Valve has issued a fairly robust statement claiming that the problems which arose with Half-Life 2 activation are now resolved, the statement reads "We have resolved the issues that caused some to experience delays with Half-Life 2 authentication earlier today. We appreciate your patience and hope everyone enjoys the game."
Strangely enough that statement is dated November 16 although MegaGames is aware of messages, complaining about activation, coming in even today. We would be interested in hearing from any person who is still facing difficulties with H-L 2.
Indicative of the strange view that Valve has of the world right now, is the fact that the company deemed it appropriate to ask owners of Half-Life 2 to vote for the game in the 2004 SpikeTV Video Game Awards. Without an apology or even an honest attempt to appease users who have been through so much during the development process but also post-retail, Valve reckons it deserves the vote.
We do subscribe to the idea that game awards should be awarded purely on merit and that Half-Life 2 is an excellent game which may well deserve the award, what we cannot accept is Valve's, apparent, loss of touch with reality. If there was an award for customer satisfaction, how many of you would vote for Valve?
Fans may claim that Valve has made a truly hardcore gamer product and that may explain the lack of marketing effort put into the game but then surely a company involved in litigation with its publisher regarding money matters and a company that is recruiting voters for an award cannot really claim to be all about gaming.
Strangely enough this comes from a fan of Valve's and a person who still has hope that the company will see past its errors and save its reputation, something vital for the future of gaming.
Even though November 16 has come and gone Valve's Half-Life 2 problems have not vanished, with many owners claiming that they have still not managed to activate their copy of the game. MegaGames has been flooded by email messages from users facing severe connection problems when attempting to activate their Half-Life 2 copy using Valve's Steam service.
Valve has issued a statement claiming that the developer is aware of the problem and is trying to address it, We've received a number of reports from people experiencing delays with Half-Life 2 authentication. We are investigating the issue and will update everyone as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and hope to have everyone in the game very soon.
This is one problem that the prominent developer cannot blame VU Games for, especially since it is reported that copies of Half-Life 2 downloaded over the Steam service and therefore bought directly from Valve, seem to have been activated immediately.
From the vast number of messages received through the MegaGames mail servers the pattern emerging suggests that U.K. owners of Half-Life 2 are facing the most problems. Some users report that the Steam service seems to be asking them for payment even though they have purchased a retail copy of the game, other users received error messages while installing the game (some screen captures of those are available by following the Screens tab above) while the majority report getting a variety of ...game CD Key not valid messages.
This new development just adds insult to injury and it is beginning to look like Valve is trying to test the lengths to which fans of the Half-Life series will go to in order to get the sequel. It is unlikely however, that new gamers will choose to go through such a painstaking and elaborate process just to try out Half-Life 2, especially when a pirated copy of the game is already available on Internet websites and that copy works.
