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The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

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Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#21

Post by ztan »

twidlit wrote: post #19
ztan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As far as I know he was the only one who have succeeded in not only hacking in, but also not being traced back despite all of Valves efforts. (They even got the FBI involved.) How many of the "hackpplicants" can you say the same about? The only reason Valve even knew who did it was because he came forward to them. He admired Gabe and his team so much that his dream is to join them. All of this indicate to me that he…

My point is it would encourage more people to apply by trying to hack into the company's networks instead of just creating impressive mods, Valve is a game dev/platform company after all not a network security one.

Ahh, I see. Point taken. I would still hire this passionate kid and put him on the network security team. I would then make a public announcement about how the job you get depends on what skill you demonstrate. Which should be the way it works anyways. If you want to join us as a game developer then you need to demonstrate your game developing passion and skills. Either through creating mods with our SDK/platform or writing/creating your own from scratch. However if you want to join us as a network security expert then you got to beat this kid we just hired! =P

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#22

Post by dspillett »

Uchikoma wrote: post #7
twidlit wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now if someone would only leak Episode 3/Half-Life 3...

I have the suspicion - no, deep deep creepy fear that engulfs your heart - that E3 will become the next Duke Nukem. This might push me into insanity.

I suspect Duke is one of the reasons for the complete lack of E3 related announcements so far this year. That and their own Portal 2. They'll not want a "coming next year" annoucement about E3 to be wasted by it being overshadowed by the big things being released in the next few months. Hopefully there will be an announcement later in the year, during one of the release dry spells.

Though you could be right, we've already been waiting for E3 twice as long as E2.

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#24

Post by [deleted] »

ryandvm wrote: post #8
jcw wrote: post #2

I'm happy to see that, while he did something wrong, because he was honest and openly remorseful throughout, he ended up not going to prison. The cops even seemed cordial, they let him get breakfast and a smoke. I wonder how differently things would have played out if he lived in the US.

No kidding. I would love to hear Gabe Newell's take on this article. That kid was a hairbreadth away from spending half a decade in a federal pen. That had to be a hell of a "whew" moment he had in that police station.

[deleted]

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#25

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #24
ryandvm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kidding. I would love to hear Gabe Newell's take on this article. That kid was a hairbreadth away from spending half a decade in a federal pen. That had to be a hell of a "whew" moment he had in that police station.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#26

Post by ztan »

T-hawk wrote: post #18
l0nwlf wrote: post #13

I wonder why Valve didn't offered him a job. He was naive but talented and passionate about gaming.

Would you hire somebody that already stole something major from your very company?

If the article was 100% accurate, then I would have due to this particularly unusual circumstance. The kid was too naive and handled the situation poorly. The leak in fact was purely accidental. I think if he had contacted Valve and gave them the source code instead of to the guy who leaked it, the whole thing would have had a very different turn out.

The kid recognized what he did was wrong and regretted it. That was why he came forward and emailed Gabe. If he really just wanted steal and cause harm, he would have never been found or caught. You can tell he truly loved the company and was simply misguided in the way he chose to show it. Yes he made a mistake, but I would have still given the kid a chance rather than beat him down. It's this kind of tragic beat downs that often create villains. (in the worlds of comic books at least. =)

Re: The Boy Who Stole Half-Life 2

#30

Post by namdnay »

ztan wrote: post #15
twidlit wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering how good Valve is making fanbases, the number of hackpplicants would then be untenable.

As far as I know he was the only one who have succeeded in not only hacking in, but also not being traced back despite all of Valves efforts. (They even got the FBI involved.) How many of the "hackpplicants" can you say the same about? The only reason Valve even knew who did it was because he came forward to them. He admired Gabe and his team so much that his dream is to join them. All of this indicate to me that he…

I agree with your point, but we shouldn't forget that this article is clearly sympathetic to the kid. Maybe he isn't quite as cute and cuddly as they make out.
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