Got my Steam account back

Back again after getting my Steam account stolen. Interesting experience. Took an entire day to get a response from the helpdesk, though.

I was lucky no apparent damages was done. VAC-rep seems intact and all.

Just got my Steam account highjacked – well that’s just…great (at least a can blog about it like the social media geek who I am.

It was morning on a nice summer day, and a link to a Steam group was sent to me – or so I thought. Still a bit morning groggy I clicked on it, not thinking if the demand for another login into Steam on the web really was just a fake site. Well, the rest is a great little story of me quickly contacting steam, taking photos of one of my game’s serials, sending the stuff hoping they can save the account, all while saying fuck a lot.

I just became a poster child for a classic Steam scam. I just got owned by a punk. Only this time I wish that fucking punk some terrible pain and suffering and not that retributional online teabagging. I don’t think that form of sortie really would send the right message in real life.

All I can do now is check my e-mail hoping they send new login information to me as soon as possible. The next question will be, should I start buying game DVDs again? If we are going to use digital distribution in the future, do we have good counter-measurements against scams like these. Should Valve do anything different or will other smart scams stop users from embracing the digital distribution model? Should the anti-cheat software Punkbuster make housecalls with baseball bats? (Kidding)

It’s going to be interesting to see how quickly the Steam support service will get back to me in this matter. I guess how this crappy situation turns out could be a turning point for me deciding how I will buy and play games in the future.

Oh, and (BTE) Apples, for being so kind and stealing my account – fuck you.

Without going all “Perez hysterical” and doing that whole “I-am-a-human-being-speech” (which in a terrible way is unintentionally funny btw) and how things like this hurts the gaming community, let’s just say that knowing I am not the only one who lost their account, someone will eventually figure out who you are.

What goes around comes around.

Finally time to become a “swinger”

Bionic Commando will be released on Steam on July 28th. Now it might sound as blasphemy for Steam/PC fans, but I have ordered Bionic Commando on PS3.

Perhaps I’ll buy a copy on the PC for multiplay if I find it entertaining. (I have an abundance of multiplay games to sink my teeth in right now)

No bashing on the PC/Steam camp. BC will probably as usual look much better on the PC.

Newell thinks the pricing on Steam is fine – thinks gamers could invest some more directly into game development

In an interview with Valve founder Gabe Newell, many interesting topics are addressed. Three of them is piracy, Steam pricing and the idea of gamers investing their money in game development.

I agree on some of the things he says about the piracy issue but it is funny when Newell says that price is one of the least important aspects of Steam.

If you don’t buy games on Steam, perhaps. But if you do, the question becomes: Do you still want to pay twice as much for a game on Steam just because you live in the wrong market region? In a way internet do erase these invisible borders because global distribution is now possible for electronic media, yet companies feel obligated to use market regions like before.

And what about gamers investing in game development. Interesting thought however the question is how a business model should be constructed and how consumer investment in game development could be marketed. One thing is for sure – it will take time. Enough time that it will not solve Steam’s current pricing issue.

Yes, I had to move again.

It’s days like these which reminds me why I hate moving. I have done it too much recently.

Hopefully my current residence is more permanent. I now reside in Sweden’s capital pretty close to the city’s centre which is very nice. (15 minutes by tube.) Some might even call me a lucky basterd. I rather like to say that sometime even a basterd needs a lucky break.

Which reminds me that I have to see that new Tarantino flick soon…

When the world ends

I am playing some Fallout 3 at the moment. The game has a rather traditional set of game mechanics with some more modern features for an RPG. I haven’t progressed too far in the game’s story – yet I am hooked. Guess I just like to shoot things right now.

Funny how post-apocalyptic settings in the entertainment industry has become so overly popular in the last couple of years. From the classic Mad Max trilogy, to previous years’ I am legend and Children of men, and now the critically acclaimed movie adpation of the novel The Road written by the brilliant author Cormac McArthy coming this fall, and after that The Book of Eli coming in the beginning of next year, just shows the popularity of this broad genre setting.

While I reminisce on the experience of seeing the previously movies set in this genre I figure it is a great setting in a video game as well. And while Fallout 3 is visceral in it’s presentation, and right and wrong is proven to have place in that world, it still has not gone to that extreme where the player really, really can feel that sense of loss, where he/she can feel the harshness of a world that once died.

While I try to play the game with a good karma option I wonder if a game like Fallout wouldn’t benefit from a more conflicted main character and where it becomes more apparent to the player about the futility of it all. A theme which eventually will show that one person cannot save innocence without sacrificing himself in the end.

Perhaps Fallout 3 will give me a glimpse of that theme when I have played some more. Because even if the main character can inspire hope, it should never be easily achieved, and there should always be consequences. I therefore really hope that a thematic counterpart, like “the loss of hope” will be seen somewhere in the story. Because it is that sensation of hopelessness that brings that “heart of darkness”, which keep this kind of genre it’s raw cruel energy. Creating that heavy “lump in the throat sensation” when a story really resonates with you and you realise that the world once did really end.