Valve Nabs HL2 Pirates

[KingFish]

It appears Valve, creators of the highly anticipated Half Life 2, released a pirated version on the Bittorrent network in order to track those who downloaded it. People caught in this "experiment" will apparently be banned from Valve's 'Steam' online delivery and gaming network.

"We're running a bit of an experiment. We're keeping track of the accounts that do this and will be shutting them off." So, as you can see, VALVe Software have released a test "warez" version aimed at catching people out. These people will have their accounts deleted and will be banned from Steam.
Submitted by: Camman

Source: FileFront (http://halflife2.filefront.com/news/HalfLife_2_Pirated_Warez_Version_Info;13907)

[Thrax]

pwnt.

[KingFish]

big time

[Access_Denied]

that has to suck

[hitokiri]

that is very sweet indeed.

[pseudonym]

Ahahahhaa, Can't wait for the complaints to roll in. Excellent job Valve.

[Jimborae]

Hmmm, can anybody say entrapment. Quick, grab your lawyer & sue Valve.

[Gargoyle]

Seriously. Yeah, it's funny and stuff, but they could have turned it around and thought of a way of encouraging the pirates to buy the game, rather than banning them.

[Camman]

Hmmm, can anybody say entrapment. Quick, grab your lawyer & sue Valve.

I heard somebody else say this too, but, my question is, how is it "entrapment" when they never mentioned attempting to pursue any legal action? Surely banning somebody from a service can hardly qualify as a legal action intiated by this "entrapment", and if so, who will they complain to? "oh yeah well I pirated this game so they banned me....oops, I mean..."

[Jimborae]

It was kind of said tongue in cheek:) But by banning them Valve are violating the user's human rights to play Half Life 2....... I'm sure I read that somewhere in the latest draft of the U.N. Human Rights Charter

[kanezfan]

boo hoo, i'll be banned from steam, omg, what will i do with my life???

i'll let you guys know if this is true or not. and really, if it is, then what? if i eally need to use steam, then i could A) get a new username, or B) get a new NIC so they don't have my MAC and/or IP address. I don't know what the big deal is. I mean how many people use steam only to get HL2 anyways? Do you guys use it for any other reason? I guess this would piss off the CS fanboys, but I could care less.

[kanezfan]

UPDATE: Not true! I just played the "demo" with steam closed down, when I reopened steam, I was able to log in just fine. it mightwork if steam is open, but i'm not onna bother trying. I think this is BS designed to scare people into buying the game. awesome game so far, even though, i'm still weapon less, but so immersive. can't wait for the action to start. i want to beat down all those bastard cops.

[madmat]

Ahahahhaa, Can't wait for the complaints to roll in. Excellent job Valve.
This will give new meaning to the term "Valve Job"... ;D

[Komete]

You know I realy don't buy it. I think it's BS. They could catch some through BT but once more and more seeds are established people would be grabbing it from seeds other than valve. I guess it's a game of russian rulete.

The game is simply awsome though, GJ valve. Makes doom3 look like childs play

[TheSmJ]

You know I realy don't buy it. I think it's BS. They could catch some through BT but once more and more seeds are established people would be grabbing it from seeds other than valve. I guess it's a game of russian rulete.

The game is simply awsome though, GJ valve. Makes doom3 look like childs play


It works by steam sending Valve your cracked account oonce you run the exe (supposedly). It has nothing to do with who seeds you the file.

[EMT]

When I heard about this it seemed a little fishy - why would they let the information (that they're doing this) leak out like that? It would hinder their effort I think. And encourage someone to do the job "right" - cracking the game, that is.

Not a very bad idea on Valve's part, though, if it's true.

[KingFish]

If it is true, it's not a bad idea on the following front: Give someone a sneak peek, get them hooked, pull the plug, and tell them that if they want to continue, pay up. It's the classic drug dealer approach.

On the other hand, there are other accounts of this story not being true. We'll be sure to follow it to report any significant developments.

KF

[kanezfan]

i told you guys it's not true. i tried it, valve is full of crap

[Komete]

If you have a have fire wall at all it should popup and ask you to allow steam to connect.. all ya have to say is no and never let it connect. The game is worth the money, I'm a happy camper in cs hehe...

[kanezfan]

dude, just shut down steam when you load up the game, no worries. turn it back on if you have to afterwards. valva is lying, this whole story is a lie people!!!

[primesuspect]

oh just buy the game. It's totally worth it.

[Camman]

If you have a have fire wall at all it should popup and ask you to allow steam to connect.. all ya have to say is no and never let it connect. The game is worth the money, I'm a happy camper in cs hehe...

Correct me if I'm mistaken but I was under the impression that the game had to "authenticate" before it was playable and that's why people were complaining that you couldn't play the game w/o an internet connection....so i dont see how using a software firewall would help you.

[kanezfan]

it only authenticates the first time, it's like windows xp activation

[Enverex]

Call me stupid, but aren't Valve shooting themselves in the foot here?

"We caught these people trying to pirate the game so we will ban them from steam". Right, so they can't use steam to download or authenticate any future steam games, meaning the only way the people can play games in future is by using a pirated copy that bypasses Steam (activation) as legit copies won't work....

Am I missing anything here?

[kanezfan]

not missing anything. it's just a lie that all the gabe sackriders have latched on to.

[Thrax]

All hail His Digital Lordship, Gabriel Newell, Grand High Inquisitor of Half Lives Numbering Two!

[Camman]

Turns out the "Valve puts out fake version" story was in fact fake, however, Valve did disable over 20,000 accounts today for trying to use hacked versions and other things.

http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/34618

[Teh-Haxor (Guest)]

only noobs at finding cracked games fall for a valve version.
If anything this punishment policy is just going to drive people that get caught to crack all future steam games because they cant buy em.

[v3n0m (Guest)]

That is 100% A Grade Bullsh*t Who give a Sh*t about a game being cracked they'd make more money if the company wasent run by such power hungry money glutons... maybe they should spend less time of busting people's balls and more time on making a better game!

[Psy| (Guest)]

Any of you think that they will persue legal action or are they just going to be happy they made $1.2 million and don't have to support them anymore?