Valve shuts down 20,000 Half Life 2 accounts

[Helevitia]

huh? You only download the game(s) you want to play. The rest are available if you want to download it.

[DukeP]

I went for the full monthy.



Least install is about 2GB, afaik.

But hey, if You cant handle the heat....


~~DukeP~~

[agallag]

What's wrong with an 8GB download. Over broadband it only takes a couple of hours. Takes almost as long swapping CDs and patching to install that many games the old way, yet this way it is totally hands off.

[High_Jumbllama]

8GB is ~5.92 hours at 3 megabit. one 3 letter word. "DVD"

[agallag]

However, the DVDs will be out of date after about a day. Steam manages your patches automatically. If you don't want to download the bulk of it more than once, you can back up the cache files to DVD yourself, and steam will just bring in the changes.

[DukeP]

Do remember: In 8GB you get 14 distinctive games and 3 toolsets.

~~DUkeP~~

[DGhost]

remember, on one DVD I could get all that and several hours to spare :P

[DukeP]

Heh. Ive never burned a double layered DvD. I wouldnt know where to buy the discs. Never seen one.

(I think my burner CAN burn dual layers, its a NEC 3500AG).

~~DukeP~~

[The PIT]

Originally posted by Helevitia
huh? You only download the game(s) you want to play. The rest are available if you want to download it.

Well it's hinted that the download is a 8gig download. For many UK users that would take them over the permitted monthly usage. In my case it wouldn't but then I wouldn't want to sit around waiting for it too download.

[Rakido]

Originally posted by DukeP
Rakido, I have downloaded a total of 0.01 MB after installing the game (that was yesterdays patch).

heya, my fault, i meant how many MB's to download after the install of a CD/DVD?


Rakido

[Duty]

Originally posted by DGhost
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.[/B]

That's understandable but what game isn't. Doom3 is a hoop jumper just like the rest, as is FarCry. FarCry is so bad that it has save points like a console game. and Halo2 is the worst, no variation at all. FPS are generally linear, a rare few are not. DX and DXIW where good about not being as linear but even they are to some degree.

Originally posted by DGhost
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.

Umm, huh. No kidding. It's a business. Businesses are to make money. Yes that is what they are doing. Really did you think they were doing this to purely fulfill the gaming needs of geeks and children around the world? No, they are trying to make a buck. Now they, as most businesses, are trying to give a good product at a fair market price. Whether or not that happened is pure opinion. I am not sure as I have not yet played the game.

Originally posted by DGhost
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.

Wow. Steam is free, CS is free. You buy the game and use the CDKey (halflife or the retail CS) to play on line. Either way you get all the mods (yes you get all the mods and HL if you use your CS key on steam). How is that making money on CS (other then using it as marketing). Either way you had to get a CDKey, did it matter that it had a CS or HL box around it? Counter strike was free, is still free. You are buying HL not CS, regardless of the box. The only version that was not free was CZ and really you where paying for the bots and a new look. But CS is still free (after you get a CDKey).

Originally posted by DGhost
Having to unlock a product that you buy in a retail store online is extreme.

Not really. Most large companies are moving to this style of security. Either a call or on line activation. You need only a simple connection (modem) to register. Then you can play off line. CS is online anyway so that was never a point for off line players.

Originally posted by DGhost
People who do not own internet connections (and there are a lot around here) are SOL.

True, but not their target audience. You can't get everyone so go with the largest number of people(the online gaming community). Also they are listing to the community that has grown around HL. You think not, well most of us that play CS, TFC or other of the mods regularly hate cheaters more then anything. Steam has cut that way down. Yes it is still going on but nearly as much. It also fixed many of the patching problems because of the large number of players. Most other companies don't have that problem (but wished they didi).

Originally posted by DGhost
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?

What game is not updated on the internet? As for steam charging? That was the same argument when Blizzard set up their servers. But they never charged. It is a good business model as it keeps most of the customers happy ant a minimal cost. And that is the goal, keep as many customers happy as you can. Looking at sales of HL and the number of people online playing it, it seems like they are doing a good job

Originally posted by DGhost
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.

Ok, how did it go to their head? What priorities? What is your crieria for respect (for a game company)? Are you a highend coder, a marketing guru or maby a game designer?

Being a small business owner (software and business consulting) I look at them see the opposite. Over the years they took the time to build a strong product and try and answer the requests of their customers and they spend time supporting the mod community for free. Some of the answers failed and some worked. You disagree with some of the choices, but the bottom line is, are they still in business? Are they keeping their stock holders happy (stock holders are not just the owners but also the employees and the customers. Anyone with a STOCK in the companies outcome).

You seem to have some odd level of hate for a "game company". From a business perspective they are a good example of success. They have lots of happy customers. Yes they have some not so happy customers as well. So do I, you can't please everyone.

If you wan't a good feel for the industry go in to tech support for a while. Not just as a side job, actually deal with them everyday. You end up creating solutions to help the majority and in the process you loose a few. Thats life.

Jeff