Steam Registration Servers Overloaded 768
duckle writes "The Inquirer reports that "The World has come crashing down around Half-Life 2 players today, as Steam's authentication servers in Europe have died.", and deemzzzz_k writes "It looks like even Valve wasn't quite prepared for Half Life 2's popularity. HL2 requires registration to unlock the game and although the Valve/Steam homepage claims that it fixed registration issues the servers are still overloaded. Registration is "delayed" and temporarily unlocking the game takes 20-30 minutes over a 1.5MB DSL line." This seems to primarily be an issue for folks who bought the game from a store; I purchased the game via Steam and was playing at 12:15 am PST on launch day.
this really is quite stupid (Score:2, Interesting)
This happened to me last night (Score:1, Interesting)
I've always hated Steam. I think the whole phone home concept is flawed. What happens if the company goes out of business? Does that mean I can't play my game anymore? What if I don't have the Internet? What if I want to play on a lan that doesn't have Internet access?
Anybody else have a different opinion on this?
Be grateful... (Score:5, Interesting)
If he uses the 'lost password' procedure in Steam he gets an Operation Incomplete error, and so far he hasn't managed to get a single human person to assist him at Steampowered. I was never a big fan of activation, but this cinches it.
Exactly (Score:2, Interesting)
I bought it from a store and was able to play, but (Score:5, Interesting)
[/rant].
Where was I? Before it would let me play it forced me to create a steam account, something I've boycotted since Counter Strike 1.3 and has a lot to do with why I stopped playing CS. Never-the-less I created an account and waited as it tried to unlock my game. It told me that it was unable to register me, but it would let me know as soon as it was able to. I guess at this point I was "in line to register". Then it actually allowed me to play! I tried it again after disabling my network connection and it told me that it could not verify my CD key and that I could only play while I was online. I'm kinda pissed about that and hope they get that fixed soon. If the cable goes out and I cant play HL2 I'm going to be very very bored, I might even have to go outside
From my first 20 minutes playing reaction I've got to say this game is so much more open-ended then Doom3, and though I'm a huge id fan I've got to hand it to valve, this looks like its going to be just as fun to play as HL1. I could spend an hour just throwing television sets out windows at the police on the ground.
Precedent (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Last night was no parade (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't Valve make 3-4x what they would on sales over Steam rather than people buying the game in stores?
Valve knew HL2 what be very popular. I'm sure there thinking went something like "Why NOT make are own online distribution software, require everyone to have it and sell all are games that way?".
I may be way off base, but I'm guessing once the rest of the developers see all the money Valve is rolling in after this, they will quickly follow suit. If not licence Steam for themselves, or even sell games through Valves steam network (it's already on millions of computers now anyways).
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:5, Interesting)
Nope. They had Steam already planned out as a distribution and copy protection measure, and had a working version well before the source wandered off. If it was done as you suggest, then the guys at Valve are clairvoyant because they knew it was going to happen, and stupid because they let it happen anyways.
I do blame Valve because they lied to the paying users. Early on when Steam was announced, a lot of people were concerned about privacy issues and things like this preventing paying users from playing. Valve put out press releases (some not too long ago) promising that all such concerns had been addressed and that the bugs were worked out of Steam. They assured us that there would be no problems once HL2 hit the shelves. After all this, I'm wondering whether the the promises behind the privacy concerns were really addressed either.
For the first time since Ultima 9, we've got a retail product where the only way to play it is to hunt down a crack because the copy protection is so screwed up.
Re:not Steam's fault (Score:4, Interesting)
Steam(ing pile of shite) (Score:2, Interesting)
But... it took a couple DAYS for my registration to go through. And crawling their bulletin boards showed that this had been a common problem for months.
The disregard for paying customers is the main reason I won't be buying HalfLife 2 or any of their other products any time soon.
That, and the fact that I'm now playing EverCrack II.
Re:Poor planning by game designers (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I bought it from a store and was able to play, (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK it was released on DVD. At least we're embracing the future - I vaguely recall the same thing happening with Far Cry. For some unbelivably stupid reason the publishers assume that America lacks DVD technology.
We should have lost disc swapping 5 years ago.
Re:Last night was no parade (Score:2, Interesting)
Haha look at the stupid monkey thinking if piracy goes down so will prices... lol
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Last night was no parade (Score:1, Interesting)
Once upon a time, we had consumer protection laws...
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:4, Interesting)
Or is valved frightened that people are going to cheat at single player and finish the game??
Steam is at least as much about piracy as cheating. As a result Valve has clearly stated that they are willing to inconvenience a lot of their customers so that a few will buy instead of pirate. I'm glad my midterms preclude me from installing HL2 until next week.
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:3, Interesting)
Hell, it get's better with that. Some of that crap like Splinter Cell2 bitches about Nero and other legit burning programs also. Sometimes, just the back that you have a CD/DVD Writer that is also a CD-ROM pisses it off.
And their answer is always "uninstall". God forbid honest game purchasers actually have a CD/DVD Writer and software to write and backup files to.
I honestly don't know which I hate more right now, the craplock CDs or the POS Steam servers. I spent more time waiting on those damn servers last night that I did playing the game. That seriously sours any thoughts of purchasing any other game ill-powered by Steam.
Crazy EULA (Score:3, Interesting)
Dang, and that was always my favorite side in CS.
Seriously though, did anyone else think that was odd?
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:3, Interesting)
So, nothing has changed with Steam then.
Re:Last night was no parade (Score:2, Interesting)
Anyway - I got an email at work yesterday confirming that the game had shipped, FedEX tracking told me it was on a van in my town out to be delivered, and my son called excitedly around 3 to tell me it was delivered.
I had to work a little later than usual so it was probably around 6:30 that I got around to installing and activating. When steam wnet to create my account, it told me there was an error and I would have to try again. I waited a little while and tried again, but it told me there was an account with the same email address.
I tried to log on to the account using the pw I had supplied, but it sat there a good 10 minutes before deciding that user/password was no good. I should have known better, but I went ahead and tried sumbitting a request to change the pw. I did eventually get an email with a confirmation # to use to reset, but somehow I did end up getting in with the original user/pw (obviously things were just slow and I was not being patient enough).
So then I actually start unlocking, which takes over an hour on a (supposed) 3mbit cable line. *it is at this point I go back downstairs and prepare the first of many double jack and cokes.
By about 11 I was playing. I was so tired and cranky that I didn't get much farther than the train station & security office. The experience of being pushed around and beaten by the cops somehow was more than I needed at that point.
One thing I did like was picking up garbage and whipping it at the police. I think I spent a good 20 minutes seeing what I could pick up and hurl at a cop and then see how fast I could run away and at what point the cop gave up and went back to his spot.
preparation of valve, insider's view (Score:2, Interesting)
i am not allowed to share, but if you have any idea how much bandwidth steam is doing, sustained, right now, it would blow you away. i know for a fact valve spreads its servers out through many providers to lessen the load on each node, but in the end there is only a finite amount of upstreams they can get traffic through.
i also know for a fact that other providers who they have contracts with had to shut down valve's connections since steam was completely detroying their network. how is it Valve's fault when the over-excited sales guy @ MegaColo signs them up for a couple of gig-e connections that turn out to be duds?
all it takes is one overloaded router @ MegaColo for them to decide that the popularity of HL2 is destroying their network, and Valve is shit out of luck, port admined down, take your servers somewhere else. again, THIS HAS HAPPENED. 24 hours before hl2 went live bandwidth ramped up dramaticly and many providers started showing their true colors.
Valve is working to resolve these issues trust me, last night at 3am i was moving around linecards so we could accomodate another connection.
posting anon, i don't work for valve but i work for someone they have contracts with.
FUD FUD FUD (Score:3, Interesting)
One of your few valid criticisms...
In order to play, you have to have Valve's spyware program running on your system.
You must have a different concept of "spyware" than I do. Can you explain how exactly Steam is spyware? They tell you what it reports to Valve. You choose to install it (you don't have to buy HL2). It is simple to uninstall it. Choice, valid information, and easy uninstallation are 3 things not found in real spyware.
You have to sign yourself up on two different services.
Not sure what you mean. I created a Steam account, bought HL2 via Steam, downloaded it, unlocked it. I started downloading it a few weeks ago, so it was just a matter of unlocking it when the day hit.
An internet connection is mandatory as you play the game.
This is false. An internet connection is mandatory to unlock the game initially.
keep the disk in your computer while playing
Not sure why this would be, if it is true, since anyone that bought it via steam of course does not need to do this.
Updates are mandatory.
Right-click on HL2 in Steam, select Properties, and change the automatic update setting. I do not see any indication that updates are mandatory for HL2. I can imagine they are for any online games, to prevent cheating.
If you click the "play" button, you have to wait 50 minutes before the game actually starts
If this is true, I think your system is not up to the task of HL2 to begin with.
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:2, Interesting)
I've used cracked versions of Civ3 in the past as well because THE CD COPY-PROTECTION is more likely to hang up Windows when I'm "obeying the law" and have the CD in the drive than when I'm using a cracked version of the game. Notice: I bought the friggin' game! I should have no need or desire to have to use an illegal copy of it, and yet I do because the "real" version is more of a hassle than the cracked version.
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm quite sure that the *requirement* of Steam activation to even play HL2 single player is all about the prevention of piracy. Who cares if you cheat if you're playing a single player game?
I imagine they also want Steam on everybody's hard drives, popping up ads and the like. It took me two hours to get HL2 up and running yesterday (after many errors and problems), and already today Steam popups are appearing telling me that my registration finally went through. Tomorrow, I imagine popups will appear telling me that Valve's new game is available for purchase and download ...
For now, Steam seems to have set itself up as a `portal' to games on my system. I'm sure Valve is just loving this ...
It may help prevent cheating, but that's NOT why it's been installed on MY hard drive. It's on MY hard drive because Valve wants *more* money, both now and in the future. They're setting it up as a useful service -- which is fine, but I don't like how I *have* to use this service just to play a game that I bought, a game that really should not need the Internet. If it were a MMORPG, then I'd understand the need for the Internet. But for a single player game, it's a marketing thing only. It benefits Valve and *not* me.
Don't get me wrong -- HL2 is great, what I've seen of it so far (I'm somewhere in Chapter 2 (?) driving that swamp boat around. Great fun!) -- but I do *not* like what Steam represents. I'm very tempted to download to a HL2 crack just so I can ditch Steam ...
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:4, Interesting)
Vivendi Support: You must be joking! (Score:2, Interesting)
{Visitor 0} Status: Ready to play
Offline mode: ready
{Vivendi.Agent1} Now Close this window and disconnect your internet connection.
{Visitor 0} You must be joking.
{Visitor 0} If I disconnect my net connection, how will we continue our little chat?
{Visitor 0} Are you still there or what?
{Vivendi.Agent1} Ok then i will give you the procedure to run the game offline and you can try launching the game offline.
About 5 minutes later he coughed up the location of the FAQ on steampowered.com. Dude.
Piracy vs Being Legit (Score:1, Interesting)
Future Shop will install it for you (Score:2, Interesting)
Me and my friends laughed it off while we were standing in the checkout line, joking about dumb computer users, and how we could easily do the same thing for $10 or less...
After having gone through the horrific install process that is Steam (story too long to write here -- it involves hours, error messages, reboots, Steam interrupting me with survey messages - WTF!), a sobering thought came to me: that $19.99 flyer at Future Shop no longer seemed like a laughing matter.
If it was difficult for me, with 25 years of computer experience under my belt, imagine what it must seem like to the average Joe User.
You know there's something WRONG with your copy-protection system when Future Shop is offering a service to install your game for your customers!
The most annoying thing (Score:3, Interesting)
A few minutes Googling the newsgroups came up with an answer: Valve had stupidly failed to test the installer with the option to install CS turned off. Back to square one, and another twenty minutes of feeding CDs...
Busy lines to get Steam content? Not pleasant, but understandable. Shipping your installer in this state, after five years of development? Valve should apologize.
The game rocks, but nobody should have to jump through 90 minutes of hoops after paying $50.
Re:Gotta stop piracy! (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but 15 hours later, when everyone was getting home from work or school and trying it out, things went to hell. I had the Steam-based version and had no problem unlocking and playing it at 4 am. But after work, the Steam authentication servers were too overloaded to let me login in, even though the game was already unlocked and playable on my machine. To make matters worse, Steam reacted to the server's being overloaded by deleting my cached authentication information, so I couldn't even play the game in offline mode. I finally got in later that evening, and I've left my PC running with Steam logged in just to be on the safe side.