Hi Rich,
Good points you have there, and I agree that Valve's job is to make "Superior Games". Unfortunately due to the rise of online cheating more and more people are expecting some anti-cheating utility as part of the game itself. Understandably a lot of stuff like PunkBuster or VAC are not perfect, but the quality of these anti-cheating tools serves to enhance the gaming experience.
Without a conducive environment to play a traditionally online game, it's quite difficult for many of us to say that HL2/CSS is truly "superior". It's a horrible position to be in as a developer, but being able to meet as many expectations as possible is what distinguishes a truly superior game from just another game on the market.
Valve has done great things for the online community, and the number of mods available in previous engines such as HL1 are testament of that commitment. Right now I personally feel that Valve is living off the good reputation of yesterday to keep it going today. Not only is it pre-selling games that are still in the development stage, it is releasing games such as CS Source which are not quite close to the quality many of us were expecting - not having VAC is just one of those gripes. Rightly or wrongly, I feel that the disenchantment of many admins signals a drop in standards, and if left unchecked we may not see the same kind of success in HL2 as with HL1.
A large number of people in the community that I serve in Singapore are still playing HL1-based mods, and only a fraction have moved to HL2. There are many reasons why this could be the case, but I would like to suggest that the poor quality of HL2 in terms of lack of anti-cheating functions, mods, just so-so server support, and the numerous bugs and bugfixes that create even more bugs are what might be causing this.
That said, I'll have to qualify that as a server admin I'm in the business of making money from online games, but while we do not pay Valve for these rights, we are here to serve the interests of people who have purchased these games and these guys naturally expect Valve to do much more than what they're doing now. While we may act in our own self-interest, one cannot deny that we are also proxies for gamers who may not be very satisfied with what they are experiencing with HL2/CSS now.
Regards, Christopher Choo Fragnetics
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Welsh Sent: Wednesday, 26 January 2005 4:31 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [hlds] Valve's Business & Cheats
-- [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ] Maybe I messed up in the last email but here some clarification.
Car Manufactorer Makes Car. Driver 1 Buys car Driver 2 Buys car
Driver 1 drives through town A at 30mph Driver 2 drives through town A at 60mph
Driver 1 gets mad and demands something be done. Car Manufactorer laughs and continues to make car Driver 1 is furios. Driver 2 is laughing at Driver 1 Driver 1 develops Police Department
Police Department Makes Rules and Authorises people to make the rules are followed.
Driver 1 drives through town A at 30mph Driver 2 drives through town A at 60mph
Driver 2 sees something flashing in his mirror. Driver 2 hears a wailing sound.
Driver 2 pulls to the side of the road. Police Officer comes up to his window. You have been caught speeding.
Driver 2 says "Isn't it up to Car Manufactorer to control how fast I can go?
Police Officer says "No Son, we make the rules here and you have to follow them."
Driver 1 = CS player Driver 2 = Cheating CS Player Police Department = Server Admins Police Officer = Admin or Anti-cheat detection system Town A = Server Car Manufactorer = Valve VAC = is the equivalent of a Rev-limiter on a motor vehicle
If you think Valve is responsible to make an anti-cheat you are mistaking. It is not up to Valve to make an anti-cheat. They get no more money for it from anyone when they make it.
All Valve has to do is make games. That's it, nothing more. But they do alot more than that for the community. They patch their games, they support 3rd party mods, they take suggestions from the community, they do all this stuff and wow people bitch cause some lamer decides he wants to cheat.
Just be glad Valve is here to make Superior games. Anything other than the game is gravy on your Potatoes.
Rich
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