I posted this in an earlier thread, but I guess it's as applicable here as well, and worth saying.

I'm sure you, as a consumer to be, have rights here that you need to explore with a lawyer. Having decided that you want to buy their product on a certain date, I would think you could get damages from them for withholding it from you. Use your current agitation as evidence, make sure you conceal a history of tantrums and childish pique from the defence lawyers and and make sure that as part of the costs you include the costs for maintaining a jester to keep you gurgling happily when your plans for nursery domination are upset by HL2 being late, or your branded nappies causing a rash.

This whole attitude is probably the fetid backlash to the whole attitude that the customer is always right, to the utter detriment of the supplier.
People think they deserve the right to try a game out, so pirating it to play it through is ok, because we all know they'll very definately buy it later if it was worth it and there happened to be enough protected online content that they couldn't access with their 'demo'. Or hey, perhaps they wouldn't have bought it anyway, so because it's intangible in intellectual form, it's fine to steal it because they wouldn't have got your money anyway.

...

Thankfully, we at MoralAbsolution Industries are pioneering technology based on this: We have a product idea so great, it'll blow your mind, luckily, knowing that we'll be selling it to you in the future, we've ripped off your bank accounts for a reasonable sum, and will provide you with it when it's ready. Well, assuming you trust us to make that descision objectively now that we have your cash anyway.

You'll also be happy to know that our new PatentCircumnavigator system borrows all your original ideas straight from your head. It's been legally tricky, but with a large amount of cash, and by knowing exactly how the lawyers on the other side would react, we've managed a moral stamp of ok-ness from a legal point of view.

It works like this: each time you have a good idea, our system picks it up and stacks it for processing, the ones you never use but were actually quite good, we sell, since you wouldn't have used them anyway, we figured this was ok. The ones you do use, along with the clever details of how you get them to work, we'll be passing along to your competitors. Although they won't be able to use them, they'll shortcut catching up on your ideas, and be able to jump right ahead of you on the next product, no matter how hard or long you work! We feel this provides everyone with a great method of not having to get a job and funding for original ideas, or have to spend any time thinking up things that some other bright spark has figured out already!

Brilliant!

We've also taken the remainder of the money in your bank account for startup capital, since we know you'll want to invest in us!

Does this mean Valve is looking for a new network admin?

The gaming community DESERVES To be flamed every once in a while. Its fanatacism, mob-behavior, and habit of biting the hands that feed it are a constant source of frustration for those of us that make games for a living. We love making games, and we love having fans that care and want our products - but having those same fans attack us is pretty discouraging and frustrating

Noel,

I can't say I agree with the fact that the community at large deserves to be flamed. The majority of gamers are not jerks. The 10% of the crowd that stirs up the pot and prompts developers to bite back are the problem.

Case in point - Brandon Reinhart posts here from time to time. He is one of the few insiders to do so consistently (Kenn Hoekstra does as well). I don't think 10 posts can go by before someone here makes some dumb ass remark. Even if it is tongue in cheek it happens. The end result is Brandon or Ken or whoever drops back into the shadows. The thousands of other people that read these boards groan and rub their foreheads.

Imagine being a movie fan and having access to either the talent, producers, writers or directors. Then imagine slapping them in the face any time they attempt to interface with their public. This is what the whiners/malcontents do. It ruins it for the people that take games for what they are - just games.

Ultimately the designers/creators of these projects will remove themselves from direct contact with their end users. Sad day that will be.

First off, people need to remember that just 'cuz yer talking online and not face-to-face, doesn't give you the right to be an ass.

That I agree with totally. This goes both ways however.
When someone with the maturity level of an eight year old says something stupid you don't respond in kind. Even if that is the only method of communication they understand. While you are busy giving back what you got a lot of other people are watching and shaking their heads.

Valve HAS been a part of the community. They released some killer SDKs, updates to the game, free Mods, supported many mod developers and tutorial websites (including mine, Wavelength, which you'll find on page 29 of the original HL manual). Name another game company that has done as much! id releases its source and tools, to be sure - but NO ONE has done as much as Valve.

Valve has a great deal of goodwill in the gaming world. Whoever did this to them should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

-TPFKAS2S
http://www.braglio.org

1) Starting around 9/11 of this year, someone other than me was accessing my email account. This has been determined by looking at traffic on our email server versus my travel schedule.

This surprises you? How about realizing that using your work computer to converse with fans online (yes, he does this on a daily basis http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1298&perpage=15&pagenumber=1) = stupid. Use a secure computer away from the business equipment!

2) Shortly afterwards my machine started acting weird (right-clicking on executables would crash explorer). I was unable to find a virus or trojan on my machine, I reformatted my hard drive, and reinstalled.

You reforma.... Gabe, look up http://www3.ca.com/virusinfo/virus.aspx?ID=37190
Maybe your DNS was altered & you couldn't do jack shit because of it.

3) For the next week, there appears to have been suspicious activity on my webmail account.

And was this computer connected to your business systems?

4) Around 9/19 someone made a copy of the HL-2 source tree.

Surprise! Obviously your mail was connected to your business systems. Someone who pretended to like you, or got pissed when you delayed the game, backtraced the mail you sent him & jumped through the rabbit hole. You got fucked up the ass & YOU LET IT HAPPEN! Most fans are your friends Gabe, but not all, don't let yourself be deluded into poor business practices. Use a different computer on a different network you mindless fuck!

6) Periodically for the last year we've been the subject of a variety of denial of service attacks targetted at our webservers and at Steam. We don't know if these are related or independent.

You are kidding right? I mean you have to be kidding. The DOS attacks against Steam were made by people who don't want steam, who think steam is a bad idea. Microsoft gets bombed every once in awhile. Banks get hit. What the fuck makes you different?

Now Gabe is a good guy, he really is, but this is all pretty naive.

I'm 30 years old! Unlike the majority of gamers here, I dont have fucking eternity to wait for a game! Games or not, I dont have sympathy for companies that make me wait, then wait more.

Then you're an extremely immature 30 year old. First, I guess you haven't noticed by frequenting a gaming news site, but companies often announce games long before they are coming out. Games the size of Half Life 2 are often announced far longer than 6-8 months before their release (every id game since Quake has had an announce-to-shelf cycle of well over a year, most big titles run 2 or 3 years in the last couple of years).

Second, you're somehow rejoicing that the theft of a big new engine's source code is karmic retribution for making you're childish ass wait a pathetic 8 months? Grow up. If anything, it was karmic to delay the game from September to November because of babies like you without any patience.

This comment was edited on Oct 2, 21:08.

I'm 30 years old!

Physically.

I'm 30 years old! Unlike the majority of gamers here, I dont have fucking eternity to wait for a game! Games or not, I dont have sympathy for companies that make me wait, then wait more.

He's a stupid fucking adult.

This comment was edited on Oct 2, 20:55.

You are a stupid fucking kid.

I'm 30 years old! Unlike the majority of gamers here, I dont have fucking eternity to wait for a game! Games or not, I dont have sympathy for companies that make me wait, then wait more.

I know it's just a game and not really my problem, but it actually does make me kinda sick that someone did this.

Tangled - I didn't realize that you were SO important that your eagerness for this game was worth the livelihood of *30* PEOPLE. Damn, you sure are an important kid!

--Noel "HB" Wade

You are a stupid fucking kid.

Rape.

Fuck?

For Valve keeping on me in a pee-pee dance for over six months, then to the holidays? Well... they can go fuck themselves. Serves them right. Its called 'bad kharma.'

2coasts - Sadly, the source would be a pain to wade through, to pick out the proper function calls and objects to interface with. It could be done - but then if you released the Mod early, Valve probably wouldn't be too happy. Also, they're GOING to change the networking code. They *HAVE* to, to prevent horrendous cheats and other security concerns. Ergo, some of your Mod code will probably be "broken". Its just not worth the risks and the morality issues and the wasted time. I'm REALLY hungry for the HL2 Mod SDK - but this isn't worth it.

Take care,

--Noel "HB" Wade

HIGH_PING - I don't work in Marketting. I make stuff, I don't get involved in selling it. ;-) Most game-designers don't, because they don't care for that side of the business. The fun comes in making the product and seeing people smile when they use it. We sell our work because then we get paid. We want paychecks because we HAVE to have them, if we want to be able to work on it full-time.

Zeph - Oh, I suppose you've never been late for anything in your life? Read my earlier post: If it came out and required an extra patch because of a bug, you'd whine even more! Its a lose-lose situation for Developers; which is why most of them choose to delay instead of release incomplete. Its the lesser of two evils - a late release can be made up for by a superior product; bad bugs will haunt you and your reputation forever. Publishers, on the other hand, have limited funds and patience; and have released games before they were ready on MANY occassions. :-P Its a complex business with a complex set of situations.

Take care,

--Noel "HB" Wade

This next shot is for Valve and company.

You're a moron. Please throw yourself off of a bridge.

does this mean mods will be able to get a jump start? i hope all the mod teams use this sourcecode so that when HL2 is released we have lots of fun mods to play with.

Sucks to be Valve right about now. I can't believe that something like this could happen--I'm pretty much speechless.

That's crazy.