The real Story behind Half Life 2 - City 7-steam:
Maybe it was just a glitch, maybe a conspiracy, maybe just a dream, but when I started HL2 the first time it was like this:
I start on a train and a guy says, "I didn't see you get on." I nudged the next guy on the train and he said, "No matter how many times I transfer, it never works and I have to start all over." When I get off the train there is a large screen monitor mounted high in all the rooms, and Gabe's face is on them all. He is spewing propaganda, "Welcome to City 7-Steam.....it's safer here..."
There are soldiers everywhere with Steam Logos on their uniforms. The first is pushing a man trying to get his luggage and zapping him with a cattle prod, saying "It's encrypted, just leave it alone, you can't use it, move along".
Then I get near the fence with a rotating gate and a woman on the other side says, "Have you seen my game? Was it on that train?"
All the people are wearing the same clothes that say "customer" on them like it's a brand name. I go through the gate and the woman says, "I'm waiting for my game...It's been 4 hours, but they're being nice and letting me wait!"
I continue on and as I walk I hear these steam-soldiers saying things under their masks. It's hard to understand most of it, but I heard, "Just get in line..." and "Put in your CD...". One pushed me and said, "You! Wait! Steam is busy right now, get back!"
One man was walking back and forth like a crazy person mumbling about, "It says connect to steam, but steam says can't connect...I can't connect so I can't play...It says it cant connect so I should go to the steam site. The steam site says page can not be dislplayed and so I should connect to steam. I connect to steam and steam says it's too busy, and the game is not available..."
Another warned me: "Don't drink the water... they... put something in it to make you forget your password.... I... cant even remember my username...."
Someone called me "Freeman", but I was not free, I was enslaved in the cattle coral with everyone else.
The Steam guard pushes you into a dank hallway. You take a peek through a small window in a nearby door...there's a Steam guard in there, standing over a dimunitive customer. "Why me?" He protests, "I have a legitimate retail DVD, just like everybody else!" The Steam guard slams the window shut.
A Steam guard shoves you into a small room. There is another guard in there, as well as DVD drive, smashed to pieces. The guard who shoved you inside speaks:
"Need any help with this one?"
"No," the other replies, "I'm good."
The guard leaves you alone with the second Steam guard. He chuckles ominously as he wanders over to a server.
"Oh yeah...I'm gonna need to format your C drive for this!" He says with evil glee. He turns, and suddenly removes his mask. It's Gabe Newell!
"So...about that game I owe you..."
You race through the myriad hallways, running and gunning the Steam troopers with your loyal squad members shouting "get out of there!" "Don't forget to reboot, Freeman!" Suddenly, one of them crouches by a Steam trooper and seizes a dropped copy of the HL2 Collector's edition. "One for me and... one for me!" He cackles gleefully. You smile at him and nod.
I walked by a couple inside one of the rooms when I first arrived. The man was holding the woman as she was obviously in agony and upset. When I passed by then I heard them say: "When is this going to load, I can't take this any more!"
"Don't worry hun, well figure somthing out. Everything is going to be ok."
That reminds me of when I left that building and looked up at the big screen with Mr. Newell on it...
"Allow me to read a letter I have recently recieved. Dear Mr. Newell, why has...VALVe seen fit to supress our gaming accesibility? Sincerely, Concerned Customer. Thank you for writing; concerned. Of course your question touches on one of the most basic of gaming impulses, with all its hopes and fears for the progression of the species.
Though I also detect some unspoken questions. Do VALVe really know what's best for us? What gives them the right to make this kind of decision for gaming kind? Will they ever deactivate the steam supression field and let us play offline again? Allow me to address your underlying anxieties rather then answer every possible conflict and minor inconveniance you may have left unvoiced.
First, let us consider that for the first time ever, as a species, product security is within our reach. This simple fact has far reaching implications, it requires radical rethinking, revision of our technological imperitives such as lack of an internet connection. It also requires planning and forethought that run in direct opposition to our plug n' play presets.
I find it helpful in times like this to remind myself that our true enemy is...piracy. Piracy was our mother when we were new to information technology and thought theft was harmless fun. Piracy coddled us and kept us from paying for things in those hardened years when we had to spend all our money on upgrading the system just to be able to play the simplest of games, and watch the bright pixel fires dance on the computers screen.
Inseperable from piracy is it's dark twin, development costs. Piracy is connected with intolerable profit loss and only today do we see it's true nature. Piracy has just become aware or it's irrelevance in the face of cheaper and more worth-while games, and like a cornered beast, it will not go down without a bloody fight. Piracy would inflict a fatal blow on our gamers. Piracy creates it's own opressors and bids us rise up against them.
Piracy tells us that costly experimental gaming cnocepts are a threat, rather than an oppurtunity. Piracy slyly and convertly leads us away from change, and progress. Piracy therefore, must be expunged. It must be fought tooth and nail, with the basis of gaming applications, the application of installing software. We should thank VALVe for giving us Steam. They have thrown a switch and freed us from our demons in a single stroke. They have given us the strength we never could have summoned to overcome this compulsion. They have given us purpose, they have turned our eyes towards the rightful way to aquire worth-while games and promote better development.
Let me assure you that the Steam suppresion field will be shut off on the day that we have mastered ourselves, the day we prove we no longer need it. An that day of transformation, I have it on good authority, is when hell freezes over."
So slightly disgruntled by his overlong speach I walked down the road to find these two guys talking.
"This is always how it happens. First it's a single account, then a whole range."
"They have no reason to ban our accounts..."
"Don't worry, they'll find one." an having been confused and scared of this possibility, I haven't bred-er played since.
Thanks to Dude Guyman, MrPaladin, Soul_Harvester, TeZ, Amberion and Mikeido from steampowered.com Steam Users Forums>Source Game Discussions>Half-Life 2 for their great story changes.
