Gabe Newell Speaks On Recent VAC Controversy

[Something Amyss]

Well... As you said, to you EA and Valve are the same.

No, I said they were acting the same. There's a difference.

Personal experience is kind of meaningless, though. That's like falling back to "that's just your opinion, man!" I mean, sure, if you want to fall back to that, fine. But then, what's the point in even talking to me?

 

[lacktheknack]

At first I didn't care about this because total internet privacy is an illusion in the first place, and because I don't think Valve (or EA, or Ubisoft) actually care about my porn/personal info and assume minor "snooping" like this has some at least semi-valid reasoning behind it. But then I got to this

If 'Valve is evil - look they are tracking all of the websites you visit' is an idea that gets traction, then that is to the benefit of cheaters and cheat creators,

Remember kids, trust your government DRM providers implicitly or the filthy terrorists cheaters win!
Am I the only one who thinks this guy is a tosser?

instantly yank out the Patriot Act bullshit

They aren't comparable, and you damn well know it.

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.

a simple check to see if you've connected to a DRM server makes you drop half of gaming

I thought you weren't on Steam anyways.

i swear, gabe could be caught as the head of an international child pornography ring and the gaming comunity would just forgive him, give him a pass, probably even rage and lobby for his release, all while making half life 3 jokes

a system checking whether you've connected to a certain DRM server is now close to comparable to a child pornography ring

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Some days, I feel like just ditching forums with from the sheer amount of paranoia and fragility they display. It's ridiculous. Jesus Christ, imagine if one day you woke up and something actually bad happened. I imagine you'd all self-destruct.

OT: The amount of people who think they have privacy on the internet is hilarious. You don't. The instant your datastream went through the first ISP server, all your privacy was lost.

"We checked to see if you connected to one of these IPs" is literally the most benign thing that can be done with your connection outside of pinging it, so it's ridiculous to see people freaking out about it after they gave Valve their freaking credit card numbers. I just... I can't even...

People need to come to terms with how insecure the internet is and always has been. Leaving your head in the sand doesn't make the nasty privacy issues go away, you just stand there looking ridiculous with your butt in the air.

There is no solution, by the way. If Valve's actions here actually bother you, then the only logical procedure is to leave the internet.

 

[lacktheknack]

Holy fuck the level of misinformation, paranoia, overreaction, and lack of understanding of this whole situation is just staggering. Utterly dumbfounding.

I'm not even sure there's enough time in the day to address it all.

What the hell, Escapist? Damn...

This isn't even new.

The instant there's a customer info leak of ANY kind, the users here immediately go for blood.

It's so adorable. It's like they actually think privacy exists online.

 

[major_chaos]

instantly yank out the Patriot Act bullshit

They aren't comparable, and you damn well know it.

Greentexting on the Escapist
Thinks this is /v/
GTFO

Oh Lack, we have had the Valve conversation before, you know I hate them. I'm sorta surprised you haven't just blocked me. And you really should be able to recognize hyperbole on the internet. I know Valve doing a thing (that I actually said I don't give two shits about) isn't literally equal to the Patriot Act, the wording was just similar enough that it seemed like as good a way as any to take a dig a Gabe and Valve. And while I can't speak for him I'm almost positive T3nno doesn't think Gabe's worthless anti-cheat is literally equal to pedophilia, he was just taking the piss out of how some parts of this community worship the fat bastard like he is literally incapable of wrongdoing.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

'Trust us' is a line used by every corrupt company and government.

So, no, I won't 'trust you'.
Trust is EARNED, and they haven't earned it.

Valve has not earned any degree of consumer trust?

If any company has, they certainly have.

 

[lacktheknack]

instantly yank out the Patriot Act bullshit

They aren't comparable, and you damn well know it.

Greentexting on the Escapist
Thinks this is /v/
GTFO

Oh Lack, we have had the Valve conversation before, you know I hate them. I'm sorta surprised you haven't just blocked me. And you really should be able to recognize hyperbole on the internet. I know Valve doing a thing (that I actually said I don't give two shits about) isn't literally equal to the Patriot Act, the wording was just similar enough that it seemed like as good a way as any to take a dig a Gabe and Valve. And while I can't speak for him I'm almost positive T3nno doesn't think Gabe's worthless anti-cheat is literally equal to pedophilia, he was just taking the piss out of how some parts of this community worship the fat bastard like he is literally incapable of wrongdoing.

I can't keep track of who hates Valve (except Sgt. Sykes, because he never shows up in any other threads).

And to you and T3nno: Hyperbole is not your friend. When used on the internet, it's almost invariably lazy and baiting. Just... think of something rational to say.

Also, I only greentext when this forum starts resembling /v/ (which has increased a lot recently).

 

[RoonMian]

Well... As you said, to you EA and Valve are the same.

No, I said they were acting the same. There's a difference.

Personal experience is kind of meaningless, though. That's like falling back to "that's just your opinion, man!" I mean, sure, if you want to fall back to that, fine. But then, what's the point in even talking to me?

The thing is, they're not really different than EA.

"...'re..."

But that aside please explain to me why personal experience is supposed to be meaningless when deciding which company to trust and which not.

 

[samaugsch]

From what i've seen from some of the comments, they try so hard to find reasons to hate everything. It's kind of sad really. :/

 

[weirdee]

most of this seems to stem on the perception that their browsing history or internet activity has been secure the entire time, even though in all likelihood it hasn't anyway

 

[Zipa]

Can someone explain to me why Gabe Newell is the "Valve-boss-that-is-not-really-Valve-boss"?

Valve operates under a "flat structure" so technically there aren't any bosses, but he is the figurehead of the company and I would think most people in Valve will listen to what he has to say.

Or its more to do with Gabe Newell is the co founder and sole owner of Valve since his fellow co founder sold his half of the company to Newell some time ago.

Also I don't think even Valve can provide the amount of tinfoil hats that are needed for people in this thread. Plus I would be curious to see how many of those people would of been the first people to complain that Valve did a bad job of dealing with cheaters if they did nothing.

That and if anyone genuinely believes that there is any such thing as anonymity on the internet today is sorely mistaken, especially if you happen to use anything to do with Google or Facebook.

 

[Kathinka]

what concerns me more than this pretty non-invasive measure is the fact that if EA did this there would be a humongous amounts of shit people would give them about the possibilities of their privacy being invaded. but if it's valve, it's a-ok.

 

[Tanis]

'Trust us' is a line used by every corrupt company and government.

So, no, I won't 'trust you'.
Trust is EARNED, and they haven't earned it.

lol what !? First day on the job or somthing ? You know Valve ? the reason they have ppl lovng them is coz they HAVE earned that trust. Name me another time valve have been pulling shit ? No ? well then lets cut the shit. Valve make MORE then enough money selling bullshit hats Steam itself has them set for life. So why do a 360 and start being greedy EA for your browser history ? It does not add up.

After this NSA thing everyone is getting abit weird, the NSA is has been gathering info on you thats bad, but facebook is ok for everyone to post their every step on. Logic whoooo

I don't like DRM.
I don't care if it's not Origin or Ubisoft levels.

Valve has lost my trust as time as gone on.

 

[AstaresPanda]

'Trust us' is a line used by every corrupt company and government.

So, no, I won't 'trust you'.
Trust is EARNED, and they haven't earned it.

lol what !? First day on the job or somthing ? You know Valve ? the reason they have ppl lovng them is coz they HAVE earned that trust. Name me another time valve have been pulling shit ? No ? well then lets cut the shit. Valve make MORE then enough money selling bullshit hats Steam itself has them set for life. So why do a 360 and start being greedy EA for your browser history ? It does not add up.

After this NSA thing everyone is getting abit weird, the NSA is has been gathering info on you thats bad, but facebook is ok for everyone to post their every step on. Logic whoooo

I don't like DRM.
I don't care if it's not Origin or Ubisoft levels.

Valve has lost my trust as time as gone on.

fair enough dude, i dont think anyone is a fan of DRM.

 

[LadyLightning]

I'd rather VAC than GameGuard. At least Valve doesn't install rootkits on their customers' computers.

 

[Dragonlayer]

From the perspective of someone who doesn't care about this revelation one way or the other, this thread is a fascinating look at where the battle lines will be drawn when the PC civil war comes.

 

[J Tyran]

The funniest thing is after all the ongoing "Origin is spyware" paranoia and no-one ever being able to prove that it was Steam was actually using spyware, it was nice spyware that helps you though and they don't use it any more...

Hilarious.

Internet privacy is bullshit anyway, at any time your connection is passed through a varying amount of servers. The ISPs are tracking it, just about every government with an intelligence agency is tracking it, Google and everyone else is tracking it. If anyone was really that concerned they wouldn't be using the internet in the first place.

 

[Flutterguy]

I feel uncomfortable now. Like a old friend just randomly started hitting on me.

On the up side maybe it can recommend me porn. They know my taste by now.

 

[Infernal Lawyer]

Oh look, the sheer levels of paranoia and outright stupid haven't gone away yet.

Seriously, all the fucking program did was check a DNS file IF it thought it detected a hack, see if you contacted SPECIFIC IP ADDRESSES and contact HQ if you did. And yet you, the people who have given Valve your fucking CREDIT CARD NUMBERS are still shitting yourself.