Orks da best said:
Why did the escapist gather so many "valveies"
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It's a general gaming site. There are "Valvies" everywhere on general sites. Go to a specific publisher or studio's site, and you will find people that appreciate the publisher/studio. There aren't many overt "Valvies" on BioWare's forums, for example.
Also, I sorta lied about the title, why is valved loved when they are more or less, a monopolistic company?
I don't think you know what that word means. Valve's closest monopoly is on the selling of digital content, of which it makes up the bulk of the market. However, while they do take a cut out of every sale, they are not forcing other digital services out of business or using underhanded tactics to fix prices on digital content (EA and Apple Inc. respectively).
They offer a good service with Steam, and over the years it shines as an example of digital content delivery done WELL.
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?"
So? That's Blizzard's MO, period. Blizzard hasn't had an original idea since ever, and even tried to sue Valve when the makers of DotA got hired and tried to use the DotA title.
Also, think about what you're saying: Valve takes the work of its fans and turns it into a full-fledged, fun game (often by hiring the fans who made the mods). That's not something to be cynical about. That's like BioWare hiring you to write Mass Effect 4 because you wrote popular fanfiction. That's AWESOME, not detrimental or something to be suspicious towards.
At least EA allows the company to keep their logo on their games.
So they slowly suck the soul out of the company and gut the development teams while expecting unreachable profit targets that result in the complete dissolution of the studio if they're not met, but hey - at least the logo is on the box.
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're bitching about an April Fool's Joke? Really?
I thought a much more sadistic act was Blizzard turning their old April Fool's Jokes (Pandarens) into an actual expansion they want people to pay real money for. I thought the plot was ridiculous when space-crystals turned out to be the source of "the Light" while they were chaperoned by long-lost demons.
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?
I'll take Steam over Origins or Impulse any day.
How many developers have lost their titles to the valve beast? How long till the gaming culture is overrun with valvies?
I don't know what you mean by the first question. I do know that many Indie developers continue to produce work because of Valve, and that getting onto Steam is essentially the make-or-break moment for many Indie games.
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."
I still don't see how they're evil or malignant. Yeah, they made and operate Steam, the largest digital distributor of games in history. Yeah, they take a chunk on every game they sell through steam, and that's basically a service fee for providing the studio's project a huge audience.
That's about it. Other than Steam, your complaints are "They take fan-made mods and make them into official games after hiring the guys who made the mods" which isn't a bad thing, and "Their fans are everywhere."
Now to head to my deep underground flame, acid, bullet, bomb, atom bomb, magic, and any other weapon you can think of bunker.
I just don't see why you think Valve is the worst kind of evil.
They make excellent games, with few exceptions.
Their studio is an awesome work environment, and encourages the creation of completely awesome ideas (like Portal).
They support their fans more than any other studio (the TF2 store pays out a chunk of sales to whoever designed the item bought).
They hire fans who make mods and give them experience in what's one of the best developers on the planet, which is basically the "WIN" button if the fans choose to leave for other pastures.
They make it easy to access new games, and provide a venue for Indie developers who would have folded by now if it weren't for Steam.
They keep EA - the REAL montrosity of the gaming world - in check by showing EA how shit is really done (Steam DRM is present, but it's about as minimalistic as DRM can reasonably be - as opposed to EA's 'Requires always-on connection and can't be installed more than 3 times' complete bullshit).
What MORE do you want from a studio, aside from perhaps a faster release schedule?
Personally, I love Valve. I honestly appreciate the force they represent in gaming. I can't think of anything they've done that I vehemently disagree with, and I'm willing to put up with the paltry annoyance that is Steam's minimalistic DRM function in exchange for a decade between sequels. Even when I'm not playing a Valve game (or a mod for their games), I know that Gabe & Co. sticks to their guns when it comes to what they believe gaming should be about. I respect their morals and values when it comes to operating their business, and when Gabe finally does die of the fifth heart attack after the quadruple bypass surgery from swallowing too much gold-crusted foie gras, I will mourn his passing.
Because if nobody picks up the torch at Valve and Valve starts to tumble, EA won't hesitate to take over Valve's old arenas and shove its cock of hatred up everyone's ass if it means they could charge you $0.25 every single time you access Battlfield 9: Freedom's Load multiplayer servers and keep the single-player campaign as Day-1 DLC available for the low-low price of $20.