HL2 & Steam

I'm going to avoid the issue of why I haven't blogged for so long (at least in this post) and say what I have to say - that's what blogs are for.

The world+dog knows by now that Valve has released Half Life 2, the much anticipated sequel to Hal Life. Unfortunatelly they also decided (read the discussion - example 1, example 2) that it is acceptable to treat their clients like crap just to annoy - not stop - software pirates. That's what DRM does in general but valve's steam is particularly good at it.

Guess who is not getting my money this xmas? That's right, valve! I'm not a big HL fan and I don't think it's worth humiliating myself giving money to people who would have no consideration or respect for me upon becoming their customer. Oh! And they would also treat me worse than a criminal. I've bought very few albums (almost none) this past 4 or so years because of the way the record labels (RIAA) treat their customers, if more VG developers start doing business the way valve is, I'm switching to some other form of entertainment - maybe board games.