A whole bunch of Valve's source code seems to have been leaked, including Half Life 2. The forum thread with the pics in question: http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10591
quote:"Inside you'll find what is at the time of writing, over 600 heated posts regarding the legitimacy of a leaked "Half-Life 2 source code", a thread that has reached nearly 60,000 views. A huge number of people now have their hands on this code, there is clearly no doubt that this code actually exists, the doubt lies in what it is, exactly."
And from the forum...
quote:"We've ( the hl2.net staff ) managed to get our hands on a copy and can confirm it's real. Funky stuff, shame it was leaked though."
HL2 has been [url="http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3568878"]delayed till April 2004[/url].. Argh! *shakes fist at hackers*
[url="http://halflife2.homelan.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11450"]..and things go from bad to worse[/url]!
quote:As most of you in IRC and on the forums already know, a pre-release version of Half-Life 2 has found its way onto Peer-to-peer, IRC, and web warez networks around the globe.
Valve have always been a community aware company, if it wasn't for Halflife then the mod scene would be relient on the quake 3 engine, not to mention CS wouldn't exist etc.
These ridiculous script kiddies who have no reguard for the industry need to be strung up in my opinion, now we all have to wait until next year for half life 2, argh the humanity !!!
I have to admit that hearing it was very bad news. But this sin't the first fps in recent times to have had it's code leaked when it was anounced to delayed (again). There was also UT2k3 (which was nearly thw hole game) and Doom3. I don't condem or support the act of releasing hacked pre-releases (nor will i dl it), but maybe game developers and publishers should stop hyping their games to such proportions and then delaying them by so much.
I have to admit that the anouncement of a slip until april 2004 was also rather frustrating, and that i am starting to lose a little faith in the game. I guess that i will just have to wait for Halo PC in the meantime (yes i own and have completed the xbox version).
I have absolutely no interest in reading the code whatsoever, just fyi.
I'm suprised how nonchalant some people are about this. This is very serious property theft - and I don't want to blow the situation out of proportion -> but it's not like this will be the last time it happens and it's hard to say what impact this will have on the game developer community if these actions by 'fans' become more common.
Secondly, from the point of view of a developer, this would be gut-wrenching, heart-breaking stuff. I've never worked in the industry, so I doubt I could understand how it feels, but I can sympathise. HL2 contains alot of very VERY evolutionary technology that has been carefully researched and crafted by number of very knowledgeable people in various fields, to some of those people it would be like their magnum opus. Although I'm all for sharing of knowledge, fiddling with a final refined product is way beyond ethical.
Think it tough having to wait another few months for half life 2?
Think how shit it must feel to be Valve having to work on it for another few months after probably a good twelve or so of 'crunch time'.
I'm with you Maitrek, Valve lost or is going to lose alot of money because of this moronic script kiddie.
Valve has always been a community minded company, modding owes alot to there open mindedness and hard work.
The reason they have to delay is not to penalise the likes of you Aven, its to rework alot of key elements of the code, elements that may have contained important pieces of info such as ....hmm I don't know, the copy protection?!
If they had released the game before the leak or now without any changes then everyone would most likely be able to use the leaked code to build perfect copies of the game, no flaws, no cracks, just the game without the areas that prevent piracy.
I regret having to wait til april for HL2 but by no means can anyone honestly have an issue with Valve for this, if you don't like waiting for it go find the fool who released it and take it out on him.
I just hope Valve can bounce back from this, the community would suffer alot if they didn't.
I've been reading some of the forums of Half Life 2 websites to keep up to date with what's going on.. and the mentality of some of the HL2 fans is quite confusing. Here we have the hacker who claims that "Valve lied to us, the game isn't complete", and then goes on to release the source, and beta - which in itself is so absurdley worse that it grossly overshadows whatever argument he's trying to give. Then there's the community flack on Valve because the beta apparently has some scripted parts (soldier kicking down a door as seen in the E3 demo), which contradicts what Gabe said at E3 that there are no scripted events. The point is, why are they even judging a game on a beta release that was stolen from a developer.
when it comes out it comes out. even when it comes out i probably wont get around to seeing it for a couple months.
i understand why they have delayed it and everyone should support that. it would be crazy to release a game with a fully leaked code, imagine the amount of hacks etc.
and its only april, thats not that long away at all. damn, dont they have anything better to do than bitch about having to wait a little time? they are creating what looks like will be a very good game for them to play.
/end rant lol
According to gamesindustry.biz, vavle still hasn't endorsed that april date.
I'd type it, but ... just read. http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?section_name=ret&aid=2387
cheers
This is certainly 'interesting' news, there's definitely not much precedent for this kind of thing. However, I imagine the source code is intellectual property of Valve and it can only be used through license so anyone who cracked it and released it is in for a very assed up ride, and anyone who downloaded it would also technically be using it illegitemately (I'm pretty sure just d/l it would be a breach of licensing stuffs)
From a personal point of view - this is why I'm planning on setting up a secure (as possible) linux server for all the source code storage and network access for any collaborations I get myself into. Using Outlook is a bad idea.
I feel very sorry for Valve, it's a fairly harsh thing for a bunch of weenie crackers to do - but I guess Valve
a) didn't expect this sort of thing to happen and
b) were a little ignorant/naive.