Steam comes out of Half Life 2 players’ ears

“Recent downtime on Valve’s Steam Subscriber service has caused aggravation for Counter Strike players and increased calls for a change in the way Half Life 2 authenticates its single-player mode.

Currently, players of Half-Life 2 must log in to the Steam service when playing single player. If the service is down, Half-Life goes with it.

The downtime is just another episode in the ongoing soap opera that accompanies the game management system. Accounts bought with stolen credit cards have been hocked on eBay, and the auction house won’t offer purchase protection because no physical goods have changed hands. The Steam forums are littered with tales of account hacking, and once your account it gone, it’s very difficult indeed to get back. Various email scams along the lines of bank phishing schemes attempt to get players to disclose their account details, and if you fall foul to one of these, you’re screwed too.”