Valve, why are they loved?

[Orks da best]

Note I made that title just to draw eyes, nothing more and nothing less.

Anyways I have a question for the escapist, why are there so many valve fans on the escapist? Honesty any competion on the escapist based on games has Valve will win all over it, look at this years march mayhem, and servel of the past ones. Valve has won more of those than any other developer. Why did so many valve fans join the escapist, not a question of choise, but of why?

I am not trying to be rude here however, so do not take this question as a insult of somesort.

Why did the escapist gather so many "valveies"

Also, I sorta lied about the title, why is valved loved when they are more or less, a monopolistic company?

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

At least EA allows the company to keep their logo on their games.

Also valve is sorta sadistic, remeber that April's fools joke? the one about half-life 3?, the only developer that could that is valve, and get away with it.

Meanwhile Half-life 3, or episode 3 are becoming the new Duke Nukem Forever of gaming, jokes and all.

Yes valve may be friendly to theire fans and customers, but what about other developers? how many games have you brought retail and yet needed to install steam to use? How many developers have lost their titles to the valve beast? How long till the gaming culture is overrun with valvies?

Valve may be a good developer, but there also the worst kind of evil"the one that looks and acts nice, but fools into doing there every order, so your helpless to fight back when they attack."

Now to head to my deep underground flame, acid, bullet, bomb, atom bomb, magic, and any other weapon you can think of bunker.

 

[Luca72]

I see Valve as being pretty much the "Pixar" of video games right now. They made an incredibly tight engine, which may not be the best visually today but is still my favorite to play an FPS in. Their games tend to take a long time to make but have an incredible amount of polish, and feel uniquely "Valve" (ie: the sense of humor in Portal or TF2, the setting and enemy design in the Half Life series, etc.).

There's some debate over Steam as a platform for digital distribution, but it seems fine by me. Especially when I see things like GFW or shifty DRM methods other companies are using. It seems some major developers are willing to hamstring their game to prevent piracy. Requiring Steam authentication is another method of curbing piracy, but it isn't inconvenient at all.

You've got to admit that Valve has an incredible batting record at this point. They haven't released any bad games, and I'd argue that they haven't even released mediocre ones (even Left 4 Dead, which isn't my cup of tea, is an excellent game). They're a company that is certainly in the business of making money, but don't appear to put profit before quality. How hard do you think it would have been for another AAA developer to drop Gordon Freeman into a generic ice level and then finish off the series with some bullshit about an "ancient cycle of death and rebirth" or something? Valve gets criticized for not releasing HL3/E3, but they're clearly waiting until they have something worth playing. Half Life is a money pinata, and all they have to do is toss it out to the masses, but they're waiting to make it a quality title. That in a nutshell is why I love Valve.

You should probably go a little deeper into that bunker, I think a hard rains a-gonna fall.

 

[Xan Krieger]

I only like them because of Portal and Portal 2, the only games they made that I enjoyed. Everything else was kind of bad. I'm just hoping for a Portal 3 (and for the test chamber maker tool to be easier to use).

 

[Skin]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

They need to be big and strong like Germany, not weak and neutral like Switzerland!

 

[CityofTreez]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

They need to be big and strong like Germany, not weak and neutral like Switzerland!

Such an out of place comment lols.

 

[distortedreality]

They make great games, and look after their fans.

Pretty simple tbh.

 

[Vault101]

I like Valve

but I don;t see them as the second coming

1. I've had issue withs steam

2. theyve made 2 games I adore...but thye arnt the kings of single player

 

[The_Lost_King]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

They need to be big and strong like Germany, not weak and neutral like Switzerland!

Yes Germany is sooo strong losing 2 world wars and all.
We like Valve because they get our money by making sales not by holding games for ransom and bury under day 1 dlcs.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Sales, and they have not gone out of their way to rape and pillage other companies.

 

[Zhukov]

People like things. Deal with it.

...

*sigh*

Okay, okay. Fine.

First off, I have no idea why so The Escapist has gathering a lot of Valve fans. However, after a while I imagine it becomes somewhat self-perpetuating. Someone who likes just JRPGs and sports sims and hates Valve is probably less likely to stick around here once they get a feel for the place.

On to your other questions...

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

Why should I care how they make the games? So long as they keep putting out games that I love, I'm happy?

Also, what is wrong with recruiting proven talent? Someone makes a game or a mod, Valve makes them an offer. Where's the problem? I can't remember hearing a single complaint from ex-Valve employees.

Also valve is sorta sadistic, remeber that April's fools joke? the one about half-life 3?, the only developer that could that is valve, and get away with it.

You say "sadistic", I say "has a sense of humour".

Besides, that HL3 prank wasn't done by them.

Meanwhile Half-life 3, or episode 3 are becoming the new Duke Nukem Forever of gaming, jokes and all.

Yeah, because it's not like Valve fans ever complain about that, right?

...

Also, Steam. First and one of the best digital distributions platforms around. Offers frequent sales at ridiculously low prices. When a company is selling me eight month old games at 75% off I'm probably going to like them.

 

[Don Savik]

How can you question our glorious leader who has blessed us with the holy summer sale???

BLASPHEMER!!!!!!! HERETIC!!!!!!!

 

[Ljs1121]

Because Portal.

Also Half-Life.

Also also Team Fortress.

I'm not really a big fan of Valve, but those three series seem to be the most popular examples given for Valve's status as god of the universe.

 

[Kae]

Valve is like a religion to people, they seem to have undoubted fate on steam which I don't really get, I personally feel that GoG.com, Gamersgate and Desura are better online stores and pretty much don't use steam, it's somewhat invasive, and my computer sometimes won't connect to it, besides if the servers went down for any random reason you wouldn't be able to play you're single player games since, at least last time I checked[footnote]Granted last time I checked was quite some time ago[/footnote] steam offline didn't work at all, but they are good at making games, they are not bad at all, but I'll never get why people are so loyal to steam.

 

[Mr. GameBrain]

Its simple really.

Out of all the companies out there, Valve understand their consumers the most.

Their products and services are tailored to the needs of their consumers.

They not only meet expectations, but exceed them.

It really is that simple.

Another great thing about Valve is that compared to companies like EA and Activision, they nuture the companies and staff they aquire, not consume them.

 

[Ryotknife]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

They need to be big and strong like Germany, not weak and neutral like Switzerland!

Yes Germany is sooo strong losing 2 world wars and all.
We like Valve because they get our money by making sales not by holding games for ransom and bury under day 1 dlcs.

to be fair, in WW2 germany had most of the world lined up against them, nor where their allies of any real use to them. They also took on two countries that were massively larger than themselves and made quite a showing.

on topic: Valve is what other companies should aspire to be. Their games are nothing short of brilliant, and steam is a good reliable service that is not as intrusive as origin (granted i understand the complaints some people have against steam). Plus they treat their customers right.

hell, their steam sales going on right now is a gamers wet dream.

other than some games requiring you to use steam, Valve can do no wrong.

 

[psicat]

Because people are blind sheep. I personally hate Valve. Portal and it's sequel where the only good games they've made in my opinion. They do better as retailers than game developers, yet Origin is less intrusive than that steaming pile of crap that is Steam.

 

[FalloutJack]

You're aware that EA was voted as the most horrible company, right? I think there was a thing about that around here, somewhere.