Steam Keygen

[laspam]

Are you guys even aware that there is A Valley Without Wind keygen, that generates keys redeemable on steam?
(mod edit: removed the link, more for potential malware, that you may not be aware of, than anything else)
I know it is small .exe file. Check with any antivirus software / run on virtual pc i don't care. I can generate these keys for you if you are paranoid.
Hope you'll fix the situation.

[x4000]

Generally speaking there are keygens for pretty much every game out there.  Pirates pretty much suck.  My thoughts on the matter from years ago:  http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2009/07/thoughts-on-piracy-and-drm.html

We pursue takedown requests when we can, but that's basically playing a game of whack-a-mole that is not terribly productive in light of things.  Haters gonna hate, and pirates gonna pirate.  We rely on the honest people who want to see us make more games to actually buy our stuff.

[keith.lamothe]

Are you guys even aware that there is A Valley Without Wind keygen, that generates keys redeemable on steam?

I assume that one was created within a couple weeks of the official release, and with keys being redeemable on steam (more recently), this is the logical outcome, yes.  The same thing happened with AI War.  And possibly Tidalis, but I haven't heard of that specifically.

Hope you'll fix the situation.

There's not really anything we can do; piracy is very difficult to effectively prevent, and those keys are legit even if their source is not (steam has no way of knowing if the non-steam key was actually sold to the person using it).  This is just a case where piracy can actually hurt other consumers.

FWIW, if someone tries to register a legitimate key on steam and cannot because it was registered by a pirate, they can contact steam support with their proof of purchase to get it taken care of.

(edit: ninja'd)

[Mánagarmr]

My stand on piracy is pretty well known on this forum by now, but registering your key on Steam (actively blocking out a legit customer) is an even bigger dick move. :/

[Panopticon]

Thankfully if you have some kind of proof of purchase Steam Support has been good about fixing this sort of thing.

[targetbsp]

My stand on piracy is pretty well known on this forum by now, but registering your key on Steam (actively blocking out a legit customer) is an even bigger dick move. :/

It's not necessarily intentional.  [edit]in fact, I doubt most people would knowingly risk their entire Steam account in that way[/edit[
Quite a lot of kind people give away Steam keys.  There's a whole site dedicated to it: steamgifts.com
There's also a thread dedicated to it on the Steam forums (which was a source of the problem here) and you have to be quick to grab a key or someone else will grab it so you hardly have time to verify its source.  I've given away some games and I've taken others.

I'd grabbed a key for this game, activated it and installed it before people started to question the source.  I never even got around to loading the game before the keys integrity was question so i just uninstalled it and emailed Steam.  They just this moment emailed me back to tell me they'd removed the game from my account as per my request.

But if a person hadn't returned to that thread or got them from another source where it wasn't questioned they'd be none the wiser.


[edit]
After posting on the Steam forums about managing to get them to revoke my key I've had a PM asking how I achieved that so maybe a few keys will get returned to the pile of unused ones now!

Also, I think your comment about 'dick moves' can apply in this case to people who generate keys to give to others, depriving the devs of income, for probably the sole purpose of duping us into giving them something as meaningless as forum rep! :|

[Mánagarmr]

Also, I think your comment about 'dick moves' can apply in this case to people who generate keys to give to others, depriving the devs of income, for probably the sole purpose of duping us into giving them something as meaningless as forum rep! :|

Aye, that was my point. Pirates genning keys and then having people activate them on Steam, thus blocking out legit customers

[zebramatt]

My views on piracy aren't the least bit black and white but I have to say on this one issue it's pretty simple: if your possession of a key is preventing the rightful owner from using it, then it's stolen property.

[Giegue]

I'd have to agree with you there.

[Aklyon]

All I have to say on this is this:
THeres nothing stopping you from playing the game you have a (generated) code for on its own, why do you want to cause trouble on steam while doing so? Thats not helping anything and you just have a duplicate copy in steam of the same game.

[LaughingThesaurus]

All I have to say on this is this:
THeres nothing stopping you from playing the game you have a (generated) code for on its own, why do you want to cause trouble on steam while doing so? Thats not helping anything and you just have a duplicate copy in steam of the same game.

I was going to bring this up but... I dunno, telling people how to effectively pirate a game on the developers' forums just strikes me as bad news, even if the guys are cool with it.

Here's a simple Piracy legitimacy outline.

1. Does the game have a demo?
Yes: Download it and play it first.
No: Move on.

2. Was the demo representative of the game? Did it exist?
Yes: Buy the game if you like it, move on with your life if you don't.
No: Go on.

3. Is the game inexpensive (20$ or less)?
Yes: Move on, but consider just buying it anyway.
No: Move on.

4. Download the game or use an illegitimate key. Play the game for a limited time (we're talking maybe 10% of the levels tops, or limit to 2 hours or so.)

5. Did you enjoy the game?
Yes: Delete your pirated copy and buy the game.
No: Delete your pirated copy and move on with your life.
Maybe?: Delete your copy and have an internal debate.

That's the chart that I follow basically. Inexpensive games can wait till I have spare money. Such a low price is just a couple of okay meals, and I think anybody can replace a couple okay meals with ramen if the game looks cool enough to take that chance. It's when you're treading the line of a week of ramen where you draw the line. Expensive games need a couple of levels of demo. If there is not a demo, that is on the developer or the publisher, and they aren't getting my money until I demo the game and determine whether I like it. TB says that piracy is a service issue, and personally, I'm inclined to agree just because developers who make me happy get a whole lot more wiggle room. I'd totally consider buying Tidalis for instance, if I knew I'd get at least some play out of it, right? It's a well designed game. Thing is... it's not my thing, so I just haven't yet. That's just what comes naturally to me.

Edit: Oh yeah. If by some miracle you beat the entire game in two hours, it might be worth considering buying it given that you actually already beat it on accident. Those things happen.

[zebramatt]

That flow plays out rather differently if you register an ill-gotten key on Steam. By way of analogy:

1. Can I test drive this car?

2. Did the test drive give me enough of an impression to make a purchase decision?

3. Is the car a bargain?

4. Find someone who owns the car, steal it and take it for a joy ride.

5. Did you enjoy driving the car?

And let's assume you don't admit to Valve that your key was ill-gotten, so they should reverse your registration of it. Then the last step's answer roll like this:

Yes: Drive the stolen one into a ditch, then buy your own one.
No: Drive the stolen one into a ditch, then don't buy your own.
Maybe: Drive the stolen one into a ditch, then consider your options.

Even if you do admit to Steam you decided to register someone else's game, you've still prevented them from registering it themselves for the time you had it - which is why it's much easier to define by traditional moral assessment.

[targetbsp]

My point is we didn't know.

Lets take your analogy.  For it to apply here, people would have to legitimately give away cars freely on a daily basis, by the hundreds.  And these cars are accepted so quickly by other drivers that you don't have time to do a HPI check on it if you want it.  You take it in good faith - or you miss out.

Look how many games are being given away right now: http://www.steamgifts.com/ more than 400.  I gave away a game myself yesterday and was given another.  It's just something we do as part of a little sub-community of Steam users.

I'm utterly against piracy and had my key revoked at my own request the moment it was in doubt.  I'm a software developer by way of profession!
I have 320 games on Steam, 141 on Desura, 13 on origin, 8 on uplay, 49 retail 26 on DS and 92 on Android.  I have 916 DVD's, a bookcase full of CD's, 3 bookcases full of books.  Heck, I even paid for Winrar rather than continuously using the shareware version!
Every single one of these is genuine.  I can promise you I don't have a problem buying copyrighted material.  I was duped!
Oh and yes, I have not even come closing to playing all of those games.   I have a backlog of 14 to even load for the first time and check they work!  I have seen all the DVD's though.

So it being black and white in this situation isn't quite the case IMO.  There could be plenty of people out there with absolutely no idea the game they have is any less legitimate than hundreds of other games given away on a daily basis.   That doesn't make them bad people.  They didn't generate the code - someone else did and gave it to them and they had no reason to believe it wasn't the typical game giving away generosity.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah my standpoint doesn't mean I go around pirating games nonstop. I think I've only had to do that twice. Any other game either had gamebreaking flaws (GFWL counts as a gamebreaking flaw) or I already knew I would like it, or I already knew that I would not like it. For good examples, look at most triple-A shooters. I don't need a demo to know that I don't want to pay 60$ for 6 hours of gameplay.

Now... as far as your analogy goes, that can't possibly be further from the truth. Cars are physical property, video games are a string of letters and numbers that give you the right to play. Cars have objectively higher or lower quality, and most video games do not. Cars are not expected to have demos, and in the games industry, demos should very well be mandatory. Driving a car around actually causes wear and tear, and you can cause it some serious damage. Deleting the game off of your hard drive results in no repercussions.

Think of it this way: Picture a game that you aren't sure about buying. Without a demo, you aren't going to buy it.... but you opt to temporarily pirate it to demo it. You realize you like it, and buy it. Boom, "piracy" sells a copy of a video game. Not going to say it's good news, but let me tell you, the couple of games that I did that with? The developers made money from that. That's strictly good, right there. I understand piracy is normally bad, and that's the "easy" way to think of it, but it's quite the gray area. Yeah, registering that key on steam is going to really hurt other players. Registering that key to the game itself, or just downloading Lego Star Wars or something off the internet, that hurts nobody so long as you only use it as a demo. Nobody loses out on the key that they bought, nothing. So... what's the problem, with my way of doing things?

[Aklyon]

They can cause repercussions if you're using a rather heavily used SSD, but thats being rather picky as far as points go.