When we received a couple of complaints about Steam wrongfully banning Modern Warfare 2 players, I was a little skeptical. Flash forward 500 "Guys, did you hear about this?" emails later, I feel bad for the initial doubt, and we have a lovely update to the original story.
Affected users have been given an apology from Valve president Gabe Newell, in addition to a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2, plus another copy for gifting. From his email:
The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks).
If the issue is not specific to just Modern Warfare 2, why are all the complaints we've been hearing about only related to that one game? Hmm. At any rate, I'd say this situation was handled pretty darn well.
Jordan Devore is Destructoid's PC gaming manager and founding ginger editor. He is said to be easy to love but difficult to know. When Samit inquired about his curious bio photo Jordan simply replied:
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Contest:
9:00 PM on 07.26.2010
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There, mrandydixon. I just found one of the things people will bitch about.
"What if people already got Left 4 Dead 2?? "
Then they can gift it to somebody.
@ Jordan,
"If the issue is not specific to just Modern Warfare 2, why are all the complaints we've been hearing about only related to that one game? Hmm."
Well my off the wall guess would be that MW2 is more popular then just about any other game on Steam. Seriously... why does everything have to be a conspiracy? Can't dev's occasionally just make a mistake?
Nothing new here.
What if, say Activision took over the Internet. They don't like giving things away for free, and finds out Valve is giving away L4D2. What will happen now? People will bitch because now they don't even have a free game :'(
Protip, squad and team based games promote teamwork among coworkers.
Well, uh, no. That's nonsense. Valve does things very nicely, sure, but don't deify them for fuck sake. Christian 'Merica would have words with you on that'un, son.
I don't have to support anything. Not the war in Iraq, not the children, not nuffin. Just my upper torso.
But o' course, I'm just taking issue with the "You have to..." not necessarily the underlying "Valve did a thing to cover for their booboo, and I won't get mad 'cause they treat me oh so good".
i guess the bigger group is able to make louder noise. Go to the Steam forums any day and the occasional "banned wrongly" thread is happening hear and there. We are obviously not going to write a blog about those.
That may be true, but L4D2 isn't $50 anymore... It's been half a year since it's release, surely it's discounted now.
this shit goes a long way to show the faget coksuckaz who claim VAC is all seeing and infallible. 12 fukken thousand reasons you SHOULD SHUT YOUR FUKKEN MOUTH
Benefits do not include sex or other form of compensation,except for the warm fuzzy feeling that charity will give you.
Faith in and resect for Valve +1.
It went down in price *very* quickly.
But really, it's just Valve winning at PR.
He's too awesome!
Then there are all those asshats out there who were saying "Nothing wrong with VAC. Banning them is good!" Seeming a bit foolish now aren't we?
Actually, that may be impossible.
Everyone is up on valve not because they screwed up, but because they dealt with their mistake with class. They could have just stealthed a fix and not owned up to shit, and I would bet my left nut that the *most* you'd get from another company like activision would be the unban. The real test in public relations has always been how bad situations can be turned around into positive experiences for the consumer.
But yeah it did make those people jumping to conclusions look like asshats tho.
BTW :) If anyone has a "extra" copy of L4D...hook me up! Steam Id Diesel757
People were flaming the 'cheaters' like they were some kind of nazi, yet again, NONE of you went to do any research, yet to jump on the sheep bandwagon 'AMG U CHEATERS SCRUBS LOL MW2 FAILS VAC NEVER FAILS'
I wonder sometimes if the community has some kind of IQ greater than your average primate. Because that's all what I'm seeing. Oh no but it's ok, because Valve has never made a mistake before and VAC is flawless. Even their disgusting moderators who are too damn lazy to do some actual research, instead they are eating their nose out while they so call Moderate consumers on their forum and banning innocents while the cheaters roam free.
And now again you Naysayers refuse to apologize, all you say is 'Valve!' 'Yeah you f*cking ungrateful cheaters atleast Valve would give you a free game' 'Oh yeah they'll have something to bitch about anyway'
No shit! Isn't that common sense? You know what? That is a proper and decent business model. Apologize to the customer, in return, you give them something in return to sooth their frustration while still maintaining their interest in the business company.
You are the BANE of HUMANITY, the same disgusting shitsnot being a sheep and not thinking once yourself, you have no dignity, you have no COMMON. SENSE. You consume everything what is being fed to you. You are the subhuman hypocritical scum that lack the testicular fortitude AND Common Sense to actually back up your opinions.
'Be smart, funny, insightful, clueless, or cute -- but back it up with substance.'
You serious?
Get the hell off the ship please.
That said, I wish this had happened to me so I could get free L4D2! Oh well.