StarDestroyer.Net BBS

When Half Life 2 came out, I didn't have the machine specs for it. By the time I did, I was playing other games. So last week I bought a copy on ebay, second hand. Installing it meant installing steam, which I had used before, but when I tried to validate the game, BAM! Key already in use. A quick scan of the much-vaunted Terms and Conditions reveals that keys are non-transferable, ESPECIALLY if you buy through ebay. I haven't seen a copy of HL2 on the shelves in quite some time; do I have to buy the whole friggin' orange box to play, or is there a way around Steam??

Buy directly from steam?

tim31 wrote:When Half Life 2 came out, I didn't have the machine specs for it. By the time I did, I was playing other games. So last week I bought a copy on ebay, second hand. Installing it meant installing steam, which I had used before, but when I tried to validate the game, BAM! Key already in use. A quick scan of the much-vaunted Terms and Conditions reveals that keys are non-transferable, ESPECIALLY if you buy through ebay. I haven't seen a copy of HL2 on the shelves in quite some time; do I have to buy the whole friggin' orange box to play, or is there a way around Steam??

Hmm.
Do you need a copy of HL2, still?
I actually have a 'gift' activation of the game - I had bought a copy cheaply, got hooked, and then bought the Orange Box.

Drop me a PM if you'd like me to try giving the gift install to you!

Well, try the demo.

And getting the Orange Box is a pretty sweet deal, imo. Especially if you didn't play HL2 before. Even if you don't like the episodes, you still get TF2 and Portal.

You don't have to buy the entire Orange Box in order to get HL-2, but you might as well. IMHO, TF-2 is one of the best mulitplayer PC FPSs on the market right now (up there with games I haven't played like CoD4), and Portal, although short, is a brilliant game. Do yourself a favour and get the Orange Box, because you essentially get Portal and TF-2 for free while purchasing HL-2 and the episodes.

I also have a gift for HL2 and Ep1 that anyone on the board is more than welcome to have. Just drop me a PM.

Just crack it and tell them to suck your cock.

Stark wrote:Just crack it and tell them to suck your cock.

Aren't we not supposed to advocate illegal activities on this board?

Molyneux wrote:

Stark wrote:Just crack it and tell them to suck your cock.

Aren't we not supposed to advocate illegal activities on this board?

Ah, but is it illegal to crack in order to play something you legitimately payed for?

Ar-Adunakhor wrote: Aren't we not supposed to advocate illegal activities on this board?

Ah, but is it illegal to crack in order to play something you legitimately payed for?[/quote]

In the US it’s illegal to break encryption used to protect copyrights, so I do believe it is.

Sea Skimmer wrote:In the US it’s illegal to break encryption used to protect copyrights, so I do believe it is.

Is it? Interesting, and slightly retarded in this case I would say. Then again, I imagine patent and copyright laws in general could do with some overhauls. Ah well.

Sea Skimmer wrote:

Ar-Adunakhor wrote: Aren't we not supposed to advocate illegal activities on this board?

Ah, but is it illegal to crack in order to play something you legitimately payed for?

In the US it’s illegal to break encryption used to protect copyrights, so I do believe it is.[/quote]

Both Stark and tim31 are in Australia, and the board is hosted in Canada. So what does US law have to do with it ?

And is it illegal in either Canada or Australia ?

This should clearly come up more when people talk about ripping DVDs, since the first step is 'break the encryption'.

That said, if you wanted to be absolutely legalist about it, Tim *doesn't* own HL2. You can't transfer Steam games in that way; he got hustled by an unscrupulous eBay seller.

Stark wrote:This should clearly come up more when people talk about ripping DVDs, since the first step is 'break the encryption'.

That said, if you wanted to be absolutely legalist about it, Tim *doesn't* own HL2. You can't transfer Steam games in that way; he got hustled by an unscrupulous eBay seller.

Well, I got my first copy of HL2 from eBay; in my case, though, it was a sale of a 'gift' copy of the game, not a physical item...guess it's harder to scam people that way.

Ah, if the guy was selling a gift, then that's why. It says in the EULA that you can't sell the gifts.

Issue resolved, thanks all for your input!