Valve Nabs HL2 Pirates

KingFishKingFish
edited December 2004 in Science & Tech
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

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    pwnt.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited November 2004
    big time
  • Access_DeniedAccess_Denied tennessee
    edited November 2004
    that has to suck
  • hitokirihitokiri NYC
    edited November 2004
    that is very sweet indeed.
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Ahahahhaa, Can't wait for the complaints to roll in. Excellent job Valve.
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited November 2004
    Hmmm, can anybody say entrapment. Quick, grab your lawyer & sue Valve.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Jimborae wrote:
    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..."
  • JimboraeJimborae Newbury, Berks, UK New
    edited November 2004
    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
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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.
  • madmatmadmat
    edited November 2004
    pseudonym wrote:
    Ahahahhaa, Can't wait for the complaints to roll in. Excellent job Valve.
    This will give new meaning to the term "Valve Job"... ;D
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2004
    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
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited November 2004
    Komete wrote:
    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.
  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited November 2004
    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
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    i told you guys it's not true. i tried it, valve is full of crap
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2004
    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...
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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!!!
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    oh just buy the game. It's totally worth it.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    Komete wrote:
    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.
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    it only authenticates the first time, it's like windows xp activation
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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?
  • kanezfankanezfan sunny south florida Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    not missing anything. it's just a lie that all the gabe sackriders have latched on to.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    All hail His Digital Lordship, Gabriel Newell, Grand High Inquisitor of Half Lives Numbering Two!
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited November 2004
    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
    edited December 2004
    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
    edited December 2004
    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|
    edited December 2004
    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?
Sign In or Register to comment.