CONFIRMED (again): Internet needed for RETAIL HL2.

[M1RAG3]

This is somewhat of a major problem for me, being that my dorm at college currently has Steam completely blocked, (and every other game/service thinkable). Hopefully I can have that resolved so that I could play CS:S.

 

[electronic squid]

Jesus christ, now i cant play it on my laptop, or at work....most of the people here are completly missing the point, its not going to make a difference, the only thing thats stopping hl2 from being pirated now is the encryption.

I guess its the warez'd version for my laptop and work pc.

 

[Edcrab]

Bah, if only we could get this kind of support behind the 56k-stranded.

Netless wonders get all the sympathy they deserve, but there seem to be far more clueless idiots regarding the dialup/BB divide than there are towards those without any connection.

Who knows, Valve may come up with an alternate (hell, even a postal) registration system. I understood (and agreed with) connecting to Steam for the first time would demand a verificiation period, but for those who want to ignore Steam and online play it does seem increasingly... odd to enforce it's use. Presumably this is why single-player only (now scrapped) packages were even considered. Finally something major that the WON platform has over Steam.

 

[Expansion Pack]

Just like to pat Valve on the back and say well done.......In one fell swoop you have turned what would have been a mountian of legitimate HL/HL2 fans away who would have happly paid their hard earned money for a copy of HL2...as they did with HL,OF,Blue shift,Gunman chronicles,CSZ......No doubt they will now be popping down to their nearest bootsale or Outdoor market to purchase a cracked copy of HL2 a week after its released........Either because they don't have a internet connection,don't want to use or be forced to use Steam or just plain want a copy of HL2 which they can play without having to ask permission first after paying for it....

Well done Valve...... A utterly stupendous move on your part........... :frown:

 

[Valve_Assassin]

I imagine VU tech support will be inundated with angry customers come nov. 16. but that's just a guess

 

[Fishlore]

I have a broadband internet connection. If a connection to Steam is required for SP I won't buy it. It's that simple to me. Valve may be arrogant enough to think they can change things. Well I'm stubborn enough to never, ever buy any product from Valve ever again in my life.

Is this required connectivity 100% etched in stone? Is there a definitive link to a Valve employee stating you are required to connect to Steam for singleplayer? Or is this all heresay?

 

[Homercidal]

Seems to me, over a year ago, when I bought my video card, that Vavle stated you could play the game without Steam, if you owned the CDs.

So now, I find out that I have to have an Internet connection just to activate the game. That wasn't part of the requirements when I purchased the game.

Suckers who bought it through ATI now have to connect to the net and activate via Steam. I guess that's one way of getting people signed up!

 

[Solver]

Yeah, I also don't like Steam. I'm seriously considering getting a no-Steam hack before playing anyway.

And yup... I used to think that people would be happy, as HL2 requirements are lower than those of Doom3. Then it turns out that suddenly, AFTER many people bought the game, the requirements are changed - Internet connection, Steam account and a DVD drive suddenly make it on the list.

 

[Dirtball]

Yeah, I also don't like Steam. I'm seriously considering getting a no-Steam hack before playing anyway.

And yup... I used to think that people would be happy, as HL2 requirements are lower than those of Doom3. Then it turns out that suddenly, AFTER many people bought the game, the requirements are changed - Internet connection, Steam account and a DVD drive suddenly make it on the list.

you don't have to have a dvd drive.

 

[Solver]

DVD drive for retail... that's what people are talking about all day, HL2 being DVD only.

 

[Homercidal]

I believe the European version is DVD only, according to Vavle.

 

[Tzon]

If it's true that you can only install/play it on one single PC it means we have no resale value with the product at all. Can't change it with your friend or sale it to the kid next door.
Is there a new trend starting where we "borrow" the game for price (what was before a normal games price) from the company and then left with the thing eternity?

I don't like that.

It's ok with the OS (barely) where the PC go there the OS go. But with games i would like to know that it has some resale value.
I may keep it for my grandchild (to give him some laughs in the future about a game witch had the biggest hype ever) but i might not like it and want to sell it. Now it is impossible.

I may borrow it from you Valve, but mutch, mutch humble price.

 

[Homercidal]

Well, if you sell it to the kid next door, give him the password and then he can change it when he logs in. From what I hear, you can play it at your friends house if he has a connection that you can authenticate from. Just log into steam and play.

It might be hard on Ebay though, to make sure you get a working password form someone selling it.

 

[grumpycrab]

Not from Valve this time, but another confirmation that HL2 RETAIL requires an Internet conenction to register and play the game. The source? VU tech support, UK. As you can see (from the Re: Re it took a couple of goes to get the info out of them.
--
Grumps

From: [email protected]
To: my email address removed
Subject: Re: Re: Half Life 2 Presale Enquiry
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 17:42:10 +0100

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your inquiry...

You will need an Internet connection to register and play the game.
We are just tech.support here we cannot give you any information on game releases, game expansions or release dates. For Informations please have a look on the respective homepages or on www.vu-games.com.

Sincerely yours,

Vivendi Universal Games / Support-Team

P.S. In order to be able to comprehend what has already been sorted out, please leave previous emails attached in further communications.
Ticket-No.: 573459

 

[Tzon]

Once or every time we play?

Steam account and log in every time that i play single player game sounds a little bit too much.

 

[Dirtball]

Once or every time we play?

Steam account and log in every time that i play single player game sounds a little bit too much.

just once...on install. Then you run steam in offline mode.

 

[Solver]

Still need to run Steam apparently to play, which is already bad. I don't want that running, and not especially when it takes up 20+ MB of RAM for no good reason.

 

[Valve_Assassin]

The (little)thing that bugs me(as well), steam can be a resource hog, why require it to run along side your brand new system pushing game?

edit: heh, I should READ posts firts Solver pointed this out just above me, and I'm sure many have before

 

[CR0M]

Another thing I'm curious about is exactly what fields will be required when 'authenticating'. If it just means typing in a code number, then ignore the rest of my post.

but...

I suspect one of the main reasons for the Steam thing is to gather data.
Data gathering is big money, and anyone who has signed up to any site is submitting data about themselves which is used to the advantage of the site owners for spam mail (persistent advertising), or sold on to data gathering companies. Anything other than a serial number you are forced to enter about yourself, your home, or your machine, will be used to make money for Valve. I'm sure they're aware that it's illegal to extort personal information from people by means of blackmail (give us your details or we don't let you play that game you just paid for) so I'm hoping this scenario is unlikely. But then you never know with corporates.

If anyone knows exactly what fields will be required in the authentification form, please let me know,

ta

 

[Varsity]

Authentication form? You enter your CD Key (if you have one) and play the game - that's it. Once you're in the main menu you're validated.

 

[CR0M]

Is that speculation or do you know this for sure? Sorry to doubt, but there is an awful lot of guesswork going on in this forum these days

 

[Varsity]

That's how it works for every other game on Steam, CSS included. A 'form' has never been mentioned, anywhere.

 

[Yombi]

Is that speculation or do you know this for sure? Sorry to doubt, but there is an awful lot of guesswork going on in this forum these days

guess work has been going on in all hl2 forums for the past year

 

[Operator]

Little off topic here but what is/was Yombi?

 

[Kamakazie]

So how am I supposed to install this on my brothers computer? hes not conneced to the internet, I cant connect him to the internet because my parents wont allow it. Oh well, its going to be cracked the day after release anyway. Just another stupid inconvenience to the paying customer, just like those ****ing useless and annoying CD checks.

how about getting him to bring his box to your room, installing your modem, connecting to the net, activating and then get him to **** off back to his room to play on his now activated version of HL2.

shit sake, its not that hard.
i'm in Uni accomodation, if i can't get steam to work then booohooo i'll have to find some other way. Either by asking the network admins to allow Steam through the proxy/firewall or by going to someones house that has a net connection and activating it on there.
Also can you not get a friend to login to your steam account on his computer and activating you cd-key there somehow?? i had heard activationg was tied to your steam account rather than your computer/ip somewhere.

As for it being uncrackable... it probably won't be but i can't see how its that hard to make something pretty much uncrackable. Couldn't activationg codes and such like use 512kb encryption and such like to go both to and from the game and stored in encrypted game files which only that certain computer can un-encrypt. Make it work like SSL.... i haven't heard of anyone able to crack 512kb encryption that quickly....?!?
comments on the plausability of this sorta thing welcome.

 

[Yombi]

Little off topic here but what is/was Yombi?

I am Yombi.

EDIT: If you can, pm me if u have questions (dono if new people can send PMs tho)

 

[Solver]

As for it being uncrackable... it probably won't be but i can't see how its that hard to make something pretty much uncrackable. Couldn't activationg codes and such like use 512kb encryption and such like to go both to and from the game and stored in encrypted game files which only that certain computer can un-encrypt. Make it work like SSL.... i haven't heard of anyone able to crack 512kb encryption that quickly....?!?
comments on the plausability of this sorta thing welcome.

When data has been encrypted, it is decryptable with a key - one key. Therefore, if someone intercepts the key being used, it's public. Or otherwise - if one pirate buys the game and gets it decrypted, he can put the decrypted images on the net. That won't work...

 

[Dirtball]

Another thing I'm curious about is exactly what fields will be required when 'authenticating'. If it just means typing in a code number, then ignore the rest of my post.

but...

I suspect one of the main reasons for the Steam thing is to gather data.
Data gathering is big money, and anyone who has signed up to any site is submitting data about themselves which is used to the advantage of the site owners for spam mail (persistent advertising), or sold on to data gathering companies. Anything other than a serial number you are forced to enter about yourself, your home, or your machine, will be used to make money for Valve. I'm sure they're aware that it's illegal to extort personal information from people by means of blackmail (give us your details or we don't let you play that game you just paid for) so I'm hoping this scenario is unlikely. But then you never know with corporates.

If anyone knows exactly what fields will be required in the authentification form, please let me know,

ta

Check out valve's privacy policy...that shows what they will and will not sell or do. http://www.valvesoftware.com/privacy.htm

 

[Detharin]

This is a system requirement, if you dont meet the system requirements play something else.


You might as well be whining that you dont have the right video card, ram, or processer. Id much rather have to log in once to play, than try and find a CD everytime i want to play. Its pretty obvious that CD key protection is failing, this may, or may not, be a step in the right direction. We will see.

 

[Edcrab]

Varsity: I dunno, but I suspect HL2's validation might be reasonably more advanced. Clearly it'll involve a CD key, but presumably extra enabling content will also have to be downloaded, otherwise why couldn't they just do it over the phone?

Curiouser and curiouser...

 

[flo_Orian]

I dont care. I have internet. Do you have internet? Really? Okay, why should we bother then?

 

[flupke]

This really sucks. Then i need to get my dvd drive back in this old shitty pc downstairs. All that for a GOTY. pfuh

 

[Edcrab]

It's not just those with no Internet access at all- I've got a friend who's currently at college. He has a sattellite connection (which is useless for gaming, except Dawn of War for some reason) but which Steam happens to hate intensely (he just can't make the damn thing update for any great length of time).

He'll be able to verify his copy, it's just that for him and many like him it'll be a) time consuming and b) ultimately unnecessary.

The issue isn't so much if we're bothered (because, in simple, honest selfishness, I don't care as it won't effect me in the slightest), but what good it'll do Valve in the long run. Marginally better security- check. More pissed off customers- check...

 

[Valve_Assassin]

I think, because most people won't read all the way throught his thread (I know I wouldn't) it's time for a summary of the points against internet authorization:

Internet authorization theoretically keeps people from using burnt copies of the game, correct? But we are well aware that the game will be cracked, and fast. So if you have an unauthorized copy AND internet, you'll be able to play. Or, if you don't want to buy it at all and still play, that'll be an option too if you have internet, warez are easy to come by. If you happen to live in Europe (particularly east europe apparently) and don't have a DVD drive and/or internet connection, it sounds like it's rather easy to go to an actual shop that sells pirated copies.

so to summarize the summary: Internet validation prevents only one group of people from playing, legitamate customers with no internet access or who are stuck behind a nasty firewall (like uni students).

If you'd care to tell me how steam validation prevents piracy, please go right ahead.

I'd say collectively this forum has probably put more thought into this validation process than valve and vivendi universal have together.

 

[wilka91]

Once the game is activated, you can burn it on a DVD with STEAM and never activate again!

 

[eeba]

"You might as well be whining that you dont have the right video card, ram, or processer."

Those are usually needed to play the game. A net connection, on the other hand, shouldn't be needed to play a single player game.

 

[eeba]

I dont care. I have internet. Do you have internet? Really? Okay, why should we bother then?

My main concern is that I would like to own this game. This way I won't exactly feel that. All I'll have is a copy that is useless in itself. Couldn't take it with me to a deserted island...

 

[CypherZero]

Now I'm really not sure what to do.

For the next year I'm living in university halls. This means I can access the internet but literally everything apart from text and pictures on websites is blocked. This means I can't get online with steam to register the game.

So, I'm utterly screwed, aren't I. No HL2 goodness for me it would seem.

Be grateful. :frown:

 

[RussianEmpire]

i kinda dont give a shit I got a fiber optic cable
it costs a bunch of money in the mother land LOL

 

[CR0M]

That's how it works for every other game on Steam, CSS included. A 'form' has never been mentioned, anywhere.

Neither was a compulsory online authorisation for single player, until relatively recently.
No retail game has been released as yet that requires online auth to compare with, and Valves track record of gradually moving the goalposts further and further away doesn't exactly inspire confidence so I still have my doubts.
Thanx for the feedback tho.

I'd say collectively this forum has probably put more thought into this validation process than valve and vivendi universal have together.

I dont care. I have internet. Do you have internet? Really? Okay, why should we bother then?

Because we are a civilised society apparently. You on the other hand can go back to your cave, rub sticks together, and fart onto the resulting flame.

Unless of course you were being sarcastic... in which case, huzzah - sarcasm wins. Boosh.