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Garry's Mod traps pirates with error

Published on 13th April 2011 by Joe Martin

Garry's Mod now includes an error designed to identify those who have pirated the game.

Garry Newman, of Garry's Mod, has revealed that he's introduced a deliberate error into the latest version of his game with the intention of identifying pirates.

The update causes a 'Unable to shade polygon normals' error in pirated versions of the game.

'Just enabled this error in GMod today. It happens when you pirated it. Having fun watching people complain.' Garry said on Twitter.

As well as damaging the game experience for pirates, the error also includes the user's SteamID within in - meaning that pirates can be identified when they paste the error online while looking for help. This means their Steam accounts can then be banned. (UPDATE: Garry has since confirmed to Bit-Gamer that accounts are not being banned, as was originally reported.)

A quick scan of the official Garry's Mod forums reveals pirates who have even headed back to Garry for help fixing the error.

Garry's Mod is a physics-based sandbox game built on Valve's Source engine, where users can create their own machines, scenes and game modes. It's rather good, especially for only £5.99.

Check out some of the things we've made in Garry's Mod for a taster of what's on offer, then let us know your thoughts in the forums.

23 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply

NethLyn 13th April 2011, 11:11

Good for him, the mod costs even less in sales at least twice a year, so the "it's OK to copy" crowd should get the support they've paid for. In fact it's a shame he publicised it so quickly with the new build.

Flanananagan 13th April 2011, 11:12

Genius, genius.

shokwaav 13th April 2011, 11:14

i tried buying gary's mod on steam last year but then i kept getting steam errors (something about my first game being a retail copy rather than a digital download (wtf)) but this sort of **** makes me want to pirate games.

impar 13th April 2011, 11:16

Greetings!

Quote:

Originally Posted by NethLyn
In fact it's a shame he publicised it so quickly with the new build.

Should have waited a week or so.

V3ctor 13th April 2011, 11:18

Lolol... epic win!!

Evildead666 13th April 2011, 11:21

Props to Garry ;)

Parge 13th April 2011, 11:48

Fair play, there is no excuses for pirating games.

BRAWL 13th April 2011, 12:28

lol and not even a single hint of DRM (bar Steam, shush) here...

Well done chap. That's fantastic work.

Ending Credits 13th April 2011, 12:31

Reminds me of The Sims:

Recalculating Splines... Shading Polygon Normals...

Although Shading Polygon Normals actually makes sense if you have deferred lighting.

r3loaded 13th April 2011, 12:35

Lol, people pirate a game that costs £6?

DragunovHUN 13th April 2011, 12:48

Implying pirates use their steam account.

Nexxo 13th April 2011, 12:54

MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! :)

That is all. :)

stuartwood89 13th April 2011, 12:56

I absolutely love this. I just did a quick Google Search and had a look at some of the other complaints. I think more developers should do this, especially as games like that are so cheap, and don't strangle you with DRM. They obviously put a lot of trust into the end user, and it's people who pirate already cheap games that take that trust away.

Some reading material:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110412200239AATlHK1
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110413004057AAJFblT
http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110412231648AAvmrEi

That last one was quite interesting, where a user suggested that he should write a full error log over at the Steam forums :D

Stuey 13th April 2011, 13:37

lol, I definitely approve of this.

Tyr 13th April 2011, 14:00

Never played Garry's Mod but this idea is great!

rickysio 13th April 2011, 14:03

Pirates even need to use steam?

Paul2011 13th April 2011, 14:41

Best non-DRM ever! please all companys look and learn.

I cant believe pirates stupidity tbh and they all deserve there steam accounts banned + isp informed of this as well.

Paradigm Shifter 13th April 2011, 14:43

The cynic in me wonders if there will be any false positives - ie, Garry's Mod exhibiting this error even if it's not pirated.

Glix 13th April 2011, 17:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paradigm Shifter
The cynic in me wonders if there will be any false positives - ie, Garry's Mod exhibiting this error even if it's not pirated.

Impossible! All those cheaters caught MW2 were cheating, VAC was infallible... ok here have TF2 for free...

Farfalho 13th April 2011, 17:56

I LOL'ed and the pic helped xD

Farfalho 13th April 2011, 18:07

Oh and Garry already told people how to circumvent the DRM. http://www.garry.tv/?p=2410

Shayper09 14th April 2011, 13:33

Mirrors Edge had something similar to combat pirates, the game would slow down in the 3rd chapter if you pirated it :)

Sloth 14th April 2011, 18:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by r3loaded
Lol, people pirate a game that costs £6?

It would seem so.

This is exactly why I always complain in piracy threads when people say piracy is the product of overpriced and low quality games. There are people out there who are just plain cheap and want anything for free if they can get it.