If you’re the kind of person that worries about companies invading your privacy, prepare to don your tin-foil hat! In response to massive gameplay statistics collected by Valve through the Steam service, the developer has decided to lower the difficulty on the slightly-intense elevator section of Half-Life 2: Episode 1. The update is delivered in the form of a patch and makes this particular section of the game easier, and as of right now it looks like Valve isn’t giving you the option of choosing which version you’d like to play.

Beyond being a bit peeved that Valve’s gone and insulted my gaming prowess like this, I don’t think this is really reaching into “Big Brother” territory. More likely, this is Valve’s way of showing off to prospective content producers how flexible their Steam system is. And under the right circumstances, changing a game to make the play experience better for the majority of users might not be a bad thing. Still, I’m of the church of Gamer Choice, so if Valve doesn’t start including the ability to turn off future mods, I might get a bit antsy. Do you think this is a good idea? Or is it time to start disconnecting the ol’ ethernet cable every time you play a single-player game?