Modder catches Steam game mod thieves

FAMED HALF-LIFE 2 MODDER Garry Newman set up a system to ensnare 'pirates' downloading dodgy copies on Valve's Steam games distribution service.

Modder Newman wanted to see if he could find out how he could trace anyone using unauthorised copies of his famed physics-based Half-Life 2 mod, GMod. The mod was so successful when it came out in 2006 that Valve decided to sell it for just over a fiver on its now quite successfully Steam games delivery system.

So Newman sent out a very enigmatic tweet on Twitter which asked, "Anyone unable to shade polygon normals?"

"Just enabled this error in GMod today. It happens when you pirated it. Having fun watching people complain," Newman tweeted later in the day.

What Newman did was enable an error in dodgy copies of his mod that crashed when punters tried to run it. Some fanbois' forums were up in arms that they couldn't get their version of GMod up and running. The "shade polygon" tweet was also up for discussion on the Garry's mod forum by users with unauthorised copies of the game.

But Newman also added a neat tracer that might interest Valve if it wants to stop illegal downloads of games on Stream. Anyone posting the error message Newman put in his game also found several numbers, which were actually their Steam User ID, published for all to see. That means it will be easy to ban anyone on Steam for using an illegally downloaded version of GMod. µ