Retail ver of HL2 install needs Steam acct to authenticate!

knob · Post by **knob** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:45 pm

I was the type to bash Steam at first, but after giving it a try with a HL2 Silver purchase, I really like the idea for the most part.

But, one thing... It likes to fuck with me.

Last time, I got a message that said "Unlocking Half Life 2 Game files..." and my heart started to race..... Could they be letting us Steam purchasers play early?!

No, I still can't play. It's like Steam was trying to tease me.

dangerballs · Post by **dangerballs** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:56 pm

Valael wrote: Last time, I got a message that said "Unlocking Half Life 2 Game files..." and my heart started to race..... Could they be letting us Steam purchasers play early?!

No, I still can't play. It's like Steam was trying to tease me.

Yeah, I got that too. Unfortunately, it was only unlocking the files in order to update Counterstrike.

Giles Habibula · Post by **Giles Habibula** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 7:26 pm

Greg Wak wrote:Obviously piracy must be starting to really effect bottom lines. I guess people think there will be a crack for this in notime. I have no idea if there will or won't be. But for everyone dead set against this, how do you suggest they protect their investment?

How they protect their investment is their job, not mine.

My concern lies solely in protecting MY investment.

It's their game. They can protect it any way they like. And if they determine that enough customers will go along with what they decide, well so be it. There's nothing I can do about that. Apparently I'm one of only very few folks who cares about being able to play my game independent of the internet or other outside forces once I have purchased it, and for however long I want, so all my points I've made will very likely be moot in the end.

I feel pretty helpless here. I can't control their actions. All I can do about it besides not buy the game is talk about it and maybe get a few other folks to at least look at the issue from a different angle. I don't expect it will change much, but I can at least try.

I'm no techie. But I am convinced that the techies at Valve could come up with something better if they tried. But since the number of folks like myself are apparently so small, they probably have no motivation to try to address my concerns.

Al · Post by Al » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:23 pm

Giles Habibula wrote:I'm no techie. But I am convinced that the techies at Valve could come up with something better if they tried.

Like what? Bad sectors on CDs? SecureROM? SafeDisc? Starforce? All those methods are much more invasive than Steam's. Hell, with the ones I've mentioned you're not even sure you can install until you try. I like Steam's method better. The fact that I didn't have to go to the store or wait on FedEx is an added bonus.

Of course, if Steam pisses you off then I can't wait to see what happens when NGSCB rolls out.

DireAussie · Post by **DireAussie** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 1:24 am

I may be wrong about that, but it seems that MMO games are a bit expensive for what you get.

If you ask most people who play them they'll say that they actually saved money by playing MMO games because of the money they saved from not buying any single player games.

As to steam requirements, it doesnt really bother me for one game. If it became a mainstream thing I would be concerned for a number of reasons. It makes the game harder to sell (on ebay) because you might have several games linked to the same account. There's the whole issue on what happens if the company goes bust.

I wonder if Valve are planning to sell their Steam software to other games companies?

tals · Post by **tals** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 3:08 am

I think that saving money is the justification, based on buying a game possibly in excess of every other month. That said EQ for me was one of my most expensive 'mistakes'. Everytime an expansion came out I got rolled into the Hype. As a game it cost me a fortune with no resale value.

Tals

Greg Wak · Post by **Greg Wak** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 12:39 pm

Hmmmm, never thought about reselling on ebay. I guess you won't be able to with HL2?

knob · Post by **knob** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:14 pm

I think you could sell access to your Steam account. Problem is, the seller could possibly steal it back from the purchaser.

snoleopard · Post by **snoleopard** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:03 pm

I just want to ask a question. If I want to replay my original HalfLife again, would I be able to without having Steam? If not, then I'm really going to be ticked off, as I usually fire it up at least once a year since it first came out. I was thinking of doing just that, but want to know if I'd have to have Steam first, or if it would want me to install it before I played the game again.

Al · Post by Al » Tue Oct 26, 2004 1:41 pm

snoleopard wrote:I just want to ask a question. If I want to replay my original HalfLife again, would I be able to without having Steam?

Yeah, just install it off the CD. Of course, you could also install Steam, register Half-Life 1 using the CD key and play the latest patched version before it even finished downloading too.

snoleopard · Post by **snoleopard** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 2:22 pm

Thanks Al...

martindemon · Post by **martindemon** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:48 am

tals wrote:I think that saving money is the justification, based on buying a game possibly in excess of every other month. That said EQ for me was one of my most expensive 'mistakes'. Everytime an expansion came out I got rolled into the Hype. As a game it cost me a fortune with no resale value.

Tals

Exactly, and I could not play just one game at a time and anyway, I just can't accept to not have control on my own games (good old load and save; can't live without them.)

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 9:45 pm

hitbyambulance · Post by **hitbyambulance** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:53 pm

Al wrote:
Giles Habibula wrote:The thought of paying $50 for a game, I don't care how great it is, if there's a possibility I won't be able to play it again in 10 or 20 or 30 years because it's just so 'outdated', or because I'm now trying to install it on another machine and it's already been tied to the machine I registered it with, makes that purchase more like a very expensive rental.
I take it you don't buy MMO games then?

this is one of the reasons why i don't play MMO games, as well. that, plus the monthly fee.... and that most of them are very lacking in the "gameplay" department...

it should be noted tho, that there are private servers still hosting Phantasy Star Online for Dreamcast.