CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
half-life 2 leak
mailbag: half-life 2 leak
In this mailbag, we tackle the sometimes touchy subject of a leaky VALVe. If you have been living under a rock for the past 3 months, a copy of the Half-Life source code was released to the public by some hackers who broke their way into VALVe's computer network. What do you all think about this leak and its implications?
from: naem
I believe the leak of the actual build of HL2 will ultimately be good for VALVe. It's free hype.

The source code leak is a different story and that will cause VALVe a lot of problems. They'll have to re-code certain parts of the source (CD-Key validation algorithms, for example) and undoubtedly people will rip their code and inspect it, possibly using some for their own personal projects. At least major companies (hopefully) won't rip it due to copyright violations and fines. The source code leak shouldn't affect CS2 too adversely since no meaningful CS2 code was leaked.
Well, it's not a different story. It's the same story. And I don't see how this is good for VALVe in any way. Free hype? They already had plenty of hype by virtue of every single gamer on the planet anxiously waiting for HL2. They didn't need this to happen to get the word out.

I think that the issue of people taking their code wholesale is overdoing it, but you're right in that there's the scary prospect of some unscrupulous people taking their ideas. The issue is one of 5 years of R&D and intellectual property dropped into the laps of anyone who wants it.
from: eagle25
i think the bulk of any damage created by this leak is going to go to VALVe's wallet, when you think about it, it's almost unavoidable to lose money (or not make the profit you should) when releasing video games/software.. even if it wasn't leaked, a week or 2 after (hey maybe a day) it would have ended up on the file sharing networks (not that i endorse it, its just a fact)

the only thing that could possibly be affected in the future of hl2 and accompanying mods are cheats.. or so I've heard. I'm no programing expert, but hackers might be able to create more effective cheats etc (if the netcode was leaked.. and i think it was)
I firmly believe that game companies don't actually lose money on pirated software. Most of the time, pirates wouldn't have bought the games in question, anyway. And like you say, software pirating is inevitable.

The cheating issue is definitely a scary one, and is likely the reason for the large delay. When they say "whole sections of the code will have to be re-written," it doesn't take a programming or gaming expert to realize they're talking about the comprimised netcode.
from: PrimeTarget
Whoever leaked it was a real fool. Now we have to wait around for HL2 even longer! And they were probably planning a port for CS too. Not good. I say burn/lynch the leaker and steal his moneys.

On the other hand, it makes Valve look inept, which I like. Stick it to 'em.
Making VALVe look inept isn't exactly a good thing if you're really into their games, which you apparently are since you're obviously sitting on pins and needles waiting anxiously for Mom and Dad to give you enough allowance money to allow you to break your piggy bank full of pennies and run down to GameStop to pick up a preorder of HL2 and a copy of Barbie's funtime adventure.

Make sure you go for a ride in Ken's bitchin' Camero in level 3.
from: CSBomberman
I think the Valve leak will make the gaming industry become more secure. The obvious effect on HL2 is the delays. I think Valve will recover through their sales of CS:CZ and HL2, which is coming out. The only annoyance is the fact that it was delayed because of a hacker who was idiotic enough to take the source code.
A good point, perhaps some of the companies that were on the net will be more careful about where they place their source code. Hell, this shouldn't be a wake up call to just the games industry - if you have valuable code, make sure it's not hooked up to the internet. Ever.

At an old job of mine, after a similar scare, we split our network into a development network - completely offline - and a corporate network, attached to the interweb, meaning every developer had to have two PCs. Of course, being cranky developers very used to the status quo, we bitched and moaned about how this would hurt productivity. Turns out not to have been such a bad idea.
from: odd3ye
Its unfortunate that the one stupid moron has to ruin it for everyone. Here we are, a ravenous, rabid hungry pack of starved wolves, wanting more of HL2. More tidbits, more screenshots, more press releases. Its like a wolf getting his first taste of human blood. We want more. Now we find out that this isn't a human, its a bear, and its not going to let it eat you, oh no, its going to rape you and theres NOTHING YOU CAN DO. Thats kinda how I feel. Like a rabid starved wolf, thats just been violated.
There are support groups you can call to get over your creepy fascination with animal rape.

There are also internet sites you can visit to go deeper into your dementia. Not that I'd know anything about those sites, or have them bookmarked or saved to my hard drive or anything.
from: Macer
Valve's many attempts at suicide are remarkable.

Why were they on Outlook. Were they high or something? Now the hl2 leak is not that big. It was just as hyped as the game. Thiss may lead to cheats of course, but oh well, its not like that wouldnt happen sooner or late.

One day valve will lose this one man Russian Roulette they have been playing.
VALVe does have a history of doing some weird things (hello powerplay) but I do think they've generally always wanted to do the right thing when it comes to us gamers.

As long as the right thing involved them getting a piece of the action, too. But that's capitalism, that's what keeps them alive making great games for us.

I said making, not releasing.
from: aK|penzsnap
I can't say that the HL2 source code leak has directly impacted Counter-Strike in its current state at all, and CZ is scheduled to come out November 18th.

As for the fate of VALVe, they'll manage to pull through one way or another. I don't think too many people were turned off from HL2 when they heard about the source code leak (though may not necessarily buy it considering they could just download it).

HL2 may not live very long though. Upon release the game will likely be plagued with cheats, so there goes multiplayer (never enjoyed single player personally).
Yeah, I don't think the current state of CS will suffer too much, unless STEAM is somehow comprimised. I agree that people weren't generally turned off by the leak, any more than they are turned off by the myriad development delays they are being put through.

I'd argue that CS has been plagued with cheats for a while now and continues to grow, so multiplayer shouldn't be counted out entirely. It may face a hard upward battle, though.
from: DarkLite
Well...

I shall refrain from mentioning how stupid Valve was for connecting a computer to the Internet when it had something they had been working on for FIVE years (namely, Half-Life 2) then publicly saying that the stolen content was real. Come on Valve, you should know better. This will undoubtedly affect CS2 in some way, probably the physics system may be copied by rival games (Rainbow Six, UT2004, etc.) which could have a ineffably disastrous impact upon Valve, and CS2.
Well, the physics system was made mostly by a company called Havok which licenses its code out to other developers, such as Ion Storm with Deus Ex 2. As I understand it, VALVe made some adjustments to their code to work better with their new engine. I also understand that ALL that code, even the Havok code, was released to the public, which might make VALVe liable in some ways, but I'm not a lawyer.

I think we've established that other, legit companies aren't going to touch the released code with a 10 foot pole. It'd still be illegal to use, or at least very, very unethical. Most companies are somewhat wary of those little ethical dilemas.

The real issue here, I think, is whether other game companies will want to go with the Source engine now that it's been sufficiently comprimised. I believe that VALVe was banking on selling Source as a viable game platform much like iD does with their Quake 3 or Doom 3 engine.
from: -:Nighthawk:-
As a result of the leak in such a major corporate project such as HL2, open source will soon reign supreme, linux fanboys will rejoice in the streets, Bill Gates will fall over dead, and MikeJ will do a funny mailbag. Okay, so none of those things will ever really happen. Mainly it just means the programmers have to go back and change stuff to make it a bit more difficult for hackers once more.
I'm all for being optimistic about what happened, but I do think that it's a bit more serious than just a little delay. This is going to affect VALVe's prestige and pocketbook in the long run. It's not a simple whitewash and forget prospect.
from: Evil_Penguin
Vivendi is dead if they don't get HL2 out soon, that is gonna be there big release this year, and if it doesn't hit it's mark something is gonna fall, either A, they will be bought by Microsoft, or 2, they will file bankruptcy. So the rest of the company (Blizzard, Sierra, ect.) needs this out, or else. Plus Newell is fat.
HA! You're right! Gabe Newell IS fat! I didn't realize Dave Chappelle visited CS-Nation! Oh man, that's some crazy observational humor right there, and the fact that you non-challanted it so cleverly makes it that much more amusing. Oh, the hilarity!

I don't think that Vivendi's entire future would be banked on just a single game. That'd be real, real stupid. That said, I wouldn't put it past them.