6 ms·

Is the 3 at the end of the URL a subtle jab?

by syaz1 14y ago

pvsnp 14y ago
Nah, just means they can count to 3. Still holding out for HL3.
lukeholder 14y ago
half life 3 confirmed!
user-id 14y ago
Coincidentally, I thought you meant here at HN.
mappu 14y ago
My vote is for almost-certainly yes. At the very least, it's a conscious marketing move. Even after all this time (it's been longer now since HL2:E2 than the gap between HL1 and HL2 itself), the hype is so strong that if they released HL3 for Linux so much as a few hours earlier than the Windows version, it would cause a significant spike in Ubuntu downloads.
- randartie 14y ago
  That would be amazing!
  - jeffool 14y ago
    That would also be genius marketing if they wanted to "flex nuts" and see just how strong of a following they could get if they ever did want to try to lure more users away from Windows, given Valve's Win8 complaints. Of course, if it failed, it'd look odd. Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal... Well, half the gamers with PCs would be swarming boards to get help booting Linux partitions. Then Steam would just have to get other publishers on board the "offer Linux too" train, like they did with the "one purchase for PC and Mac" strategy.
    - masklinn 14y ago
      > Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal... Er... unless Canonical is paying for the license, I can't see how that'd happen, Ep3 (if it ever exists) won't be a 2~3-hours side-game bundled with two "full-fledged" games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box)
      - jeffool 14y ago
        Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did muddle that. See, sometimes they give Portal away completely for free. They've done it two or three times now. What I'm suggesting is that Valve gives everyone a free copy of Ep3 (or HL3, whatever they call it,) for Linux. Then I'm confident you'd see large numbers of gamers installing Linux partitions. And they could still charge for the Win/Mac version. Of course, that's insanely unlikely. But I think it would be their strongest card in the "let's get everyone off of Windows" . I also think luring everyone to Linux (by filling in their catalog with "one purchase, all platforms" games) is probably cheaper for Valve than creating their own console. But then, I may well attribute more good will to them (that they'd rather home computer gaming be on an open platform than another closed one, even if it was their own) than they deserve. /edit: Ohhh, you mean "Portal wasn't a full fledged game, so... Unlikely." I get you. Sorry. Yes, I agree. Like I said here, insanely unlikely. But, as a tool to get more people to get away from Windows and the Win8 store... It would be irresistibly strong bait. And that's definitely in their long term interests.
        jiggy2011 14y ago
        HL3 will be a huge money maker for them , I'd be amazed if they gave it away for free. I suppose making it a Linux exclusive for some period of time might not be outside the realms of possibility. But I can't see what that would do apart from piss people off. Especially people who have no idea how to setup dual boot or who have hardware that isn't very compatible with Linux. There may well be some perks for new Linux users, but probably more along the line of some extra skins for multiplayer or whatever.
        14y ago
- bennysaurus 14y ago
  Seconding this. If you remove the '-3' at the end, it redirects back to the URL above. Cheeky, I like it.
  - waiwai933 14y ago
    Doesn't actually seem to be an intentional redirect, though—if you truncate everything past the "b" in the URL, it still works (and similarly for other blog posts). I have a feeling it's just doing a "best match" based on the URL.
  - slariviere 14y ago
    Also works if you remove 'eta-late-than-never-3'.
  - codelust 14y ago
    That's just Wordpress. It is just doing a closest match on the slug.
- SquareWheel 14y ago
  I doubt it. It's probably the third revision of that blog post, the other two are just unpublished.
jiggy2011 14y ago
it's the third post on the blog, more likely it's just the post ID.
- jgeralnik 14y ago
  None of the other posts on the blog have a number at the end of them.
  - rmccue 14y ago
    It only does it when it needs to disambiguate between posts with the same "slug" (i.e. URL-friendly name). My guess is that in their drafts, there are two posts with the same slug, so WordPress added the -3 to disambiguate.

Is the 3 at the end of the URL a subtle jab?

by syaz1 14y ago

Is the 3 at the end of the URL a subtle jab?

pvsnp 14y ago

Nah, just means they can count to 3. Still holding out for HL3.

lukeholder 14y ago

half life 3 confirmed!

user-id 14y ago

Coincidentally, I thought you meant here at HN.

mappu 14y ago

My vote is for almost-certainly yes. At the very least, it's a conscious marketing move. Even after all this time (it's been longer now since HL2:E2 than the gap between HL1 and HL2 itself), the hype is so strong that if they released HL3 for Linux so much as a few hours earlier than the Windows version, it would cause a significant spike in Ubuntu downloads.

randartie 14y ago
That would be amazing!
- jeffool 14y ago
  That would also be genius marketing if they wanted to "flex nuts" and see just how strong of a following they could get if they ever did want to try to lure more users away from Windows, given Valve's Win8 complaints. Of course, if it failed, it'd look odd. Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal... Well, half the gamers with PCs would be swarming boards to get help booting Linux partitions. Then Steam would just have to get other publishers on board the "offer Linux too" train, like they did with the "one purchase for PC and Mac" strategy.
  - masklinn 14y ago
    > Of course, also, if they gave out Ep3 for free with a Linux account like they sometimes do Portal... Er... unless Canonical is paying for the license, I can't see how that'd happen, Ep3 (if it ever exists) won't be a 2~3-hours side-game bundled with two "full-fledged" games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Orange_Box)
    - jeffool 14y ago
      Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did muddle that. See, sometimes they give Portal away completely for free. They've done it two or three times now. What I'm suggesting is that Valve gives everyone a free copy of Ep3 (or HL3, whatever they call it,) for Linux. Then I'm confident you'd see large numbers of gamers installing Linux partitions. And they could still charge for the Win/Mac version. Of course, that's insanely unlikely. But I think it would be their strongest card in the "let's get everyone off of Windows" . I also think luring everyone to Linux (by filling in their catalog with "one purchase, all platforms" games) is probably cheaper for Valve than creating their own console. But then, I may well attribute more good will to them (that they'd rather home computer gaming be on an open platform than another closed one, even if it was their own) than they deserve. /edit: Ohhh, you mean "Portal wasn't a full fledged game, so... Unlikely." I get you. Sorry. Yes, I agree. Like I said here, insanely unlikely. But, as a tool to get more people to get away from Windows and the Win8 store... It would be irresistibly strong bait. And that's definitely in their long term interests.
      - jiggy2011 14y ago
        HL3 will be a huge money maker for them , I'd be amazed if they gave it away for free. I suppose making it a Linux exclusive for some period of time might not be outside the realms of possibility. But I can't see what that would do apart from piss people off. Especially people who have no idea how to setup dual boot or who have hardware that isn't very compatible with Linux. There may well be some perks for new Linux users, but probably more along the line of some extra skins for multiplayer or whatever.
      - 14y ago
bennysaurus 14y ago
Seconding this. If you remove the '-3' at the end, it redirects back to the URL above. Cheeky, I like it.
- waiwai933 14y ago
  Doesn't actually seem to be an intentional redirect, though—if you truncate everything past the "b" in the URL, it still works (and similarly for other blog posts). I have a feeling it's just doing a "best match" based on the URL.
- slariviere 14y ago
  Also works if you remove 'eta-late-than-never-3'.
- codelust 14y ago
  That's just Wordpress. It is just doing a closest match on the slug.
SquareWheel 14y ago
I doubt it. It's probably the third revision of that blog post, the other two are just unpublished.

jiggy2011 14y ago

it's the third post on the blog, more likely it's just the post ID.

jgeralnik 14y ago
None of the other posts on the blog have a number at the end of them.
- rmccue 14y ago
  It only does it when it needs to disambiguate between posts with the same "slug" (i.e. URL-friendly name). My guess is that in their drafts, there are two posts with the same slug, so WordPress added the -3 to disambiguate.