BBC's Take on Half-Life 2 Pirates

[Chris D]

Yesterday we reported and confirmed that Valve have indeed banned over 20,000 Steam accounts all accused of using pirated versions of Half-Life 2. The ban may have come as a big surprise to some but are Valve doing the right thing?[br]BBC News have today posted a story on the whole situation, with comments from industry experts and Valve's Doug Lombardi:

"It's not hard to see a point in the near future when every publisher wants you to run an application on your system purely to allow you to play their games," [Rob Fahey, gamesindustry.biz] said. [br]
[br]
This could mean that computers get cluttered with poorly written Steam-type systems that are used to batter people with adverts.

The story is worth a read and can be found in full here.

 

[3mRy^]

No ****ing way that i want more applications like steam on my computer. one is more than enough

 

[Vinnie_NL]

If they are just like Steam and we don't get bugs like we had with the release of HL2 I don't find it bad. And you shoould be able to close a program when you want it, not that it must be running in the background even if you don't want to play it. Because it would really slow your computer down if you have running 10 of those progs running. Maybe game developers should make a standard so we only need 1 application like Steam for all our games.

 

[The Mullinator]

I am quite happy about other game devs using a system something like steam as long as the system is built into the game instead of being a stand-alone program like Steam.

I am alright having one stand-alone steam program on my comp but having more than one would just get annoying when it would come to having to switch back and forth between which one I would want running.

 

[RichGuk]

Well you only need the internet to active your HL2 copy? So they could make programs that only need to be run once to activate it which would save you from having to run lots of these types of applications all the time.

Rich

 

[pixartist]

if a< game has adware in that system i wont buy it...

 

[The Dark Elf]

If all the games in the future used steam, Valve would make some money and fix the bugs and we'd only need one app not thousands, cause it wont happen, people WILL just get cracks then and THAT many people, nobody is gonna be able to stop it without stopping making games.. its like the UK ID card thing, good idea on paper but in practice you just know nobody is really gonna bother with it

 

[Moto]

I love Steam. I think it's one of the greatest ideas in P.C gaming. It has never once given me a single problem, never. On top of that, Valve hasn't stooped to putting advertisements on Steam. Steam is completely clean of adverts from other companies, they only sometimes advertise for Valve games. Also, it automatically patches my games very often, has it's own very good server browser, cuts down on piracy, has a friends system, news system, and even its own personal settings menu. It's great.

Also, when I purchased the Silver package of H.alf-Life 2, C.ounter-Strike: Source was immediately working on my computer, it took like 30 seconds to get it started and get me playing. When H.alf-Life 2 came out at 12:01 PST on November 16th, I was playing it within 3 minutes - no joke.

 

[Chris D]

I'd be happy if developers licenced the Steam platform.

 

[The Mullinator]

I'd be happy if developers licenced the Steam platform.

Ya that is what I would prefer too.

 

[Chris D]

If all the games in the future used steam, Valve would make some money and fix the bugs and we'd only need one app not thousands, cause it wont happen, people WILL just get cracks then and THAT many people, nobody is gonna be able to stop it without stopping making games.. its like the UK ID card thing, good idea on paper but in practice you just know nobody is really gonna bother with it

Oh things like the UK ID card will work if they adopt a zero tolerance policy. That's where this country fails though, they ease people in gently and hold back the consequences. Like with the mobile phone and driving thing. Supposed to be an on-the-spot fine. Didn't they just caution people caught doing it for the first few months? What's the point in that? Just slap them with the fine right from the start and that is what will make people respect the law.

Similar thing could apply here if other companies licence the Steam engine. I'd say Valve have adopted a zero tolerance policy in the respect that only 10 days after a game has released they have banned 20,000 pirates from playing the game. As long as the other companies do the same, I'd say there is a possibility that this is the most effective anti-piracy strategy for a long time. For now anyway...

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

I agree with Fenric.



I mean the elf...



(I still prefere Fenric for some reason....)

 

[Ecthe|ioN]

I'd be happy if developers licenced the Steam platform.

Yeah. That's definately the way to go.

 

[Vinnie_NL]

I'd be happy if developers licenced the Steam platform.

Yeah that would be cool. But I don't think companies like EA want to depend that much on other companies. I think they will develop their own Steam or they will buy it from Valve.

 

[Chris D]

Most people do except <strike>Fenric</strike> The Dark Elf

 

[doom3fanboy]

lol... valve makes it seem like 20k closed accounts make a difference. At the same time 100k+ people play the non-steam version..... Oh well....
Does piracy really hurt the industry that much? Have you seen any independant reports on that? And I don't mean those studies the industrie had someone do? You know like those "piracy costs the industry $1000 gazillion a month!!!!!111" studies.
Like the Musik industry. They had copy protection on their cds and the sales went down. They removed the copy protection and the sales went back up.
Did HL1 have any sort of copy protetion? Besides cdkey I mean? Probably one of the most pirated games ever but still one of the most sold games ever.
And if one day you actually do need a steam like system for every game then pc gaming is dead. Maybe us hardcore gamers will still buy it but the casual gamers won't.
Just open your eyes. Steam isn't the best thing ever that happened to us. If it was optional then no big deal. it is nice for finding servers and playing online. But steam being mandatory is just ridiculous....
But the fanboys will never believe me or the others who don't like steam.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

lol... valve makes it seem like 20k closed accounts make a difference. At the same time 100k+ people play the non-steam version..... Oh well....
Does piracy really hurt the industry that much? Have you seen any independant reports on that? And I don't mean those studies the industrie had someone do? You know like those "piracy costs the industry $1000 gazillion a month!!!!!111" studies.
Like the Musik industry. They had copy protection on their cds and the sales went down. They removed the copy protection and the sales went back up.
Did HL1 have any sort of copy protetion? Besides cdkey I mean? Probably one of the most pirated games ever but still one of the most sold games ever.
And if one day you actually do need a steam like system for every game then pc gaming is dead. Maybe us hardcore gamers will still buy it but the casual gamers won't.
Just open your eyes. Steam isn't the best thing ever that happened to us. If it was optional then no big deal. it is nice for finding servers and playing online. But steam being mandatory is just ridiculous....
But the fanboys will never believe me or the others who don't like steam.

Erm... yeah. Well I kinda don't know for sure what the affects are gona be...


But the industry has allmost allways had waraz hampering it. We can't really predict how many sales valve and vivendi miss out due to piracy.

So yeah.. I think any stance against it is good. Especially when taken on by a company who can admitadly afford to take some chances in this area and get away with it... kinda.



Basically we have nothing to loose and neither does the industry. We will have to wait to see what affect it actually has on the large scale in the future.




And hey, I don't copy my games. So it doesnt affect me in any way

 

[urban]

"Some of the enemies in Half-Life 2 are formidable."

lol what a ridiculous thing to say

 

[Chris D]

20,000 copies of Half-Life 2 = $1,000,000 revenue. That is a lot of money.

 

[The Mullinator]

lol... valve makes it seem like 20k closed accounts make a difference. At the same time 100k+ people play the non-steam version..... Oh well....
Does piracy really hurt the industry that much? Have you seen any independant reports on that? And I don't mean those studies the industrie had someone do? You know like those "piracy costs the industry $1000 gazillion a month!!!!!111" studies.
Like the Musik industry. They had copy protection on their cds and the sales went down. They removed the copy protection and the sales went back up.
Did HL1 have any sort of copy protetion? Besides cdkey I mean? Probably one of the most pirated games ever but still one of the most sold games ever.
And if one day you actually do need a steam like system for every game then pc gaming is dead. Maybe us hardcore gamers will still buy it but the casual gamers won't.
Just open your eyes. Steam isn't the best thing ever that happened to us. If it was optional then no big deal. it is nice for finding servers and playing online. But steam being mandatory is just ridiculous....
But the fanboys will never believe me or the others who don't like steam.

It is just kind of common sense that piracy hurts the industry. If you think that people who pirate a game are likely to end up buying it in the future then you really need to start thinking yourself.

I can garantee that the majority of warez kiddies don't pay enough attention to how HL2 can be copied to realize that there is even a way of playing HL2 without using Steam. In that case banning 20000 accounts will make a difference. The fact is alot of those people who had their accounts banned probably didn't even bother to create another account specifically for pirating HL2, and even if they did then the fact is they will only be able to play HL2 single player. Once the mods start getting released (mods will most likely be HL2's greatest strength) then I am sure people who warez will have a much harder time trying to play then legitimate users.

Also stop saying Steam sucks like its the absolute truth. It is simply your opinion, it is not my opinion. In my opinion Steam is very good, I have had zero problems with it and I really enjoy it. Am I a Valve fan-boy for saying that? Probably just as much a Valve fanboy as you are an anti-Valve fanboy.

 

[DuB]

Well, good that Steam is'nt riddled with adverts...
At first I was'nt happy with steam. But one bonus it has for me (someone who does'nt have that much time on his hands anymore) is that I don't have to surf a bunch of sites to find the update I may need - or even play without knowing of an up-date - just because I have'nt bothered/had the time to see if there is an up-date.
Steam is OK with me - as it provides me with a usefull service... not sure if I'd really like to see more of my games using a similar system...

 

[Dipso]

hm... wasnt this exacly the kind of stuff i was talking about yesterday?

 

[Kadayi]

The industry is probably going to sit and watch for a bit longer before they make any decisions about steam or developing similar/rival systems. I think Valve would hope that other developers might eventually want to use it as a distribution platform for sales, however I would suspect that many probably couldn't entertain such an idea with present projects because of existing publishing deals.

 

[gchriste]

The only thing I think steam could do better is give you the option of applying patches selectively. I was in a DoD war last night and when I did a reboot, due to performance issues, it downloaded an update. i had to wait for this before I could get back into the war. having a do you want to install this patch now would be handy.

 

[doom3fanboy]

It is just kind of common sense that piracy hurts the industry. If you think that people who pirate a game are likely to end up buying it in the future then you really need to start thinking yourself.

There are people who download a game, try it and buy it, so yes. that happens. Most people might just download and not buy though. Just companies obsessed with anti piracy meassures piss off a lot of honest customers today, which is IMO the wrong way.

I can garantee that the majority of warez kiddies don't pay enough attention to how HL2 can be copied to realize that there is even a way of playing HL2 without using Steam.

Don't underestimate them warez kiddies.

Also stop saying Steam sucks like its the absolute truth. It is simply your opinion, it is not my opinion. In my opinion Steam is very good, I have had zero problems with it and I really enjoy it. Am I a Valve fan-boy for saying that? Probably just as much a Valve fanboy as you are an anti-Valve fanboy.

No, a Valve fanboy would have told me to f... off and die. (Steampowered forums anyone?) I am not here to tell people they shouldn't use steam if they like it. But steam should as I said be an option. There are just to many problems with steam that a casual gamer doesn't want to be bothered with.

I guess the comments of a News articel isn't the right place to discuss this But then again a forum thread would be flooded by fanboys of both sides :/

 

[SubKamran]

As much as I like Steam, I don't want anymore Steam-type apps. Sorry.

 

[electronic squid]

I find it increadably hilarious that most people here actualy want third party adware and spyware installed all over their system, Its greedy and its going to ruin gaming

 

[The Mullinator]

I find it increadably hilarious that most people here actualy want third party adware and spyware installed all over their system, Its greedy and its going to ruin gaming

err... How is it adware and spyware? It has never shown me ads aside from Valve games and its only in Steam windows I already had open and I know it isn't spyware because I have the option of voluntarily giving Valve my hardware specifications every once in awhile. If they didn't bother having those hardware surveys and they still got hardware information then maybe I could call it spyware.

 

[DrkBlueXG]

I personally don't like steam because I would like to be able to have a NO-CD crack so I won't have to put in my cd everytime I play. Piracy doesn't really hurt the gaming community anyway because most people don't realize that you can download games off the internet yet like music. I have downloaded games\apps off the internet before (and I still do) but most of the games I download I am mostly wanting to play multiplayer on the internet and it won't let me so I end up buying a copy anyways. But since Half-Life2's release was mostly a single-player experience....I can understand the concern and protection.
If I lost anybody with my run-on sentences and if I contradicted myself somewhere along the lines then sorry.
bottom line: I can live with steam for now, but piracy isn't a major concern for the gaming industry as of right now.

 

[Death.Trap]

I don't have a problem with steam on my comp. I like being able to download games instead of having to go to the store to get one. I leave steam on all day. Why not? And what's this guy talking about, "batter people with adverts." I never get any adverts from steam.

 

[Hellbound]

I don't have to like Steam, i just use it the right way... so i have no complaints.

 

[The Warlock]

I, personally, can't stand Steam. The only reason I put up with it is because Valve's games are so fan-****ing-tastic. And a lot of people feel the same way.

Trust me, if some second-rate developer (and compared to Valve, that's just about anyone) tried something like this, they'd lose a lot of support.

 

[electronic squid]

I put up with steam, but other companies are going to copy it, and like other game installers...included things like adware and spyware.

Yes, valve "raised the bar", but not in the way you would like to think.

 

[Chris D]

I put up with steam, but other companies are going to copy it, and like other game installers...included things like adware and spyware.

Yes, valve "raised the bar", but not in the way you would like to think.

Steam does not install spyware or adware. Fact.

 

[Lancaster Silk]

I think there would have been a lot less illegal versions of the game distributed if Valve had released a demo. I think people just wanted to know what they were going to get, since all that had been revealed were sample videos. I mean back in HL 1 I remember Uplink was pretty helpful for some.

 

[electronic squid]

I didnt say steam does, im saying other companies will when they create their own compulsory "steam" delivery system.

 

[Chris D]

I think there would have been a lot less illegal versions of the game distributed if Valve had released a demo. I think people just wanted to know what they were going to get, since all that had been revealed were sample videos. I mean back in HL 1 I remember Uplink was pretty helpful for some.

That was released several months after Half-Life was released.

 

[electronic squid]

I agree with the demo thing, it used to be a normal thing for developers to do but its a practice thats all but vanished

 

[The Warlock]

I think there would have been a lot less illegal versions of the game distributed if Valve had released a demo. I think people just wanted to know what they were going to get, since all that had been revealed were sample videos. I mean back in HL 1 I remember Uplink was pretty helpful for some.

Probably. The thing is, then they say "well, I'm just trying it out" and then never get around to buying it.

I think that Valve could have gotten around to putting together some kind of demo during all those years.

 

[C-O-N-Spiracy]

I like steam, but i'll be damn if were gonna need internet connection just to play computer games from now on..

What if i travel with a laptop or somethin? Im gonna wanna play a game.. but i couldnt cuz net would be required. I mean you could with wireless or somethin.. but if im going to buy a game, i want to pay to play it and not worry bout payin for somethin else just to use it.