Half-Life 2 'Interview' - False Activation Claims? 91
An anonymous reader writes "According to a mini-interview with Valve's Gabe Newell at Nerdsahoy.com, Half-Life 2 will use a form of online product activation to prevent more than one install per copy." Newell also allegedly comments on distribution, saying "...our marketing will mostly lean towards [Valve's online 'content delivery system'] Steam as the method of acquiring the game." Update: 09/02 14:34 GMT by S : Unfortunately, many signs point towards this being a fake, fabricated interview.
Well.... (Score:1, Redundant)
I'm an ATI guy, I got the GF2 for free, before that I had a Rage 128.
Re:Well.... (Score:1, Redundant)
That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:5, Interesting)
Newsflash: 20 days before the official release date of WinXP, a no-activation version was already installed in millions of PC worldwide.
Maybe they could decrease the number of online gamers, even that was proven impossible. A huge percentage of online HL gamers use a pirated copy and a CDKey "they got from a friend".
Re:That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:2)
Sure they will. Half-Life 2 Enterprise Edition, or HL2EE. It's just a high-res real-time scene of the G-Man saying, "Get back to work, you!"
Sell your stock now (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sell your stock now (Score:2)
Re:Product Activation (Score:1)
There's nothing wrong with chewing on a mouthfull of bees as long as they don't sting you.
Lets say you don't have an Internet connection. Do you really think that you should spend 45 minutes on hold every time you (re)install Windows XP? Or lets say you have a laptop with a docking station. Do you really want to find out that Windows thinks your PC
Re:That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:2)
Yeah, it was the corporate edition that was installed. Somehow I doubt IBM's going to buy 1,000 copies of Half Life for the employees to use.
Re:That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:1)
Re:That will obviously help reduce piracy (Score:1)
And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:5, Insightful)
A) It's been proven ineffective, everything from the first disc-copy protection format to activation has been proven to be worthless. About the only thing left to try is hardware DRM, but even that's not fool-proof (X-Box).
B) If anyone is willing to go through the effort to search, or learn, how to copy games they'll find a way to do it. Those that don't bother with passing copy protection either don't buy the game or will be turned aside by anything beyond a key code.
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
Daniel
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:1)
Kleedrac
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
Daniel
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:1)
I think it's working well. (Score:5, Interesting)
Xbox Live! service + XBox hardware = no mods, no cheaters. There's the odd bugged game that can be used in various evil ways, but the actual combination of a locked-hardware set and a locked-network is fairly strong.
Sure, you could possibly crack it, but it's so improbable as to be impossible.
Re:I think it's working well. (Score:4, Insightful)
Now that Live has been up for a while, it's probably just a matter of time before X-Box hackers learn what Live is looking for to confirm it's legit, and come up with a mod chip that spoofs that.
And thus.. (Score:2)
Don't underestimate the motivation that money can bring to a company. Especially when they'll only be getting my money while I know that there are no modded Mechs on Mech Assault that are indestructable.
Re:I think it's working well. (Score:1)
Re:I think it's working well. (Score:1)
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:1)
B) Tribes 2 is cracked, I know because I have a cracked copy I obtained a few weeks ago when my brother destroyed my original since I wouldn't ever give up playing to let him play. (It didn't occur to me until afterwards that I could use my old information (hey, I was extremely pissed and not thinking straight), but after I realized that I stopped using my illegal information, so for all I know it may have been track
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
I guess the way to avoid those problems is to have a nearly non-existant first person mode. I prefer well done multiplayer and single-player, but I realize nobody pirates Tribes 2 for the single-player missions.
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:2)
It wasn't too bad though, since it did mean we had two copies floating around at LAN parties... you have to put in a valid disk at every level change, and no one thought to bring along a machine with a CD burner.
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:1)
Re:And we've seen how effective that is... (Score:1)
Copy protection doesn't stop piracy, it just slows it down a few millisec
Mail in card?? (Score:2, Interesting)
I hope it's like Windows XP where you get 30 days to activate your HL2. If that's what happens there might be nothing stopping me from installing an illegal copy, playing it for 30 days then reinstalling/giving up.
Re:Mail in card?? (Score:2)
Umm, perhaps it's because people are still playing CounterStrike 5 years after Half-Life has been released, which required the full retail copy of HL until it was released as a standalone product commercially? Or any other popular HL mods. The single-player portion might be over for most in less than 30 days, but that
eh? (Score:4, Insightful)
it allows one copy of HL2 per machine
Does that mean I can't install 2 copies on my own machine? Well fair enough.
I bought the neverwinter nights expansion recently, unfortunately the CD was a bit flaky so it would barely install properly. After about 4 hours of work on the net, I managed to make a backup of the CD that I could trust would work in 6 months time.
I don't mind product activation 'provided' you can backup the CD without digging around for special tools, and there is a nice system in place whereby if you re-install/upgrade your PC it can be re-activated.
And it would also be nice if these measures start to work if they dropped the prices back down to the levels before they raised them to combat piracy. Can't see that happening though
ha! (Score:2)
Fuck you, Valve. (Score:3, Insightful)
And this is from someone who bought the original Half-Life TWICE. I got it once when it first came out, then again when it was available in the giant bundle with both expansion packs as I'd since loaned the CD to a friend who'd moved away. If me buying your game twice isn't customer loyalty, I'm not sure what is. If you're going to turn around and screw me by forcing me to buy two copies of your product - adios. I'm not buying another one of your games ever again.
If the activation would allow me to install it in two places, so long as I only ran it in one place at a time (and even if it required me to be connected to the internet - I'm used to that for massively multiplayer games) that would be acceptable to me. So long as there were an uninstall feature that would let me move one activated copy to another computer if/when I upgrade my machine.
But product activation in HalfLife 2 would be such a monumentally horrible idea that I question the source - especially as I've never heard of that site before.
Re:Fuck you, Valve. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now we maybe have to suffer with no HL2 LAN play, i could see this could cause a problem at LAN parties where a net connection is extremly hard to get (say like a LAN party in a Pub meeting room).
Re:Fuck you, Valve. (Score:3, Informative)
IIRC, that's allowed. Now this is all based on the reading of one thread [burstfire.net] on the HL2 forums, but in there Gabe Newell states that you can play from a friend's house using your CD key, even without them having bought the game. Better yet, your key bindings an
Re:Fuck you, Valve. (Score:1)
I dunno if I should be happy or sad... (Score:2)
I mean, if they're going to use a system like this, why not just include a dongle?
Re:I dunno if I should be happy or sad... (Score:2, Interesting)
You need a license to have a dog, but any fool can have a child!
for the want of a felt-tip pen (Score:3, Interesting)
Plus you can get the jewel cases made ahead of having the CDs pressed.
But I agree, this is annoying move from Valve.
Like all copy protectin, the only people it will annoy is legitimate customers.
"No CD Present" - "Yes there is, it's on the shelf in the box"
5 minutes and a trip to
http://www.gamecopyworld.com
later
"ahh, no-cd bliss"
Re:for the want of a felt-tip pen (Score:2)
NOCD Cracks are a godsend for lan parties, why would I want to take all my CD's, when there are 15 different games up, fuck swapping discs. Bad enough you pay 50 bux for a game or 200 bux for an OS to be treated like a criminal.
Its tough being a consumer.
Re:I dunno if I should be happy or sad... (Score:1)
I had one CD once that had the key on the CD label. (Student version of JBuilder.)
Ran installer. "Okay, now your product key, please?" Ummmmm.... wondering where the heck it is supposed to be, then (after exiting, unmounting the CD and ejecting it) noticing it's on the CD.
If I remember correctly, then I had to do it again because it had a strange font that made distincting between l and 1 hard, or some other silliness like that.
Having the key on CD may make it harder to lose, but also quite hard to se
HAHAHAHAHA (Score:4, Informative)
CRUNCH. No more Steam Content servers.
They say they have 1.8Gbps [steampowered.com] bandwidth, but a mere 3345 people used 1.3Gbps when the RedHat ISOs [scarywater.net] were released on BitTorrent. Centralised content distribution like Steam is simply not going to be able to handle the load for the size of files they're going to be throwing around.
Without some decentralised P2P file downloading action it's about as bright an idea as their "Powerplay" initiative (and look how that turned out [gamespy.com]).
So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Are they at least going to offset the annoyance factor by forgoing the CD checks? I have 300GB of disk space - I don't want to have to screw about hunting for a disk I can't copy properly which should be in storage somewhere safe.
Screw Steam too; post it to Usenet and P2P, and give me a way of buying a cheap license which factors in the fact that I didn't cost anything to distribute the game to. It's going to appear there anyway; it might as well do so legitimately.
Re:So... (Score:1)
I cannot imagine going through an activation every time I buy a new game, This will detract more from sales than any piracy statistic.
Re:Oh really? (Score:1)
This is Valve's popularity.
Fall popularity fall! *THUNK*
Another Award Winning PR Move by Sierra (Score:3, Insightful)
I was on the fence about buying Half Life 2, since I really enjoyed the mods for HL1 more than Sierra's game, but I don't think Sierra will be getting a piece of my entertainment budget for a while. It's a shame, because I really like Relic's games.
Anyone else figure... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Anyone else figure... (Score:1)
We need some solid proof on the points raised and not these Chinese Whispers [chinesewhispers.com]
Re:Anyone else figure... (Score:2)
It sure smells funny
If there was a poll about whether this article is fake or not, I'd vote "fake".
Re:Anyone else figure... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Anyone else figure... (Score:2)
Wha??? (Score:2)
If they give you 30 days with this, how is it any different?
Re:Wha??? (Score:2)
Re:Wha??? (Score:2, Informative)
Kleedrac
Purchase doubtful now (Score:4, Interesting)
Copy protection and Wine (Score:2)
One of the questions WRT HL2 I have is "Will I be able to play it under Linux?" - either via
Product Activation.. (Score:1)
This is fake (Score:3, Insightful)
Domain Name: NERDSAHOY.COM
Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS0.WASABIDNS.COM
Name Server: NS1.WASABIDNS.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 24-may-2003
Creation Date: 24-may-2002
Expiration Date: 24-may-2004
Notice the creation date. The main page of Nerdsahoy.com claims it's been up since 1999. Netcraft has no history on the site, nor does the Wayback machine.
nerdsahoy.com claims that all of it's previous news was accidentally deleted... a likely story indeed.
Re:This is fake (Score:1)
Re:This is fake (Score:1)
On the other hand, Steam will have the ability to read and write to your half-life 2 directory - it'll be able to upgrade your game or install mods, cf interview here [futuremark.com]. Which is nearly as potentially troublesome..
Re:This is fake (Score:3, Interesting)
distributed servers? (Score:1)
Re:distributed servers? (Score:1)
Distributed computing is harder than hyperthreading but it has the potential to increase performance by a huge amount (8X on our tools) as opposed to hyperthreading (30%). All of our tools are going to a distributed approach.
So the taxonomy looks like this:
- general algorithmic optimization (general good thing to do)
- DX9 optimization (big gains, long term direction)
- 64-bits (not that hard, solves memory problem as wel
Interesting... (Score:1)
It also appears that these are the gentlemen who made the sites, Lamespy and Crappynews. Which I have never heard of but do sound very parody orientated.
For fucks sake!! (Score:1, Insightful)
FAKE! (Score:2, Insightful)
Not likely (Score:1, Informative)
Seems most games these days tend to work with a CD key which appears valid for offline gaming but have slightly better controls to check authenticity when playing online. It's widely known that Steam will be used for HL2 multiplayer, this seems to allow one CD Key per account, but from what we've seen so far there are no controls on where you install the game. We've yet to see anything mentioning Steam being require
Confirmed fake. (Score:2, Informative)
Agh (Score:1)
This bloody fake article has tainted my mind! It was just casual enough to make me think it could be real and just chums of Gabe. How could I be so nieve?
I'll never trust an interview link again, gah. I think I'll need a chain to restrain my giddy mouth from saying "but they're going to have incentives to go with the online purchase, really!!".
I think I need a life....
Why unfortunately? (Score:2)
Why unfortunately? If it requires product activation there is no way in hell I'd ever buy HalfLife 2. And i'd like to, so i hope it is a fake interview.