Numerous players of popular physics-based sandbox game, Garry's Mod, hit the forums yesterday to complain about a new error message popping up; "unable to shade polygon normals" along with a number.

It turns out that the number is actually your Steam ID code, and this message ONLY appears in pirated versions of the game. So, when people started complaining, they were simultaneously raising their hands for the banhammer.

Ingenious. Unfortunately, Garry Newman seems to be second guessing his own actions with the statement, "The overwhelming response has been supportive. Which to be quite honest I don’t really understand. If EA or someone does something like this people go crazy."

Stand proud Garry. The reason we support you is because your method 'targets' pirates. Major publishers, on the other hand, have a bad track record of hurting honest customers just as readily and sometimes worse than pirates, as Jon Stokes of Ars Technica has been finding out.

Source: Garry's Blog