Valve: "Valve Time" is a Compliment

[Clearing the Eye]

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Oh you. So precious. It's like watching a group of elderly people try to use slang words to fit in. You know what they're saying is wrong but you don't want to embarrass them.

Also, here's a napkin. You've got a little "bias" on your face.

You know, I think they make pills that'll fix that limp insult right up.

 

[major_chaos]

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Oh you. So precious. It's like watching a group of elderly people try to use slang words to fit in. You know what they're saying is wrong but you don't want to embarrass them.

Also, here's a napkin. You've got a little "bias" on your face.

I appreciate the generous offer but I think you need the napkin more than me, smug condescending arrogance stains if you don't wipe it up fast.

 

[Callate]

Let's be honest, if it wasn't for Steam, Valve would have gone bankrupt and shut down years ago with the kind of game development schedule they have at the moment.

Not necessarily. Did you notice how long 3D Realms held out? And Duke Nukem 3D, not to put too fine a point on it, wasn't nearly the game-changer that Half-Life was.

They've actually kept up a modest schedule- HL2 in 2004, Episode 1 in 2006, Episode 2, TF2, and Portal in 2007, L4D in 2008, L4D 2 in 2009, and Portal 2 in 2011, among others.

I don't doubt that Steam has made it a lot easier for them to take their time on their projects and pick and choose the ones they want to implement. They don't have to have a AAA holiday release every year to be certain of making payroll. But it's really only the delay on HL 2 Ep. 3 (or possibly HL3) that makes them seem like they're really slacking.

 

[Vigormortis]

My God. I'm still amazed at the shear level of misinformation in this thread from the Valve haters. It's...it's almost like they're basing their entire arguments on flimsy assumptions. Assumptions made from already weak or just out-right false information.

It's something akin to listening to Fox News. It's absolute nonsense; yet it's nonsense spoken with such conviction it's no wonder people buy into it.

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Just out of curiosity, what would you "boycotting" Valve do exactly? I mean, beyond the obvious "nothing". Since you're already a firm detractor of the developer; and one would assume one that doesn't buy their products; what would you hope to accomplish by "boycotting"? Is it just so you can put a fancy title to what you're already doing? To "show off" to your fellow detractors?

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Don't worry. I use Scotch-Guard. I'm good.

Also, I just wanted to complement you on your earlier post. Within the span of two sentences you managed to insult Valve, Valve fans, Steam, the Steam store, "DRM", and (in a "by proxy" sort of way) Gabe Newell.

That's impressive. Well played sir.

 

[Clearing the Eye]

Just out of curiosity, what would you "boycotting" Valve do exactly? I mean, beyond the obvious "nothing". Since you're already a firm detractor of the developer; and one would assume one that doesn't buy their products; what would you hope to accomplish by "boycotting"? Is it just so you can put a fancy title to what you're already doing? To "show off" to your fellow detractors?

Ass-ump-tions ;D

Where I once purchased a few of their products, I no longer will, as I don't wish to support people I dislike. This, in turn, deprives them of the money they would have otherwise gotten--the opposite of what a business seeks to achieve. You know, voting with your wallet?

Seriously, see about those pills. Limp insults are not something you have to put up with. See a doctor and get it sorted today. Unless hilariously transparent condescension from an utterly vacuous platform is what gets your rocks off.

 

[bafrali]

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Misinformed haters are as common as...well ants really.

I usually wait for THAT guy to point out the obvious.

 

[banksy122]

That's been Blizzard's motto for a long time, and look how people felt about Diablo 3. Honestly, I'll laugh my ass off if the same situation happens with Half-life 3.

Except Blizzard is owned by Activision now. A publisher who demands their devs to force games out.

 

[Baldr]

That's been Blizzard's motto for a long time, and look how people felt about Diablo 3. Honestly, I'll laugh my ass off if the same situation happens with Half-life 3.

Except Blizzard is owned by Activision now. A publisher who demands their devs to force games out.

Actually Blizzard is exempt from Activision control, the studio has full autonomy with the exception of regional customer support and localization.

 

[Strazdas]

Let's be honest, if it wasn't for Steam, Valve would have gone bankrupt and shut down years ago with the kind of game development schedule they have at the moment.

I don't really believe Valve actually believes in any of these stuff, they just know they can get away with it because of the money made from Steam. They could wait till they actually release a game of their own (that's not a mod) for another decade and people will still worship them like they were gods.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to hide behind my imaginary Internet flame shield.

except that they sold many games that are extremely popular and still run games that make tons of profit (team fortress 2 for example). Yes steam brings money, but they wouldnt go bancrupt without it. Their games dont flop.

Personally id rather wait 1 year longer and get a good game than wait 1 year less and get something like Mirrors edge.

i wish they'd announce a game that even interest me

We each have different likings. I for one dont care for half-life games at all, but i dont mind that people do, it is thier choice as it is mine to play strategy games instead.

 

[Alakaizer]

I find the whole development time issue to be moot anyways. One of my two favorite developers has released fifteen games in the past sixteen years, and the ten that I have played were all very good, most of them great. My other favorite developer has released six complete games in the past thirteen years, and the five that I've played will probably be among my favorites forever.

The bigger issue is that Valve is adamantly refusing to even discuss the main item that their fans have been clamoring for since 2007. They claim to have their main interest be the continuing support of their fans, whom they then continue to blatantly ignore. If I were a fan of Valve, I wouldn't stand for that kind of treatment, and it amazes me that so many still do.

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

Half Life 1 was impressively ground breaking.
Half Life 2 was beautiful and fun throughout.
Half Life 2: Episode 1 was neat and quick
Half Life 2: Episode 2 was just quick

It seems the longer Valve takes the better the game ends up being. Take all the time you want Valve, just please try to release at least the demo before I get so old the arthritis in my hands makes it impossible for me to play.

 

[banksy122]

That's been Blizzard's motto for a long time, and look how people felt about Diablo 3. Honestly, I'll laugh my ass off if the same situation happens with Half-life 3.

Except Blizzard is owned by Activision now. A publisher who demands their devs to force games out.

Actually Blizzard is exempt from Activision control, the studio has full autonomy with the exception of regional customer support and localization.

Oh, so that is why Activision make all Blizzard announcements when it comes to future game scheduled, and it is Blizzards entire fault for the loss of quality of their games since Activisions acquisition.
Captcha: Moot point.

 

[thirion1850]

I get that technically they're different. But think of it this way:

EA: Buys a company under company name, lets them make game, puts out game.
Valve: Buys a company, doesn't let them keep company name, puts out game as valve game.

Except those weren't companies but mod teams. That made games on THEIR ENGINE. Using THEIR GAMES. And got jobs and access directly to THEIR FUNDS to put out bigger, badder plays on their old titles with essentially NO LIMITS to creativity. Not to mention, Valve employees just so happen to be game designers them selves, thus indeed aiding with the newfound projects.

It jars me to see Valve get hate for this of all things. Forget occasional Steam issues, forget Valve time, no. It's because they decided to bring in a mod team, thus continuing a successful business practice that worked since the company's inception, providing consumers with more backed and popular versions of their favorite or previously unheard of mods and letting mod makers go wild in the professions they truly wanted to work in. But here we are with you providing EA as a "good comparison to the miscreants". Seriously. E friggen A. Well done.

 

[Dogstile]

I get that technically they're different. But think of it this way:

EA: Buys a company under company name, lets them make game, puts out game.
Valve: Buys a company, doesn't let them keep company name, puts out game as valve game.

Except those weren't companies but mod teams. That made games on THEIR ENGINE. Using THEIR GAMES. And got jobs and access directly to THEIR FUNDS to put out bigger, badder plays on their old titles with essentially NO LIMITS to creativity. Not to mention, Valve employees just so happen to be game designers them selves, thus indeed aiding with the newfound projects.

It jars me to see Valve get hate for this of all things. Forget occasional Steam issues, forget Valve time, no. It's because they decided to bring in a mod team, thus continuing a successful business practice that worked since the company's inception, providing consumers with more backed and popular versions of their favorite or previously unheard of mods and letting mod makers go wild in the professions they truly wanted to work in. But here we are with you providing EA as a "good comparison to the miscreants". Seriously. E friggen A. Well done.

Oh i'm sorry, did you assume because I think they're more like a publisher than a developer right now because valves own dev teams don't seem to do much nowadays that it means I hate valve?

Let me get this clear, I don't hate valve. They do what any company with the resources they do, would do. That is perfectly ok. The fact is valve does take mod teams (who usually have a name that they go by) and get them to polish their game and then publish it as a solely valve game.

Its not wrong on any level and I certainly didn't say EA was better than valve. If you thought that, then maybe you have a problem with the idea of a company or team not being able to keep its name when being bought out.

 

[Ldude893]

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We know very well that Valve's working on it, and we're allowing them to take their time on the game so that it'll be top-quality when it comes out. After all, patience is bitter but its fruit is sweet.

As for the secrecy of the game, as a Valve fan I don't like it when a giant surprise gets spoiled too early. It'll come when it's time.

 

[MrGalactus]

As much as I hate them, it's impossible not to love them....

 

[Vivi22]

Let's be honest, if it wasn't for Steam, Valve would have gone bankrupt and shut down years ago with the kind of game development schedule they have at the moment.

I don't really believe Valve actually believes in any of these stuff, they just know they can get away with it because of the money made from Steam.

When they made Half-Life, at one point they scrapped just about everything because it wasn't fun enough and redid a lot of it. This was about a year before the game actually released. They didn't go bankrupt. Similar things happened with HL2. Again, didn't go bankrupt (yes they had Steam at that point. No, it wasn't big enough to afford them infinite development time). Since then, they've released almost one game a year, all of which were well received and undeniably successful for them.

For a company that can afford to just sit on their hands and dick around forever without having to release a hit game and turn a profit, they've released an awful lot of hit games that turned a profit.

Again as I pointed out wise assly (not a word, I know) in brackets, games like Portal, LFD, and TF2 were mods from their most critically acclaimed game, Half Life. Much easier to do compared to actually making a game from scratch.

Your ignorance is showing I'm afraid. First off, L4D wasn't a mod of any game. It was in development by Turtle Rock Studios, Valve liked what they were doing so they bought them, brought them into the company and helped finish it. Turtle Rock subsequently left Valve, but regardless, you act as if this practice is something unique in the industry. it's really not.

Second, Portal and TF2 also weren't mods. The former was based on a student project which lead to them hiring those students to work on Portal. TF2 was based on TFC, a mod for Half-Life which Valve hired the original creators of Team Fortress for Quake to port for them. This was years before Steam was ever on the scene. Portal and TF2 however were not easier to make because they were based on other projects. They were completely built from the ground up on the source engine, and very little from the originals survived intact beyond the basic gameplay mechanics. Portal was a big undertaking on a technical level to pull off with the source engine, and TF2 was massively changed and rebalanced from the original. Saying they were easier because they were based on earlier concepts is like saying that making Doom 3 would have been easy because it was based on Doom. The statement is inherently ridiculous and only shows that you don't know that much about the history of these games or game development in general.

Edit: fixed quote tags.

 

[Awexsome]

They can enjoy the luxury that no other developer or publisher in the world has with Steam to actually LET them use "Valve time" and buy smaller groups for a good portion of their games that they just release under their name...

But the good news is that with all that luxury they do give a lot back to their fans, the most in fact 2nd to only Bungie IMO because of how convenient is it to Valve compared to them. So I can't judge them too harshly.

 

[Farther than stars]

"We would infinitely rather have happy customers for decades, rather than a happy batch of customers at one Christmas,"

And those costumers would rather have a definitive answer on Half-Life, than be left waiting for decades.

Well, to be fair it's only been five years since the last installment. But, yes, once the first decade has been reached you might as well add it to the scrap yard, because it's going to be as disjointed as Duke Nukem Forever.