Newman recently programmed a little trap in the code of the game, which would generate an error message for anyone playing the game who did not pay for it. That error, “unable to shade polygon normals”, quickly became the subject of a complaints thread on the forums of PC delivery service Steam.
Irate users unable to access Garry’s Mod soon began posting their error messages in full, which alongside the above line also contained a series of numbers.
Those numbers, however, were not related to the “error”. They were that user’s Steam ID number, allowing each and every one of them to be swiftly banned from playing the game.
Garry’s Mod catches pirates the fun way [Gamepron]
Jimu Hsien
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:39 PMOUCH!
Effluvium Boy
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:43 PMZING!
Braaains
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:47 PMLOL.
That’s brilliant.
Aidan Dullard
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:49 PMEpic.
Kody Baker
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:53 PMHe’s Winning!
Cedwa
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:53 PMbi-winning?
Lyndon L
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 4:55 PMAbsolutely epic! That’ll teach those pirates :P
PSIress
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:07 PMlol brilliant!
#35
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:15 PMAnd by posting it here, rather than just banning the guilty parties, future pirates are aware of the issue…
Brilliant idea though :)
Don Danbury
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:34 PMhopefully this sort of story will dieter potential pirates though, make them think twice about what they’re doing.
AussieSniper
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:44 PMI think it will just make them think twice about posting on forums.
Alinos
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:52 PMOr make then stop being idiots who both steal the game and the. Complain it doesn’t work
Snacuum
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:21 PMI can tell you it will also deter potential buyers…
James Mac
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:37 PMWasn’t there something in Batman Arkham Asylum like that? If I recall it made players drop right out of the sky when they’d grapple or something.
Robby Tayz
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 10:10 AMYeah they more or less disable the grapple in pirated copies so you can’t get more an thirty or so minutes into the game.
OzHuski
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 5:46 PMWell done sir, I tip my hat to you!
Aetius
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:11 PMAhahahahahahaha.
RichardH
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:17 PMA good trick, and one I hope they use frequently in subsequent releases. The only real question I have is how exactly did he know who was running a pirated version? And with that knowledge (and the ability to change the game’s code) did he rely on something that people would have to post on a forum to sting them?
Just seems like he would have caught 1/1000th of the people who were pirating the game this way.
I guess he could use a more direct method but then it would be a chicken and egg ethical issue over privacy.
Corteks
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:33 PMOh wow, epic!
Much more effective than back in the day when Tribes would give you a message like “The FBI is on their way to your house” if it wasn’t a legit copy :P
Daniel Harkin
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 8:18 PMlol that is epic
706
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 9:19 PMNice to see they at least didn’t go beyond banning them from playing the game. Though what if they then decided to pay money for it….?
brant
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 9:53 PMWhy would you pirate the game then go onto the steam forums complaining that your pirated copy doesn’t work. Wow the stupidity is astounding.
mattroe
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:05 PMGENIUS! Major props to him!
M
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:17 PMKinda like in Batman Arkham Asylum where the developers disabled the cape function. Loads of pirates got exposed in those next few weeks.
MH
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 10:34 PMhttp://www.facepunch.com/threads/1078239-Pirate-catching-catches-me.-I-did-not-pirate.
This is nothing new, also nothing new that invasive DRM like this usually gets more false positives than not. You might consider reading: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/youre-punished-for-buying-a-new-game-or-what-i-dont-want-to-do.ars
Quoting from the comments:
Step 1 – Installation [fine]
Step 2 – CD Key [fine]
Step 3 – Online registration…which is mandatory [tolerable]
Step 4 – Install EA Download Manager…a newer version than the game I bought 6 weeks ago [now you're starting to piss me off]
Step 5 – Realize EADM doesn’t overwrite, and now both copies are running in my system tray [wtf]
Step 6 – Download & install a patch [i'll go make a sandwich while this finishes]
Step 7 – Watch 9000 logos [does everyone who touched the game, including Smitty The Janitor® have a logo in this bitch?]
Step 8 – Watch an epic 9 minute trailer for the sequel to the game I JUST INSTALLED [keep the sandwich...I lost my apetite]
Step 9 – Tell me to connect to the internet, even for single player [KILL ME]
Step 10 – “Press Start”
Step 11 – Load the RSS feed and other nonsense it thinks I want into the menu system [almost there!]
Step 12 – Choose a lvel [level 1, obviously]
Step 13 – Loading screen [I. Give. Up.]
Step 14 – actually, really, play the game that, by this point, you no longer even want and are simpyl going to play the first level for the principle of the matter.
Compare this to:
Step 1 – Download game
Step 2 – Play game
Also, having to allow a baker’s dozen of untrustworthy sites to run scripts just to comment here is muchos fail for Kotaku.
Monkey Butler
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 10:51 AMYou would have to do at least half of those things with a pirated copy too.
Daniel Goddy
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 11:26 PMLol people pay for Garrys Mod?
Russell Martin
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 12:14 AMIndeed, less complaints from pirates who’s software suddenly stops working will make everyone’s lives easier
Eddy
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 7:13 AMSmart idea. -This is why i purchase my games.
Tali
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 9:14 AMIsn’t Garry’s Mod like $5 tho? Pirating that is real lame.
Dyllan Richardson
Thursday, April 14, 2011 at 11:56 PMiono this is the sign of a bad dev that’s unaware of the fragile industry they work in, I used to pirate games to test if they’re good enough to buy, i’ve looked back at all my pirated games and I’ve since bought 90% of them.