There are articles about this at most gaming news sites & also @ slashdot.org. I was reading the Blue's News thread (http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/board.pl?action=viewthread&threadid=53044&boardid=1&id=216474&view=flatold&start=0) and someone said that it took Valve $40 million to develop Half-Life 2. And they just banned 20,000 people from Steam for apparently trying to pirate HL2.

I wonder if the $40 million figure everyone is throwing around includes the development of Steam? If 20,000 people pirated this software, then at retail someone would have "lost" 20,000 * $50.00 = $1 million. If they spent only a million creating this software, they have only broken even. However, Valve doesn't get all the money from retail so their cut is significantly less. I hope they will realize that stopping 20,000 pirates isn't worth hiring a team of people to create an anti-piracy "service" disguised as a "content delivery system."

Yeah yeah, PERHAPS you could argue that a lot of people were "deterred" from trying to pirate because of Steam. However, a lot of people were also deterred by the fact that they have to register and authenticate in the first place, so I bet they even out.

I don't care how much Valve gained or lost. Pirates suck.

Yeah, I'm just glad the rumors about them putting out the warez version are fake.

I suppose that it's disturbing, but it's also a pretty smart thing to do.

**** the pirates.

Good for Valve. They showed some strength.

See, as knowing somewhat about pirating, I don't see how people thought that they could get away with pirating HL2 with a certain CD key that every other pirater used to register HL2. I mean seriousyl.....why the hell, if you were even smart, would you think to use a CD key that like 20,000 people are sharing.

A lot of piraters kind of gave up on HL2, since all the releases were being nuked/renuked, and for the fact that they reall didn't want to **** with Steam.

so valve didn't release the version people were downloading and that worked. What about those who simply use offline mode and still get hl2?

You mean valve banned people for STEALING THIER GAME??

Good deal. Now for everyone else to follow suit.

Screwed. Because they still have to register with Steam. They didn't realize it really DID work--Valve just didn't do anything about it until now.

You have to authenticate the game via STEAM to play the game.

There was a way to 'trick' Steam into thinking you didn't register HL2. Turns it out didn't trick Steam at all.

As long as they caught it, that's fine.

Yes.

I'm pretty sure Brian was trying to pirate HL2 and is pissed that Valve made it so difficult. I can't think of any other reason that someone who works with software as a career would be so against something that protects software copyrights.

I know someone who's been trying to pirate it, and he's freaking out, saying "this is the worst game ever," that kind of thing. :\

I just say "pay for it" over and over again.

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Suppose someone lives back in the Stone age and has no internet access... what then?

They can't play the game as far as I know.

It says on the box "internet connection required"

It's right on the system requirements.

They use the free AOL trial disc that came with their copy of HL. Unless they don't have a phone line either, in which case they probably can't afford HL2 anyway.

What if they already used a free trial?

You don't know me very well and you obviously haven't read my other posts. No, I don't pirate software, and I sure as hell wouldn't pirate Half-Life 2.

Yes, I am a software developer and I make a living programming. I do not, however, believe that it's right for a company to put undue restrictions on software to prevent the small minority of people from pirating the software. I don't think it's right to punish the masses for the actions of a few.

I wouldn't have as much of a problem with it if:

A) Valve didn't have a history of insecure networks (you know, where they STORE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION)
B) Their crappy software didn't collect system information from every account.
C) The authentication process didn't require -any- personal information (email address is definitely personal)
D) There was a way to authenticate w/out an internet connection (HELL, even MICROSOFT HAS THIS)
E) They actually pulled it off in a reasonable manner so that thousands of people who purchased the game didn't have trouble authenticating
F) There was a way to authenticate w/out setting up or using STEAM
G) There was a way to update the game w/out using STEAM

Juz: You're not understanding where this is heading. I predict that within 5 years you will have to either A) authenticate your DVD every time you want to play, or B) play movies directly off the internet with an account at major studios.

I predict that you are....wrong.

I thought of this thread when I tried to play Half-Life 2 on a computer in Microcenter today. Steam wouldn't let me.

Why on earth would anyone want to do that? :p

Even with this setback, I'm still putting my money on the warez community, and i fully expect that they will have the last laugh. Sooner or later, something will show up that will crack steam. Anything is possible.

And I agree w/ Brian about the bad precedent this is setting. It's strange that most of you seem to be against so-called Trusted computing, yet you rally your support behind something like Steam, which is more or less the beginning of a TC system.

Where are all these thousands of users having trouble? I visit a couple different HL2 forums, and I havn't heard of anyone having problems authenticating through steam...

I did, on the first day. Took me a couple hours total to get it installed and playable. Meh.

Game was awesome, though.

Game was great, ending was a letdown. Hell, Thief: DS had a better ending.

I let Steam recover from the initial shock of millions of users activating their HL2 preloads before getting it. Seems to have quietened down now.

kill 'em all. kill 'em all. kill 'em all.

a cookie to whoever tells me where that is quoted from.

A crappy Metallica song?

Hell. if it weren't for Lars Ulrich we wouldn't be in this situation anyways. :p

This is just another form of Trusted Computing. The only difference between this and Paladium is that it's for a game. It's ridiculous.

YAAARRRR . Aww ****.

I was at LAN Ohio this past weekend, and several people were playing HL2 singleplayer without Steam. Without an internet connection actually, because the deuche that owns the space didn't pay the RoadRunner bill. Apparently the AI stops working sometimes, forcing a game restart. But other than that, HL2 SP has been pirated...So I don't think Steam has done much for SP.

Yeah, I heard of a guy I know who pirated HL2 and he kept getting "AI Disabled" messages.

I just called someone I know who is heavily into warez to get some info just out of curiousity. He told me that there is an offline activation crack available, its just really difficult to find. He also told me that the Steam exploit that people used when HL2 came out was fixed by valve.



However, he also told me that you still get the AI error, unfortunately, but you just have to restart the game to fix it for awhile.

I fear Brians prediction may be right, although I think it will be a while longer then he predicted.
I can't really blame them though, their just doing what they can do hurt the warez industry, and yes, the warezers will get the last laugh, they always do, but not trying to stop them would be like not locking your car, because if a theif really wanted it he could get in anyway.

Steam bans everyone who tried to pirate HL2 or DID pirate HL2, and they are taking steps to stop piracy...and you guys are pissed?

You're not understand this right.
Everyone's pissed at the WAY Valve is trying to reduce piracy, not that they're trying to reduce it.

[EDIT]Too many pronouns, too hard to understand[/EDIT]

Fundamentally I agree with what they're doing. Anyone who really wants to play HL2 will know the consequences and just buy the game, and anyone who really, really wants to warez it will somehow find a way. If you try hard enough to get the game for free, eventually you will.

I don't think Brian's predictions will come true. HL2 is a computer game, and computers have a reason to be connected to the internet. A DVD player doesn't have much of a reason to be connected to the internet (that is since the days of DIVX). If people suddenly had to move their rooms around so their TV was next to a phone line, I personally wouldn't be buying any more DVDs, or renting them for that matter...

I think it will eventually become a common trend in computers, but for CDs? I mean honestly, if CD and DVD player manufacturers want to find a way to make authentification a daily application, they have to find a way to make it convenient to the consumer.