Keep in mind this is supposed to be a mailing list for people who WANT to code for Half-life, not a place to get up on your high-horse and preach, or a place to nitpick hacker definitions.
Let's get back on topic please. -Charlie -- Charlie Cleveland Game programmer and designer http://www.natural-selection.org http://overmind.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "tei" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Phil" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, October 10, 2003 9:33 AM Subject: Re[2]: [hlcoders] Open Letter To Hacker Community > Hello Phil, > > > P> Firstly, I would encourage you to get your definition of 'hacker' correct > P> before you start shaking your finger at them. > > "Open Letter to Hacker Community" was better than > > "Open Letter to Hacker, Cracker, ScriptKiddie, Virii, Troyan Makers > etc... people". > > I know hacker mean a guy soo good at coding/system that can write no-obvious > workarounds for problems not-soluble other way. > > Hollywood is redefining hacker has "system cracker". > > > >> I think Valve is triing to become the next Microsoft. The Steam tools > >> is crappy, and damage users gameplay with delays and failures, and > >> restrict singleplayer ability. Its the first step of a highly > >> dangerous technology to damage freedom: DRM. > > P> How have they done any of that? That is just your personal experience. It > P> hasn't changed the way that authentication is done, it hasn't introduced any > P> new DRM, it hasn't restricted anything that you couldn't do before. > P> All it is, is a new way to deliver Valve's content, authenticate to the servers > P> (which were WON until Steam) and update the games. > > I dont want to comments the negative points, but... > > Not true: > > You have to use the same tool (Steam), you can't use 3th party > tools, better tools than Steam. Bye Bye GameSpy, QTracker,... > > You can't still LAN or SP offline (will be fixed soon). > You can't hack files into cache, but you can hack files into pak > files. Ok, only power users and hackers care about, but the letter > was address to this people... > > Everything is now imprisioned and buried inside Steam. The tool that > access/able everything IF valve want.... Hopefully you can still > directly access the hl.exe executable to lauch games :] > > This is somewhat like these TCPA .doc files. If Valve want to forbid > "Mod Bart Simpson" can remake a new version that disable that mod, and > "withouth consent" download to all users computers. > > This is not a problem for me, but I am not a hacker. But I think > hacker will really disagree TCPA alike stuff... > > Maybe hackers will help to fix the Steam limitations. > > >> Valve as work dirty in the past. Unable Quake1 developpers to use > >> both tools and some media into Quake1. > > P> When you take the Q1 engine, mix in stuff from Q2 and your own custom > P> modifications, I'd love to see you do anything like backwards compatability > P> with Q1. Valve licensed the Q1 engine fair and square and had no obligation, > P> need or want to make it backwards compatable. > > Had not obligation other than be fair and make friends. Soo If you > remove Q1 compatibility from Worldcraft... you gain enemys!.. not > good. Ooops... maybe compatibility is droooped ? maybe... but is > forbid at the license AND people as discovered a way to workaround > (HACK HACK HACK) the problem to still use Worldcraft. q1rad is a > quake1 tool to light maps with rendersity... maybe a illegal tool, but > exist. You can also make Q1 maps with Hammer, but Valve forbit it... > > I not like that, but I not blame Valve. I list stuff that hackers > disagree and hate. This is a well know example. Worldcraft, a Q1 map > tool, generate BSP maps, Valve disable that (or drop) and forbid, also > create is own "incompatible" BSP format. But this is also "fake" as is > very easy to enable support for HL maps for Quake1. A lot of Q1 > engines support HL maps. Valve forbid *me*, to upload cs_siege.bsp to > my homepage and share with other files with instructions to copy this > file at /quake/cstrike-ish-mod/maps > > Maybe this was a bussines decision, made to have more profit. Cool!. > But you gain more enemys. More people will become angry. > > > >> Abducting good mods inside > >> (like Counter-Strike). Valve overload the market with his product, > >> that unable oportunitys for other developers. Valve write nazi > >> Licenses. > > P> Abducting? I'm assuming that gooseman agreed to having his MOD commercialised, > P> otherwise Valve faces some serious charges. > > Microsoft Abducting. > > Lotus 1-2-3 => Excel > Wordperfect => Word > Mosaic => IE (builtin) > Winzip => Explorer (builtin) > ftp => Explorer (builtin) > Winamp => Windows Media Player > > Valve Abducting > > Counter-Strike > TeamFortress > ... > (more?) > > Good or Bad? I am not sure. Maybe enhance the mods itself. Good to the > community. But its harder to make other mods. Its a tradeoff. > > P> And where are these nazi licenses, valve are incredibly nice with their MOD > P> licenses. > > Already comment. > > > >> If you think now the target is Valve. Please re-think. Its not cool to > >> fuck a lot of people that where triing to get his fun from this. And > >> Its not cool to fuck people doing fun games for all of us. If you have > >> fun hacking, download Uplink game. > > P> Might want to address that one to the CRACKER community. > > :] > > yes, but for the public consume the word hacker is more common > > > P> -Philip > > Thanks for your mail. > > Helll I have comment the negative side of the letter. Not good. The > Valve work was sooo nice. Quake1 Singleplayer and most other FPS games > was boring. But Half-Life has break everything to a new level. Good sp > gameplay, good DM,... a intergrated game browser, everyting ready to > fire and play. Not only, but mods like Counter-Strike show that the > engine is very good to make mods, and Valve has help a lot with the > SDK. Also was good that patch continue evolving and fixing some > problems with the engine. But not too fast, but slowly, to make > posible to play withouth the need to download big files everyday. > Etc..ETc.. Etc... > > I am more interested at comment the positive aspects of valve. Because > from negative you will learn nothing interesting, but from positive > you have to learn about sucess, how to make good games, and how to > make good engines. > > I am sorry for my english, is crap. > > > _______________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: > http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders > > _______________________________________________ To unsubscribe, edit your list preferences, or view the list archives, please visit: http://list.valvesoftware.com/mailman/listinfo/hlcoders
