Too bad all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair - George Burns
|
|
|
Valve apologies for shutting users out
GAMES DEVELOPER Valve has apologised for incorrectly banning users from playing the popular first person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Though gamers were able to play other titles through Steam, after having spent a substantial amount of change on purchasing one of the most anticipated games of the year many found themselves locked out through no fault of their own. Unsurprisingly Valve's mishtake left many gamers irate.
In a letter to 12,000 users who had received "erroneous bans" over the past fortnight, Valve president Gabe Newell apologised for any "frustration or angst" the bans might have caused. Newell laid the blame on a memory check mismatch between a dynamic linked library on the installed version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and a "latent memory version".
Newell promised those who had been locked out of their purchase that the bans had been rescinded and as compensation offered a free copy of the appropriately titled Left 4 Dead 2. The only problem is, if you already own the game then all you can do is gift it to another user. However, such a charitable act should appease those who say that video games only promote violence.
Still, at least the head honcho of an industry icon stood up, admitted a fault, publically apologised and took steps to remedy the problem. Others should take note. µ
Share this:
Share
I don't much like steam but you make a good point that it's rare for companies let alone CEO's to admit fault and compensate for it, without being forced by the law that is, so kudos to valve for that.
Now if they only also apologized for pointlessly ruining games with ingame ads and for having a support forum that's puritanical and overly - what I would describe as - 'fascist' in banning people that criticize them even when such critique is without a doubt correct.