Valve answers gamers cries

[Gpig]

Valve finally added the one feature gamers have been seeing implemented in games from EA and have demanded for ages, in-game advertising. Here (http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=news&id=968&cc=US) is the release for the update that ads in the much requested feature.

Updates to the Half-Life 1 Engine and Counter-Strike have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Half-Life 1 Engine


Allow screen resolutions up to 2560x1600

Fixed player names with really wide characters getting ellipses and being indistinguishable from one another scoreboard


Strangely, the changelog omits the addition of ingame ads, but with much of Valve at GDC they will probably issue a press release touting the ads and hold a lecture at the GDC on listening to the community. The ads are featured on the scoreboard, the maps, and the spectator view.

Hopefully this will quell the people who were furious when they bought the game only to find out upon installing that it featured no ads. The only complaint I can possibly see is that the ads (http://csnation.net/image.php?id=42869) just aren't noticeable enough. Load up some dust2 and start fragging!

[LilAbner]

Good God, people still use the HL1 engine?!!?! 1998, people!

[Draft]

Hahaha, nice post. Kudos to the author and whatever editor approved it.

[agentgray]

Ads, huh? (Great writeup, btw). I saw that there are ads in Crackdown for a Dodge vehicle. It fit, and I didn't mind.

However, ads in CS and HL would seem weird.

[Crono]

Ads, huh? (Great writeup, btw). I saw that there are ads in Crackdown for a Dodge vehicle. It fit, and I didn't mind.

However, ads in CS and HL would seem weird.

Dodge has their finger in so many games these days...

[thecrazyd]

That was quite the hardball issue. Too bad Doug pussied out on the really good questions.

I am generally a pretty big Valve fanboy, but they can fuck themselves as far as this is concerned. I will not be buying any of their games containing advertising.

[noxa]

<3 sarcasm. Such a powerful writing device! .... I hoping you are being sarcastic... you are, right? ;)

[TrackZero]

Ads, huh? (Great writeup, btw). I saw that there are ads in Crackdown for a Dodge vehicle. It fit, and I didn't mind.

However, ads in CS and HL would seem weird.

Yeah, noticed that some of the billboards are for dodge cars and what have you. Strangely, I didn't seem to really care, since yeah, it fit. Though most of the billboards are still generic joke products, I assume it's only a matter of time until MS gets more advertisers on board and we'll start noticing new billboards.

[TrackZero]

Dodge has their finger in so many games these days...

Yeah, weren't they in Fight Night round 3?

[F3nyx]

Hahaha, nice post. Kudos to the author and whatever editor approved it.I agree, had me WTFing for a few seconds before I started laughing.

[Gpig]

The other dirty thing I couldn't really go into in the post is the fact that this started because a company was offering a service to server admin to let them put ads on their server and offset the cost of hosting a server a little bit. There was a newspost about it a while ago on Evil Avatar and Valve told the company to stop. Valve then contacted the company for using ads in the game officially. If anything, Valve should offer server admins the service of putting ads in like the company originally did instead of giving the community the finger. Meh, nothing you can do about it I guess.

[MaiXu]

Score one for the good guys! Looks like my petition worked. Next stop, shutting down those loonies at Double Fine so they can never make another shitty game again!

[Sloth]

as long as the ads are in game and not nag screens or make you take longer to load the game i'm indifferent. I mean aren't we better seeing Dodge ads on a wall instead of someones goatse.cx spray?

[Loganrapp]

Score one for the good guys! Looks like my petition worked. Next stop, shutting down those loonies at Double Fine so they can never make another shitty game again!

Say it again and I'll castrate you.

That's not even funny. The one thing about Double Fine is that the people there love making games. Don't even joke about trying to take down a group that does that. There are few enough of them as it is.

[[VSK]BadCRC]

Oh, you know... Subway. Eat Fresh! (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19)

[resikel]

BadCRC']Oh, you know... Subway. Eat Fresh! (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19)

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2006/20061019.jpg

Hahahaha...

[archon]

This is only because they could no longer repackage it and put it back out on the shelves since everyone already has 10 copies of the game somewhere and they want to make another couple of cool mil off of CS before they put it to bed.

[hund_]

valve just lost all my sweet lovin

[Ultima Thulian]

Thank Gawd! Without ads, I wouldn't know to put down my mouse and snag a Whopper wit' cheeze!

[AbeLincoln]

There a link to any other confirmation? All I'm seeing is a link, to a steam page that doesn't say anything about it (but they probably wouldn't) and some guy's CS screenshot... I'm just looking for a little more evidence is all.
*edit*
Ah, didn't click the screen shot to see the news post about it. Sorry.

[Deadend]

Thank god! Now maybe people will stop playing CS!

[Twinkie]

I don't know why people are crying. I'd say this definitely beats them just closing the servers down, now if they were doing this with HL2 I could see the problem.

[see colon]

I don't know why people are crying. I'd say this definitely beats them just closing the servers down, now if they were doing this with HL2 I could see the problem.
i haven't played CS in quite some time, but unless things have drasticaly changed people are paying for the servers, valve is just finding more ways to make a buck. now, if they start giving CS away for free (again!), or suppying free/cheap dedicated servers (with ads) this is a different story, but i think valve is just showing it's greed.

[AversionFX]

Ads in some games are just ridiculous. But games like CS/S, and Battlefield, I don't see why it's a big deal.

The games are built as sports (evidenced by the plethora of gaming tournaments and other events). Does anyone complain that there are advertisements in "real" sports arenas?

[UnderHero5]

Ads in some games are just ridiculous. But games like CS/S, and Battlefield, I don't see why it's a big deal.

The games are built as sports (evidenced by the plethora of gaming tournaments and other events). Does anyone complain that there are advertisements in "real" sports arenas?
Yeah... because the big high res HL2 ad in Dust doesn't look out of place or distracting at all.

You want to know why I think it's a big deal? Because I paid money for a product WITHOUT ads, and now that product has ads. I'm not paying to be advertised to (now I wait for the "but cable tv has ads and you pay for that" argument).

Some times ads in games aren't a big deal, I agree. How long until they stick ads in other games I ALREADY OWN and paid for? How long until they decide they should be in HL2? DoD:Source? Etc.

And just because some people (minority) play games as a "sport" doesn't mean everyone does. Most people play them to have fun and escape reality for a short time. It's not a medium I want filled with reminders of corporate greed. I get enough of that from... well EVERYTHING else.

It's generally a rule of mine to not buy games with ads in them.
I absolutely love Valves games, but if they are going to start pulling shit like this, I'll pass on the rest of their stuff.

[Twinkie]

i haven't played CS in quite some time, but unless things have drasticaly changed people are paying for the servers, valve is just finding more ways to make a buck. now, if they start giving CS away for free (again!), or suppying free/cheap dedicated servers (with ads) this is a different story, but i think valve is just showing it's greed.
Aren't there official servers too though? Like through steam? I don't actually know personally, only played it on a friends pc like 5 years ago.

[UnderHero5]

Aren't there official servers too though? Like through steam? I don't actually know personally, only played it on a friends pc like 5 years ago.
All servers are paid for by gamers like you and I (well, only they like CS. So not just like you and I).

I've never seen an official server hosted by Valve for any of their games, ever, and I've been playing their games since HL1 was released.

[Twinkie]

Well if that's the case then I retract my former statement.
*nonchalantly slips out the side door*

[Dirty Harry]

Now does this affect normal 1.6 or does it effect cs cz aswell because i bought cz and i sure as hell did not pay for the adverts.

[Lizard Dude]

I am generally a pretty big Valve fanboy, but they can fuck themselves as far as this is concerned. I will not be buying any of their games containing advertising.
Too bad you won't know if they'll add advertising until 9 years after release.

[kaddar]

I know battlenet has ads but at least it's in the server browser area, imagine if you were running to kill diablo and there was a chevy drawn in the background?

Or playing red alert2 and they replaced the grass tileset with repeating nike symbols?

Old games should not have ads added to them, this is stupid.

[Sazime]

Oh thank gods! I know there were so many things Valve could recommend that I buy that I don't know of. I'll finally know what those things are.

[outontheporch]

oh...i see what you did there

[Commissar Rob]

Well, as long as its not as disruptive as say, "This headshot brought to you by Smith & Wesson" I don't think its that big of a deal. BF2142 was supposed to be riddled with ads and I haven't seen anything yet.

[J Arcane]

I don't know why people are crying. I'd say this definitely beats them just closing the servers down, now if they were doing this with HL2 I could see the problem.
Umm, the vast majority of CS servers, like those of basically every MP PC game outside of MMOs, are privately run by players, not the developer.

This is, frankly horseshit. Valve is basically making money, by having other people host their fucking ads.

[Blog]

You want to know why I think it's a big deal? Because I paid money for a product WITHOUT ads, and now that product has ads. I'm not paying to be advertised to (now I wait for the "but cable tv has ads and you pay for that" argument).Heh, I stopped watching television 12 years ago because I couldn't stand the commercials. I don't listen to commercial radio. I disable ads in Firefox. When I get a magazine in the mail, the first thing I do is go through it and rip out all the ads. I take a roundabout way into work so I don't have to go past any billboards. I stopped playing SWAT 4 (after that patch) until I found out how to block the ad servers.

It would be pretty safe to say I don't like ads.

That said, the 'gamehelper.com' ad in the first screenshot is fine (to my palette). It looks tattered, it's not directly in my field of vision, and it doesn't distract from the game. All the Portal/Episode 2 ads are just awful. They're big, garish, and distracting. I won't play any game on any server that includes ads like that.

[KingGorilla]

To Valve's credit...CS 1.6 is a free game. It has always been free, it is not like they charged you 40-50 dollars to get advertised to.

[Varsity]

The Valve ads are placeholders. It's likely that the actual ads will be more like the gamehelper.com one.

Still, glad I'm not trying to play CS on a regular basis.

[insidious]

Well then, this should end the 1.6 vs Source debate once and for all...


right?

[Roc Ingersol]

If the ads were server-optional and the revenue flowed to the guy who's putting up his bandwidth, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

But for Valve to try and make yet-another buck off people who've bought their product, whose use draws none of Valve's resources and in fact have helped sell a bazillion copies of half-life... this strikes me as a 100% dick-move.

[timmyd]

Do we begin to see the problem with Steam????

Seriously, this is what happens when you give control of your computer to somebody else.

[see colon]

To Valve's credit...CS 1.6 is a free game. It has always been free, it is not like they charged you 40-50 dollars to get advertised to.
according to Steam it costs at least $10. (http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=10&cc=US) plus, there were retail releases of CS, or you could get it for free if you owned HL back in the day. once valve went to steam and changed their retail packages, you either had to pay to get CS buy itself, or puchase a package that contained counterstrike (HL1 anthology, for example)

[UnderHero5]

Do we begin to see the problem with Steam????

Seriously, this is what happens when you give control of your computer to somebody else.
Explain how this couldn't happen with normal patching methods? (Hint: It already did with R6 a year ago).

[KingGorilla]

according to Steam it costs at least $10. (http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=10&cc=US) plus, there were retail releases of CS, or you could get it for free if you owned HL back in the day. once valve went to steam and changed their retail packages, you either had to pay to get CS buy itself, or puchase a package that contained counterstrike (HL1 anthology, for example)
The mod has been free from day 1.
http://www.soft32.com/download_2541.html

The fact that silly people pay Valve for it is just that...silly.

[Varsity]

What, so you still play the mod version?

[Magnanimous Gnome]

This is really stupid.

It's too bad so many people are willing to bend over and take this kind of crap. We'll just see more and more of it until I quit gaming entirely.

[fahrvergnugen]

I just noticed that the billboards in Crackdown are live and updated over the internet. It's enough to make me want to quit playing the game. I don't suppose anyone has a list of adserver IPs I could null route at my border router?

[Sl1pstream]

Yeah... because the big high res HL2 ad in Dust doesn't look out of place or distracting at all.

Everyone who's still playing Dust these days should be distracted by another game. It would be a crime not to.

[see colon]

The mod has been free from day 1.
http://www.soft32.com/download_2541.html

The fact that silly people pay Valve for it is just that...silly.
yeah, if you own half-life. if you don't own half-life you'd have to buy it (it's not free). to buy it you'd have to find it in some dusty computer store that ordered lots of copies of the original big box release and sold none (hard to find at this point), or buy one of the packages valve sells through steam or at retail from EA (not free). or you can but CS by itself.

the fact that you can get the mod for free is irrelevant when you have to own another piece of software that's nearly impossible at this point (original HL retail) to find to play it for free. and if you have that, you wouldn't be downloading the mod version from soft32, you'd just register your CD key in steam and it would add all of the games you were entitled to (and maybe a few more, i got blue shift when i registered mine) to your games.

-edit-
HA! i just read the comments on that file you pointed to. here's the best one:
do i have to pay for this? i downloaded it, installed it and then made my own account but i cant play the game or anything, i have to pay altho the download says FREE counter strike plz help asap

the file it links to is the Steam installer.

[timmyd]

Explain how this couldn't happen with normal patching methods? (Hint: It already did with R6 a year ago).

You're playing possum, right? Except, the brain kind?

Sorry, that insult was too good to let pass. :D

I would think that by "normal patching methods" you mean download and install. In this case you can choose to install the latest patch or not.

You don't have a choice with Steam. See? That's the problem.

I always hated the idea of Steam. Not the content distribution part, that's great. But it's as if some Valve employee comes in my house every time I start one of their games and tinkers with my computer.

Also, they changed a single player level after SPYING on their customers. They thought it was too hard. What if I liked it the way it was? Does this mean that my single player experience will now adjust itself to the lowest common denominator of Internet Idiot?

Plus I can imagine I'm playing the single player part and I'm digging the shotgun because it explodes my enemies and splatters them all over the place. Next day I come in for my gaming fix and the shotgun's nerfed.

Seriously, Valve, fuck off.

[Katslover]

according to Steam it costs at least $10. (http://steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=game&AppId=10&cc=US) plus, there were retail releases of CS, or you could get it for free if you owned HL back in the day. once valve went to steam and changed their retail packages, you either had to pay to get CS buy itself, or puchase a package that contained counterstrike (HL1 anthology, for example)


Half-Life Anthology does not contain Counter-Strike. You only get Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift, and Team Fortress Classic. That's why they make the "Counter-Strike Anthology". Back when these retail boxes first came out, you could get Counter-Strike off of Steam for free, but Valve "fixed" that.

[Fuzzwah]

I would think that by "normal patching methods" you mean download and install. In this case you can choose to install the latest patch or not.

You don't have a choice with Steam. See? That's the problem.

No matter what the patching system, if you want to play a multiplayer game online on regular servers you have to patch.

[UnderHero5]

No matter what the patching system, if you want to play a multiplayer game online on regular servers you have to patch.
Thanks. That was my point.

Sure you could choose not to patch with a normal patch... but where does that get you? With a buggier game and no one to play with online.

[Logik]

The company continues to support the game almost 10 years after its release. The $50 you spent on a box nearly a decade ago doesn't entitle you to a lifetime subscription. As long as Valve continues to support the game, they're entitled to revenue.

But god forbid you push an ad at a gamer for anything, eh?