I'm beginning to hate Valve.

[Vigormortis]

Holy hell. This thread is filled with some of the most petty, inconsequential, ludicrous gripes and complaints I've seen in a long time.

"I hate Valve because they haven't released a game they never gave a concrete release date for!"
"I hate Valve because of Team Fortress memes!"
"I hate Valve because Steam has community features!"
"I hate Valve because I didn't realize I could set the library menu as my main page instead of the Storefront!"
"I hate Valve because I failed to uncheck the 'run Steam when my computer starts' box!"
"I hate Valve because they made a Call of Duty rip-off that isn't a Call of Duty ripoff!"
"I hate Valve because I only liked one game series they created!"
"I hate Valve because they dared to change something! And I hate change!"
"I hate Valve because they use microtransactions in games that are free-to-play instead of using them in full-price titles!"
"I hate Valve because they have fans!"
"I hate Valve because they don't make games anymore, even though they've consistently released a new game every year since 2003!"
"I hate Valve because they give modders paying jobs and the tools/resources to craft their dream game!"

Seriously people? Gain some perspective.

God damn...

 

[bafrali]

snip

You know what I am beginning to wish now? That Half Life was never that popular. Sure It wouln't sell as much but at least it would be played by people with interest for the series and legit criticisms as to how to improve it. As we stand now, It is exposed to so many "special" individuals that can't think for themselves and play a game without paying any attention to genre, contiuity and style of the game and play it just because of the buzz it generated. Wish critics knew better than to make it mandatory viewing for all audiences because it was an "instant classic".

Right now I just wish people would just get some fucking sense.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Holy hell. This thread is filled with some of the most petty, inconsequential, ludicrous gripes and complaints I've seen in a long time.

"I hate Valve because they haven't released a game they never gave a concrete release date for!"
"I hate Valve because of Team Fortress memes!"
"I hate Valve because Steam has community features!"
"I hate Valve because I didn't realize I could set the library menu as my main page instead of the Storefront!"
"I hate Valve because I failed to uncheck the 'run Steam when my computer starts' box!"
"I hate Valve because they made a Call of Duty rip-off that isn't a Call of Duty ripoff!"
"I hate Valve because I only liked one game series they created!"
"I hate Valve because they dared to change something! And I hate change!"
"I hate Valve because they use microtransactions in games that are free-to-play instead of using them in full-price titles!"
"I hate Valve because they have fans!"
"I hate Valve because they don't make games anymore, even though they've consistently released a new game every year since 2003!"
"I hate Valve because they give modders paying jobs and the tools/resources to craft their dream game!"

Seriously people? Gain some perspective.

God damn...

And those haters wonder why people don't take them too seriously.

And the one of the worst parts of this is that you aren't making this crap up, I could several quotes for many of these off the top of my head and I haven't even properly followed this thread.

The actual worst part about those petty gripes is that they drown out actual issues like Greenlight.

 

[EstrogenicMuscle]

"I hate Valve because of Team Fortress memes!"

Hate is a strong word, if that's directed at me.

I actually like Valve. I like Valve for the Steam service. I'm just pretty indifferent to their games. Portal jokes are starting to get mildly annoying. And Team Fortress jokes are starting to get atrociously annoying.

I thought I was tired of "the cake is a lie" jokes everywhere. Then the Team Fortress 2 memes started coming. I was wrong. Team Fortress memes are worse, much worse.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Wait, you think Blizzard worked on any of these for A YEAR?! Erm...no, no they didn't. StarCraft 2's expansions were planned out and announced from before it was released. While exact dev time is not known, I highly doubt it was "a year" - work on the story was done from before even SC2 was released, actual more focused development started later but it's not like they just crammed it for a year. Heck, in 2011 they said it would take a year and it then took two after the announcement (which was around the February-March as I recall, so pretty much exactly 2 years). As for WoW - Blizzard are actually known to be developing the next expansion before even releasing the current one they are working on (I don't think we have exact info on the the dev cycle but that much we do know). For reference, before the second new race in Burning Crusade was announced, one of the more credible leaked informations pointed at the the Worgen joining the Alliance. They didn't appear (as playable) until Cataclysm and the leaked info was spot on (as much as it could, that is - it was their story, motive and background with an outline of the abilities). Diablo 3 was in development for quite some time, too - six to be precise - that we do know.

No, I remember. I was one of those waiting patiently for the disappointment that was Diablo 3. My point was that they have actually had some big releases in the past couple of years, not that they started development and completed them.

 

[SushiJaguar]

Probably because they've done so, so well in the years prior that they're being given a free pass lately. You know, because they haven't had press releases where their employees have out-and-out said we're all fucking stupid.

Or maybe it's the sales. The massive games library-platform that is actually good to use. The respect that the company has for the consumers. Lots of things Valve do wrong are balanced out by what it does right. I'm quite happy to not have Half Life 3, I've never enjoyed Half Life. So the constant delays don't get to me at all, leading to a sort of "Valve haven't screwed me over yet" type mindset.

Oh and as for them keeping their plans a secret from their customers? That's called being intelligent. Corporate espionage can be as simple as "Oh look, Valve just said X and Y about their new games. Quick, race to completing it first!" Gotta at least be a little cynical, mate.

P.S: Valve have earned that air of superiority because they /are/ superior.

 

[sagitel]

huh i was thinking about skyrim taking 5 years to develop[footnote]i know i know its different and all[/footnote]...

anyway as long as its about valve im cautious. yes they did make some truly awesome games. but the whole half-life 3 this is really kinda boring now. face it people its not being made.

oh im rambling. anyway.
OP i think you are getting angry at some really worthless points. at this point who cares if they dont release half-life 3 when we have EA doing ... being EA.you call not being told when a game is coming out. if they come out treating customers like shit then what do you call what EA did with ME 3 and simcity and what gearbox did with AMC?

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Valve blatantly lies about their plans, stays all secret and then someone thinks because they are Valve it is all okay to treat their fans like shit.

Can you point out where they lied? Because there is a huge difference between lying and staying secret, and most people seem to think that if a company doesn't do what the community wants or expects, then the company is lying. Or if they just want to hate the company, they will call them liars. If they don't know when it will be out, it is best to stay in the dark. Otherwise, if they say a date, and it doesn't make it by that date, they'll have to push it back and everyone will then call them liars.

Anyway, for me, Valve is ok. They support TF2 and Steam well, but they have completely shafted the single player portion of the games. Portal 2 was coop focused with the campaign basically being just a tutorial that required little to no thinking to solve any of the puzzles (which is bad for a puzzle game), and then their most recent games (Dota 2 / CS:GO) have been multiplayer only. That isn't bad, I guess, but since I pretty much only play single player games, they are just another company who is abandoning those of us who play single player.

 

[Do4600]

Valve isn't really treating you or anybody else like shit as far as Episode 3/Half Life 3 is concerned. Why exactly does Valve owe you Half-Life 3 within five years of the last game? If they released it when it wasn't actually completed, or rushed to complete the game just to sell it, you would probably be one of the first people to complain about how bad it was. Also, Valve really doesn't make money on developing games anymore, at least nothing compared to how much money they make off of Steam.

They have no financial pressure to make games, when they do release a game we know that it's something worth playing because they feel it was worth taking the time to make.

If you think Valve makes good games, then wait for them, they only develop games when they have really great ideas and getting angry at them for not rushing a project is asking them to be something they're not.

In the meantime, chill, there are plenty of other games to play, Valve will release when they feel they've topped Half Life 2, not before.

 

[ArcossG]

They can do it because their games are actually good and they don't even really owe us an episode 3?

See this is what I'm talking about. Why does that make it okay to build up expectations and not follow through? If you go by that logic, then no game company ever "owes" us anything. Bioware didn't "owe" us a good ending to ME3.

But you're making the assumption it's all intentional. Maybe Bioware 'owed' us a good ending, but they tried to deliver that - they just missed the mark. They didn't sit down and think 'Hey you know what? Let's piss off the entire gaming world!'.

Actually that isn't entierly true, Casey Hudson(ME's director) expilicitly said that the ending was ment to polarize, of course the end result ended up pissing everyone and not "just" half the fanbase
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116308-Mass-Effect-3s-Ending-Was-Intended-To-Polarize

 

[Vigormortis]

And those haters wonder why people don't take them too seriously.

And the one of the worst parts of this is that you aren't making this crap up, I could several quotes for many of these off the top of my head and I haven't even properly followed this thread.

The actual worst part about those petty gripes is that they drown out actual issues like Greenlight.

The sentence I bolded is exactly my point. There are so many petty complaints flying around that the legitimate ones get lost in the deluge.

It's like these people are actively looking for things to hate about Valve. Like they've decided to hate them first and then find reasons for that hate.

I don't care if someone dislikes Valve. I really don't! Everyone's entitled to their opinions. But for the love of God, if you're going to levy complaints against something at least make valid, logical complaints.

Hate is a strong word, if that's directed at me.

I actually like Valve. I like Valve for the Steam service. I'm just pretty indifferent to their games. Portal jokes are starting to get mildly annoying. And Team Fortress jokes are starting to get atrociously annoying.

I thought I was tired of "the cake is a lie" jokes everywhere. Then the Team Fortress 2 memes started coming. I was wrong. Team Fortress memes are worse, much worse.

No. It wasn't directed at you. I had heard someone, while I was in a TeamSpeak server some time ago, lament about how "stupid" all of the TF2 vids on youtube were while claiming they hated Valve because of them. That's why I brought it up.

I hadn't actually read your post before. Though, now that I have, I see how it would seem like I was directing it at you. My apologies.

That's one coincidence that I would have preferred hadn't come up. Ha!

 

[xdiesp]

Rotfl at the comments about Steam saving pc gaming. Oh yeah, DRM is what gaming needs the most to survive.

If you want to know what saved pc gaming, look no further than WOW. Sad, but true.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

On one hand, Half-Life is awesome... it'd be cool to have more Half-Life. On the other hand, Half-Life is awesome, so... it's pretty cool how they're not running the IP into the ground.

 

[LOLITRON]

Anybody remember Valve's false advertising with HL2? No? Go back and watch the old trailers. Last I played Half Life 2 there were no branching storylines or choices I could make to change the outcome of the game, I couldn't break the shit out of everything (except for what they wanted me to), and the enemy AI was not as smart as they claimed it to be -- or even showed it to be in their gameplay trailer. People tend to ignore this because Half Life 2 turned out to be a solid game anyways.

Also, I don't really buy the whole company structure excuse. You're telling me no one in Valve has the passion to create Half Life Episode 3 or Half Life 3? What? You're going to tell me that they had a strong passion to make Left 4 Dead 2 a year after the first, but weren't interested in another Half Life game? Anyway, I'm not going to argue things I can never know or prove, but it just doesn't seem logical in my opinion.

The reason there won't be another Half Life game for awhile, I think, is because they know it would fail to meet expectations. Half Life 1 did unexpectedly good due to all the new things it brought to the FPS genre and the gaming world in general. Half Life 2 was considered revolutionary with its physics engine and AI. Episode 1 and 2? They came out close enough to Half Life 2 that not a whole lot more was expected of them. Half Life 3 won't be coming out until they have some new technology to go along with it, otherwise it's likely to be a flop that would end Valve's winning streak with all its fans.

When Half Life 3 comes out, they'll essentially be throwing their entire company's reputation on the table. It's not going to happen until they're certain they'll be able to make it do extremely well on the market -- not because they need the money, but because they need the strong fan following in order to remain a success. Is that a bad thing? Of course not. Still, I don't put Valve above any other company out there when it comes to marketing and business structure. Someone's signing the checks and figuring out what to do with all the Stream revenue.

 

[h4xor555]

I agree, I also dislike valve, mostly because of this whole half life fiasco that NO ONE will shut up about.

 

[thanatos388]

I agree Valve gets a lot of credit for not doing a whole lot and lying constantly but hey they constantly release quality products and are continually sustained by Steam so they can take all the time they want without worrying about money. On a completely different subject; what were the blatant DLC adverts at the end of Mass Effect 3? Besides them saying "Hey we plan to release DLC later."?

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Fact is, it's a reasonable assumption. This forum is filled with threads who A - complain about MassEffect/DeadSpace whatever, it's also filled with threads like this where people defend valve, it's not unreasonable to assume that some of the same people comment in both.

Then I fail to see what you're trying to do in this this discussion if you're just gonna say "these people are hypocrites." Ok, so what?

Read again.
I said that's not THE issue.
I didn't say it's not AN issue.

We're talking about EXPECTATION.

One cannot criticize a company for not fulfilling one's expectation and then criticze a person for complaining making the same complaint about a company like Valve.

When people pay money, they expect their product to work as advertised.
That was the issue with Sim City, that was the issue with Diablo III. They aren't comparable to "we expect you to continue working on this series in fashion"

Defense? It's an observation.

Then why bring it up at all? If you're responding to an argument about why his argument isn't valid with "well everyone's getting worked up." So what if everyone "getting worked up?" That doesn't make either side more or less right.

You cannot criticise a guy for getting worked up over Valve and not criticise 30 other people for getting worked up over his opinion.

So because I didn't post out a response to every person here about their level of reaction to his statement, my criticism of his opinion is not valid? That's not how argument works. Try addressing my words.

You forgot "And not having the balls to own up to it"

Yeah ok? I didn't say it was justifiable or uncriticizeable, I just said it wasn't a broken promise.

I'm not interested in criticising individuals. I'm speaking of the general consensus that is prevalent on these boards. And I say I'm not going to trawl the forum for opinions from people I couldn't care less about to prove a point to another person I couldn't care less about.

I've stated my opinion and that's that

And? Look at what you said.

Dude, you're wasting your time. It doesn't matter what Valve does now or in the past, people will just rationalize whatever they do so they can stick to their fanboy-ism.

Ok, well my opinion is that dismissing everyone as "fanboys" makes you just as bad as them when you start generalizing everyone who speaks against an argument regardless of its absurdity.

 

[DoPo]

Anybody remember Valve's false advertising with HL2? No? Go back and watch the old trailers. Last I played Half Life 2 there were no branching storylines or choices I could make to change the outcome of the game, I couldn't break the shit out of everything (except for what they wanted me to), and the enemy AI was not as smart as they claimed it to be -- or even showed it to be in their gameplay trailer. People tend to ignore this because Half Life 2 turned out to be a solid game anyways.

I don't recall any of this from the trailers and news coverage I saw. Now, I didn't have stable Internet at the time, so I hardly have all the trailers - I relied on gaming magazines to include some from E3 or something with a CD. The closest I recall were the claims that you had some leeway in scripted events. In fact, the one thing that stands to mind was that glowing tentacle thingie (which wasn't in the game at the end) and the example that you could try to save the soldier it would drag down a hatch, or follow him down, or maybe just try to find a safer route to go down. Or something along those lines. I don't recall "being able to change the overall story", though. Couldn't find it either (lots of E3 footage is just snippets forming a 1 minute video and I don't even know if it's from E3).

The other thing I recall were Source engine showoffs where they showed how different materials behaved, like wood boxes being light, floating and being brakable, while metal ones were heavier and resistant to damage. Which was the same box with a different texture. And there were also physics of wooden boards and fruit and how they behaved when shot and stuff. Is this what you mean by "break the shit out of everything"? I can't recall any mention of fully destructible environment a-la Red Faction.

 

[OuroborosChoked]

Jacco, did you already pay for HL2:E3? The DLC for Left 4 Dead? Portal 3?

No?

Then they don't owe you anything. It's their company and their IP. They can do what they want with them... or nothing at all!

In short, yes. Even though I hate the "entitled gamer" thing... you are so *very* entitled.

There was a show called VR.5 that ran on Fox in the early 1990s that I really got into. The first season ended on a cliffhanger and was subsequently not picked up for a second season. Do I feel that Fox owes me a second season because I really liked the show? Should I feel that way? No. My desire for closure does not mean they duty bound to shell out the money for a whole new series... or even one more episode to wrap things up. Sometimes we just have to deal with things we're not happy about in reality...

 

[geldonyetich]

Wow, there's actually somebody left who is holding a candle for the next episode of Half Life coming out? I thought everybody got over that years ago.