[Martinus]

Originally posted by Turnsky
Reciept + game box.. photocopy/scan the reciept and send it to them as proof of purchase.

[color=66ff00]When CS 1.6 came along with steam and you had to register your keys with Valve I installed it and entered all my details only to find out that someone had pinched my key.

Emailed Valve telling them that I had proof of purchase and could submit scans for them. Email got through ok but was never replied to.
I considered not buying HL2 due to this but I have to admit that when others said it was a great game I got washed up in the hype and bought it.
[/color]

[Triple Ace]

How long ago did you email them?

[Cabbie]

Originally posted by Turnsky
Reciept + game box.. photocopy/scan the reciept and send it to them as proof of purchase.

Yup that should clear things up most of the time. It sucks though when we legit buyers get screwed because of these silly copy protection crap.

[Grimloq]

Originally posted by Triple Ace
I bought it at WAL-MART. It is legit.

*snarl* thats a contradiction in terms...

anyway, sry to hear that man... ive gotten lots of crap about taht sort of thing from gamespy, but mostly it was because of weird CD keys. fortunately, gamespy has some sort of verification system i think... meh, whatever...

from what ive heard, MP on steam is screwey and in general sucks- its too careful. then again. ive never played HL or HL2 or CS.

[Thorn]

MP is in no way screwy. CS:S is so much better than 1.6. All they need is to have the level of support that 1.6 has and it will be perfect, because then they can bring back server-side mods like AMX. My only gripe with Steam is that its slow as hell. It takes a good two minutes to fully launch.

[Triple Ace]

It seems I have two choices. I can wait and see if I get a reply from Valve (those rotten bastards). I can also try to make a new account and trade the copy I have to get a new copy of HL2. Unless things clear up Valve is being added to my hit, uh I mean my sh*t list. And if I do go with option 2 they might send the police after me. The email I got did say something about law enfocement.

[pyro-manic]

Write to them on paper. Ring 'em up. Repeatedly. Hassle the **** out of them until they do what they're supposed to do. You have rights as a consumer - make them fulfil their obligations to you as a customer.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Triple Ace
It seems I have two choices. I can wait and see if I get a reply from Valve (those rotten bastards). I can also try to make a new account and trade the copy I have to get a new copy of HL2. Unless things clear up Valve is being added to my hit, uh I mean my sh*t list. And if I do go with option 2 they might send the police after me. The email I got did say something about law enfocement.

it's also quite possible that somebody /with/ a pirated copy has the same key as you... it seems that Steam is far from infallable, it is , the most flawed piece of crap there is.

what you do is, take a close-up photo of the box, the contents OF that box, and the reciept, make sure that the CD key is shown, as well

EDIT: Oh, and make sure it's at full res digital camera sized.. just to make your point

[Triple Ace]

A bunch of people tried that and it did no good. And there is no phone support for steam and the games.

[Sandwich]

I must say that HL2 is the first PC game I've bought in years. So far, so good.

[Taristin]

Bah. Valve will never get my money. I refuse to buy a game from a company who is actively hostile towards it's customers...

[Ulala]

You're in America, right? Legal action, you'll even make a few bucks on the side for emotional damages.

[Grug]

lol Ulala.

Everyone I know that has HL2, agree that the game engine is good, the story ****.
I reckon just the ending of HL2 defeats the entire purpose of playing it.

So stupid.

[Liberator]

From everything I've read, HL2 is Full-Scale Proof of Technology demo, and nothing else.  Steam apparently makes Windows 9x/2000/XP look like the most effiecient, streamlined piece of software ever written.  And the apparent level of support provided is akin to what you'd get from the drug dealer in the alley.

I wouldn't install HL2(and all the crap that goes with it) if you paid me to.

Don't misunderstand, I did like the first one.  It was a little overhard for a pickup gamer like me, but on the whole it was okay.  The story just never really grabbed me like the Homeworld series, Command & Conquer, or Diablo.  

Hype is fetid mouthwash from the advertising department that is designed to make you salivate when you see an ad for the game.  It is, most of the time anyway, overblown propaganda.  Remember Freelancer?  It was billed as the greatest space trading sim ever.  What we got was a good third-person, space-combat game.  Hype is worth less than the energy required to come up with it.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Triple Ace
A bunch of people tried that and it did no good. And there is no phone support for steam and the games.

Do it anyway, do everything reasonably possible. And if that doesn't work, get together with those other folks in the same situation and start telling news sites.

Edit: I actually really enjoyed HL2. I've already replayed most of the chapters twice.

And damn, just try playing Ravenholm on a dark night, all alone.

[aldo_14]

HL2 = good game (not brilliant, about 85% I'd say)

Steam = welll.....

[WMCoolmon]

It's the season to gamble on getting gamers to buy big apparently.

Valve gambled that people would buy Steam because of Half-Life 2.
Microsoft gambled that people would buy an X-box because of Halo 2.

Microsoft seems to be winning. I still think it would've been better for Valve to not spend resources/time on Stem's ultra-"secure" product authentication and just put a $5 bill or a decent manual in the HL2 box. What do you get with HL2 ultra-super-duper edition? A T-shirt. Ooh, now you can go around making a public statement that you're a computer geek.

As opposed to a manual, which you could read before going to bed.

[aldo_14]

Note that Valve are requiring installation of *hack spit* Steam* to even play the Half Life 2 demo?  

Of course, at least these people get a chance to avoid the game by learning how pish Steam is nice & early, but still...........

*officially referred to as *hack spit* Steam from now on

[WMCoolmon]

Yes, because those damn hackers are going to steal the demo...from the free download sites...

[Kosh]

Sooner or later somebody will be able to crack the anti-piracy system. Hopefully sooner rather than later.