Valve is loosing it!

[Czar]

the biggest lan party holder in the country just got an email from valve

Dear admins.
We would like to announce that a standalone offline Counter-strike Condition-zero client will be made available soon.
The client can be downloaded from our fileserver mirrors in a few days. This means that SteamSoftware will not be required in lan play with Counter-strike Condition-zero.

We would therefore like to use this opportunity and announce changes with SteamSoftware usage in the larger lan-tournaments.
Tournaments with SteamSoftware users exceeding 300, will be required to pay a fee of $5 per SteamSoftware user per day.

SteamSoftware logins will be monitored in the future, and users per ip counted. If the number of logins exceed 300, further attempts to login from that ip will fail.

Any attempts in getting by this security measure will result in legal action.

Questions and License-orders go to our marketing divison, marketing@valvesoftware.com.

Gabe Newell - Founder/Managing Director - Valve.

the end results are that counterstrike will not be a part of that lan party, wouldnt suprise me if it would totaly kill counterstrike all over the world

 

[BaboonGuy]

wow! so they have to buy another "new" (practically the same) game to play the same game? sounds pretty dumb by valve, i wonder if they are strapped for cash.

 

[notfred]

Maybe valve wouldn't be so short on cash if they could, you know, get HL2 out the door.

 

[TechnoKid]

wouldn't it be cheaper to get two ips rented for the day instead of having to pay $5 for each one over the 300 mark?

 

[So]

Valve jumped the shark when they announced steam.

 

[fumbduck]

what are they loosing?

or do you mean losing?


edit: what lan party you talkin about? the CPL?

 

[So]

Originally posted by: fumbduck
what are they loosing?

or do you mean losing?

Burn!

 

[Mo0o]

doesn't seem like that big of a deal to me. only lan tournaments that even reach that level are the cpl and maybe eswc.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: TechnoKid
wouldn't it be cheaper to get two ips rented for the day instead of having to pay $5 for each one over the 300 mark?

Yeah, I mean, wtf. Some security measure. Like a 300+ commercial LAN isn't gonna have more than one outside pipe to start with.

- M4H

 

[warcrow]

Originally posted by: So
Valve jumped the shark when they announced steam.

God, I hate to say it....but I think you're right :-/

 

[halik]

whats steam? and what the hell is that email saying?

 

[ViRGE]

Ok, I'm a bit confused here. If the stand-alone offline version is going to be out, and it won't require SteamSoftware, how are they going to count SteamSoftware users?

PS Notice that this only mentions CZ, not original CS

 

[GTaudiophile]

Does anyone else have the sinking feeling that HL2 will end up like the Voodoo5 6000? (AKA, remain vaporware.)

 

[OrangeJellyDisk]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Ok, I'm a bit confused here. If the stand-alone offline version is going to be out, and it won't require SteamSoftware, how are they going to count SteamSoftware users?

PS Notice that this only mentions CZ, not original CS

im with you that makes no sense if its a stand alone it doesnt need the net let alone steam O-o

 

[BaboonGuy]

I actually really really like Steam myself, well that is when it works. It's so nice and easy to use, such as auto-joining servers and being able to look at server lists without launching any game. Also the friends system is great, instead of having to copy and write down ips, it's just a few clicks to play with a friend. Also the console is much improved.

 

[CubicZirconia]

the end results are that counterstrike will not be a part of that lan party, wouldnt suprise me if it would totaly kill counterstrike all over the world

So what's the bad news?

 

[ThaGrandCow]

Am I reading this wrong? I didn't see anything that says you'll have to pay for the standalone client. Maybe they want to encourage lan parties not to swamp their servers and just use the standalone version.

 

[flexy]

Counterstrike.....hmm..wasnt this that really old game with the pre-1998 DX7 graphics ? I wouldnt pay a penny to play that garbage anyway

 

[So]

Originally posted by: flexy
Counterstrike.....hmm..wasnt this that really old game with the pre-1998 DX7 graphics ? I wouldnt pay a penny to play that garbage anyway

Open GL.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: flexy
Counterstrike.....hmm..wasnt this that really old game with the pre-1998 DX7 graphics ? I wouldnt pay a penny to play that garbage anyway

Yes, because gameplay is unimportant compared to flashy graphics. Go play some 3DMark.

- M4H

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

I think they're holding HL2 back too much it's hurting them

 

[Insane3D]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: flexy
Counterstrike.....hmm..wasnt this that really old game with the pre-1998 DX7 graphics ? I wouldnt pay a penny to play that garbage anyway

Yes, because gameplay is unimportant compared to flashy graphics. Go play some 3DMark.

- M4H

No, but good graphics are part of gameplay to some people. I mean, WTF wants to play Q2 level engines nowadays? You know you can have "flashy graphics" and good gameplay right?

I can only speak for myself, but I don't have two high end systems to play games with engines from the mid 90's...

 

[TerryMathews]

Originally posted by: ThaGrandCow
Am I reading this wrong? I didn't see anything that says you'll have to pay for the standalone client. Maybe they want to encourage lan parties not to swamp their servers and just use the standalone version.

That's the way I read it also. They want large lan parties to not stream the CS:CZ to each machine and instead have a standalone (but still multiplayer-enabled) game available on a local mirror.

Look at it this way: 300 users/day * 500MB (conservative) = 150GB in transfers, not counting any sort of resends or authentication.

 

[Kev]

april fools, huddla huddla

 

[seepy83]

Originally posted by: Insane3D

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire

Originally posted by: flexy
Counterstrike.....hmm..wasnt this that really old game with the pre-1998 DX7 graphics ? I wouldnt pay a penny to play that garbage anyway

Yes, because gameplay is unimportant compared to flashy graphics. Go play some 3DMark.

- M4H

No, but good graphics are part of gameplay to some people. I mean, WTF wants to play Q2 level engines nowadays? You know you can have "flashy graphics" and good gameplay right?

I can only speak for myself, but I don't have two high end systems to play games with engines from the mid 90's...

if you can find me a game that has gameplay and teamwork as good as TFC does, with a newer game engine, i'll play it. until then, i'd love to play on an old Q2 based engine.
And if you've never played TFC in a match setting, don't bother responding...cause you arent gonna understand why i think it's leaps and bounds above other games as far as gameplay and teamwork.