Valve
Valve is a software company best known for their digital distribution platform Steam and their multiple hit video game franchises. The company was founded by ex-microsoft employees Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington in 1996.
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Steam
Steam is a video game distribution platform for computers running windows or mac operating systems. Steam offers its users a way to download old and new games from multiple publishers. Community features have been added to the platform that allow users to create a profile, add friends, join groups, schedule events, and see and join games that their friends are playing. In addition to these features, Steam also has a cloud feature that lets users save their game preferences and save files on the Steam servers so that they can access them across multiple computers.
Valve Anti-Cheat
Also known as VAC, this is the anti-cheat system deployed through Steam. It works by scanning a user's computer memory looking for the signatures of blacklisted hacks. Valve institutes a deliberate delay between when they detect hacks and when they ban a user. The reason for this is because Valve does not publicly release a list of which hacks are detected. By keeping this information confidential, hackers will not know which hacks triggered the ban and thus be lured into a false sense of security with regard to certain hacks. Valve is then able to catch more of the hackers because the hackers won't know if the hacks they are using have been blacklisted.
Once a user is banned, they are permanently prohibited from playing on VAC-protected servers; they are still allowed to play on unprotected servers.
Additionally, Valve will never reverse a ban. This becomes a problem when a user's account is hacked, and someone other than the owner uses the account to hack in games. Even if the rightful owner gets their account back, the ban will not be overturned.
Digital Rights Management
The idea of Digital Rights Management, also known as DRM, has been a hotbed issue in PC gaming and other software for a while. DRM is justified by many publishers as a way of preventing their software from being pirated. There are many forms of DRM. Some common forms require customers to enter a CD with each install of the software. It is also common for some software to have a limited number of installs. While many forms of DRM are simply annoying to the customer, some other forms are very invasive and have even been known to damage a customer’s system. An ironic aspect of DRM is that many people involved in the software piracy scene often use invasive and annoying DRM to justify their piracy of particular software. When a person pirates a piece of software they are able to avoid most forms of DRM and so in many ways it can been seen as a more convient alternative to buying the actual software just so they don’t have to deal with the DRM. Valve has taken a stance against DRM and has implemented a system within steam that lets users download and install as many copies of a piece of software as they would like on as many computers as they wish so long as they have the account information for the account that has purchased the software. This is important because it offers a legal avenue for users that are against DRM, but would still like to support the developers of the software. Their stance is important because it promotes convenience for the customer without sacrificing the developers ability to protect their software from piracy.
Steam Community
The steam community has many features that are common to other social networks. It has a friends list, chat feature, groups, events, profile, and a wall like feature that shows recent user activity as well as allow users to post messages that are viewable to anyone that visits the profile. The community feature allows users to easily assemble a friends list of people they have met online and off. It makes it easy for users to see what games their friends are playing and join them if they so choose.
Games
Valve has had many hit games since the company was founded. Their earliest and arguably most popular game series is the Half-Life franchise. In more recent years they have had success with games such as Portal 1 & 2 as well as Left 4 Dead 1 & 2.
Year | Title |
---|---|
1998 | Half-Life |
1999 | Team Fortress Classic |
1999 | Half-Life: Opposing Force |
2000 | Deathmatch Classic |
2000 | Ricochet |
2000 | Counter-Strike |
2001 | Half-Life: Blue Shift |
2003 | Day of Defeat |
2004 | Counter-Strike: Condition Zero |
2004 | Half-Life: Source |
2004 | Counter-Strike: Source |
2004 | Half-Life 2 |
2005 | Day of Defeat: Source |
2005 | Half-Life 2: Lost Coast |
2006 | Half-Life 2: Episode One |
2007 | Half-Life 2: Episode Two |
2007 | Portal |
2007 | Team Fortress 2 |
2008 | Left 4 Dead |
2009 | Left 4 Dead 2 |
2010 | Alien Swarm |
2011 | Portal 2 |
2011 Steam Database Hack
On October 10, 2011, Valve announced that during a recent hack on the Steam community forums, hackers got access to a database containing sensitive information. The forums were immediately taken down, but the extent of the damage is currently unknown and under investigation by Valve. The database contained hashed and salted passwords, encrypted credit card numbers, and billing addresses, among other data. As of Oct. 10, 2011 9:45P.M., there have been no reported suspicious credit card activity with regard to the hack.[1]