Buy the game and quit whineing. If anyone is to blame, its the goddam warez dicks who make this shit neccesary.
"but most people will choose IE, or complain if you hide IE, so they don't have the option."
TOUGH.
If you are the IT guy and they are the users you just tell them its tough shit. that was my policy when i was an IT guy. The work computer is work property, maintained by the IT dept, its not up to the end user to decide what browser he uses. If they complain, pull up their history folder and tell their manager how much non-work surfing they do in work time.
This game wouldnt sell a single copy if the media didnt splash it everywhere as some kind of scandal. Its just like the game 'manhunt' which the media got pulled from UK stores recently. ;)
Seriously, there are some fantastic games out at the moment, Half Life 2, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, maybe Pirates will be good even *cough plug* my own Starship Tycoon
Its always pretty depressing to see that you can get a million dollars worth of advertising just by ensuring your game is sick and tasteless.
Lets treat trash like this the way it deserves, and ignore it completely. there are plenty more worthy pieces of entertainmemnt out there that could be covered instead.
this must be an onion story right?
i mean... come on.... this aint real?
he isn't the only one. Check my sig, I write PC games on my own. granted its not full time, but this year it paid for a brand new car and a shiny Sony Laptop. Some of my games are on sale in WalMart.
Big companies love to regurgitate this nonsense that you cant make it on your own. Its there way of dissuading there best guys from quitting to start up their own companies.
As for the lawyer stuff. I've got by without once talking to a lawyer. I even do my own accounts now. Dealing with accountants and lawyers is a fast way to turn a profitable startup into a loss making one.
couldnt agree more. vene if they knocked just $5 off for the steam version it would be nice, but did they fuck?
its a superb game, worth the money, but i dont like this idea fo charging so much for an online only version.
sorted out the disaster that is your legal system?
you have to be kidding. EULAS are a waste of time. you are seriously telling me you read them? I am 35, I dont have many years left ;) I aint gonna waste half of them reading longwinded legalese drafted by some creep in a suit who earns ten times my salary.
If I buy a printer, it should print what I tell it too and fck all else. Adding a clause in a 30 page eula that says using this printer signs my kids over for experimentation isnt exactly playing fair.
fck lexmark.
not true. Ive worked at 2 big companies doing triple A games and never worked more than 55 hours a week in 4 years.
You just need the confidence, organisational skills and guts to say "its 6.30pm and im off home to watch TV"
I dont think long hours make for better code, they make for buggy code and an endless cycle of bugfixing.
I do my code carefully and correctly the first time round. bugs are fixed as they are spotetdm, not shuffled till crunch time. If management schedule me to work on an evening or a saturday I just laugh. those arent my working hours. you mgiht as well schedule me to work underwater or on mars.
poor schedules == poor producers. Those are the guys who need to be fired.
couldnt agree more. i have zero sympathy for these guys. give them 30 years hard labour. Id be quite happy about that.
people whineing about murder sentences.... you onlky murder 1 guy, or at most 3000 (OBL). This guy has scrweed over maybe a million peoples inboxes.
he deserves what he gets.
insightful? gimme a break, I havent read a more jingoistic xenophobic pile of bullshit in years.
what idiot modded this bullshit up?
yeah that sounds ideal. Id much rather have a nuclear power station with a thousand years of waste problems than a few solar panels, some windmills and some tidal power.
jesus why do geeks get so excited by nuclear power. its a goddamned timebomb. you ever heard of any mass panics because a wind turbine fell over?
this is why despite liking the US and getting married there I will never holiday there again. Im sure the candain tourist industry is booming.
Which is total horseshit. You think PC Gamers 'exclusive' reviews actually use final code? dont be so naieve! the magazine will be allowed to play a beta copy under supervision from marketing people, and told that the numerous bugs and missing bits will be finished before it ships. In return for the 'exlcuive' they agree to give an unfinished game a 95% score, and both companies are happy. The poor schmucks reading PC Gamer usually dont realise whats going on.
magazine reviews are total bullshit. if you want to know what a game is like, the ONLY way to know is to play the demo. If there isnt a demo, set suspicion=suspicion_max
well said my friend. expect a bunch of tech obsessed geeks to patronise you though.
I work for a major UK developer, with a publisher funding our next title. I sympatjhsie with people who dislike steam, but believe me, electronic distribution is THE future of games.
Why the hell would anyone want to get on the bus to town to pick up a CD when they can donwload the darned thing? especially if it knocks off the following costs:
Cost of the box
Cost of the printed manual
Cost of shelf space
Wages of cashier in store
Transportation of box
Pressing cost of CD.
Add all this up, and its a pretty penny. If it knocked just $3 of the game price, I'd be a happier sonsumer. I'm also much happier for the code monkeys at valve to get the proceeds of their hard work than the clueless suits at the publisher. An earlier poster knocked the nail right on the head - if the publisher had any sense they would be going into a major partnership with valve to licence steam for their other titles. The develoepr is better off without the publisher, but the publisher is better off without the distributor and the retailer. Every step int he chain soaks up some profit.
Real.com make a mint from their downloadable games (including from one i wrote in my spare time). The sensible company goes WITH the online sales trend, not rowing aginst it.
I would never do what this guy has done, but I have huge sympathy for him. If you work every hour god sends on some software and the next thing you see is some pathetic little script kiddie not only stealing your work but helping others to do the same, then you want blood.
I feel the same way if iI see people steal my games. I think he has gone way too far, but I have a huge amount more sympathy for him than I do the thieving scumbags who lost their home directories (if any). Its not like you can use a pirated serial by mistake, you KNOW if you had to enter your credit card details or not. If you go to a warez site and next thing you know you are reformatting, then I really can't shed many tears for you.
Agreed, there is excellent potential here. Eve online has shown how space based MMORPGS can work. SWG was ok, but sony treated the players like dirt, and if I have to tick twelve different boxes and skip 15 different patronising logos every time I log in to this I wont be playing this one either.
I look forward to playing the part of a ferengi trader conning innocent starfleet ensigns out of thweir latinum, hahahahahahaha
but having said that... 2007? jeez I might have kids by then. Who gives a toss till its in beta?
i agree 100%. People like to think they are stealing music for some 'higher purpose' but thats just bullshit to cover the fact that they think they can get something for free.
"Making criminals out of customers is the wrong business model"
bullshit.
these arent customers, they are thieves. I make games, if you like my games buy them, if people stop buying them, ill stop making them, and there will be less for everyone (both legal customers and thieveing scumbags).
Anyone buying music knows that copying it (or allowing it to be freely copied) for others is against the law. If you break the law, you get prosecuted and hopefully fined or imprisoned.
as someone who earns a living creating digital content, any bullshit about "its not really theft" is no help when it comes to me paying my bills, with 70% of my customers not paying for the damned stuff.
for all these people bitching about the quality of music, i must ask if its so crap why you all insist on stroing 30 gigs of it on your hard drive.
could it be because you are all taking crap and you just like stealing stuff if you think you will get away with it.
I hope they catch everyone.
i couldnt agree more. the poster is obviosuly some lame ass without a creative bone in his body. Those that do create new original work expect to be paid for it.
YOU DO NOT HAVE A HUMAN RIGHT TO OWN ALL MUSIC OTHERS HAVE CREATED.
its not like food or water, you want it, you buy it, or make your fucking own music.
nobody owns a song? interesting.
nobody owns any creative work i take it?
What are you smoking?
you think every musician in the world should be working in walmart to pay bills?
you think good songwriters should all give up and get shelf stacking jobs.
Ive read some pathetic justifications for theft in my time but this stupidity takes the biscuit.
you make free software? i guess you wish everyone else worked for nothing too? maybe tim berners lee should have worked in walmart instead, coz he wouldnt want to be paid right?
where would you be then?
" In the end, the technology *never* goes away and those people find new jobs."
ncie one mate.
Hope you enjoyed whats on Tv and in the theaters tonight because thats the last content that will ever be made with such a destructive attitude as yours.
Who is going to make the next Matrix?
The Next buffy?
Who is going to make a new album?
recording studios cost money, so does film...
hang on...
you think a bunch of linux-loving "information wants to be free" geeks are going to make the next million dollar spiderman movie in their bedrooms?
No.
Grow up. people make stuff, people buy stuff. Deal with it. If you dont want to pay for it, you cant have it. Nobody needs MP3s to stay alive. you have NO rights to digital music, unless you make it, or you buy it.