Valve banned The Verge from its secret Deadlock playtest for leaking information on the game

[havok585]

Valve has steadily declined over the years. I have stopped buying from them because they refuse to help a veteran reclaim previous games I no longer have the original S/N for. I'm in the process of alerting ALL vet organizations to boycott Valve and their associates. It won't break them but if their marketing department is paying attention and reading their mail they will soon see the penalty for ignoring those that serve this country.

Yea, that is not even a drop in a sea of sand, so any effort is a wasted effort.

 

[Chemicalfaerie]

"...but as Forbes points out, that's not such a big deal considering the infrequency of Valve-produced games."

Um. The infrequency of Valve produced games is EXACTLY why this is a big deal. It's newsworthy whenever Valve does anything game producing related. The Verge could have played it off better. But an implied NDA or agreement to not share, regardless of the ease of bypassing without clicking YES or NO, is a courtesy that upwards of 16K people seemed to have been able to agree to.

 

[HardReset]

Again, it apparently flew waaaay, waaaay over your head, but nothing will change the fact that any argument that somehow postulates that there was no agreement signed by the user (The Verge) in order to access/use the software or that the agreement is invalid, can not be proven that it was accepted, etc., is a self-defeating argument. Because if we accept this postulate to be true, then we also have to conclude that the user (The Verge) had no right access/download/run the software at all, and was acting illegally, because of copyright law.

It cannot be proven who accepted it. Or is it? Another thing is that how it was illegal to download and use that software? That was provided for free?

Now, if you still don't understand that argument, then go back and keep re-reading it until you do. Because until you can debunk this argument (and you can't, because it's impossible, by definition), it stands that The Verge is either lying when they say they didn't have to accept any agreement to run the software, or they're admitting to have downloaded and run the game without a valid licence/permission, in which case they were breaking the law just because they had no agreement, and hence no licence/permission to run and download the game.

Simple as that.

You are simply not understanding that software can be used without accepting terms. Simple. I download software and install it, accept EULA etc etc. Now someone else uses that program. He didn't accept terms any time. Who broke law and what law?

To put it another way: I register Epic games account. I pass all info for another person. Now, who actually uses that account? Unless I did give my real personal info, Epic games cannot know it. Epic games also cannot know WHO ACCEPTED TERMS! That's distinction between EULA and NDA. Eula can be accepted by "someone" that might exist or not. NDA you sign personally. See difference here?

Accepting EULA does not personalize you, signing NDA does.

And also, where did Verge break copyright law when they downloaded game? And what law did they break? What terms/EULA they did accept (they didn't)? You are totally missing facts here.

 

[Nsnuk]

I find this whole thing kind of stupid by both parties. As much as I love Valve, you don't have 12k players testing your game and expect them to do the right thing. If you don't want any leaks you have NDAs for testers to sign before they see anything. Period.

And the Verge knew it wasn't legally bound so they decided to get the story out for their benefit. A bit scummy on their end. It's clear that they decided that the return of leaking this was worth it for them.

Personally, I think both of them screwed up for different reasons.

 

[FF222]

You are simply not understanding that software can be used without accepting terms.

It's you who are not understanding that downloading, installing or running a software without an explicit legal agreement that gives you right to do that makes that act illegal and be against the law. Until you do, this discussion is over.

 

[Subset6]

Another looter shooter.. who the hell cares?

 

[MaestroIT]

This morning I woke up having an invitation for Deadlock from steam in my inbox. I opened the email and immediately rejected it, as I am not interested in this genre of games, or do you think I lost a very special opportunity?

 

[Darth Shiv]

I think what happened here is that valve figured The Verge would do this and act this way so they're basically telling every other publisher out there "the verge can't be trusted, don't invite them to beta tests"

And valve will sit back and enjoy the free publicity of The Verge acting like a child while simultaneously getting themselves blacklisted from future games by nearly every other developer.

If they honestly wanted it to be a secret they should have required a signed NDA up front not the sham of a popup. It's on Valve for incompetence.

 

[yRaz]

If they honestly wanted it to be a secret they should have required a signed NDA up front not the sham of a popup. It's on Valve for incompetence.

I don't think valve cares, it's The Verge having a tantrum over this and telling the world

 

[Rocky4040]

Again, it apparently flew waaaay, waaaay over your head, but nothing will change the fact that any argument that somehow postulates that there was no agreement signed by the user (The Verge) in order to access/use the software or that the agreement is invalid, can not be proven that it was accepted, etc., is a self-defeating argument. Because if we accept this postulate to be true, then we also have to conclude that the user (The Verge) had no right access/download/run the software at all, and was acting illegally, because of copyright law.

Now, if you still don't understand that argument, then go back and keep re-reading it until you do. Because until you can debunk this argument (and you can't, because it's impossible, by definition), it stands that The Verge is either lying when they say they didn't have to accept any agreement to run the software, or they're admitting to have downloaded and run the game without a valid licence/permission, in which case they were breaking the law just because they had no agreement, and hence no licence/permission to run and download the game.

Simple as that.

I'm thinking just like most everyone else on the earth they did not read the fine print when excepting the agreement most if not all games have when you first start them up. They normally have an agreement you have to scroll through and once that is done, they have an Except or Decline button. 9 out of 10 people most times scroll to the bottom and click except without reading the agreement so they can get into the game asap and play the game I am one of those that do this.
I am willing to bet the agreement they say they never had to agree to not sharing game info or make a review of it because it was in an alpha or beta state was the one they most likely scrolled through without reading and clicked except. Just my best educated guess on this since I have played many games over the years and most if not, all have had some sort of an agreement you had to except before being able to play it.

 

[ZedRM]

How is anyone surprised by this? The Verge is garbage, full stop.

 

[ZedRM]

Valve has steadily declined over the years. I have stopped buying from them because they refuse to help a veteran reclaim previous games I no longer have the original S/N for. I'm in the process of alerting ALL vet organizations to boycott Valve and their associates. It won't break them but if their marketing department is paying attention and reading their mail they will soon see the penalty for ignoring those that serve this country.

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