Sweet mother off all that is good and pure...

[Jorath Calar]

I just got Halflife 2 and amazingly it runs very nicely on my machine, at least better than the Doom crap... And wow it is great, everything I loved about the original + awesome physics and a hot babe sidekick ... does it get any better [img]smile.gif[/img]

just 2 problems, the loading time are pretty intense, up to 4-5 minutes sometimes, which really kills the mood, anyone know how I can reduce them?
Also Steam is the invention of the devil... why can't I play the game without being logged to the internet... what does the game need a internet connection for when you are playing single player?

[edited the title... and added some praise... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 12-02-2004, 08:40 PM: Message edited by: Jorath Calar ]

[johnny]

haven't got a clue, but once i have it, i'll figure something out to fix that crap. Once i bought it, it's mine, and only i will decide how i'll play the game, and it will definitely not be while i'm online. It has probably something to do with them being able to track down illegal copies, but like i said, once it's paid for, they are dismissed. What's mine is mine, and i play by my own rules.

[ScottG]

Originally posted by johnny: haven't got a clue, but once i have it, i'll figure something out to fix that crap. Once i bought it, it's mine, and only i will decide how i'll play the game, and it will definitely not be while i'm online. It has probably something to do with them being able to track down illegal copies, but like i said, once it's paid for, they are dismissed. What's mine is mine, and i play by my own rules.

I have exactly the same sentiment, however thats not how it generally works out legally.. (which to me is abusive in the extreme).

The mistake made here is that people are purchasing a product, when instead what they are purchasing is a license. I think there is more than enough evidence to suggest that these so-called licenses ARE products, but your talking about years and millions of dollars worth of litgation to prove it so.

[Thoran]

You can set steam to local mode so you don't need to be logged into the net to play.

Not much will help load times, on the hottest system I have (dual opteron with 15k scsi raid0 array, work system that I have at home while I 'evaluate' it ) the load times were 5-10 seconds at most, that was sweet... but on my fastest home box (athlon xp 2400 with 7200rpm ide) it was taking twice that long or worse, that was long enough to be annoying.

[johnny]

A license ? I don't think so, a licensed product, yes, but a license ? That doesn't make any sense.

[Bokken]

Sorry people but I'd have to add my 5 cents here too. They think they are purchasing a product when in fact they are purchasing junk. (without offence meant to anyone)

As far as I'm concerned it's not just a case of tracking down illegal copies. That can and will be bypassed steam or no steam. Every copy protection known to man has been broken and so will this one in good time. All it really does mean is that if you haven't got the internet, you now need it to play the monstrosity you have just waited close to 3 years for. Oh and if you don't have a modem, then you had better purchase on of those cause you need it to be able to access the internet to begin with.
Think that's bad! There's more! Live in Australia? Then most companies won't even sign you up unless you use a credit card. So, after a 3 year wait, I need to go out and get myself a credit card, buy a modem, subscribe to the internet and then spend a $100 to buy a game.

Gets better still! After all that crap and for god knows what reason anyone in their right mind would want to actually go through it, you can't play the game because CD/DVD emulation software is detected.

So, next time someone shoots up the local mall, I don't wonder how people like this can exist among us. But why we still have to lead them to it.

Besides all that, yes I did buy HL2 and yes I am playing it but should I have known that it needed an online connection, I would have never bothered to begin with.

[ScottG]

yup, a license that IS a product (i.e. something for sale). You don't own the rights to that game, only to play that game under their rules. This essentially means that you do NOT purchase the "product" until you have ACCEPTED the license - but try and tell that to the retailer you purchased it from. (To retailer: umm, I started installing it and it has all this crap I'm not about to "accept", so I stoped the installation and am now returning the product for a full return... then the retailer begins laughing at you.)

and no, it most certainly is NOT strictly about preventing illegal copies. Microsoft is THE pioneer here, they are not that concerned with non-corporate user illegal copies - they are concerned with "other" things (spooky invasive things).

[Thoran]

Conspiracy theories... conspiracy theories. Damn the internet is full of em.

Microsoft pioneered product activation definitely to try to limit illegal copying of their software. They're primarily interested in slowing down the rampant pirating of MS products that occurs in Asia. By itself product activation is of limited value (as said, it is easily defeated), but you're starting to see the second phase now... and this is where software producers will start to see dividends in the approach.

It goes something like this:

First came the Unique license code - prevents almost nobody from pirating, they just download a code and away they go. No way for the Software Company (hereafter SoCo) to trace or limit copying.

Then came Activation - Really just a license code that's transmitted to the SoCo. Activation alone is easily defeated, software defeats the activation sequence and pirated copies are installed locally.

This is where Microsoft is currently at... soon to come:

Update verification - Before you are able to download updates or patches your license will be checked against a database, multiple users means blocked updates.

Product Deactivation - Anytime you use your product online (or anytime you visit a company website) your license will be checked, multiple users will cause the product to disable itself.

This is essentially where Steam is at, you can get a pirated copy and play offline, but a pirated copy connecting online won't work, and will cause your account to be banned (along with the guy who's code you used to activate). Micrsoft has set the groundwork for this sort of thing with their Passport stuff, but they have not yet started actually DOING it... Valve just leap-frogged them, and no doubt M$ is CLOSELY watching how things go for Valve (and so far they're going reasonably well).

Expect to see a LOT more of this sort of thing in the near future. It won't keep people from pirating the software, but it'll make online use of the software more and more difficult.

Regarding HL2, you CAN play legal versions of HL2 offline, all you need to do is connect to the internet ONCE to register and activate, then you put Steam into offline mode and you're good to go forever. The only flaw I see in their approach is that you're not able to activate over the phone, I hope it's something they fix in a future product release. Even so, personally I don't know anyone who can't get access to the internet once. Hell, sign up for a 30 day free trial of AOL, or take your PC to a friend or relatives house if you don't have a CC. Then once you activate you don't need the internet connection anymore.

Thanks guys for answering my question as to whether to actually buy HL2...the answer is NO, not gonna donate my $$$ to them to encourage them to fob this crap off on me.

They did the same thing with the Premium "MODS" for Never Winter Nights...so I won't be purchasing anything from them either. Send your hate mail to the companies that do this crap and then don't buy their products....it's the only way to discourage them.

[Marcus Valerius]

Originally posted by ScottG: yup, a license that IS a product (i.e. something for sale). You don't own the rights to that game, only to play that game under their rules. This essentially means that you do NOT purchase the "product" until you have ACCEPTED the license - but try and tell that to the retailer you purchased it from. (To retailer: umm, I started installing it and it has all this crap I'm not about to "accept", so I stoped the installation and am now returning the product for a full return... then the retailer begins laughing at you.)

Try telling this to the retailer. "I don't agree with the End User License Agreement and refuse to accept it." If you want to check up on whether it will work I suggest reading an EULA and I believe that somewhere in there it states that the product can be returned for refund if you do not accept the EULA... I haven't done the deep down research into this but if someone is ticked enough to do the research to see if there's a legal clause somewhere for stores like EB having to refund then feel free to look into it.