I'm never buying another Valve game

[Case]

Don't get me wrong, I love Half Life 2 and am greatly enjoying it.
However, the freaking thing took two hours to install due to the combination of a basic testing failure (disks 4 and 5 not installing if you don't install the Counterstrike code) and the need to prove that I wasn't a criminal by registering and de-cracking the game.

As I spent about 2/3 of a day's pay on the game, I don't see why I should have had to waste a large chunk of time proving this. The whole installation process stank of Microsoft-esqe arrogance, and I'm not going to reward it by buying another game by this company. So there.

[Harry Tuttle]

Well they did have their code stolen, so I'm sure they're a bit gunshy.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, I agree with Harry. They weren't just subject to basic pirating of their game, they had their code stolen. So they are going to make sure they protect their product as much as possible.

It may impact legal purchasers more, but that is what happens when some idiots mess around with piracy.

[Bkeela]

I refuse to invest in Valve's draconian Steam system. I resent having to use a CD with games I have legitimately bought, let alone needing stupid third party software to even start the game.

There will always be pirates, so if a company is so daft as to allow their code to be stolen - that's their problem, not the legitimate customers.

I just wish people had voted with their wallets, instead of blindly rushing out to get this game. Doesn't anyone learn from game hype?

[CapTVK]

There are more games that require registering on-line or use third party software (like refusing to work when NERO CD burner or virtual CD software is installed). Valve does take it to a new level with Steam. The advantages to the company are evident: prevent piracy, required online registration, personal data/hardware info (more user info =marketing information!), centralized way to deliver updates and patches, offer new software packages (levels, maps, new episodes). The advantages, apart from patches&updates for the player are not so evident*. A casual player wouldn't even know that it keeps running in the background or that you could turn it off.

In effect, a player is no longer buying a piece of software he's buying a license for use.

I'm afraid we'll see a permament on-line registration services like Steam more in the future.

*Is it possible to sell your copy of HL2 after use? e.a . what does Steam do if someone else logs in with that CD-key?

[CapTVK]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, I agree with Harry. They weren't just subject to basic pirating of their game, they had their code stolen. So they are going to make sure they protect their product as much as possible.

I'm pretty sure Steam wasn't introduced as a result of the code theft. Steam was planned long before.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, I agree with Harry. They weren't just subject to basic pirating of their game, they had their code stolen. So they are going to make sure they protect their product as much as possible.

It may impact legal purchasers more, but that is what happens when some idiots mess around with piracy.

So you think it's rational to react to a real threat by punishing genuine customers in place of the pirates, since punishing the pirates is not possible?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Comrade Tassadar

Not that I would ever play the sequal to the horrible FPS that is Halflife.

/me shoots Tassadar.

[Solver]

Steam is, IMO, an excellent example of terrible piracy protection. The game was released by warez groups within 24 hours of the release anyway. However, legal users had to suffer more than the pirate users. Moreover, this is a classic example of the warez version being better than the original.

I de-Steamed my legal copy of the game to get MUCH better performance. I don't understand people who are excited about Steam - are they unable to download patches manually or what (the ONLY upside of Steam, and even then not always).

[Maquiladora]

Moreover, this is a classic example of the warez version being better than the original.

Has a warez version been released that works in MP?

[Solver]

Do you mean that HL2DM released last week? If so, yes. A MP-working CSS version has been released as well as soon as CSS was released.

And yes, you do get better ping/FPS with the warez/de-Steamed version. I'd highly recommend any legal users to deSteam their game, too. The most common complaint after release was that stuttering problem that I got, too, initially. Then I de-Steamed the game, stuttering gone, FPS way up.

[CapTVK]

Solver,

You have to be more specific, who's this "the people" excited about Steam? A)The industry, B) the power gamer C) or the casual player?

That the industry is beaming about Steam I can understand because it opens the doors to a permanent registration/subscription service. If it keeps going once Valve starts to release episodes which you can buy and register (via Steam) online they'll worship it.

I can't imagine power gamers being excited about Steam apart from the fanboys who can't seperate Steam from the game itself. Apparently Steam takes up a small part of system resources. Small, but still enough to be significant. Power gamers "in the know" will probably remove it anyway. The rest will probably accept it as normal and keep it or, once they realize they can eke out a few more FPS, lose Steam later on.

That leaves the casual player. Who, because he doesn't know any better, is excited because he really believes that Steam is an extra service (automatic patching and updates).

[Maquiladora]

Can you patch HL2 without Steam? I assume not. Those with warez versions that emulate Steam or whatever, how do they update?

Whatever the case, its personally more than £10 worth of bother, which is what I'll pay when it comes down.

[Solver]

CapTVK,

It is actually indeed the casual gamers excited about Steam. At least reading HL2 forus indicates so. This might be related to the fact that the average HL2 gamer seems not to be as computer literate as most people for instance here on Apolyton, but regardless of that, many such people are happy - yes, I too agree they are often fanboys who can't separate Steam and the game itself.

Also, Steam actually seems poorly programmed. There is the issue of bugs, etc., but it takes up quite a big amount of system resources actually. Even when doing nothing, it seems to take about 30 MB of RAM. On a 512 MB system, this can be noticeable, but on a 256 MB system, it will be of big significance.

I am also often annoyed by the general levels of low computer literacy when I see those... and I fear Steam might be contributing to it. It focuses too much on spoon-feeding the end user. Not only does it do that, it also takes away power from the end user, such as messing with game files, which is hard this way. To quote someone excited about Steam

This is the greatest program ever, you can choose your games to play from a list and you also get all the updates automatically, it's just so easy!

I am perfectly capable of running my games in any other way and of downloading updates from a webpage. Actually, many other game include a tool that will automatically download & install updates as a menu choice from the game itself, not giving you any other extra software.

Reading what bigger sites say about Steam is interesting indeed. Much of industry is happy, and that I don't like. I don't like subscription based systems, etc. It feels more and more like we'll be renting games soon instead of buying them. I hope it doesn't come to that.

Maq,

With a warez version, people can download a rar with the update for their warez release. A patch, after all, changes a number of game files, that's it. So the warez patch puts those files into an archive which the end-user can just extract. Simple.

And yes, I would pay 10$ more for a HL2 version that comes as all decent games do, without Steam.

[Grandpa Troll]

hmm..I been thinking of HL2 but after all this..I really need something else to slow down my system

I look forward to additional comments

Gramps