Valve shuts down 20,000 Half Life 2 accounts

[ayoub_ibrahim]

VALVE SOFTWARE has disabled the Steam accounts of 20,000 people it has said were attempting to use pirated copies of Half-Life 2.

In a statement released to Shacknews, Valve said that reasons for closing the accounts included credit card fraud, theft of other people's accounts and using cracked versions of Valve games.

All these nefarious means, the Seattle-based company said, contradicted the Steam Subscriber agreement that players must sign up for.

It also denied reports that it had deliberately leaked out 'warez' copies of the game to entrap users.

Valve is facing renewed criticism from Half-Life 2 players this week, as more and more bugfixes are thought required. Problems with sound stuttering, incredibly long load times, and some physics problems are all on the list of issues reported by players.

Those who bought the game at retail are required to have the disc in the drive to play, a problem which doesn't plague Steam buyers. Attempts to circumnavigate this issue, however, will lead to account banning as a form of piracy, and has caused something of an outcry among hardcore gamers who are used to the 'buy it and crack it' mentality. They claim that legitimate users are being targetted as pirates without basis.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19860

[windigo]

rofl that game still isnt finished im glad i didnt buy it and also glad i didnt buy vampires either i hear they have some wicked failures, bugs, physics prob to.
oh well i gues gabe newell thought he could screw vivendi one last time.

[Marshmallowman]

heheh...I think Youi will find 99% of people are not having problems. But there is a very vocal minority, and I would be very vocal if I was missing out, becuase it really is a very polished and enjoyabele game..but I am not

Though I have to agree with some of that, valve is getting very heavy handed, and it sux buying it retiail...as it really is a rip off compared to online steam purchases.

[Admiral]

They just fixed the stuttering (texture related) problem, too bad the patch is only available through steam.

I like the game and I also like CS Source and considering that in the end I got it for 20 euros, since the company I work for happens to be the Romanian distributor for this game and we get discounts for most new games, I'm quite happy.

[DGhost]

I hate steam. Honestly, this is the biggest reason I will not buy Half-Life 2.

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by DGhost
I hate steam. Honestly, this is the biggest reason I will not buy Half-Life 2.

Seriously? You are making a huge mistake IMO. What is so horrible about it that it will stop you from playing the best game of all time(imho)?

[windigo]

the thing i hate is that if you dont have an internet connection your screwed with the retail cd.

[Duty]

Originally posted by windigo
the thing i hate is that if you dont have an internet connection your screwed with the retail cd.

Ok, if you don't have an internet connection how do you get patches to any games?


Jeff

[windigo]

well no the point being you cant even play the game bugs and all nor can you phone in your reg key even microsoft allows people to phone in.

[Helevitia]

If you spent 40 million dollars on an investment, wouldn't you try every way possible to prevent people from stealing your investment? Yes you would. Valve is the first of many people that will do this. It will become the norm. And although I don't like it like most of you, I think it is a necessary step to prevent stealing. Don't blame Valve, blame the people who steal the game.

[windigo]

actually it was one person who stole the game. and your saying people who legally buy this game at retail are rightfully screwed?
there has to be a better way to prevent pirating than that?

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by windigo
actually it was one person who stole the game. and your saying people who legally buy this game at retail are rightfully screwed?
there has to be a better way to prevent pirating than that?

I'm not talking about the theft from Valve, I am talking about the subject of this thread. Tell me what you think a better way is?

[windigo]

lol questionmark at the end says i have no clue but there should be a remedy for people who have a legal copy

[DGhost]

Originally posted by Helevitia
Seriously? You are making a huge mistake IMO. What is so horrible about it that it will stop you from playing the best game of all time(imho)?

Welll.... the first thing is the fact I never really thought Half-Life was all that great. the fact it was so scripted took a lot out of it for me.

Personally, I look at where Valve has gone with their products over the last few years and it honestly looks to me like they are simply out to make money. Steam looks to be a by product of that - you make everyone use your own proprietary system so that you maintain complete control over who exactly can use it and who can't. From what I can tell, they decided to go all out with it after they attempted to take Counter-Strike retail and found that many people didn't bother buying it and that a lot of people didn't care for the changes they were making in the revisions right around then. Instead they decided that they need to cram this system down the consumers throat and that they just *had* to make money off of Counter-Strike.

Having to unlock a product that you buy in a retail store online is extreme. Students at universities that block non-standard web traffic can not use a product that they paid for. People who do not own internet connections (and there are a lot around here) are SOL. The fact you have to own a Steam account to get updates is another big problem... how long before they start charging for Steam usage?

Valve is one of the few development studios out there that I genuinely do not respect. Half-Life went to their heads and they never really got their business priorities straight from there.

[Helevitia]

I'm not denying most of what you said, but really, you are doing yourself an injustice by not playing this game.