Half Life 2 ; Internet Connection Required?

SpinnerSpinner Birmingham, UK
edited November 2004 in Science & Tech
It seems that due to the new software named 'Steam' in Valve's new game 'Half Life 2' an Internet connection will be required to play a Multiplayer game on your own LAN and most likely even just to play Single Player.

This is going to be one major screw-up for Valve unless they do something rather drastic to change what looks like the most stupid implementation into Multiplayer software, ever.

More Info:
http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=faq&id=1050915505,27362300,1050915714,91503900
http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=faq&id=1050915505,27362300,1050915726,98098300
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33709836&perpage=20&pagenumber=2

Thanks to Nightshade737 for this news post

Comments

  • TemplarTemplar You first.
    edited September 2003
    Doesnt affect me :)

    Still, who DOESN'T have an internet connection. Very, very few people. A dialup modem is all you need for validation stuff, so it's not that big of a deal. Most LAN parties I goto have an external net connection. I can see where this can complicate things though if a bunch of people decide to LAN in a remote area and no one has a dialup account.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I thought WON was bad.

    Have any of you ever tried steam? It's the most confounded, ****ing slow, cumbersome, RAM-sucking, convoluted third-party addition to a game EVER.

    Its content delivery system is 33 kb/s. The interface takes 3 seconds to switch screens when you press a button. Important options are buried five menus deep. It takes 45mb of RAM to run. Important options aren't even labelled as such.

    And now they want to use it for HL2? They need to drop steam like a hot sack of steaming (Pun) ****.
  • emptyempty houston
    edited September 2003
    they are going to fix it, it is the same with cs. they had already stated it would be fixed :)
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited September 2003
    Valve stated that all Steam content would be available through offline means back during the Steam beta test like... A year or two ago. I'm sure that they will deliver offline content as well as online.

    As for their marketing strategy, I'd bet that they plan to make Steam so convenient and effective that nobody would WANT to go the offline route unless they HAVE to. I have good faith in Valve, they almost always come through in the end.

    But I do agree, the Steam that we beta tested sucked. Badly.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited September 2003
    It's no big deal. As said before, most anywhere you go for LANning, there is an Internet connection available.

    I also don’t see why some of you are so surprised. They are doing this so people wont (or will have a more difficult time) pirating their software. I find it a perfectly logical way to deter this, and also find it to be perfectly acceptable.

    Ok, so you still may not like it. But you say that even while some of your software may have come from a less than legit source.

    I don’t see what everyone's big beef with this sorta "internet validation" scheme is. This is the correct (and necessary) response software developers are turning to thanks to the gobs of piracy flowing over the net these days. If you’re going to bitch and put the developers down because of these methods, than at least take some responsibility and destroy any “illegitimately acquired” software first. Even if you “don’t have any such software”, than tell your friends to cut it out.


    Otherwise, deal with it… it’s what was coming to you and/or anyone who illegally obtains software.




    Or just wait for a crack…. ;)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I could paint you a hypocrite 12 ways from sunday, but we can't talk about these sorts of things here.

    Suffice it to say, I don't see why it has to be anything less transparent than WON or UT2K3's master validation, which functions quite nicely.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited September 2003
    Hey, I'm not saying I'm not guilty of such things, but I'm not bitching about these actions either.
  • CBCB Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ Der Millionendorf- Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Yea.... I'm gonna go ahead and say that if You can never play multiplayer without authenticating your copy, it will be the biggest mistake in multiplayer gaming history.

    I was going to buy the game. If this is true, then I will not. I will be buying the game for Lanwar (www.lanwar.com) mostly. There is no internet at Lanwar.

    But, even if I was buying for the single player only, this would make me not buy the game simply on principle. Ask Guy... I boycot stuff on principle all the time.

    I might even steal it INSTEAD of purchase it BECAUSE of this decision. I might, however be completely alone in this.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    TheSmJ said
    It's no big deal. As said before, most anywhere you go for LANning, there is an Internet connection available.

    Thats a really bad assumption, as whenever me and mates have a LAN party we never have internet access as half the time its more of an issue just getting the LAN and games to work in the first place, if we did it at my house it wouldnt be an issue, but as none of them have LANs pre-setup and they don't have broadband, then Internet access is non optional, it's impossible.

    The implications stemming from this are too many for it to be any use to anyone, it's an un-thought through system designed by idiots, to put it bluntly.

    NS
  • ShortyShorty Manchester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I've emailed Gabe Newell @ Valve on this and am now patiently awaiting a reply ;) I've read other replies on sites but it's still not really clear.

    Il find out if I can :)
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I don't have a problem with some sort of verification if you're joining a public server. But for LAN and Single Player, that's just rediculous.
    Some LANs I go to have an external connection, some don't. Sometimes (quite often) my cable internet takes a nap until the numbskulls at Cox figure out they unplugged a switch or something. I don't want my gaming to be dependent on something outside of my control.
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    Ugh, WTF is Valve up to..... Getting sick of all this crap they are pulling....

    If it does happen, it'll be hacked in a week anyways.
  • TheSmJTheSmJ
    edited September 2003
    This was a post taken from halflife2.net. Chris D is the one who sent the e-mail to Gabe.
    Just recieved confirmation from Gabe that Steam will NOT require an internet connection for LAN or single play. All you LAN partiers out there and guys in Australia with broadband where you pay for the bandwidth that you use or where your bandwidth is capped will not need to worry.

    I'd just like to say before I post the e-mail that this is once again a fine example that Valve are NOT idiots like some of you seem to think.
    And all you conspiracy theorists can all rest with your "omg teh Vaelv hav a deel wiv meh ISP so tha tehy get moor munnie from meh!!"
    Original Message
    From: Chris Deeming [mailto:chrisdeem@hotmail.com]
    Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2003 4:16 PM
    To: gaben@valvesoftware.com
    Subject: Will it never cease?


    I'm not sure if it will ever cease or not. The constant nagging question
    that people are asking - Will Steam be required to have an internet
    connection active when starting up a singleplayer game or a LAN game?

    It's giving me a headache

    Seen the petition yet?

    Chris_D

    No, it won't.

    There will be a brief transition (like two weeks) when it is necessary, but
    then it will go away. It's a temporary issue.

    EDIT: If you all want a screenie to prove authenticity, then let me know and I'll post one up.


    __________________

    Looks like you guys can rest easy now.
  • SlickSlick Upstate New York
    edited September 2003
    Thrax said
    I thought WON was bad.

    Have any of you ever tried steam? It's the most confounded, ****ing slow, cumbersome, RAM-sucking, convoluted third-party addition to a game EVER.

    Its content delivery system is 33 kb/s. The interface takes 3 seconds to switch screens when you press a button. Important options are buried five menus deep. It takes 45mb of RAM to run. Important options aren't even labelled as such.

    And now they want to use it for HL2? They need to drop steam like a hot sack of steaming (Pun) ****.

    I have to agree with Thrax there, I used it for the counter-strike 1.6 beta. It is the most buggy piece of **** software I have ever used. I highly doubt that steam will be a forced intergration. Maybe they will for multiplayers, but I highly doubt for single player.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    The inbuilt client for HL1 used WON and I thought that was just fine......

    NS
  • KhaosKhaos New Hampshire
    edited September 2003
    WON was pretty much useless, the CD keys never worked very well to prevent piracy. I have purchased 3 legitimate copies of Half-Life over the years, but I gave one away and lost the other two... For three years, I have used a pirated version.

    Just to add another perspective to this discussion, here are some positive aspects of Steam, whether you intially purchase Half-Life 2 in a store or not....

    - Your client remains automatically updated at all times without you doing a darn thing to it.
    - If you ever lose your physical disc, you will still have access to the game via the Internet.
    - Content can be installed as needed, rather than all at once.

    I'm sure there will be more benefits than I am aware of. Let's be realistic here, guys. Steam is not just a delivery method for Half-Life 2. It is a product that Valve is developing and planning to liscense to other game developers. They are putting a lot of work into this. In case you haven't noticed, things turn out good when Valve puts a lot of effort into it. Let's not draw conclusions based on a beta test that we participated in years ago.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited September 2003
    I used the Steam beta and it was pretty nice actually, I liked having it auto update and such.

    The rollout of "Steam 1.0" seems to have been kinda shaky, but I think it's because their servers were getting hammered with all the beta users now trying to get the final release...

    You gotta enter a CD Key after you DL the Steam client, but after that it starts auto updating. Seems to be running fine, I used it all night tonight and played in a bunch of games, isn't nearly as buggy was some people have made it out to be ::shrug::
  • SkuaSkua
    edited November 2004
    Templar wrote:
    Doesnt affect me :)

    Still, who DOESN'T have an internet connection. Very, very few people. A dialup modem is all you need for validation stuff, so it's not that big of a deal. Most LAN parties I goto have an external net connection. I can see where this can complicate things though if a bunch of people decide to LAN in a remote area and no one has a dialup account.

    People in the military, especially those serving overseas or on ships. They are all out of luck for anything connected with Steam.
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