Will steam help pirate hl2!

[Cole]

MTW there is no 100% total proof that it is CSS there is no exact qutoe saying "Cs:S is the only HL2 multiplayer" We've heard its the only multiplayer port that comes with it but nothing more.S

Also steam will not hel pirate.
It can be pirated but it will not help pirate.
I mean if your just in it for the singleplayer then whats the diffrence if valve never made steam and i just installed hl2 on two diffrent comps? It dosn't help pirate it.. but yes it can be pirated.

Blizzard has a decent patching system. All files are stored in a .mpq file, like a .pak file and they can simply replace whatever files they want in them.
Though the creators of battle.net and most people from sc and d1 have moved on to form "Arenanet" creators of guild wars. Which battle.net should really help them with patchs and the netcode itself because games like starcraft n wc3 have pretty good netcodes.

 

[aeroripper]

No, see, Grey Fox you aren't in the warez know. A game CD comes with built-in protection. Once that protection has been broken, you can burn the CD as much as you want. BUT, the game checks for that protection when starting up. If it isn't there, you won't be able to play. Thus the need for no-cd cracks. That is a hack.

I wonder if vivendi will add protection on it since steam "sorta-kinda" acts as verification with the cd-key....

 

[Cole]

No, see, Grey Fox you aren't in the warez know. A game CD comes with built-in protection. Once that protection has been broken, you can burn the CD as much as you want. BUT, the game checks for that protection when starting up. If it isn't there, you won't be able to play. Thus the need for no-cd cracks. That is a hack.

Now what about using Alchohol 120%? I play:
Diablo, Brood War, Wc3 TFT, D2, Empire Earth, Hitman 2, Morrowind, Cod(Single Player), Rise of Nations Expansion all off my hard drive.....
I do not use any cd cracks.
You can simply burn these to a cd(Using Alchohol 120%) and it would detect them as the same way as it would off of the hard drive. Of course giving the cd out is illegal(Not illegal for backups).
I only do this so less cd scratching and no cd swaping.

 

[ytinupmi]

tbh i expect, pretty soon after release, someone will release a program that can use all the preload files to run single player halflife2

this would be a tiny program in comparison with the full game, so it will be easily distributed. so yes, steam will make it much easier to pirate. imo.

no, the preloaded files are encrypted until you purchase the game, it's much easier for a group to just release a copy of the game from a retail box. why **** around with encrypted preload files when you can just crack the protection on the retail boxed copy and release that?

 

[DarkSonic]

Now what about using Alchohol 120%? I play:
Diablo, Brood War, Wc3 TFT, D2, Empire Earth, Hitman 2, Morrowind, Cod(Single Player), Rise of Nations Expansion all off my hard drive.....
I do not use any cd cracks.
You can simply burn these to a cd(Using Alchohol 120%) and it would detect them as the same way as it would off of the hard drive. Of course giving the cd out is illegal(Not illegal for backups).
I only do this so less cd scratching and no cd swaping.

I have no idea why. I just tried to play Hitman 2 without a no-cd crack applied with my burned version, and it wouldn't start. So, I don't know.

 

[poseyjmac]

no, the preloaded files are encrypted until you purchase the game, it's much easier for a group to just release a copy of the game from a retail box. why **** around with encrypted preload files when you can just crack the protection on the retail boxed copy and release that?

unless those files are encrypted as well, and it requires steam to activate it. there aren't many people that have good enough computers to play hl2 + dont have any sort of internet connection anyway.

 

[ytinupmi]

unless those files are encrypted as well, and it requires steam to activate it. there aren't many people that have good enough computers to play hl2 + dont have any sort of internet connection anyway.

well they didn't do that with CS:CZ. i really doubt they'll do it for hl2. chances are it's simply more trouble than it's worth.

 

[Chode]

Varsity, HL2 will be pirated. Full stop, end of story. The amount of hype surronding it makes the idea of it not been pirated laughable.

 

[gokuguy]

Now what about using Alchohol 120%? I play:
Diablo, Brood War, Wc3 TFT, D2, Empire Earth, Hitman 2, Morrowind, Cod(Single Player), Rise of Nations Expansion all off my hard drive.....
I do not use any cd cracks.
You can simply burn these to a cd(Using Alchohol 120%) and it would detect them as the same way as it would off of the hard drive. Of course giving the cd out is illegal(Not illegal for backups).
I only do this so less cd scratching and no cd swaping.

I don't believe this works with games that are protected with Starforce 3, but I doubt Vivendi will use that, as it seems to cause more problems than it solves.

 

[[[LuCkY]]]

I really honestly believe almost everyone that would download the game, will end up purchasing it anyhow.

 

[czrsink]

So many people have preloaded it though, it virtually irons out the need to pirate it. Bear with me here...

Most people download games from newsgroups etc so that they can get to play it before anyone else, then mouth off about it on various forums about how lame it is or how 'awesome' it is.

Because of Steam, most people will have already downloaded it via the preload - all the files they need are there, and as soon as Valve say 'right, release HL2 to Steam users' they'll all rush to sign-up. They probably won't care at this stage about coughing up the £35 to buy it...if they're getting to play it before anyone else.

Let's face it, a good majority of people who download games often buy the full release, even if it's only so they can use the multiplayer elements of the game. And HL2 will ultimately be about multiplayer - although a superb single-player campaign is lined up, the longevity of the engine will be all about the multiplayer, and if a warez version won't give you multiplayer...then why would you get it?

 

[CyberPitz]

I personally don't know about steam...but for the CSS pirate, they send you the CSS directory, and you have to change a few things (a few commands here and there) and it will be able to play without you ACTUALLY using steam...it just uses the Steam interface, or something like that. I'm sure someone around will be able to crack this game and distribute it...it never fails, no matter how well of anti-pircacy it actually is darn crackers!

 

[Lanthanide]

I'm going to be pirating HL2 as soon as I can, and buying it once it hits the stores here, which could be 2-4 days after it's officially released.


And about the DAOC cd-key stealing - I just thought of something so blitheringly obvious, I'm surprised no game distributers have done it. Simply conceal CD-keys under silver scratchies. so if it's scratched off when you buy the game, you know it's been compromised. Then have something on the box saying "CD-key hidden under silver scratchie" and alert all game retailers to check the scratchie before accepting returns.

Ta-da, problem solved.

 

[retrofitter]

warez

As for the people who share the CD key - Most people would not give out their CD key. I sure won't. The very reason why HL was so successful was the multiplayer, so we can be sure that there will be HL2 multiplayer - I remember all the talk about the modability of the engine etc etc.

As for steam being used as the distribution method for pirated HL2 - Encryption methods are still good enough such that it takes years to crack, even then I think that each content server uses a different key for its content - you'd have to crack the content many times and distribute the key. So, you would assume that crackers that would attempt to steer people to a specific server which has a known key, however IP checks can be employed to verify the locality of the client... ETC

Ahh but you say, you can use a proxy of that specific locality to get around it, wait - someone now is bearing the traffic for unlicensed use: Back to distributed P2P we go!

On second thoughts, valve could just implement a rolling key or some sorts...

 

[PvtRyan]

i figure steam will make it alot easier to steal the game, but i guess it depends on where they decide to place the cd key.
if the cd key is on the out side of the jewel case, all you have to do is buy a copy of hte game, carefully slit the plastic seel open, and then enter the cdkey on the jewel case. now you have a 100% working copy of hl2 and cs:s sitting on your comp you can use any time. all you do now is close everything back up, make sure it looks brand new and un-opend, and return it.
i know it happend alot with DAOC. friend of mine bought and returned 3 copies before he finaly got a game that hadnt already been purchesd, verified, and returned.

People who do that should have their skin eaten away by flesheating insects after being dragged over sand paper, then get a salt bath and then should be thrown in hot boiling oil.

 

[Gray Fox]

Oh man, i actally meant something different, but it must be my explenation, I'm not that good at english , but I'm going to try ro explain it one more time, and please if anybody is confused say it i will go deeper in to the part that isn't clear.

Okay lets say I buy HL2, I install it and can play it trough steam, if I verified it online I do not have to use the CD(at least as far as I know), now I can still play hl2 with steam even when I'm not connected online, in the offline mode, and I still don't need the CD, atleast its this way with hl1.
Now say I go to a friends house and I download steam and type in my account and doewnload hl2 on taht pc, then i can play hl2 on that pc and i do not need to use the cd cause its attached to my account.
then I go home,and my friend turns his internet connection off but still has steam on his pc with hl2, now he can play hl2 on his computer via my account in offline mode, and at the same time so can I, and I can even go online, because his computer isn't online and so steam can't check that their are two people playing on the same account because he is not online, he is playing in steams offline mode.
So this is how multiple people can play hl2 at teh same time with the same copy, without hacks, and I know about hacks people, i download things with bittorrent to try then out, because I made some really stupid mistakes buying games that I didn't try first, one was doom3, I even made a tread here about it.

Please now will somebody please pay attention to what I'm saying, because most of the people here think I was talking about something else, and like I said if you do not understand something, say it please and i will go deeper in to it, like I said I'm dutch so I can make a lot of stupid mistakes in english.

 

[ytinupmi]

Oh man, i actally meant something different, but it must be my explenation, I'm not that good at english , but I'm going to try ro explain it one more time, and please if anybody is confused say it i will go deeper in to the part that isn't clear.

Okay lets say I buy HL2, I install it and can play it trough steam, if I verified it online I do not have to use the CD(at least as far as I know), now I can still play hl2 with steam even when I'm not connected online, in the offline mode, and I still don't need the CD, atleast its this way with hl1.
Now say I go to a friends house and I download steam and type in my account and doewnload hl2 on taht pc, then i can play hl2 on that pc and i do not need to use the cd cause its attached to my account.
then I go home,and my friend turns his internet connection off but still has steam on his pc with hl2, now he can play hl2 on his computer via my account in offline mode, and at the same time so can I, and I can even go online, because his computer isn't online and so steam can't check that their are two people playing on the same account because he is not online, he is playing in steams offline mode.
So this is how multiple people can play hl2 at teh same time with the same copy, without hacks, and I know about hacks people, i download things with bittorrent to try then out, because I made some really stupid mistakes buying games that I didn't try first, one was doom3, I even made a tread here about it.

Please now will somebody please pay attention to what I'm saying, because most of the people here think I was talking about something else, and like I said if you do not understand something, say it please and i will go deeper in to it, like I said I'm dutch so I can make a lot of stupid mistakes in english.

we don't know for sure until the game comes out, perhaps before going in to offline mode steam connects and verifies that the account isnt in use. we really don't know and until it's out it's just speculation.

 

[Dalamari]

Oh man, i actally meant something different, but it must be my explenation, I'm not that good at english , but I'm going to try ro explain it one more time, and please if anybody is confused say it i will go deeper in to the part that isn't clear.

Okay lets say I buy HL2, I install it and can play it trough steam, if I verified it online I do not have to use the CD(at least as far as I know), now I can still play hl2 with steam even when I'm not connected online, in the offline mode, and I still don't need the CD, atleast its this way with hl1.
Now say I go to a friends house and I download steam and type in my account and doewnload hl2 on taht pc, then i can play hl2 on that pc and i do not need to use the cd cause its attached to my account.
then I go home,and my friend turns his internet connection off but still has steam on his pc with hl2, now he can play hl2 on his computer via my account in offline mode, and at the same time so can I, and I can even go online, because his computer isn't online and so steam can't check that their are two people playing on the same account because he is not online, he is playing in steams offline mode.
So this is how multiple people can play hl2 at teh same time with the same copy, without hacks, and I know about hacks people, i download things with bittorrent to try then out, because I made some really stupid mistakes buying games that I didn't try first, one was doom3, I even made a tread here about it.

Please now will somebody please pay attention to what I'm saying, because most of the people here think I was talking about something else, and like I said if you do not understand something, say it please and i will go deeper in to it, like I said I'm dutch so I can make a lot of stupid mistakes in english.

You have to connect to steam to play HL2 just like with any other single player game, so only one person will be able to play it at a time.

 

[Lanthanide]

So you are saying it is impossible to play Half Life 2 on a computer without an internet connection?

I've never seen "internet connection" listed in the minimum requirements.

 

[goomyman]

yes it would be easy to share the game with a friend for offline mode. But then your friend would have complete access to your steam account and you risk him cheating and getting you banned for a year, or minimally playing online when you want to be online ( 1 account online at a time ). This makes it impossible for wide spread hacking.

 

[Gray Fox]

Yup goomyman you are completely right, so you must have then only very trusting friends, but nhen again if they use ilegal software they might not be that good, but I was just wondering you know, becaus I can't beliefe valve could have overlooked it. But then again this way some people who play it ilegally will like it so much that they will buy it legally to play online, and might be a cheap way to introduce people to hl2. because as far as I know there won't be any demo, will there
But its so cool people finally understud what I was trying to say

 

[Mountain Man]

tbh i expect, pretty soon after release, someone will release a program that can use all the preload files to run single player halflife2

This is highly unlikely as the cache files are encrypted and likely uncrackable with resources available to the average warez kiddie.

Furthermore, I believe that Steam's offline mode will only be available to those with a CD copy as it will simply use the CD instead of Steam to authenticate the game.

 

[Gray Fox]

Hmm Mountain Man, that might be true, but the steam version is reported to be at the same cost as the retail, so wouldn't people who used steam to purchase HL2 be screwed, and isn't that what valve would try to avoid, but it so far the most reasonable theory, they might think that people who have downloaded it have dsl or cable and can be constantly online.

 

[Wowbagger]

IMO it will probably DEcrease the warezing.

Lets face it, the fastest distribution of games has been the Warez scene.
People played Doom3 here in Europe 1-2 days before the US release date and 2 WEEKS before the Europe release date.

I have often thought that "damn it would be nice to DL this warez and buy a CD-Key from ID, Valve or Epic". Faster for sure and hopefully much cheaper.

Rest assured that HL2 will be available on all the various warez channels THE SAME DAY its released.

I think Valves ideas are genious and its good that they think ahead instead of sticking their heads in the sand like the music industry etc.

Bottom line: Download it whatever way you want but youll have to pay to play.

 

[Jakeic]

You didn't need the CD to play HL, so if one person bought the game everyone he knew could play the single player for free.

Crazy isn't it.

 

[Varsity]

they did not 'fail' with css at all. i know loads of people with the beta. granted they cant play it online, but what percentage of people are going to care about multiplayer hl2? i bet its alot lower than you might imagine.

As I said, offline will be cracked.

me and my bro log on to the same account on diffrent computers and play, we just cant go into the same server.

Interesting, as you shouldn't be able to do that...

Varsity, HL2 will be pirated. Full stop, end of story. The amount of hype surronding it makes the idea of it not been pirated laughable.

Read the last paragraph.

 

[SilentKilla]

I'm going to be pirating HL2 as soon as I can, and buying it once it hits the stores here, which could be 2-4 days after it's officially released.


And about the DAOC cd-key stealing - I just thought of something so blitheringly obvious, I'm surprised no game distributers have done it. Simply conceal CD-keys under silver scratchies. so if it's scratched off when you buy the game, you know it's been compromised. Then have something on the box saying "CD-key hidden under silver scratchie" and alert all game retailers to check the scratchie before accepting returns.

Ta-da, problem solved.

Thats a good idea, like a lottery ticket.

 

[exoeight]

someone said something like...

"...never seen an internet connection required..."

how about FFXI or City of Heroes?
they require internet connection and say so.

although it won't be the case for hl2.

valve isn't stupid, they are professional developers, they don't lack common sense, just wait and see.

 

[Kamakazie]

You didn't need the CD to play HL, so if one person bought the game everyone he knew could play the single player for free.

Crazy isn't it.

not with my copy you couldn't.
you had to have the CD to play.

 

[Kamakazie]

someone said something like...

"...never seen an internet connection required..."

how about FFXI or City of Heroes?
they require internet connection and say so.

i think he meant hes never seen it on any of the HL2 minimum specs.

I've heard that HL2 can be played with steam offline.... which would suggest that you can do whatever Gray Fox was asking. If you dont need the net to play HL2 if you have bought the CD then thats gonna mean no registration or activation with Steam and thus the warez will be rife with No CD cracks all around.

If however they make a net connection a requirement and the CD key needs to be registered and tied to a Steam account (even if you can play online) its gonna make piracy very difficult untill someone cracks HL2 so its fooled in to thinking it has verification from the steam netowrk.

Ofcourse then inbuilt in to the code could be a verification expiration date which would then require another encrypted code (which matches one encrypted into HL2, which could be updated on connection to steam and chopped and changed) to play 48 hours later and so on and so forth.

It not gonna be uncrackable but i bet with enough thought and if a net connection for activations and regitration is REQUIRED, that it could be stupidly difficult to play even SP HL2 without paying for it.

No system is full proof though..... well ive yet to hear of one, my thoughts could make it pretty tough though if they were implimentable. 256kb Encryptions gonna take years to crack... by which time the code would have changed and thus all your work made rendundant..... atleast thats the thinking behind what i wrote.

 

[John Romero]

the single player version will be warez. bottom line always as been always will. the multiplayer with cd-key check is impossible to get past.


I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E


so go take your long overdue naps kiddies and stop worrying about this.

 

[Orcone101]

If I need an internet connection and I need to use Steam to play HL2, I will not buy the game.

 

[kin83]

If I need an internet connection and I need to use Steam to play HL2, I will not buy the game.

There is a singleplayer only version for those without internet access/hate Steam. I don't know if it will be available at release though.

 

[Cole]

The singleplayer version will probably ship with steam but an updated steam that is updated nuf to support offline.
(Meaning i could disconnect my 56k right now and get on steam and play games, called offline mode).