8 ms·

> it's amazing that Valve continues to ignore it Valve isn't a monolithic entity nor a top-down controlled company though. This argument doesn't reflect how th

by ZoFreX 9y ago

> it's amazing that Valve continues to ignore it Valve isn't a monolithic entity nor a top-down controlled company though. This argument doesn't reflect how they make decisions. They have spoken on a few related points in the past: * Their projects often change dramatically during development, even being scrapped or started over again from scratch (Half-Life is a rework of a scrapped project, Team Fortress 2 was completely rebooted) * They prefer not to talk at all about things that are very hyped because they believe it's more painful to the community to go through those twists and turns than have radio silence * If they aren't happy with the quality of something they produce it doesn't see the light of day, rather than release something that isn't great * For it to happen requires enough people within the company to decide to work on it, and see it through

sametmax 9y ago
> If they aren't happy with the quality of something they produce it doesn't see the light of day, rather than release something that isn't great This is very important. If HL would have been a EA game, you would have had it years ago. And it would have sucked, but everybody would have bought it and EA would have made bank. Valve cares. Sometimes that means you will not have what you want, because they know they can't provide it.
- m3rc 9y ago
  Exactly. Not only will we never see HL3, we SHOULD never see HL3. It's so ubiquitous as some sort of second coming of Gaming Christ that no option existed except to have it be disappointing. It would have been Duke Nukem all over again.
  - jamesrcole 9y ago
    I don't believe that. From all reports Duke Nukem Forever was a pretty flawed game (I haven't played it). If they did HL3 and did a good job of it, then they've made a good game, and I think there'll be enough people who will appreciate that.
    - m3rc 9y ago
      Sure, but the effort would be better spent on another Valve project. HL3 just straight can't live up to expectations, it will be disappointing no matter how good it is because it's been drummed up for years and years as the best possible game, it just is an impossibility to be as good as everyone thinks it'll be.
  - frahs 9y ago
    I don't think so. I mean, read the story. It's written really well. Many years passed between Half Life 1 and Half Life 2, and yet #2 was very successful. Another example is TF2.
- Ygg2 9y ago
  > Valve cares. I might get downvoted, but cares about what? Valve didn't manage to release HL2 Episode 3. That's a miniscule effort compared to pretty much anything. Valve is just like EA, i.e. perfectly content milking the Steam and DotA cash cows.
  - wyager 9y ago
    About quality. I don't think anyone can reasonably accuse valve of releasing poor-quality games.
    - tarboreus 9y ago
      Or any games, really.
      - Strangework 9y ago
        ooo zing!
      - sametmax 9y ago
        I laugh. But it's unfair. They have a limited set of resources like everybody and they are working they ass off on so many projects already. E.G: The whole international event on dota is just such a huge piece of work.
        FussyZeus 9y ago
        I keep seeing "But they're doing so well with DOTA! Well good for the f#$%ing Dota fans. The rest of us meanwhile are out here in the cold. I can't stand multiplayer games-as-a-service. Any of them. Team Fortress, Overwatch, Dota, on and on it's all the same rehashed ideas with the same business model at it's core; continuing to make money well after release by releasing a trickle of low effort, easy to market in-game assets that are all worth exactly NOTHING when the next popular one comes out (or in the case of Destiny, even the sequel). I've never touched any of these stupid things because it's all artificial; artificial scarcity of items by way of limiting the rate they come out and not allowing trades; artificial hype by employing the very best of marketing sleaze and artificial competition of various groups/clans/teams all pitted against each other in a dance of noise and anger signifying nothing. And then the next one comes out and everyone goes to that, leaving all the achievements, collected items, won prizes and earned trophies to sit in the digital dust until the publisher gets tired of hosting it, pulls the plug, and then it's gone forever. Nothing was learned, nothing is retained, nothing is remembered, all packaged up and shipped off for the next set of customers. It's the most cynical and hollow business model and hopefully will someday piss off so we can get more good story driven titles again.
- mustacheemperor 9y ago
  >they know they can't provide it. Valve cares so much that they provide us with all these hats, skins, trading cards, and microtransactions because they know they can deliver a great hat or trading card? In this case Valve has been completely unable to deliver a new, good videogame since at least 2012, which is when many online say most of the good writers and developers left. In that case it'd be less hurtful for the community to hear the truth than "radio silence."
- ZoFreX 9y ago
  > If HL would have been a EA game It was! I know EA are the go-to bad guy in these comparisons, but EA is the distributing publisher for physical copies of Valve games, and Valve are on record as loving working with EA.
  - sametmax 9y ago
    Maybe EA is a good distributor, not a good game maker.
txdv 9y ago
its been 11 years, nobody cares anymore about the structure in their company they could be riding clowns while coding hl3, all I care about is for hl3 to be released someday
djhworld 9y ago
What incentive to Valve have to make HL3 though, really? They make a ton of cash on Steam and DOTA2. It's sad for the fans, in the recent DOTA international tournament, Valve announced a new game to the crowd who were whipped up into a frenzy. The new game, to the collective groan of the audience, was a DOTA2 card game
- petercooper 9y ago
  This is why the best creative works in the world are led by individuals with something to prove or to say and not faceless flat organizations. Valve has released just one game this decade that wasn't built by external developers or by mod authors brought in: Portal 2.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    Their entire business is built around mod authors they brought in. CS, TF, Portal, Dota, and I think even some of the HL mods started as grassroots efforts. Not sure on that last part. Valve doesn't make their own games. They had to make HL back when they were struggling. It's their model, and it's one of the most lucrative in the world. I think it's mistaken to say they have nothing to prove. They're held to the highest standards by the community, and they work their ass off to deliver quality content. Icefrog certainly has something to prove.

by ZoFreX 9y ago

sametmax 9y ago

> If they aren't happy with the quality of something they produce it doesn't see the light of day, rather than release something that isn't great This is very important. If HL would have been a EA game, you would have had it years ago. And it would have sucked, but everybody would have bought it and EA would have made bank. Valve cares. Sometimes that means you will not have what you want, because they know they can't provide it.

m3rc 9y ago
Exactly. Not only will we never see HL3, we SHOULD never see HL3. It's so ubiquitous as some sort of second coming of Gaming Christ that no option existed except to have it be disappointing. It would have been Duke Nukem all over again.
- jamesrcole 9y ago
  I don't believe that. From all reports Duke Nukem Forever was a pretty flawed game (I haven't played it). If they did HL3 and did a good job of it, then they've made a good game, and I think there'll be enough people who will appreciate that.
  - m3rc 9y ago
    Sure, but the effort would be better spent on another Valve project. HL3 just straight can't live up to expectations, it will be disappointing no matter how good it is because it's been drummed up for years and years as the best possible game, it just is an impossibility to be as good as everyone thinks it'll be.
- frahs 9y ago
  I don't think so. I mean, read the story. It's written really well. Many years passed between Half Life 1 and Half Life 2, and yet #2 was very successful. Another example is TF2.
Ygg2 9y ago
> Valve cares. I might get downvoted, but cares about what? Valve didn't manage to release HL2 Episode 3. That's a miniscule effort compared to pretty much anything. Valve is just like EA, i.e. perfectly content milking the Steam and DotA cash cows.
- wyager 9y ago
  About quality. I don't think anyone can reasonably accuse valve of releasing poor-quality games.
  - tarboreus 9y ago
    Or any games, really.
    - Strangework 9y ago
      ooo zing!
    - sametmax 9y ago
      I laugh. But it's unfair. They have a limited set of resources like everybody and they are working they ass off on so many projects already. E.G: The whole international event on dota is just such a huge piece of work.
      - FussyZeus 9y ago
        I keep seeing "But they're doing so well with DOTA! Well good for the f#$%ing Dota fans. The rest of us meanwhile are out here in the cold. I can't stand multiplayer games-as-a-service. Any of them. Team Fortress, Overwatch, Dota, on and on it's all the same rehashed ideas with the same business model at it's core; continuing to make money well after release by releasing a trickle of low effort, easy to market in-game assets that are all worth exactly NOTHING when the next popular one comes out (or in the case of Destiny, even the sequel). I've never touched any of these stupid things because it's all artificial; artificial scarcity of items by way of limiting the rate they come out and not allowing trades; artificial hype by employing the very best of marketing sleaze and artificial competition of various groups/clans/teams all pitted against each other in a dance of noise and anger signifying nothing. And then the next one comes out and everyone goes to that, leaving all the achievements, collected items, won prizes and earned trophies to sit in the digital dust until the publisher gets tired of hosting it, pulls the plug, and then it's gone forever. Nothing was learned, nothing is retained, nothing is remembered, all packaged up and shipped off for the next set of customers. It's the most cynical and hollow business model and hopefully will someday piss off so we can get more good story driven titles again.
mustacheemperor 9y ago
>they know they can't provide it. Valve cares so much that they provide us with all these hats, skins, trading cards, and microtransactions because they know they can deliver a great hat or trading card? In this case Valve has been completely unable to deliver a new, good videogame since at least 2012, which is when many online say most of the good writers and developers left. In that case it'd be less hurtful for the community to hear the truth than "radio silence."
ZoFreX 9y ago
> If HL would have been a EA game It was! I know EA are the go-to bad guy in these comparisons, but EA is the distributing publisher for physical copies of Valve games, and Valve are on record as loving working with EA.
- sametmax 9y ago
  Maybe EA is a good distributor, not a good game maker.

txdv 9y ago

its been 11 years, nobody cares anymore about the structure in their company they could be riding clowns while coding hl3, all I care about is for hl3 to be released someday

djhworld 9y ago

What incentive to Valve have to make HL3 though, really? They make a ton of cash on Steam and DOTA2. It's sad for the fans, in the recent DOTA international tournament, Valve announced a new game to the crowd who were whipped up into a frenzy. The new game, to the collective groan of the audience, was a DOTA2 card game

petercooper 9y ago
This is why the best creative works in the world are led by individuals with something to prove or to say and not faceless flat organizations. Valve has released just one game this decade that wasn't built by external developers or by mod authors brought in: Portal 2.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Their entire business is built around mod authors they brought in. CS, TF, Portal, Dota, and I think even some of the HL mods started as grassroots efforts. Not sure on that last part. Valve doesn't make their own games. They had to make HL back when they were struggling. It's their model, and it's one of the most lucrative in the world. I think it's mistaken to say they have nothing to prove. They're held to the highest standards by the community, and they work their ass off to deliver quality content. Icefrog certainly has something to prove.