Valve offers free Left 4 Dead 2 for erroneous Modern Warfare 2 bans

[ClayMeow]

Don't have time to write a news story, so figured I'd just post this here...

 

 

During the course of the past two weeks, Valve's anti-cheat software automatically banned as many as 12,000 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 soldiers on the grounds of bamboozlement. The Seattle game developer has since overturned (for non-cheaters) the decision and is offering free copies of the zombie-killing shooter, Left 4 Dead 2, as payment for time lost.

 

"This was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you," Valve president Gabe Newell wrote in an e-mail to afflicted persons according to a Steam forum user user.

 

In addition to offering an apology, in the letter, Newell explained exactly why some gamers hoping to frag enemies in Modern Warfare 2 had their accounts banned.

 

"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks)."

 

In addition to reinstating wrongfully banned virtual soldiers, Valve is hoping to win gamers back by granting all affected persons a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2, as well as an additional copy to gift to a friend.

 

Valve's anti-cheat software, Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC), was created by the company and was first used in 2002 to help clean out the bad apples in Counter Strike. Based on Valve's zero-tolerance policy, all bans are permanent. The technology has since seen revisions and has been employed in many games, including Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike: Source, and others.

 

 

Source

 

So, any OCCers get the banhammer and subsequent apology email?

 

If so, gift me the L4D2 friend copy!

[NikolaT]

Why oh why didn't I get banned

[Locutus]

Wow, that's pretty crazy. Oh also, my fiance picked up L4D the other day and loves it, so anyone with a spare copy of L4D2 should send it to her. >:3

[Avinexis]

And after Gabe handled the problem, rectified it and re-imbursed all those affected, this is what he did:

[Deathmineral]

+1 for valve, but really it's there way of telling gamers that left 4 dead 2 is better than modern warfare 2, and I can't argue with them on that one.

[ClayMeow]

+1 for valve, but really it's there way of telling gamers that left 4 dead 2 is better than modern warfare 2, and I can't argue with them on that one.

 

[Avinexis]

Well whatever they're doing, it's working! Cuz I wanna play me some L4D!

[molotovdaskwerl]

so being banned is like winning the lottery?

[reccakeys]

My friend always tell me that L4d is a very cool game. I tried playing the game. Guess what? I like it a lot... I am a little bit sad, my PC is dead.........

[slick2500]

Great now we will have all the Modern Warfail 2 clowns playing Left 4 Dead.

[Tyrium]

You realize that the Modern Warflunkies will never even look at LFD2, don't you? I mean, the ACR is just so shiny...

Edited July 28, 2010 by Tyrium