i personally know at least one person who will not be happy by this news. worse still, if people aren't aware of this until after they install the product, they'll have a hard time getting their money back for a product they paid for many stores have a policy on video games and computer software that, if the box has been opened, there is no refund period.

i don't like the sound of this one bit. – by jacob

i'm guessing by “a lot” you mean “almost zero.”

seriously, people should stop whining. – by xm

i was unsure of this game until now – by no sale

people complain about having to use cd's when they play a game. well now you won't have to. what do you want? do you want there to be no copy protection so you can let your friend “borrow” your copy to install on his computer. i bet you do, but you can't always get what you want. suck it up, it's not a big deal. – by stop complaining

it sucks, oh well, maybe there'll be an alternative proposed if valve gets enough complaints.

adios, y'all… – by psyborg

my money says this game will be in the scene 2 days before it hits retail shelves. – by mas

considering the cost of privacy, especially the impact it has had with valve, this is not an unreasonble reaction.

they will make major bucks in the beginning (like every other game), then sales will taper off. with on-line registration, the sales will taper off at a slower rate until someone creates the 'crack'.

then, the playing field will once again be leveled and people who want to pirate a copy will like every other program on the planet. – by hodar

second of all, it will be cracked within 32 seconds of it being released, and for those who don't want to pay for it, they wont have to. – by gei

– by clock

:)

which group do you wanna be from? – by johny-d

for instance you're happily legitimately playing your game when one day your motherboard dies. you buy a new motherboard but since it's not an exact match you need to reinstall windows. you reinstall the game only to discover that “you are using an illegal copy of this software it is already registered to user xxxxxx xxxxxxxxx on machine xxxxxxxx”. since your pc died you weren't able to unregister the old machine and now their servers think that you are illegally installing the game on a new system. now what?

additionally what the hell does product activation have to do with their poor security standards on their servers? the code wasn't stolen by somebody running unregistered software. – by loki

pirate away my friends and pummel them into bankruptcy… – by mr gekko

i could see this upsetting those people a few miles from civilization. – by nugget

pirate and bankrupt valve, then id, and black isle, and ea games then who? do you have any idea of what it takes to qualify and release a game? let's simply ignore the advances in directx, or semm, or even the graphics. let's just look at what it takes to be compatible for every mobo, sound card, processor and video card on the market.

now, let's add some 'wow' factor so people will even look at your product. obviously, you have no idea of the time and manpower required to do the most fundamental development of a software product. now, let's analyze the 'life' of the product (measured in months, not years).

so, given the years it takes to make, debug and release a game, the thousands of man-hours involved in coding, creating engines, alpha and beta testing, marketing, deployment and support it's amazing that these companies can be financially viable at all.

now, consider that what percentage of the games released are actually 'fun', and will actually be purchased.

writing gaming software is not a profession i would chose for job stability, profitability or security. – by hodar

same with cellphone providers and isp's, no real modivation to hack them if you are validated each and every time you try to use it. just how many people do you see stealing cellphone & inet service, not many.

i'm kind of surprised it's taken the game makers this long to really protect their ip, after all it runs on a computer which is connected to the internet. – by duh

also, the more of this we accept as consumers, the worse it will get. keep saying “it doesn't matter”, and soon they'll be monitoring your home pc as acceptance of the license agreement.
– by stevek

this is the future of the system and your going to have to learn to live with it. it beats the hell out of driving to the store to see if they have it and finding it's sold out. then when you find it, you have to load the thing into the computer and keep the disks locked up safe so that you don't ruin them if you happen to lose a drive or something.

personally, i can't believe they got hacked but you learn your lessons one way or the other. but the fact remains that you had to do this with microsoft products and others so how is this different? – by kyle

online registration is bs.
if i'm not online, i'm not downloading the damn thing [or a crack for it], now – am i?

– by ac

i guarantee that this guy has never downloaded anything in his life. just look at what he has too say. it's obvious that all his information is rehashed propaganda.

i've downloaded terrabytes worth of data online and the scenario your describing has happened to me only once. it was instantly picked up by norton's and quarantined to await my disposal of it. – by you fear monger

will they make you buy a new game cd for every new comp you load it on?

hmm.. – by hard nards

my experience so far has been if it can be locked then it can be unlocked, if it can be coded it can be decoded. you just need the right tool, the time, and the motivation. where there's a will there's a way, and i know there is plenty of will to crack hl2 security, not just to rip it off but just because its a challenge. i wouldn’t be surprised if the hack comes from an actual person working on the half life 2 project.
– by the ai

sad thing is, there will probably be a crack for it 2 days before it launches. – by bill

i only have been playing counter strike for 5~6 months. and during those time, almost every time valve updated steam, day of defeat, or counter strike, i was not able to play my games off-line or on-line.

steam is a wonderful way to update games and find servers. however, it has at least three immidiate disadvantages.

(1) it forces you to update games. for example, if they think awp (a weapon) is too powerful, they can tone it down with a new update, and every one has to get used to it. because there is no way to play the game without updating it.

(2) when a new update gets released, it is very likely that you can't play any games for 1 to 2 days. since the only way to update your game is through steam, it cannot handle all the users of cs, dod or other games. and when they cannot handle updates, steam cannot check the cd-key or steam id, and you cannot play until they can authenticate your cd-key.

(3) when steam updates, it also does very unnecessary updates too. i bought a copy of half life that i can play hl, cs, dod, etc. however i did not and do not plan to buy half life 2 or cs: condition zero. steam downloaded 1.29 giga bytes of cs:cz and hl2 related files on my computer. no wonder my ping was so high. imaging 1.3 gb for a dial-up user. that's forced / automatic downloading without users' interaction.

(other serious problems) not to mention, the updates frequently messes up games. if you are not familier with trouble shooting pcs, you probably won't be able to play hl2 at all.

uninstalling the game and reinstalling it won't do it. deleting following files might do it. c:program filessteamsteamappsplatform.gcf and
c:program filessteamclientregistry.blob

also if you do not know how to back up
3 gb of gcf files from c:program filessteamsteamapps you will have to download 3 gb of data through steam. that's quite large even for dsl/cable users.

!! valve sucks !!

having said about downloading 3gb of data through steam, the upgrade version of day of defeat can only be downloaded and bought through steam. retail hl2 or hl2 collectors edition does not include dod.

paying extra money for an old mod for a game is not that bad. (since it's an upgrade and people worked on it.) however, only being able to buy dod:s through steam is not fair for dial-up users. also i don't like the idea that i have to back up 3gb or more of data on my own, without a cd from the manufacturer. heck, i cannot even trade it on gametz.

also, i have credit cards. however, there are kids, without cc, who wants to play dod. steam accepts cc only.

i understand that valve is having hard feelings toward vivendi universal, and they are trying to make most money out of hl2 and not for vu.

in this mess, valve is trying to sacrifice its customers. bad move!

i hate you valve and your stupid steam. and don't even think about taking discontinuing cs in favor of cs:s, mr. dunken.

thanks for reading and sorry for my mess. but you get the idea. – by penpen

i personally like the idea, i hate it how people just download the game illegally. its putting up the price of the game in the store. i do see the problem for people who dont have the internet, but really… its the peoples fault who crack these games, download them, and so on… – by chris-harry

survival of the fittest, homegrown. – by 12yo boy

* developers need to get paid – fact. to do this, they work for companies who sell games… go figure.

* you don't have a net connection – then you will never reply to this ( if you do then you have a connection)

* it will be on the scene – probably, is there anything that is not. ( barring hardware)

so in summary what is any one complaining about. if it requires activation and you do not have a net connection then i am sorry valve is at fault. and i am sure that whatever country you live in there will be laws to protect you via consumer rights. yes valve should have telephone activation and that may very well be a path that they may go down, who knows?. i don't but i do know this. tonight the sun will set and tommorrow it will rise. i also know this pattern will repeat itself.

bottom line – deal with it. if you have no internet connection, then move somewhere that does. if you live at home and are to young to have a house, then this is something to aspire towards.

in the great scheme of things it's no big deal. – by mr jamie curle – uk

i paid : $59(for gold)
i received :
hl2
dod-source
hl-source
cs-source
condition zero
cz – deleted scenes
cs
tfc
dod
hl
deathmatch classic
opposing force
ricochet

penpen only made one good observation, if you don't have broadband you should probably wait to make your purchase. penpen makes observations from a dialup user perspective and he hasn't even purchased hl2 yet. i have no downtime and i have dod without paying directly for it. – by ironsmith

but it is ignorant for anyone to assume that “everybody must” have a net connection, let alone a broadband one. some people arent fortunate enough to have our parents pay for our hookup. and $60/month isnt exactly change one can find in thier couch cushions.

i find the current trend towards online-only pc games to be similar to that of the rise of reality television. what ever happened to the enthralling, suspenseful and exciting plot lines and stories found in singleplayer games? and now even these singleplayer games require online connections?

hey, i like gaming with other humans as much as the next guy, but this “steam” engine brings up another question: how are you suppose to play a lan game with your buddies if you also need to be connected to the net to launch the game? last time i checked, you cant use a crossover cable and be connected to the net at the same time.

i was a big fan of half life and looking forward to playing hl2. upon hearing news of this “steam” thing, it looks like i'll have to wait longer, by which time something better is sure to have come out anyways. – by kurt

way to go valve! – by lol

thanks i really would apreciate any help. – by commander_jato

it does not seem all that apparent and valve wont reply to that question…. – by tweakfreak