Wirehead Studios

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=413 (http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=news&id=413)

I'm making no comments on this, lest I incur the wrath of 90% of WHS. ?_?

Feel free to elaborate on this yourselves

So basically, you can't play games in cyber cafes.

that's OLD news foot.

Odd, because here in West Edmonton Mall there is a cafe which has a 32 computer LAN with Steam running on it. LAN matches and all.

and they could get sued by Valve. It's happened before.

i cant say ive ever been to a cyber cafe anyway besides that i thought the who VU thing was bullshit anyway.

shhh, I don't know that yet. ;)

Neither did I, Foot, so don't feel bad.

Here's the question I don't see answered in this article.  If Vivendi is no longer distributing Valve's games in retail form as of August 2005, then who will be taking over distribution?  Is anyone taking over?  Is Valve going to Steam Online only for game distribution at that point?

Actually, that article effectively states that any non-steam purchased valve application is no longer legal.
In plain english: If you purchased Vivendi Universal published copies of Valve software(read: retail), you're screwed. If you're lucky, you might be able to talk to Valve about getting them legitimized, or you may have to purchase entirely new licenses via steam.

Yes, Valve DOES suck.

This is why I have not played HL2 yet. And won't unless this changes.

You're not experiencing one of the best games out there because of some legal bollocks going on? Wow. That's like not wanting to sleep with Jennifer Connely because her parents are getting a divorce :]

I think he's quite justified for that to not want to play HL2 because of Steam. The Steam forums are literally flooded with topics regarding problems with Steam.

Emphasis mine.  Angst, this language only concerns cyber caf?s, not individual end users purchasing a retail copy for private use.  My question remains unanswered.

Tab:  This has nothing to do with missing a good game and everything to do with getting sick of intrusive corporate measures of control.  My concern is the entire system.  Say you legally purchased a game and then you move to some area and you can no longer get internet access.  That means you can't connect to Steam.  That means you can't utilize a product you legally paid for.  I have a problem with that.  Also, what about people who are on a crappy dialup connection and by nature of their localle cannot get broadband, or again cannot get internet access at all?  This is the problem with download-only schemes, and "must be logged in to play" schemes.  I can still play my old copy of Wolfenstein 3D if Id Software goes belly up next week, and I can install and re-install it no matter how many times I may format my hard drive.  Granted, right now you can purchase a CD, and Steam DOES have an "offline" mode, but you have to log in to authenticate once before you can use it.  That means you're screwed if you have to reinstall and no longer have internet access.

Frankly I'm getting fed up with all this intrusive authentication crap.  Treating your customers like criminals by default and making them jump through hoops to use what they've already paid for tends to wear thin.  It's my hardware, I paid for it, therefore I and I alone am the sole decision maker in regards to what will and will not go on within its circuitry.  If I'm going to pay for software then I'd like it to run without having to get Big Brother's permission every time.  One software company may be no big deal now, but everyone is starting to go to this sort of system.  And why, to save a few bucks on pirated copies?  The piracy problem will just get worse, especially as it becomes easier to look for a crack or hacked version that actually works than deal with corporate tech support that doesn't.  The hackers and crackers are always going to find ways around this sort of thing.  I wonder if these geniuses have figured that out yet.

I'll probably purchase a copy of Half-Life 2 if the price drops to a more reasonable level and if the retail copies aren't, as Angst suggests, invalidated at some point, but past that I doubt I'm going to look for more from Valve.  I pay for my games legally, and maybe I'm just a bit of a hoarder in that I like having a nice package, nifty instruction manual, and a pretty CD in a case, but it's starting to get awfully tempting to raise the Jolly Roger in order to sail around the bullshit.

Ehr, I agree on the intrusion bullshit, obviously. It's just possible to use warez cracks to play an officially bought game without having to go through that. If you don't use steam to play online, sure thing, although at times between updates even that is possible. I've paid for the game, and I've played it. Both without having to be sucked into the new world order.

That's what I'm talking about.  :thumb:

You can play HL2 offline. You just have to set it to 'offline' mode. And you only have to activate it once, when you first install.

After that, you can run Steam in offline mode forever if you so choose.

Pho and Tab: Damn straight on BOTH counts. My PC isn't the most reliable in the world, and every so often I'm forced to reformat. Not really an issue in itself, but I'm using WinXP and thus have to go through this entire product activation bullshit just to use the damn thing. What's more, the online activation only works a set number of times, thus forcing me to sit by a phone punching in a stupid-digit ID code only to get a stupider-digit code back.

I have resorted to cracks for legit games in the past, and I'll carry on, especially if companies like Valve are going to continue to make them harder and harder to use.

scalliano , next time install xp ,and your needed software , then take a backup from your complete Cdrive , when xp goes down , just put in a floppy and recover winxp.

Jennifer Connely? yes please.  

I agree with Pho on all this, and like nice boxes etc, but I think we must resist steam, or it will get worse for us all. I will miss out on this game.

Cheers, I'll keep that in mind, GK  :thumb:

If that gives you a problem, just copy the wpa.dbl file. That is the one that XP uses in activation. you can then install xp again, and just copy back the wpa.dbl file back in. This works, unless you've changed hardware.

And yet another reason I will never use Windows XP Home.  If I have to upgrade OS's past Windows 2000 you can bet it's going to have any kind of software authentication permanently disabled.  Maybe I'll actually take the time to learn Linux at that point.  It would certainly be good motivation.

Is Microsoft the evil empire? Yes, of course Valve sucks you cad! It can't be more obvious, it goes without saying!

I have a comp on Home and one on Pro. They both work well, but everytime I change hardware on the Home one I have to piss about. I can't get it 'sorted' I intend to use Pro from now on. (not saying where it came from)

Valve does not suck they have proublems but they dont suck. Anyone who cant see that halflife 2 was a good game is on crack. i know some hardcore I.D fanboys cant abide the idea of other companys making good first person shooters but really this is a stupid topic.

Whether or not Half-Life 2 is a good game is not the issue here. Whether or not being forced to "authenticate" a game I've already paid for with a program that can only be used over the internet is good or not is.

I'm in the same boat with Phoenix, on that end.

OK, let's put it another way. Valve are bastards.

Wait, does 'bastards' indicate communism? ;]

The red colouring was purely for emphasis. I suppose I could have also used "BASTARDS!!" but I like red.

Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? Wherefore base?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam's issue? Why brand they us
With base? With baseness? Bastardy? Base, base?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth within a dull, stale, tired, bed
Go to th' creating a whole tribe of fops
Got 'tween asleep and wake? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land.
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to th' legitimate. Fine word, "legitimate"!
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top th' legitimate. I grow, I prosper.
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!

:ninja:

Yup, Valve are ****s.

I think overall the system is great, but at the same time Vavle is shooting themselves in the foot because recently there have been some hardcore cracks out for it that enable you to snag the entire Steam library, kinda defeats this whole damn registration/validation requirement.

What they're forgetting is the old thief's rule:  There is no such thing as a lock that can't be picked.

I'm sorry but i can't this 1 get away.

WHY DID U CALLED THE VALVE GUYS "BASTARDS"? BECAUSE YOU ARE DAMN ...
...
...
right... and wrong... :huh:

The download-per-play system is just SICK! I Admit: i had to crack at first not because it was illegal, but because i had internet problems! Thos guys got sick with all that money. BUT IT'S NO EXCUSE TO NOT LIKE THE GAME! The game is cool. I played it,  so i can give an oppinion.  
But if don't play it just because of the d-p-p system or because of their problems, than that's stupid.

 :rolleyes:

Thing is, some of us CAN'T play the game because of these problems.

I never said I didn't like the game, I just don't like Valve.

My reasons for disliking Valve are rather petty, but I do hate Steam and some of the ideology behind it with a passion.  If ever I do buy Half-Life 2, I'm going to get it for the X-Box on the principle that I don't need to be online to play an off-line single-player game, and I am hopeful that it won't feature Steam in any way, shape, or form.

I loathe you.

Yes, but you loathe just about everything.  ;)

Yes, especially grotesque bastardizations of the English language.

The game is excellent, but I refuse to play it because of the steam system.

Sometimes you must do what you believe is right, even if it is against your own best intrests.