Steam gets hacked

[geo]

I'm worried over the hack. News people have been saying oh its just the forum but I said no the forum is tied to your personal information. Then on Saturday Steam admitted that yes your personal info was stolen, but your credit cards and passwords are encrypted... but change everything just in case.

Personally, from the news I've read, I think this was just an advertisement for some hacking website...

I use Steam often and buy a lot of things.

... Oh and Steam has never stalled me for anything. Everything runs smoothly you should check your anti virus or... make sure there's not a key logger.

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

Craigs said:

Yep. I can't think of anything worse than people playing what you don't want to play

I agree. Your tastes suck ass.

[Vesperas_]

Fuzzyfireball said:

I agree. Your tastes suck ass.

Do you have anything remotely useful to say or do you exist purely to troll? I'd have Steam for HL2 and Skyrim alone. You're not attempting to proclaim HL2 "sucks ass," are you?

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

Sig-ma said:

I'd have Steam for HL2 and Skyrim alone. You're not attempting to proclaim HL2 "sucks ass," are you?

After one play-through, HL2 turns into a snore fest. So yeah, I guess I am proclaiming HL2 sucks ass.

[geo]

I'm playing HL2 for the first time ever and to be honest with you I didn't like the first 5 hours. Well let me put it differently... I liked the shooting, didn't like the boat, didn't know what was going on and I had just beat HL1 (twice) and its 2 expansions and I overthought simple puzzles. Now hours 6-10 I'm really enjoying.

[Vesperas_]

If people dislike Steam because of actual issues, such as internet connection issues (not really a Steam issue but perhaps some odd 1% of people have it isolated to Steam), forced patches or mediocre offline mode, I can understand that. From my own experience however, most people dislike it for dumb reasons or on principle. What people don't seem to realize is the PC platform would (probably) be much, much worse off now without Steam or another online distribution service (of which, people would complain just as much, if not more).

Half-Life 2 is awesome. If forced, I'd probably still proclaim that overall, it is still my favorite first-person shooter. While many people may not like it as much or really even like it, proclaiming it "sucks ass" is basically placing an obvious "I am a troll" stamp on your forehead. Ironically, the main complaint I've heard over the years that people seem to have about Half-Life 2 is that it uses Steam.

Half-Life 2 SP > Doom 3, Rage, Quake 4, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty XX, Killzone 2, Fear 3, so forth and so on SP. That said, Episode 1 and Episode 2 are mediocre for overall replay value but they are still both very well designed. While Episode 2 was wearing Half-Life 2 thin a bit, I never really faulted it since the Orange Box cost $50 and because of the overall package. I found it to be a pretty damn good deal-- $10 for an expansion or large DLC worth of content is fine by me.

[geo]

HL1 Blue Shift >> Mediocre and a step down from the previous expansion. On a plus side there are so many marines with their improved AI, you actually get to see their different tactics used.

If you think people troll about Steam, you should see the trolls for Windows Live.

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

I dislike Steam because it's DRM, I don't give a fuck if a majority of people think it's "lax DRM". It's still DRM and I'm sick of using it. Their support is shit, their forum is laughable, and the service did not save PC gaming. You must be out of your mind to think that, and the sad thing is I know millions do think that.

You think HL2 is awesome? Great. I don't really care. I think it blows really hard after the first play-through.

[geo]

Why do people hate DRM? That's what I don't understand. Why so mad?

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

geo said:

Why do people hate DRM? That's what I don't understand. Why so mad?

Maybe because it can be a major inconvenience? The best example being GTA IV or any game that limits the amount of times you can install your purchased game? Oh, let's not forget about Ubisoft and their always online bullshit.

Maybe because it doesn't work, and paying customers get to deal with it and pirates don't? The whole point of DRM is to stop pirates. Well go to any popular torrent site and type in Half-Life 2.

As far as why I hate Steam's DRM? It's flat out unnecessary just like every other form of DRM, forcing me to load their broken client to play the game I purchased? Their offline mode is a joke. Just because they sprinkle their shit with features like screenshots and junk doesn't make it easier to swallow.

But obviously, I'm in a minority, since the billions that use Steam don't mind getting butt fucked.

[geo]

Offline mode works for me. Steam has let me play games on 3 of my computers as long as I verify them. The catch is only 1 can be online at a time. As for UBI... seems like a little much, but its funny because their games have online components so I can see why they'd want the game to be online every second. Even single player is still online to post scores... but that's an after race component. So basically they don't need to be online 24/7 just post race to post scores. That's just laziness on programmer's part... or evil corporations.

But sigh even when things are explained to me I just don't get it. But hey why am I defending Steam when my encrypted credit card and password were comprimised. Hacking is such a sad trend now.

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

When people try to tell me why they like Steam, I don't get it. Whatever floats your boat.

CD Projekt seems like the only gaming company that doesn't have their head up their ass.

[TheDarkArchon]

Fuzzyfireball said:

CD Projekt seems like the only gaming company that doesn't have their head up their ass.

The PC port of Saints Row 2. You can thank me later for bringing it up.

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

TheDarkArchon said:

The PC port of Saints Row 2. You can thank me later for bringing it up.

They made up for it. The Witcher 2. :)

[Vesperas_]

Fuzzyfireball said:

Blah, blah, blah.

You realize CD Projekt still had you activate Witcher 2 retail via online authentication and it had ridiculously intrusive DRM when it came out, correct? The DRM was removed via a patch and CD Projekt then changed their stance on DRM. I purchased a physical copy of Witcher 2 when it came out and remember the whole patch fiasco quite well. Witcher 2 retail did not require Steam. This was their own DRM there.

The only baseline DRM on Steam is online activation. Oh, how terrible! Having to enter a product key and be online while it verifies is such bullshit! Additional DRM is at the discretion of the publishers and developers. Steam does not require DRM such as Ubisoft has forced on people. I like only having to enter my CD key once and being able to install my game anywhere, playing with cloud saves and having access to the community. The convenience of it all, in addition to the ridiculous Steam sales, free-to-play games and community features more than makes up for having to be online to activate a game or whatever minor issues I've ever experienced with the platform. You could argue someone shouldn't be forced to use Steam to play a game and I'd agree-- but I'd also agree that no one needs to play a game either.

As far as Steam improving the overall health of PC gaming, this is absolutely true. Online distribution and accessibility are the main reasons for the rebound that the PC platform is experiencing, of which, Steam is the main pioneer and leader.

Of course, I don't expect your opinion to shift at all but like I said, most people don't have good reasons for disliking it. They dislike it on principle (which is proven time-and-time again by the ridiculous and blatantly false "facts" some people use in support of their usually paper-thin complaints).

[geo]

... its also been proven that the console cycle the end of a console's cycle increases PC gaming. Just like the beginning of a console cycle kills it. I think there will be a steep drop again in 2013.

Anyway, I buy a lot of stuff on a whim because of Steam, but the stuff I buy is ten bucks or less.

[esselfortium]

Fuzzyfireball said:

I agree. Your tastes suck ass.

Much like your posting history to date.

The Doomworld staff hereby politely remind you always to be kind, rewind.

[Technician]

esselfortium said:

The Doomworld staff hereby politely remind you always to be kind, rewind.

But that movie sucked ass.

[Vesperas_]

geo said:

... its also been proven that the console cycle the end of a console's cycle increases PC gaming. Just like the beginning of a console cycle kills it. I think there will be a steep drop again in 2013.

That is probably true, in part. The main cited issues I believe with PC versus consoles are accessibility and cost. Online platforms such as Steam have made the PC more accessible than ever and the cost difference is closing slowly. People value community features (look at how successful social games are) and F2P models, so as PC unites with various services such as Steam, Origin or Games for Windows Live, I believe it will become better.

The main reason for the success of the Xbox, for example, can probably be attributed to Xbox Live and the community features. The PC had this long ago (online play, I mean) but the PC platform was not very accessible for your average person and the community was broken between games and scattered all over. Online distribution is growing, and it is growing fast. So fast in fact that EA, Activision and even GameStop have developed or are developing their own platforms / systems to accommodate for it. While they could all use a lot of improvement (including Steam), I definitely think it is good, overall.

The worst issues PC gaming faces now is piracy, DRM and pointless / destructive speculation. Piracy is growing (even on the consoles) and companies seem to be realizing lately that DRM won't save them. One of the worst companies with their DRM nonsense, Ubisoft, as proclaimed Assassin's Creed: Revelations will not have any DRM, for example. Sure, you have idiots like Tim Willits or Bobby Kotick pushing for always-on DRM but it will not matter and it will only hurt them. Everyone knows the pirates will still crack it and considering how the Playstation Network was hacked and forced down for weeks, this recent Steam hack and the overall quality of your average person's internet connection, that is mostly a pipe-dream. As far as the speculation I commented on, I mostly mean the people who proclaim, "Oh, if Steam dies you'll lose all of your games!" and whatever. Gabe Newell has already stated Valve has measures in place to disable authentication if such an incident were to ever occur.

Regardless, I mostly understand why people hate it or don't like being forced into it. I've had some issues with DRM in the past (Witcher 2 and Bioshock, primarily) and I fucking hate that online pass / unlock bullshit id Software pulled with Rage but I haven't had any real reason to dislike Steam.

[Creaphis]

Considering that everybody has a strong opinion about Steam one way or the other I think we can remove that line from Enjay's custom title.

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

Sig-ma said:

You realize CD Projekt still had you activate Witcher 2 retail via online authentication and it had ridiculously intrusive DRM when it came out, correct?

You realize CD Projekt released The Witcher 2 on GOG.com DRM free, and the decision to put DRM on their retail product was Namco Bandai's requirement? Which they removed quickly. Increasing sales.

[hex11]

DRM is a misnomer. It should be refered to as FTC (Fuck The Customer). Actually that's not even right, as the most prevalent term is now "consumer". That's right up there with how corporations now have "human resource departments" instead of "personnel". In other words, things to be exploited, not respected...

But all this stupid DRM mentality crap really started with the EULAs in the 90's. Thanks to Linux, BSD, and other open-source systems, I never had to subject myself to any of this bullshit.

[Vesperas_]

Fuzzyfireball said:

You realize CD Projekt released The Witcher 2 on GOG.com DRM free, and the decision to put DRM on their retail product was Namco Bandai's requirement? Which they removed quickly. Increasing sales.

Not DRM-free, if you consider Steam "DRM." You're purchasing Witcher 2 via an online service and it is verified then upon install. The terms and conditions are essentially exactly the same-- but you probably haven't read them, have you?

Your games are still attached to an account, GOG.com reserves the rights to make changes without notice, you still don't own your games, blah, blah, blah. The only difference is the installation of software, which you may run in offline mode. Sure, you don't have to install software then but you don't have friends, voice / instant message chat, achievements, dedicated servers and whatever else. With Witcher 2, despite the removal of DRM for retail, you still need to verify it online.

Bottom-line, the services are not as different as you seem to think they are. Proclaiming your service values customers and does not treat them like criminals is a pretty easy statement to make when your service requires you to purchase and download the game directly from the website and relies on the publishers / developers to handle anti-cheating and community services. All of the extra DRM bullshit is not coming from Steam, it's the publishers / developers shoving that in. I never had to jump through a bunch of unlock codes or SecuRom to make Half-Life 2 work and I'm pretty sure if you can download 18 GB worth of data for Witcher 2 from GOG.com you can pop online for one minute to verify your retail disc on Steam.

GOG.com is a decent online retail service, built around a niche feature. Steam just provides exponentially more value for what it is.

[Mr. T]

I'm pretty sure HL2 had securom at some point (FWIW)

[DELETE-THIS-ACCOUNT]

Sig-ma said:Not DRM-free, if you consider Steam "DRM." You're purchasing Witcher 2 via an online service and it is verified then upon install. The terms and conditions are essentially exactly the same-- but you probably haven't read them, have you?

While I don't agree to them putting TW2 up on that piece of shit, I understand lots of drones use it. So that means more money. Again, I guess people don't mind getting butt fucked if they would rather buy it on Steam. Just like people who even USE Xbox live or a similar service.

Also, TF2 Drones will no doubt have bought the game solely for the TF2 items it came with pre-ordered. So I have to hand it to them, kind of smart.

If you are talking about the verifying upon install on GOG, that's to verify the integrity, the GOG installer doesn't need to be online.

Sig-ma said:Your games are still attached to an account, GOG.com reserves the rights to make changes without notice, you still don't own your games, blah, blah, blah. The only difference is the installation of software, which you may run in offline mode. Sure, you don't have to install software then but you don't have friends, voice / instant message chat, achievements, dedicated servers and whatever else. With Witcher 2, despite the removal of DRM for retail, you still need to verify it online.

Your games are tied to an account, that is correct. But you can download them, back them up, and do whatever the fuck you want with them. Obviously, this attracts people like me who hate DRM and don't give a shit about "achievements, voice chat" and all that other useless crap. You shrug off my argument about Steam being DRM like it's nothing, when really it is a big deal to a large number of people. A place like GOG has attracted 6M people, while not all of them hate Steam, a large majority do.

Have you used GOG.com at all? Have you installed a game? It may say some legal babble about not owning it. But to me, having absolute freedom with the installer is fucking owning it.

You only need to "activate" TW2 for the scoreboard for arena. You can play it without activating

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/the_witcher_2/registration_closed_with_patch_1_2

Sig-ma said:Bottom-line, the services are not as different as you seem to think they are.

Um, yes they are, you just don't like me trashing your precious Steam.

Steam has been known to deactivate accounts when they didn't need to. What kind of bullshit is that? One day to lose all access to your games? When you didn't do anything wrong? You have to sit there prove it too. Go ahead and look it up.

Sig-ma said:Proclaiming your service values customers and does not treat them like criminals is a pretty easy statement to make when your service requires you to purchase and download the game directly from the website and relies on the publishers / developers to handle anti-cheating and community services. All of the extra DRM bullshit is not coming from Steam, it's the publishers / developers shoving that in. I never had to jump through a bunch of unlock codes or SecuRom to make Half-Life 2 work and I'm pretty sure if you can download 18 GB worth of data for Witcher 2 from GOG.com you can pop online for one minute to verify your retail disc on Steam.

The major difference being that once I download TW2 from GOG, I can back it up and never go back to GOG if I didn't want to. There is nothing stopping me from downloading it on as many computers as I want, however many times I want.

hex11 said:
DRM is a misnomer. It should be refered to as FTC (Fuck The Customer).

I couldn't agree more.

[Sharessa]

I'm pretty sure Steam has done more for gaming than anything else in the last 10 years.

[geo]

I agree with Danarchy. I can't think of anything else where there are 2 sales per weeks, and you can buy on a whim and who give you free games, demos and so on all within their browser. Its a great system. I fear what EA's system will be or GameSpot's system will be.

[Grazza]

Danarchy said:

I'm pretty sure Steam has done more for gaming than anything else in the last 10 years.

Yes, it has indeed done a lot, most notably playing a significant role in its decline.

[Vesperas_]

What a bunch of nonsense. When you look at Valve's roots, there is a clear desire to provide for a cohesive online community for MP (Counter-Strike, Team Fortress) and the online distribution service (which is fine-- more and more, sales are shifting from boxed copies to digital copies) was what made Steam so popular. From what I remember, well over half of all PC sales are done on Steam at this point (between 50-70%).

The main reason for the success is because developers prefer online distribution (look at all of the indie developers avoiding publishers and heading straight to Steam-- the small team that made Bastion called Steam a godsend) and the average person prefers the accessibility. You know why the Doom community is still doing fairly well? Because modding for Doom is comparatively simple and accessible.

I understand most people don't like Steam (for nothing more than principle-- and that seems to be more and more how people here feel as well), but proclaiming it butt-fucks people or is causing PC gaming to go into the decline (which has been proven untrue-- Steam has actually helped PC gaming), is nonsense.

[geo]

I still think we've derailed from the point. User info was comprimised. If they suck or rock... if they have your password and or credit card number... chances are a lot of people use the same password for everything. If they have your email address they can get into your email if not they can go to credit card companies using your email and password to have access to your credit card. So complaining about the service or DRM is irrelivant... someone has your password and credit card number. It is only a matter of time before it is comprimised and you see $300 in Walmart gift cards bought with your credit card.