BBC's Take on Half-Life 2 Pirates

[guise]

the article is pretty much saying that steam is cool...

the BBC just are obliged to provide balance in any news they provide so as not to seem biased... so they had to put in some "bad stuff"

 

[HybridM]

Steam could be good, but like with anything that hasn't been done before there are teething problems. You'll probably find that there ends up being two or three major Steam type programs, and developers pick one (or all) to distribute their game on. Probably end up being Steam Vs. EA's program or something.

Personally if more were going to appear I would like them to come from companies not involved in developing games. They'd concentrate more on it if it was their only source of income.

 

[Grimkeeper]

I personally do not like steam. I think the idea is kinda sound but once you verify it should be over.
I have had so many problems since half-life 2 was released its it riduculus.
First i could play, then it would not stop trying to verify and never make it through, and now that it's finally done with the validation ( 3 days).
It tells me game is not available (going on 5 days).
Without all the problems it would be very nice, which is the reason so many people like it they had no probs.
But, us unlucky few (yeah right, few) that have had probs, we hate it.

 

[Vinnie_NL]

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

lol what a ridiculous thing to say

LOL, when I read that I think of a Frenchman saying that with his French-English accent

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

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

With good reason. Games take a damn sight longer to make now than they did 5 years ago. Creating a demo prior to a game's release is not a trivial task, and it takes time away from the development of the actual game. Most companies tend to go for a demo after release when they have less critical work on.

 

[fredbass]

I'd like to say that first of all, I've had no problems with steam at all. I sympathise with those whose want to play games and aren't on line or don't have high speed internet access. But I can't imagine myself not having high speed connection with all the windows updates, software updates and patches etc.. needed to download.

And I'm not worried about ads etc.. coming with other steamtype programs cause it seems to me that I'll be able to block them with an adware/spyware nuker program that I would have, though I think it would be a good idea to have one universal system rather than many.

 

[Megacolon]

Steam is a steaming pile of crap.
And those saying that any move against piracy is a good thing....well, how about one that doesn't stop the pirates, and makes the app more difficult to use/causes problems for people that actually buy teh game, and scares people away from buying said app? is that a good thing? Well, that's steam.
The pirates aren't having any problem circumventing it, hundreds of thousands of completed (steam-free) downloads on BT attest to this. Sure, Valve claim to have disabled 20,000 accounts. But those are in direct relation to teh ATI voucher exploit mentioned elsewhere on these forums, and on the slashdot.org forums. True warezed versions contain no steam at all. There's no account to ban. Valve can't do a damn thing about it.
Meanwhile, people refuse to buy a game with an invasive form pf security.
So....teh same amount of copies pirated as there would have been without steam to bein with, PLUS prople refusing to buy the game = money lost, not saved.
Then figure in teh amount of rescources wasted to develop teh security to begin with. More lost money.
Those in favor of steam....you like the idea of martial law too? You really like having other people look over your shoulder making sure you're being a good boy/girl? Telling how how you're allowed to use something you paid good money for?
I don't. A lot of people don't. Valve is opening the door for exactly the kind of Nazi-state depicted in tehir game.
Ironic, eh?

 

[dartfrog298]

Steam is a steaming pile of crap.
And those saying that any move against piracy is a good thing....well, how about one that doesn't stop the pirates, and makes the app more difficult to use/causes problems for people that actually buy teh game, and scares people away from buying said app? is that a good thing? Well, that's steam.
The pirates aren't having any problem circumventing it, hundreds of thousands of completed (steam-free) downloads on BT attest to this. Sure, Valve claim to have disabled 20,000 accounts. But those are in direct relation to teh ATI voucher exploit mentioned elsewhere on these forums, and on the slashdot.org forums. True warezed versions contain no steam at all. There's no account to ban. Valve can't do a damn thing about it.
Meanwhile, people refuse to buy a game with an invasive form pf security.
So....teh same amount of copies pirated as there would have been without steam to bein with, PLUS prople refusing to buy the game = money lost, not saved.
Then figure in teh amount of rescources wasted to develop teh security to begin with. More lost money.
Those in favor of steam....you like the idea of martial law too? You really like having other people look over your shoulder making sure you're being a good boy/girl? Telling how how you're allowed to use something you paid good money for?
I don't. A lot of people don't. Valve is opening the door for exactly the kind of Nazi-state depicted in tehir game.
Ironic, eh?

I wholeheartedly agree with everything you have said. I just ordered the game today from gogamer.com. They have the dvd special ed for 59.99. Had I known about all this I would have never ordered it. Too bad it was already shipped out. If this is the wave of the future for gaming, I will go retro. I have a gazillion unplayed games that would take me a life time to play.

 

[Xamataca]

Sorry, I'm a ****ing warez boy, I've been, since 1993, playing pirated games, and buying them later... Damn!! I've even bought games that only lasted 15 minutes till I got bored... I have a pretty nice bookcase, with my original books, music, dvd's and games. "Every" from ID, VALVe, Bullfrog, MAXIS, BIOWARE, CYAN, DICE, some of Microsoft and some of Blizzard, ffs, I've even own games from Disney!!...
purchased before I tried them. Sorry, the problem is I'm not an hypocrite.

So, forget that about Steam being the "anti-warez weapon". It's not. It is a move on sales, it is a move on control. Nothing more, nothing less.
They enforce the Steam EULA up your ass. Take it with a happy smile (tho I can see, yeh it hurts, a tear in your eyes; VALVe never use lubricant)

 

[kingomar]

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.

No but we are definately looking at a similar approach at work Though it's all talk at the moment, let's see what happens!

(I work at EA)

 

[Megacolon]

No but we are definately looking at a similar approach at work Though it's all talk at the moment, let's see what happens!

(I work at EA)

Thanx for the warning. I'll be sure not to buy any EA games in teh future.

 

[Robinhood_01]

I'm not buying any more EA games after finding out how they treat their employees.

 

[Barnz]

yeah maybe if cheats cost valve money they might do something like ... I dunno.... Update VAC?