02-21-2004, 11:08 AM
What is was is someone got the key before they started to enforce the one account per key and they cheated with it, thats why your friend was banned.
The way that steam did the steamids is a good way, BUT it should have only been enforced when new games like half-life 2 came out with totally new serial numbers.
As it is now, anyone with a stolen serial number that registers it with steam is considered the owner of that serial number with no real way to prove it.
I have heard of people going to the store, buying the game new from the store, bringing it home and then put in the new CD key only to find that some person using a key gen has already put the key into steam. So unless the store replaces it, the person is out 20 to 30 bucks.
There have been some idiots that I have said, "just go and buy 5 or 10 copies of it and you're bound to find a working one". Why would someone have to spend 50 to 100 bucks on a bunch of copies of the same game just to get a working serial number.
This is why I would like to buy half-life 2 the day it comes out so that I can make sure my CD works when I get it.
The way that steam did the steamids is a good way, BUT it should have only been enforced when new games like half-life 2 came out with totally new serial numbers.
As it is now, anyone with a stolen serial number that registers it with steam is considered the owner of that serial number with no real way to prove it.
I have heard of people going to the store, buying the game new from the store, bringing it home and then put in the new CD key only to find that some person using a key gen has already put the key into steam. So unless the store replaces it, the person is out 20 to 30 bucks.
There have been some idiots that I have said, "just go and buy 5 or 10 copies of it and you're bound to find a working one". Why would someone have to spend 50 to 100 bucks on a bunch of copies of the same game just to get a working serial number.
This is why I would like to buy half-life 2 the day it comes out so that I can make sure my CD works when I get it.