Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (
More info?)
On Tue, 08 Feb 2005 07:27:02 GMT, riku <riku@invalid.none.com> wrote:
>On Mon, 7 Feb 2005 18:02:49 -0500, "KCB"
><kcbairdREMOVE@THIScomcast.net> wrote:
>
>>> STEAM is a mess. I am still pissed off that I can't lend people my
>>> copy of HL2 or play a convenient LAN match anymore.
>>
>>You can lend out the game. They simply put in your Steam username and
>>password when they install it.
>
>How can you play your other Steam games on that same account, then?
>What if you still rather kept your Steam _account_ to yourself?
>
>Don't try to defend a glaring flaw in the Steam design.
>
Flaw... distinctly not.... Quite deliberately though-out limitation
to support the EULA...yes !!
For HL2/CS:Source to be "lent" or "transacted" ( illegal, according to
Valve...) separately from previous Steam-game installations, you MUST
open a SEPARATE NEW STEAM ACCOUNT when you FIRST INSTALL/
AUTHENTICATE THE GAME... and you must transfer the user-name of
the account and password to the 3rd-party when you 'transact' the
game.... all illegal ( according to Valve's EULA) of course. The
user-name cannot be changed. This will also apply for any future
non-free$$ single-player products from Valve either via Steam or
retail...unless Valve has a total change of heart (ha, ha, ha...)
about authentication/copy-protection of single-player games. Valve is
the first developer to extend the combination of locked-down
user-names together with on-line authentication from PC MMORGs to
Single-player games. The notion of requiring an umbilical cord to the
developer before installing and running a Single-player PC game is
reprehensible and treats the PC customer as a third-class citizen. For
a single-player game on the consoles all you have to do is insert the
DVD and go. You want to give, trade, sell the console-game to a
friend... just go ahead, no problem.... Not so with Valve's
single-player PC products. Just say NO to VALVE products in the
future (or present).
In the case of Valve-produced user-information.... .CAVEAT EMPTOR.
The real answers to any obvious user-questions conveniently
unanswered by the Valve FAQs are highly unlikely to positively benefit
the purchaser.
John Lewis