Seems like they were already planning on stopping the project anyways, Valve’s DMCA just happened to come while they were already deliberating on it:
While we were discussing the project’s future internally recently, we already came to the conclusion to stop the development of the project due to the current state of the code being unusable anymore with s&box’s recent major engine changes, and that we overall moved on from it.
Sadly, this means this DMCA takedown is the nail in the coffin. We cannot bring it back and we’ve hit Valve’s attention, it seems like they definitely don’t want us to use their IP (which is totally fair and legal from them).
I’d suggest valheim but I’m not sure how is the performance nowadays, our rented servers struggled a lot with only 3-4 people and I think 10 is the max. Sailing was especially very laggy and glitchy because if it unfortunately.
The issue with Valheim is it’s not really a dedicated server. It’s more of a shared saved game repository.
Whoever gets to a region first is the host, and everyone nearby connects to them. If that person has a slow machine, or high latency to the other players it can be really painful. When I was playing with friends, we banned one person from entering dungeons first because they had the worst computer in the group and it was really bad for the rest of us. Same thing with our main base, if they wound up the host, they’d disconnect and log back in so someone else would become host.
IP laws should have a “use it or lose it” clause to be honest. Otherwise companies become lazy and repackage the same shit in a new skin that you have to pay for.
if there’s one rule to modding valve games, it’s “don’t touch GabeN’s hat and skin sales”. TF2 despite being a real mess and valve’s server being practically unplayable, still brings in millions of dollars of gambling money, and now that CS2 keys are not tradable TF2 keys are in demand for laundering money. of course they are gonna take down a direct remake of their live service game minus all the bots and shitty cosmetics.
Not exactly. Plenty of CS mods give players knife skins and things while on the server for doing things in the server. They only work while in that server, but Valve doesn’t care. Releasing a product that could be mistaken for an official product is not smart though. They just released Counter Strike 2 (which was called CS Source 2 for a long time) so they have to defend their IP from confusion. This isnt likely about money because this wouldn’t hurt that in the slightest. Who had even heard of it before this post? It’s just something they have to do legally.
I’d be more supportive of Valve if Team Fortress 2 wasn’t a dumpster fire to play in 2024. The game is infested with bots that make anything outside of independently moderated community servers unplayable.
Even Counter Strike 2 has dogshit anticheat despite the boasts that VAC Live was a solution that could surpass Vanguard, to the point where the only good competitive experience you can have is to play on FaceIt or ESEA servers with their own ring 0 anticheat solution.
If you can only have a good experience by installing malware, you don’t have a good experience.
I really should finish building that nvidia jetson based hardware anticheat that’d allow anyone to cheat even in vanguard protected games with perfect accuracy for just ~150$. Ring 0 anticheat’s only use is to spy on you and yet people will continue defending it until someone’s proven just how useless it is.
Can only speak for the higher ranks of both games but cs2 is currently unplayable above 25k elo since its almost guaranteed to have 1 out of 10 players cheating. While i only encounter a few cheaters each season in immortal in Valorant.
I mean TF 2 is 16 years old. They just don’t really support it anymore. I can’t comprehend how it’s still in or close to the top 10 steam games by player count when it’s been dead for years.
If I had to guess a real reason why: a new TF game in Source 2, or something similar is in the works at Valve. It may never make it out of pre-production, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
It would surprise me if they did it to capitalize on Overwatch, which would show that Valve leadership can’t make an original idea, and is chasing an also-ran that’s not successful.
Team Fortress 3? Everyone knows that Valve can’t count beyond 3.
And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to two. No more. No less. Two shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be two. Three shalt thou not count, nor either count thou one, excepting that thou then proceed to two. Four is right out. Once the number two, being the second number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.”
Factorio (actually not sure what the MP limit is without mods; but I know there’s a mod that makes it infinite due to seeing the Spiffing Brit playing with like 300 people at once).
EVE Online (the bigger your group the stronger you’d be. Get 100 of 'em; start your own corporation)
Actually while thinking about what supports more than 4 it’s mostly creative games and MMORPGs (that know of). Damn near everything centers on groups of just 3-4 with the exception of the 5v5 competitive shooters.
I just wish Valve wasn’t pulling a Nintendo and not aiding the fans of a game they care about, instead of just sitting on it and claiming they are doing all they can for it.
How long has it been since we were promised a major update after Jungle Inferno? How long since Valve promised community fixes? How long since Valve delayed it with “we’re working hard on making it next update”? How long did Valve say they heard the community loud and clear about the bot crisis?
TF2 is my all time favorite game, but it’s no longer really playable in 2024. Casual servers are infested with bots, and there’s been no major changes to the game since 2017. I wish Valve cared about the game as much as the community still does dozens of years later.
They most certainly made a decision based on priorities and TF2 wasn’t a big enough one for them to jump on. If there were enough users who would pay clamoring for it, they’d move.
Seeing the down votes I have to say this: He has a point here. TF2 is a F2P game that generates its revenue these days from marketplace and key transactions. If someone were to remake the entire game and it was allowed to release, it would most assuredly damage TF2’s revenue. A mod for Portal 2 has more potential to generate revenue because anyone interested in the mod that doesn’t currently own Portal 2, would have to buy the game.
At the end of the day, Valve is still a business. This news sucks for people who love playing games, but is entirely not unexpected.
If this were any other company people would be raging
If this were any other company, I’d be saying the same thing. Nintendo shuts down shit left and right; most of them are mods for games that the only way to use the mods is via emulation. And it’s a lot easier to pirate a game for that than it is to dump one you own legitimately.
It’s certainly within their right to protect their shit. The ethics and morality of what that shit happens to be is irrelevant to the copyright discussion.
Also: TF2 is still supported… It still receives regular updates. It had one on the 9th.
Those “updates” are pitiful. As far as I understand the vast majority of update content is still being supplied by the community. The game is still flooded by hackers with no word on when that will be addressed if ever.
Valve are well within their rights here. This isn’t new content or transformative. It’s literally trying to remake the same game using the same engine. These devs knew they were playing with fire. Never come between GabeN and his hats.
Black Mesa is a remake of a single player game that Valve wasn’t planning on remaking any time soon, more profitable to make it official and take a cut
TF2 actively still makes them sht tons of money, no profit in splitting the fan base
Imo, Trademark. Black Mesa is a concept from Half-Life, but “Black Mesa” to the best of my knowledge wasn’t a registered trademark. “Team Fortress/Team Fortress 2” are registered trademarks however, and that significantly changes the value and functionality of the specific terms.
Yes, but it’s easier to give permission to use concepts that don’t infringe on trademark than it is to give permission on something that could be argued in court as muddying a trademark.
I know they require permission either way, but what permission they’re actually asking for changes based on what terminology they use
Well my point is that since the content is directly related, it actually doesn’t matter what they called it. It would’ve been exactly the same amount of infringement if they called it, “happy fun times at the science lab”.
The only differnce is it would’ve been less obvious to identify.
I get your point, my point is the infringement would be less egregious without trademark and thus easier for Valve to turn a blind eye to, or even potentially officially endorse via some potential deal à la Black Mesa.
But hey, I am fully willing to concede that I am just a layman with enormous distance from this topic and no specific expertise or insider knowledge, so the possibility of me being wrong is high
My thinking is that it was hot garbage that was trying to milk the TF2 name to grow their own fanbase. And valve didn’t want to be associated with that.
My guess is that Black Mesa looks great, had passionate people who were really communicating and engaging with Valve/community, didn’t infringe on the Half-Life trademark and it felt like a step forward, which is why it was allowed to continue AND even be brought to market.
Unfortunately it’s not just well within their rights, it’s their legal obligation. The stupid situation that is America means that for them to be able to maintain their claim of ownership on the IP trademark, they have to both actively use the trademark and actively police unauthorized use of the trademark by others. If they don’t, they risk losing the right to claim the trademark, which wouldn’t just mean independents running servers for the game, but also would mean unscrupulous entities could produce and sell merchandise featuring the trademark en masse without having to seek permission from or pay any commissions to Valve.
It’s shitty, but it’s more shitty because of the stupid system we’ve built than because of any intentional malevolence on Valve’s part, imo.
Important caveat: I am not a legal professional and it is entirely possible my understanding of trademark law is flawed, but this is my earnest understanding of the situation.
It is hardly incumbent on copyright owners, however, to challenge each and every actionable infringement. And there is nothing untoward about waiting to see whether an infringer’s exploitation undercuts the value of the copyrighted work, has no effect on the original work, or even complements it. Fan sites prompted by a book or film, for example, may benefit the copyright owner. See Wu, Tolerated Use, 31 Colum. J. L. & Arts 617, 619–620 (2008).
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