Dear Future Gamer

Regarding the letter entitled Half-Life Piracy (FG39), the problem this guy's having is probably due to the fact that you can download a CD-key generator for Half-Life. Generally, people who've got a pirated copy of the game will need this.

Since you need to authenticate with WON every time you play online if someone else has generated a key which matches yours, you can't play. Unfortunately, I can't think of a way around this, apart from getting hold of the key generator and creating a new one, which will, in turn, screw someone else up. Sierra might be sympathetic and offer you a new key...

Paul Johnson

FG: For those of you who only receive Future Gamer in the weekly email form, the original letter was put up on the site last Friday (July 30) and this reply came in on Tuesday (August 3). That's why both of them are in this week's email edition of the mag. That's that cleared up. And thanks for your explanation of what's going on with these CD keys, Paul.