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Read over my brother's shoulder on the Something Awful forums...

Apparently, Valve's retarded Steam system REQUIRES that you
have to be connected to the internet to even play single player
HL2.

Gabe Newell can suck my cock for all I care, my gaming money/time
is now going to Homeworld 2 and not that overhyped POS HL2.

That can't be right; why the fuck would they make you connect to the Internet to play in SP mode?

Mind you, I have broadband so it doesn't matter to me either way, but still, it just doesn't make sense.

MKSheppard wrote:Read over my brother's shoulder on the Something Awful forums...

Apparently, Valve's retarded Steam system REQUIRES that you
have to be connected to the internet to even play single player
HL2.

Gabe Newell can suck my cock for all I care, my gaming money/time
is now going to Homeworld 2 and not that overhyped POS HL2.

No fucking way....

That isn't right because not everyone has a internet connection, that would be plain stupid. Something Awful is full of something awful and that is bullshit.

As far as I can tell, all these rumors started in response to this:

http://nerdsahoy.com/interviews/090103_gaben_hl2.htm

And have snowballed since them. The author if the above link has since said it was all a made up pack of lies. So I wouldn't worry. Half-life 1 is *still* making these guys rich off current sales, I think they'll be generous and not having anything too over the top for copyright protection. Then again, Gabe is a former M$ guy...

RedStorm did something almost as bad with Raven Shield. You can not play LAN games with a single CD because even LAN games require an open connection to the internet so that servers may verify that everyone is using seperate CD or authentic CD keys. Even if everyone has their own CD, an internet connection is still required or LAN play won't work.

aronkerkhof wrote:As far as I can tell, all these rumors started in response to this:

http://nerdsahoy.com/interviews/090103_gaben_hl2.htm

And have snowballed since them. The author if the above link has since said it was all a made up pack of lies. So I wouldn't worry. Half-life 1 is *still* making these guys rich off current sales, I think they'll be generous and not having anything too over the top for copyright protection. Then again, Gabe is a former M$ guy...

After reading that article I have one comment.

I hated Xen as well....I really don't want to go back there. Someone hold me please...

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?a ... 4,91503900

Do I have to be connected to the Internet when I play Steam games?


The short answer is yes.

All Steam-enabled games require you to be connected to the Internet in order to play.

Note: some Steam-enabled single-player games (such as Half-Life 2) purchased at a retail store will allow offline play until the user decides to play online or enable other Steam functionality. From that point on, an Internet connection will be required.

Looks like a new form of copy protection, from a quick 5 minute web search. Basically, it requires you to login in order to play instead of requiring the CD be put in. I wonder if keeping the CD in will allow you to play without the Internet connection. They'll probably have to impliment some kind of workaround for those who do not have reliable Internet access, after getting complaints after release, if nothing else.

This is stupid.


I mean, think about it.



This is Half-Life 2. The sequel to only one of the most popular games to ever grace the PC, the game that won the Best Game of All Time award.


What does Valve have to fear anyway?

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?a ... 4,91503900

http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?a ... 6,98098300

Mad wrote:Looks like a new form of copy protection, from a quick 5 minute web search. Basically, it requires you to login in order to play instead of requiring the CD be put in. I wonder if keeping the CD in will allow you to play without the Internet connection. They'll probably have to impliment some kind of workaround for those who do not have reliable Internet access, after getting complaints after release, if nothing else.

Yeah I found the same thing. Half Life 2 is going to be sold in multiple packages. IIRC one version comes with just the single player, another with both the single player and the multiplayer. And then this version which will be downloadable, and like you just said not requiring the CD.

This is about as fucked up as it comes -_-

Hamel wrote:This is about as fucked up as it comes -_-

Why is it fucked up? If you buy the CD version you won't have to do that?

Wow. I can't get to steampowered.com right now (connection refused) but if all this is true this is crazy. What is valve going to do when their server is down (like right now, for me) or there is network trouble or a person decides he's not going to pay for dialup anymore or moves out of college and can't afford it or any of the myriad other legitimate reasons that people might have to want to play the game off line in single player mode.

I'll still buy it though. This just means I have to hunt down the crack to disable this crap 24 hours after its release.

Ah yes. Draconian software protection schemes: inconveniencing legitimate paying customers far more than pirates, for more than 15 years. Huzzah!

Kamakazie Sith wrote:Why is it fucked up? If you buy the CD version you won't have to do that?

It's not just the downloadable version, all versions will be like this.

Read the quote in my previous post.

Gabe Newell's past history as a Microsoft employee must be showing itself now.


So does this mean that even those who play single-player have to log on to Steam also?

Shinova wrote:Gabe Newell's past history as a Microsoft employee must be showing itself now.

So does this mean that even those who play single-player have to log on to Steam also?

Hopefully, users will boycott the game en masse.

What aobut people who live in areas that don't live in Broadband/DSL-supported areas, such as myself (you'd think a town that sold its soul and dignity to communications cand cable companies would have better coverage), who's lucky to get 38kbs on their 56K modem?

Why do I have to use something just to get features that I don't give a damn about? 'Aoutmatic updates'? 'Chat with friends'? Oh, la-di-da, Valve and Vivendi. I wonder when Vivendi is going to start forcing Blizzard to do this kind of stupid crap, too.

Won't be too long before somebody find a way to circumvene it... You have to admit it's an effing stupid idea though, requiring an internet connection to play SINGLE player mode just defeats the purpose of the whole thing. What about those who don't have internet access? Those who cannot access the internet for whatever reason? Thank you Valve, you just killed your reputation.

RedWizard wrote:

Kamakazie Sith wrote:Why is it fucked up? If you buy the CD version you won't have to do that?

It's not just the downloadable version, all versions will be like this.

Read the quote in my previous post.

It just doesn't sound right....I guess maybe it is. Strange.....game developers always seem to do something stupid like this. Whether they leave an important feature out (Halo PC cooperative play) or do some weird marketing thing (HL2) they never seem to get it completely right.

Exonerate wrote:Won't be too long before somebody find a way to circumvene it...<snip> Thank you Valve, you just killed your reputation.

Absolut - it'll only be a week tops until a mod is out to 'fix' it. Stupid ineffective copy protection... is copy protection even possible, given the nature of data? The only copy protection I've seen that works is the online Halflife CD-key validation to play on the internet.
Also... has anyone wondered what ELSE Steam does with your connection? Call me paranoid (go ahead, I'm paranoid), but I don't want a poorly documented app like that on my puter. But then, even old Halflife will have to use Steam. I doubt its just for copy protection.

Not sure what everyones problem is. It was quoted above that the game only requires you to run while online if you ever play it online or activate one of the other features.

So if you just play it single player only on your PC then you should neverhave this problem.

I think the measures won't be so draconian. I am guessing it will be like in HL 1, were you have to be authenticated by WON if you want to play online, only this time you will need a username and password to play online. Westwood have been doing this for years for their C&C series. It just means you have to be registered in order to have a username and password so you can play multiplayer online.

Gambler wrote:I think the measures won't be so draconian. I am guessing it will be like in HL 1, were you have to be authenticated by WON if you want to play online, only this time you will need a username and password to play online. Westwood have been doing this for years for their C&C series. It just means you have to be registered in order to have a username and password so you can play multiplayer online.

Its worse then that. Once you play online for the first time, you MUST have an active internet connection to play single player from that point forward.