DarkBlizz

Yeah, this whole event was crazy. They announced Portal 2 AND Steam for Mac. Pretty awesome. Looking forward to the expected Episode 3 announcement.

Quote from: OrangeMarma on March 19, 2010, 04:10:15 PM
I just got invited by a friend - Dont need the key anymore however my pic still stands as something that you can use, however seeing these other contestants seems i'm quite inferior

Lucky little...

Quote from: starcrafter64 on March 23, 2010, 09:41:58 PM

Quote from: ItzMattu on March 23, 2010, 09:36:22 PM


This is also very annoying DRM because people traveling, experiencing ISP issues, or a number of other issues are effectively blocked from playing a game they handed over cash for.

False. Look at the post above you. You authenticate once, and then the local account is activated, allowing you to play offline and not need battle.net for single player.

Do you have a source for this information? I'm interested in reading more about this. I hadn't heard of this up until right now.

For those of you saying "no one cares about LAN" or that "LAN is available you just have to sign on to B.net" please see my post regarding this issue.

The effects of not including true LAN play are very much a hindrance to an important subculture of the gaming community, whether or not you'd like to believe so.

A beta key would be nice so that this thread effected me! XD

I'm not sure you guys have the same definition of LAN as I do. A lot of the younger gamers are so used to the Internet, they don't realize that having the Internet (or a good enough connection) is actually a realistic situation that many event organizers face for LAN parties.

So just to clarify, having to connect to Battle.net to play over a local connection is not a LAN game. It is local play behind a WAN authentication wall.

This is also very annoying DRM because people traveling, experiencing ISP issues, or a number of other issues are effectively blocked from playing a game they handed over cash for.

Quote from: Myst on March 23, 2010, 09:19:14 PM
Yes we have taken that into consideration and have people on our staff checking the code from the people that have so far made that entry.  Even though those systems are not fully done yet.   
And yes you're right, it is a lot of work, but some people just may really really want a beta key

Ah okay, well I went and made a post on one of the entry #3 threads pointing out some security flaws in his design thus far. I'll avoid doing so in the future knowing you have people on the task.

I admire your efforts to tackle this project, but I have a few concerns that you might not be aware of.

First off, I took a look at your PHP file, and you don't have any hint of SQL sanitation in there. That means absolutely anyone could come along and pass their own SQL query into your system and modify the database as they see fit. This means they could delete every comment, post 1,000s of comments at a time, delete files, point downloads to malicious files, etc..

Second, it concerns me that if you did not do this (fairly basic) security precaution, you also are not planning on putting in security for uploaded files. Much of this security lies in the domain of knowing Linux (since the server runs Linux) and properly setting up the environment. A smaller portion of it lies in sanitizing uploaded files, but not much can be done here since you can really only check file extension. Well, you could parse a file, but that project is way beyond the scope of this entry.

So, as I discussed in the contest questions thread, you are going to have to some more work other than making it appear to work correctly. The real test is in the details, and those details really aren't known unless you have the proper knowledge.

Sorry to come here and make a post like this, but it is what's best for this site and community, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize the site over one silly beta key.

Just a personal suggestion for #3...

I'm sure the reason you added this is because you a) want a download system for the website and b) aren't familiar with creating something like this yourself, so you think it is of equivalent effort. But, to be fair to people entering this contest, an entry for #3 would require easily 5-10x more effort and time than the rest of the entries, well, unless someone submits a professionally edited video of course.

Also, this is just me personally, but the time required to submit an entry like this is not worth a chance to win a beta key and $15 bucks. To be perfectly honest I would be very willing to do the job if I knew for sure my code would be used. Spending all that time on code that may or may not just be thrown away isn't the most enticing offer, and not a good way to go about getting quality code. Also... some problems I'm not sure you've considered with submission for a system like this:

   
• Submission could have backdoors allowing someone to gain access to your server.
• Submission could have unknown bugs with uploading allowing someone to save malicious scripts to your server and execute them in a browser.
• SQL injection vulnerabilities anyone?
• Many more security and access issues not testable until code is migrated to your server...

I send you this word of warning just to help you gauge the finished submissions properly. I could very well create a bit of code that appears, on the surface, to function excellently and submit that, but it is against my morals to do such a devious thing; for the chance to get into beta key others might not be so kind. The real work goes into making a solid, lasting, product. Unless you know how to test and analyze the code yourself, there is no way of judging this unfortunately.

I do intend to create a video though. Looking forward to seeing some of the cool artwork and videos made for this contest, and I sure hope I stand a chance at winning.

Good luck everyone!