Gabe Newell Speaks On Recent VAC Controversy

[Misterian]

*sigh*

Say, everyone, remember when developers didn't try to push DRM in our faces? good times...

Oh, wait, I still have my Xbox 360! and it doesn't get prissy about not being online! nor does it try to charge me for looking up cheats or walkthroughs! oh my! what a novelty!

(I wish there was a less obvious way to convey sarcasm in text).

 

[vdrandom]

Most of the stuff I (or anyone else really) do is tracked by one party or another, and I don't see any point in being bothered by it.

Other than that, Valve have the decency to provide something in return for their DRM and support my platform so yeah, I trust them. As much as I trust Google with my e-mail and search requests. Or as much as I trust my linux distro's maintainers. You always have to compromise when you deal with the stuff you don't make yourself. Be it PC software, PC hardware or your food.

 

[hickwarrior]

Second, he said that this protocol isn't actually in use anymore.

I feel like some people are missing this spot. I'm fine with it, because Valve. Anyway, I'm going back to playing the games I wanna play again. Oh and school. That's actually important.

 

[Sanunes]

Whenever a company says "trust us" I lose all trust. I understand why they are being secretive on what their software does, but this is my privacy and I don't have a Facebook page for more then messaging friends because I don't trust Facebook, I can't see why I should trust Valve with this.

But with the vast majority of those companies you can't trust them because at the end of the day they answer to a board of directors/shareholders who are only interested in the $$$. In corporate America the company serves its shareholders first and its customers second, so no as a consumer you can't really trust them.

But Valve? They're one of the few big companies who are actually still a privately held corporations, not public. Gabe Newell doesn't have any shareholders to answer to and gets to call all the shots. Now that can still mean he's collecting all your personal data to sell on the side for hookers & blow, or it simply is what he says it is.

Either way, people should keep in mind this key difference when they look at a company like Valve vs one like EA. Personally I'm fine with Valve, Gabe is already a billionaire so there's little incentive to try and nickle & dime some more $$$ out of his customer base collecting personal information at the risk of losing consumer trust and facing our wrath.

I don't trust the internet in general, I know there are records of every website I visit and how much activity my connection sees what bothers me is Valve didn't tell us they were taking our information. The only way we found out is because someone caught them looking at the DNS tables. I don't need to know what they are looking for with VAC or going in-depth, but I do want to know they are looking at my information so I can make an informed choice in what I want to do.

If Valve wants me to trust them they need to keep me informed of changes like this, for I don't trust them anymore then I trust EA for they are both companies that desire to make money even if one is public and the other private.

 

[Chaos Marine]

If this was EA, I'd honestly feel smug about avoiding all of their products since... Mass Effect 2? I think that was the last EA game I ever bought. But Valve? To be honest, Valve have moved heaven and earth to keep PC gaming alive and is (in my opinion) the sole reason why PC gaming is resurging as a valid contender for the best gaming platform, eclipsing all of the consoles by it's openness, modding capability etc. While I do feel massive corporations and businesses generally need to have a constant eye on them, I think Valve has earned a little leeway. I've yet to feel actively burned or frustrated or insulted by them which I've experienced from plenty of other companies.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Second, he said that this protocol isn't actually in use anymore.

I feel like some people are missing this spot. I'm fine with it, because Valve. Anyway, I'm going back to playing the games I wanna play again. Oh and school. That's actually important.

Yeah. 20 comments about how much Valve can eat a dick, seem to have been made by people who didn't finish reading the article.

Stay Classy Escapist.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

This gets a pass from me. I have very little reason not to take Valve at their word, and as a guy who frequently deletes tracker cookies from his computer, all this really means is that they're another company on the list of people who know which sites I go on, and they almost certainly care much less about using it for advertising.

Valve asks for trust?

Are they kiddin', stupid or just cynical?

But I do take the explanation. It just means I'm uninstalling CSGO right now and will never play a multiplayer game again.

Why uninstall the game? You can play on non-VAC servers just fine without VAC scanning your system. And that's ignoring the fact that not every multiplayer game uses VAC. Sorry dude, but I think you're taking your paranoia just a little too far.

*sigh*

Say, everyone, remember when developers didn't try to push DRM in our faces? good times...

Oh, wait, I still have my Xbox 360! and it doesn't get prissy about not being online! nor does it try to charge me for looking up cheats or walkthroughs! oh my! what a novelty!

(I wish there was a less obvious way to convey sarcasm in text).

Dude, what the hell are you on about? VAC isn't DRM, it's an anti-cheat system. And Steam doesn't charge you for looking up cheats or walkthroughs either. It doesn't even charge you for ANYTHING other than the games and actual items, for goodness sakes.

 

[Stavros Dimou]

The thing is our browsing is already being watched,and perhaps to a deeper extent.
And the biggest offender is Google of course. First you have the referral system that tells each site you visit on which you one you where before,then there is adsense,which tracks which sites you visit to get know of your tastes so it instructs a personalized marketing plan for you. I personally got all that feeling of being watched when I once visited a thematic site and then its advertisements started following me and showing up in any other unrelated site I'd visit.
Anybody ever wondered why when there are thousands if not millions of different ads,some seem to insist and show up on every site you visit ?

 

[fractal_butterfly]

Paying for cheats is a thing? Like, really? Loading a piece of Software from a shady background with shady functionality, that even messes with other stuff on your PC (like manipulation the DNS lists) and actually paying your hard earned money for it!?
Some people are really in need

On another topic, I fear the day, that Valve will lose Gabe Newell. Unfortunately no one lives forever. And if Valve does not have a new generation of employees, who share their mindset, it can easily turn into a second EA. And then it will be hell for all Steam users...

 

[Li Mu]

*shrugs* Every time you go online you are being tracked by someone or something. If you don't like it, don't go online.
I can't be mad at Gabe, he looks so huggable.

 

[Steven Bogos]

I not sure if half of you even read the post or understand what was said for that matter. -_-

No kidding! Imagine how I feel...

 

[ASnogarD]

A few things here...

Probably the whole lot was started by one of the cheat creators who 'blew the whistle', and its not like you can trust those guys, and I bet they (the cheat makers) have a lot more nefarious software running as well as the cheats they provide.
Valve have no real use for your personal browsing data, nor care where you have been and there are already a lot of other companies that have nicked that level of data off your PC years ago, hell do a Google search on yourself and be surprised how much others know about you (and some even charge you for the data on you).
Google itself is a data mining system of note.

I would much rather have less cheats in my game than be too concerned if a company can see what porn sites I have been browsing, and as long as your browsing is not illegal you shouldnt be too concerned either.
Think who would benefit the most if VAC was considered a data miner and not trustworthy... a hint: Not you.

 

[Longstreet]

First of all, this is extremely relevant.


Now OT, Its kinda sad, and completely out of control, that even cheats use DRM now. People hate it on games, they probably won't like it on their cheats aswell.

I Honestly stopped caring at this point, even if they would look at my porn habits, they would know everything they need to long before all of this came out, to trow a hissyfit now is just redundant.

 

[lancar]

While I don't like it, if there was ever a company I actually _would_ trust to not abuse this kind of information, it'd be Valve.
So, yeah, I'm not particularly worried. It irks me a bit that they're doing it (or did do it), but I'll file this one under "can't be arsed"

 

[omega 616]

The way I see it is, how many people are using steam 70 odd million (or something?) basically a shit load of people, I am willing to bet just about everyone of them looks at porn, nothing wrong with it in the vast majority of cases.

Plus it's not like valve or any other company is going to go down the list and email all the people you know saying "in the past week so and so has watched 40 porno's, including X, Y, and Z".

I'm no computer expert but I bet any website you go on could have that kind of crap running in an ad or something.

All in all, you're just another bit of straw in the hey pile and I don't any company is going to take a really big interest in just you ... unless you start doing some obvious and dodgy stuff (like googling "how to make a bomb")

 

[SecondPrize]

Basically, people were concerned that Valve was checking out what porn sites they'd been looking at.

I was reading about this yesterday on a bunch of different forums and this was not the majorities problem. Porn was only ever raised to dismiss the idea that people would have valid concerns. I don't get how minimizing of privacy concerns seems like a good idea to you.