All they have to do is take a picture of the CD and send it to Valve, and they fix the problem.

[edit]Oops, I thought you were talking about owners of the original HL having trouble with Steam.

I agree with Wolfy.

Down there.

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Although I can understand the frustration of the previously-uninformed buyer of Half-Life 2 off the shelf, the blame can not be laid at the feet of Valve. The majority of the blame is to be placed at the feet of the vendors, who sold the game before it was supposed to be sold, while a smaller percentage of the blame can be placed at the feet of Vivendi for being all-around jackasses.

Not all of us share your what's-in-it-for-me/look-out-for-number-one mindset. Some view it as stealing and thus are morally opposed to it. *shrugs*



So wait... you are pro-priracy because you don't care about others? Or because you are fighting the man? Or a little of both?

But what if you told your client that you wouldnt give him the goods until the later date. Technically the "goods" aka Half Life 2 havent even came out yet. So its not anyone except the stores fault that people cant play their games.

Copyright infringement is not theft. Here's why:

Theft = A CRIME
Copyright Infringement = NOT A CRIME

(at least, in most cases. The corporations convinced the US government to make certain cases of copyright infringement a crime, because it's really in our best interests (which is what a government is for, and all)... And now it's going to be forced on the rest of the world through free trade agreements)

This does not make copyright infringement acceptable and all, but it's nothing like what the name "piracy" implies.

Frankly, I have no problem with downloading music; if it's music I like, I'll buy a CD. If not, I won't listen to it. This is basically what radio is, if radio ever played decent music.

Softwar is a different issue. I will not pirate a game I can buy. However, this is an industry where anything released more than three years ago effectively does not exist. Go into a video store, and you can get Citizen Kane, Dr. Strangelove, Brazil, and King Arthur. Go into a games store, and nothing existed before 2001. It's pathetic that I'm prevented from playing Police Quest 1 legally; I can't buy it, and I can't download it (legally).

I still have the original 5¼" floppies for King's Quest 1 and 2, as well as Space Quest II and III and also Police Quest.

Sierra rocked back then. :p

It's just silly to say "technically hl2 isn't out yet" when you can go to the store and buy the game! Obviously it's "out." And the nice thing about selling a service is that you can choose not to provide something till someone pays (which is why buying through Steam is less of an issue in regards to activation because it TELLS YOU when it will be activated), but you should reasonably expect to be able to play a game you purchase in retail.

Vivendi sucks because instead of punishing the people responsible (the retailers), they punish gamers. Vivendi could have gotten an emergency temporary injuctions for breach of contract against all the retailers and *bam* problem solved. But ... meh.

But this means more money for Vivendi, so they don't care.

<trap> Does this bother you? </trap>

Same.

I'm with Brian completely here. Personally, I think the entire concept of forcing steam is preposterous. Why can't it be an optional accessory so that those who embrace the good aspects of it can put themselves in the position to use it, while there could still be a public domain that doesn't *need* steam to run?

For once I tend to agree partially with Page. Particularly regarding Adobe apps. Why on earth does a product that re-uses code from previous versions that have been in development for YEARS still cost $500? The upgrades are mostly a joke. To Photoshop they add a few filters, move some buttons, and change some colorations. They also add a new spash screen. Development time on a new version of Photoshop is much less than that of a game (Like DooM III which had an engine developed for it). Why can't it be a lesser price? I'd say $30 a copy for Photoshop 7 or CS would be more than appropriate. At this point, Adobe is just being greedy. And they truly are stealing from their consumers.

I feel the same way about games that aren't developed from scratch. $50 is far too expensive for a product that uses somebody else's engine. If the game sells well, then $30 - $40 is more than enough to not only pay for your time, but also pay the royalty fees for the engine. Greed is the only reason that any game (even HL2, because it's still using alot of old code) that isn't BRAND SPANKIN NEW costs so much. It's bull.

Piracy may be wrong, but I'll be damned if I'm about to start paying for all the worthless games that are being developed. I buy MOST of my software anymore, but I also play a lot less. Generally, I'll play a pirated version of a game either on my computer or somewhere else before it's even released. This way I know if it's "worth it" to shell out $50 for a game. If it were $30 (or less preferably, but I understand royalties) it wouldn't be so bad.

I'm not intending to get HL2 anyways, but I sincerely hope that other games don't adopt this "STOP PIRACY NOW" mentality and implement such drastically annoying methodoligies. I fear that this may be the end of the checkbox "Never register. Don't remind me again." I shouldn't be forced to let anybody know who I am when I buy a product. It's akin to calling a farmer to tell him you're planning on eating his corn with dinner. Ridiculous.

I DEMAND THE EARLY ACTIVATION OF HL2! IT IS 11:20 AND I SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO PLAY THE GAME BECAUSE I PAYED FOR IT EVEN THOUGH VIVENDI SAYS IN ITS CONTRACT THAT IT DECIDES WHEN THE GAME IS RELEASED.

I demand the ability to play HL2 on my computer now even though I don't have the game nor do I have a computer that can run it!

I dislike the online activation (and purchasing online in general), but I love cutting out the publisher and retailer, who do basically nothing for the end product. It would be nice to see some of those costs returned to the consumer, though...



I've got 'em for King's Quest 1 through 3, on 5 1/4 inch disks, too. Up until recently I had no hope of playing them; no 5 1/4 inch drive! I just bought one, though, for my 486...

Except, you know...allow it to be made. :p

My take on all this is that it sucks, but it's where the world is headed. Doy ou know why? Because the world isn't a happy funland where everyone is happy and perfect. A bunch of morons ruin it for everyone. Sorry, but you can't drive your car without insurance, and now you can't play your game without authentication.

meh.

Well, they fund it, usually, and then steal most of the profit. Then steal the IP so that good sequels cannot be made to good games. Why does EA have the rights to System Shock? They didn't invent the setting. They didn't write the game.

Valve is good in that Gabe can afford to tell the publishers where to stick it. Half Life was REDONE because Valve didn't think it was good enough. I think that paid off. EA cans games that are too innovative or won't make enough profit; they'd prefer a crap game in time for Christmas than a fantastic game in January. EA treats games like you'd treat a packet of pens or a chair; once it's sold, they don't care. Half Life has been given constant life for 6 or 7 years. What EA games are still supported?

Steam, although it presents some hassles, ultimately means that developers can create better games. The only remaining hassle is getting the money to develop a game, but that can be gotten in far fairer ways than the extortionate fashion the publishers currently work.

Example:

CoolGames is paid 1,000,000 to create a game by EvilCorp.

CoolGames creates a kickass game, SuperShoot.

SuperShoot sells a hundred thousand copies.

Coolgames get, say, 10%, which is $50 x 100,000 x .1 = 500,000 dollars. All this money goes to the publisher to pay off their debt.

Meanwhile, the publisher racks in, say, 50%. They get $50 x 100,000 x .5 = 2.5 million. They make a huge profit. Coolgames, now in debt to the tune of half a million dollars, goes out of business.

Fair?

*Sniff* I miss CoolGames.

Wait now. Hold up. Let's be realistic. Page doesn't have real clients, so all of these analogies are bunk!

EB wouldn't allow me to buy it today. You shouldn't have been able to, for that matter. None of the companies told them to sell it to you, they said wait for the 16th.

Yes, it does bother me, though I don't think it does nearly to the extent that it does you and oS.

Oh, and....

IT'S A TRAP! [/i][/u]

How come it's okay for valve to do screwed up inconvenient things to get money but not vivendi? I don't see the difference between what vivendi is doing (crapping on their customers) and what valve is doing by requiring activation in the first place (crapping on their customers).

Thank you sir, for walking into my trap.

I kind of like the fact that my cd-keys are secured and that I can download my games anywhere. I haven't had any inconviences with Steam, so I'm not complaining.

Me.

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
If a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
And chuck as much as a woodchuck would
If a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Just so you guys know, It's been an hour since I got home with my copy of Half-Life 2, and I am still unable to play it. How long is this going to freaking take? How long can it possibly take to unlock game files?

Welcome to the future of gaming.

Uh...because Valve hasn't done anything that's "screwed up"? Apparently poor anticipation of server demands for authentication seems to be the extent of it.

Requiring authorization isn't "crapping on their customers." The concept shouldn't be problematic at all -- if you've got a legal copy of the game, and (unlike in this case) the developer correctly anticipates server loads, then everything's cool.

Apparently, you ***can*** get HL2 (plus any game) off of steam w/o paying. I just watched a friend of mine do it, and HL 2 is unlocking right now on his machine. I can't tell you how he did it (for fear of being banned) but I can say that no cracks or keygens are involved. Once completed, you can also run Hl2.exe w/o going through steam. (according to the procedure that he is following)

I intend to buy the game eventually so i don't intend to try this, but this is proof that everything has a weakness that is exploitable.

So much for the new pirate-proof steam concept. Less than 24 hjours after their big anti-piracy system goes online, people have already broken it. Back to the drawing board for Valve.

Are you talking about using a fake credit card number? Valve mentions that they allow people to play whilst they approve the card, but if it fails, they cut you off.

No, in fact, I'll link you to the procedure.

Wolfy--my friend has the internet at his college campus. But they blocked the port Steam uses. Therefore, he cannot buy HL2. Your logic=flawed.

My school does the same thing. We allow NO ports save for http, ftp, and telnet through. One has to contact the IT dept with their MAC address so that the port(s) for Steam can be allowed access.

I'm somewhat with Yoshi here. From all that I've read, this "Steam" wasn't designed for some college campuses like the aforementioned firewalled ones. Of course this is not true for all campuses in the set (ahhh discrete). And, I do not know how many "Fort Knoxes" of firewalls are in place across the universities of the United States. IMO, the purchasing should have been done via HTTP.

But I don't own the game nor do I plan so I'll shut up now.

no. Warez is one thing, but credit card fraud is something much worse.

This involves no credit cards at all.

Then it's the fault of the campus for blocking that port, not Valve's. Unless they're supposed to predict which ports people are going to have blocked.

what about the people who download stuff who would have never intended to buy it or use it for anything useful... are they a threat to the industry?

So Valve expects you to buy a game that you can't play because you can't activate it? And if you can't activate it it's YOUR or someone else's fault?

I smell blame game.

i'm in the same situation at my uni in london at the moment, the college's network basically only allows about 20 ports to be active, ftp, web and a few IM cilents but thats about it.

its a new service catering for all of the colleges halls and to be honest is totally rubbish and is prone to shuting down, slower than 56k at peak times, I get faster speeds on my mobile phone!!!!however...

i have been moaning at the computing staff to open up certain ports for gaming since the start of term, and they still have yet to do so, these include steam.

so at the moment there are around 20-30 people who own HL2 on campus who can't play it because they can't register it, I know this as i'm a steward for one of the halls and have kinda been nominated to talk to the IT staff about any internet problems....the amount of emails i've had in the past two days is silly.....

college aren't going to open the ports because but the way the network is setup every pc is on its own subnet and the ports to steam aren't really going to cause any problems....the college IT staff are just jerks and think that we are just trying to get P2P cilent ports unlocked and won't hear of it....

i'm lucky in that I can take my pc round a phd's friends house and plug it into his network and register that way, i carry it round there on a semi-regular basis for playing battlefront/quake3/ut, but its still a pain in the arse to have to do this just to play a game....

I will buy HL2 and i will carry my computer to a friends house where I have unrestricted access but a lot of people will not want or be able to do this and shouldn't have to!

another method should be in place to enable the game to be installed, one that doesn't require *unrestricted* internet access.

From all the problems people have been having getting their game activated, it sure does seem like valve is crapping on their customers.

Warez will get you sued, if you get caught. Credit Card fraud will get you arrested by the federal government (Secret Service), when you get caught.

Wow, at least Microsoft was smart enough to have a backup plan when they started product activation (24hr phone number you can call and they'll give you something to type in). Valve sucks.

Indeed.

Valve couldn't have known who has restricted access, that's true. But, they could have done a backup plan for those in universities like mine et al. And it really isn't our fault if our university of choice decides to restrict ports. CSU San Marcos was unrestrictive the first two years there. Then they installed firewalls in...2003 I believe. I cannot be blamed for the decisions of the university.

They'll probably wind up doing something with all of these people who can't play their game. I like Steam but this kind of situation is ridiculous.