New HL2 experience...

[E.T.]

Ive played HL2 up to the obtaining the river boat w/o incident. Setting it aside for a few weeks, I was greated with a Steam mesage one morning "Log on to SteamPower to get autoupdates..", which I did. Afterwards, I ran HL2 to make sure game was ok [it was].

Now, HL2 wont play offline at all. I get the message "Game Unavailable".
So I get to Steam, log onto my account, am told "Invalid password", so I enter user name to get a new password emailed to me......"User name invalid". Yet when I attempt to create a new account with old user name, I get "Account already taken" Grrr...

Ive been to Steam forums, searched for the meassage Error: 'This game is currently unavailable' when connecting through Steam. I tried all suggestions to fix issue, but no luck.

Perplexed I am that HL 2 ran fine offline for several weeks till I allowed Steam to auto- update.
Any ideas on how to get this game running again?

[databug]

Hmm... i only played the demo. And it updated itself and did whatever it had to do, to even ALLOW me to play the demo, on OR offline.

the jury is still out on my end whether to buy it or not. what with reading posts like what you put here, people are having problems left and right with steam. it's a stupid idea and wont fully stop piracy. heck i was curious and called a game store, and they said "no if you buy it, it will always be new, we dont sell used half life 2 copies and wont ever take them as trade-ins either." and i said "why.. because of steam?" and the guy on the phone said "exactly." so once you buy half life i guess, it's yours for ever haha.

but, back to your problem... i read on a game site, dunno which cuz so many exist now, that VALVE is now banning people, and have banned over 30,000 game key numbers or whatever. i dunno... maybe you accidentally got screwed - or maybe steam servers were down. im sure someone will eventually whip up some kind of... no-steam patch, kind of like a no-cd patch LOL so we can all play steam offline. i wouldnt doubt if someone will at least attempt to do that.

all i know to tell you is to call them, or email their tech nerds - of course you will get an auto-responder email im sure. tech support is NON existent now days. its pathetic. or, tech support on the phone is now given to you by someone speaking VERY broken english and you cant understand a word they say.

wow... heh, sorry you cant play. hey do this - uninstall the game, reinstall it? and stay offline while u reinstall it...? i dunno, like i said, i've only tried the demo, and even THAT forces steam on you.

[E.T.]

Yes, I heard about the 30,000+ accounts that were shut down [illegal accounts].

I wonder if Steam gets any hate mail, lol.

Anyway, as I said previously, I made it to the river boat, & to that point game was uneventful.
For now, HL2 goes on my ever growing stack of unfininished over hyped games.

[Jupiter_x]

Yes, I heard about the 30,000+ accounts that were shut down [illegal accounts].

I wonder if Steam gets any hate mail, lol.

Anyway, as I said previously, I made it to the river boat, & to that point game was uneventful.
For now, HL2 goes on my ever growing stack of unfininished over hyped games.


I personally don't even update Steam or Halflife 2 anymore! I turn my Steam browser off everytime I go online. This Steam updater is just the biggest pain in the a$$ ever!

I went online once in mid december and steam started "auto" updating.....fine......until I had to leave my PC online for 2 days to get all the updates to finish! :mad:

If it ain't broke don't fix it!

[Renzatic Gear]

Valve really pissed off alot of people with their mass banning spree, not cuz it kept people from illegally playing HL2, but because it banned them from ALL of Steam's games.

Say you went out and bought Half-Life, Day of Defeat, Counterstrike plus it's sequel, Teamfortress Classic, and all the HL expansions, then decided to pirate HL2 cuz you were short on cash that day. Valve never came on record as saying that they'd ban entire Steam accounts, people just assumed that you wouldn't be able to play it. But apparently they had some scheme in mind, and went as far as helping seed HL2 rips on Bittorrent sites...then on the big day when the game went live they banned 30,000 people from playing ANY of their games ever again. Only way you can do it is if you buy them all over again and enter new CD keys.

That's not protecting their personal assets, that's entrapment. And the worst part is that there isn't anything anyone can do about it since you'd have to freely admit to piracy if you ever wanted to take it to court.

[Hieremias]

So... how is that entrapment? Entrapment is when a person is lured into an illegal situation. Valve hasn't lured anyone into any illegal situation. Even if they did seed BitTorrent releases (and I highly doubt that), they are still not enticing anyone into an illegal situation.

I won't say I've never pirated a game, but come on, I can hardly feel sympathy for these warez monkeys, despite your "you decided to pirate HL2 cuz you were short on cash that day". Man, what news agency do you work for? That was some impressive spinning. People pirate games because they can get away with it. It's never a matter of economics (show me a person who says "I really would buy this game if I could afford it!" and I'll show you a liar), it's simply easy to do and consequence-free. Except this time it wasn't consequence-free, so the online backlash has been brutal.

If you're caught shoplifting the punishment is almost always far greater than the value of the item, and often you're banned from that store. Why should it be any different with Valve?

[Renzatic Gear]

Cuz it shouldn't be Valve's right to restrict you from material you've legally paid for. When you shoplift from a record store, do the police come to your house and take away all your CD's? Also a fair warning would've been nice of em, everyone knows the punishment for shoplifting, if you do it you know exactly what you're getting into.

Think of this as a preview of the DMCA, Hieremias. Say you've bought about 30 movies produced by Warner Bros, and you one day decide to get a little stupid and pirate a Warner Bros movie you really wanna see but isn't out yet. They find out, kill off your WB account, and render your $600 DVD collection useless. The government can't (officially) confiscate legally owned property without due cause or process, why should corporations be any different?

While I can't say that I feel sorry for the pirates, I do think that Valve has really gone over the line here.

[Aku]

Just looking at the numbers, say 30,000 players got kicked out. Of the 30,000, a certain percentage are actual pirates, and have never bought a Valve game. That means that a certain number less than 30,000 represents the customers who got stupid and cracked a copy of HL2. Out of the millions of Valve products sold, pissing off less than 30,000 people while scaring the rest into never pirating a Valve game is probably a good tradeoff in their minds. And like you said, no one would ever sue them for it.

[DBS]

I wonder though if many or any where legit copies who now are banned with no fix or course of action? I spent the cash for HL 2 and if it stops working I am going to be angry ! I want to enjoy it at my pace. I turned off steam so it doesn't auto load on boot as I hate background programs anyhow and play offline.

I know piracy is a problem but hurting and penalizing your paying customers will end up cutting your own throat.

[Superior Beatslayer]

I wonder though if many or any where legit copies who now are banned with no fix or course of action? .

I bet there are, the way this is going, I wouldn't be surprised.

If you're caught shoplifting the punishment is almost always far greater than the value of the item, and often you're banned from that store

Ha! Don't try comparing pirating video games and shoplifting, they are totally different, trust me, I've been there (goddamn unmarked security guards ;) )...especially in this situation where its more like the consumer is getting jacked instead of the retailer.....err corperation.

[silversparrow]

30k doesn't seem like too large a number. If Valve thinks there isn't any circulation of HL2 warez that don't use Steam then they're sorely mistaken. I have seen warez of the game that have the Steam validation taken out completely.

[E.T.]

I wonder though if many or any where legit copies who now are banned with no fix or course of action? I spent the cash for HL 2 and if it stops working I am going to be angry ! I want to enjoy it at my pace. I turned off steam so it doesn't auto load on boot as I hate background programs anyhow and play offline.

I know piracy is a problem but hurting and penalizing your paying customers will end up cutting your own throat.

Thanks DBS, you hit the nail on the head!

I bought full retail version, have receipt & CD key, registered account,& played HL2 for a week or so, but now am told "accout invalid".

I just hope this isnt going to be a trend for PC gaming....all I want from my purchase is to be able to use it!:mad:

[Suicides-by-Steve]

I agree with Jeremy. Tough titties to the pirates if they can't play any of Valves' games. What I do dislike is those same companies not allowing to install their software, or software not operating properly due to other third-party installed software, such as Clone CD or Daemon Tools. That's BS.

As for my woes with H2, I was unable to play the game for 12 hours while Steam sorted out, and activated my new account and CD key. That's crap too. Another game I have issues with is Massive Assault. You can only play online PBEM games on their servers... that's BS as well. However, their game, their rules. I wish there was such a dislike towards pay-per-play games, as there was towards Steam. To me they're one and the same... both shabby business models, but business models with the companies' best interests in mind, regardless.

[DBS]

I don't have a problem with pay for play if the gameplay is worth it. I enjoyed my time in Asheron's Call years ago but I have yet to find something I enjoy in the mmrpg gaming. It may of been I was involved with AC from beta and it was my first real mmrpg. It was all new and cool but I am more jaded now and AO didn't turn me on for very long. It is now free and I reinstalled it and to be honest I am ready to uninstall it even being free. It is just so slow and not really much fun. I have been having a kick with my offline games...HL 2, Need for Speed Underground 2, Pro Race Driver, Call of Duty United Offensive...all fun titles that don't seem like a total waste of time.

I still think the slickest games are MOrrowind and NwN for the mod base and expandability of these titles. Mochan might dislike them but they give you so much game for the buck. Of course if it is not your cup of tea then you will not enjoy it one way or another.

Ok...I am rambling all over the place. Too much wine tonight :)

[Suicides-by-Steve]

I still think the slickest games are MOrrowind and NwN for the mod base and expandability of these titles. Mochan might dislike them but they give you so much game for the buck. Of course if it is not your cup of tea then you will not enjoy it one way or another.

Ok...I am rambling all over the place. Too much wine tonight :)

What is AO? Anarchy Online? If that's the case- I'm going out to buy myself a copy, right now... Okay, in the morning... ;)

One thing I am bothered by though in NWN are persistant world servers that ask for donations in order to keep up and running. Doesn't anybody read the EULA these days? Donations I suppose are one thing, but it's another thing entirely to exclude certain areas of the game to players that don't donate. I'll rat those servers out to Bioware in a moment.

Another thing that Bioware is doing that I don't appreciate too much is their "premium" modules, available through a download for around 10 bucks. We all know what they're doing though. They're scooping up the creme de la creme of module designers, giving them a cut of the profits, all while leaving drivel available for the person looking for freebie modules to play... The toolset was available for free, lets make sure at least a few writers of good modules are available still at least, let's not turn it into a money grab.

I'll keep looking forward to NWN2, on two conditions- the PW servers remain free, and that the toolset is as diverse and as widely accessible as it is now, without the need to pay for modules. Otherwise, they can keep NWN2 for all I care.

[DBS]

Yes, Anarchy Online is free and you can download the client free as well if you have broadband.

I just upgraded to dsl so this is all a new world again to me now. I networked my son's computer as well and looking for some good games to enjoy with him. For now we have Dungeon Siege to mess with together.

[Renzatic Gear]

Another thing that Bioware is doing that I don't appreciate too much is their "premium" modules, available through a download for around 10 bucks. We all know what they're doing though. They're scooping up the creme de la creme of module designers, giving them a cut of the profits, all while leaving drivel available for the person looking for freebie modules to play... The toolset was available for free, lets make sure at least a few writers of good modules are available still at least, let's not turn it into a money grab.

I was under the impression that the premium modules were produced by Bioware...sorta like mini expansion packs. The 3 PM's I saw were all made by people that worked for the company.

And don't worry about Bioware/Obsidian charging to play their games online. Unless they start dedicating server farms to host thousands of people in game at once they won't have a reason to start asking for subscription fees.

[Friend_Bear]

I had some very minor problems which I got sorted out quickly, so far no problems what so ever. I completed HL2 a few weeks back and i'm gonna go through it again soon, awesome game if a little too short.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Oh wow DBS!! That's wicked news... Off I go to download it now! WooHOO!! I've always wanted to play that game...

[DBS]

I hope the free period is still going on. It is free for a year and only the original game not the expansions material. Still it is a good way to get your feet wet and see if it is your cup of tea. I joined back up and play on the Ruba Ki 1 server under Brusied for a newbee martial artist.

[DBS]

goto www.gamershell.com for a quick link to the client

[Friend_Bear]

I see only this?

Funcom and GamersHell.com to offer Anarchy Online 21 Days FREE trial

[Suicides-by-Steve]

I was under the impression that the premium modules were produced by Bioware...sorta like mini expansion packs. The 3 PM's I saw were all made by people that worked for the company.

And don't worry about Bioware/Obsidian charging to play their games online. Unless they start dedicating server farms to host thousands of people in game at once they won't have a reason to start asking for subscription fees.

Sorry Ren, I was gonna respond to this last night, but I ran off to get the AO download first... so here I am again. The premium modules are done by the original members of the NWN game, but I don't doubt that some of the new people working on the modules are rather talented maps makers that have just been hired on... taken from the rather large talent pool that this toolset has created; so we're both right, they now all work for Bioware, but it further erodes the selection of free modules to just a handful of great modules, rather than a lot. Why would a module maker make modules for free, when they can be comissioned by Bioware to make them?

Why would they need thousands of players to charge? I don't require that I'm running around with thousands... that just bogs the system down. A carefully crafted PW world, that has rich contents, updated frequently, and has DM run events, is all it takes for most to be willing to throw some bucks at people. Just the other day on the server I play on, someone donated 400 bucks towards a Cisco router... all in an effort to reduce lag... Crazy!!

[Suicides-by-Steve]

I hope the free period is still going on. It is free for a year and only the original game not the expansions material. Still it is a good way to get your feet wet and see if it is your cup of tea. I joined back up and play on the Ruba Ki 1 server under Brusied for a newbee martial artist.

Well, the good and bad... I downloaded the game, and it runs fine, albeit a little laggy. The free year (it's not indefinite) is only applicable to AO, and not its' expansions, and the company reserves the rights to terminate this freebie at anytime if the server demands become too high. From what I have read, and played, it seems that the Alien Invasion and Shadowlands expansions are the places to be, yet I refuse to pay-to-play for these... I would gladly go out and buy the expansions, but not pay a sub too. I may dump it after a while... especially since Guild Wars (and now networked NWN with the wife) is gobbling up most of my free time. Thanks for the heads up though! I'll stick with it for a bit longer, get to know the system, and let you know if I plan to be sticking with it for longer than a week...

[DBS]

No problem...I played the original and one expansion for a few months but I am not really all that thrilled with it or any mmrpg right now. I reloaded NwN and now that I have dsl I may get into it online. Free is good but it is so darn slow to progress and the fun stuff is way up the ladder. I was bored before with a level 60 something character....something is missing although it may be I just hate the pace and level treadmill of most mmrpg games.

[Suicides-by-Steve]

Well, you should come join the wife and a couple friends online at Adventure Island. It's a great server. The level progression is not too bad, and the ideology behind the server is pretty cool too. The mod maker wass a hardcore EQ player, and has taken many ideas from that game, and implemented them into the game. It's great stuff.