A Call for Communication

[Text_Fish]

Join a worthy cause! Some gamer folk have created a Steam group appealing to Valve to say something (anything!) regarding the future of the Half-Life series. 10,000 members and counting, so far: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/messagetovalve

To those whose initial reaction to this is similar to my own, let me assure you this is not an attack on Valve, it's merely a heartfelt plea from a community of HL fans who want some assurance that their continuing loyalty to the series won't be taken for granted.

More than anything I think it poses some interesting questions about the obligations of companies like Valve to the fans who have contributed so much to their success. How long can internet communities remain active and engaged without fresh content (or even news thereof) from the companies they support? Is it okay for a company like Valve to be so guarded when their actions could make or break fansites, servers and mods?

[squirrelfanatic]

I'm not sure if this a good example of a "worthy cause". I am however interested in Valve's hopefully both positive and humorous reaction to this.

[Kadayi]

I'm not sure if this a good example of a "worthy cause". I am however interested in Valve's hopefully both positive and humorous reaction to this.

The probable response is a video of Gabe buying more knives (because you can never have enough knives) and playing copious amounts of DOTA2 whilst sitting in a cubicle made entirely of bricks of Steam Christmas sales money.

Still joined just on the vague off chance we receive a constructive response.

[ALDI Nord]

@Kadayi
Either that or a simple "we are working on it" is probably all we will get. Although I have hope, so I joined anyway.

[DigitalSignalX]

"we are working on it" or "it will be done when it's done" type of reply would be remarkable. AFAIK it hasn't been publicly acknowledged.. ever?

[Kaira-]

"we are working on it" or "it will be done when it's done" type of reply would be remarkable. AFAIK it hasn't been publicly acknowledged.. ever?

Well, there was that one thing about sign language a few years back (late 2009 apparently).

[Smashbox]

I'm not sure if this a good example of a "worthy cause".

I'm also not sure if this a good example of a "worthy cause".

The last thing they said on the subject was that we'd have more news 'by the end of 2009.' Since then, nothing. There was a point, however, when Valve was openly discussing the existence of Episode 3. Never Half Life 3.

That cliffhanger...

[vinraith]

Pushinga developer into making a game they aren't interested in at the moment seems like a bad move, to me.

[squirrelfanatic]

Pushinga developer into making a game they aren't interested in at the moment seems like a bad move, to me.

As the description of the group states, this is not ment to push the developer in any shape or form to make the game but to establish better communication between Valve and the fanbase, for what its worth.

[Rii]

More than anything I think it poses some interesting questions about the obligations of companies like Valve to the fans who have contributed so much to their success.

A: None.

And if Valve won't even communicate about their customers' credit card details being compromised, well, good luck getting them to communicate about anything else.

[LordHuggington]

Valve's probably too busy helping out with the Arrested Development movie to be working on HL3.

[Kadayi]

Valve's probably too busy helping out with the Arrested Development movie to be working on HL3.

Wha.....

Pushing a developer into making a game they aren't interested in at the moment seems like a bad move, to me.

I guess DNF would of been ace if only all those pesky Duke fans hadn't kept haranguing George Broussard during those extensive Wow sessions he liked to indulge in....

It's supposed to be an episode. A supplemental. A few hours game play extending from events previous. Not a reinvention of the wheel and the laws of relativity. Gordon Freeman travels to the Borealis, Gordon freeman finds a prototype portal gun. Gordon Freeman has some fun using said Portal gun with gravity gun to hilarious effect on murdering scumbag combine advisors plus assorted minions, and Dr Mossman gets what she deserves. Cue raised crowbar, cue human victory, cue Alyx giving you a big hug, cue Dr Kleiner making inappropriate suggestions, cue G man turning up and being all mysterious then fade to black and roll credits. That's all anyone really wants.

[Flint]

Wha.....

Reference to the status of the Arrested Development movie that keeps getting pushed back and is probably booking a stay in development hell - somewhat akin to HL3/ep3, some would say.

[FuriKuri!]

It's supposed to be an episode. A supplemental. A few hours game play extending from events previous. Not a reinvention of the wheel and the laws of relativity. Gordon Freeman travels to the Borealis, Gordon freeman finds a prototype portal gun. Gordon Freeman has some fun using said Portal gun with gravity gun to hilarious effect on murdering scumbag combine advisors plus assorted minions, and Dr Mossman gets what she deserves. Cue raised crowbar, cue human victory, cue Alyx giving you a big hug, cue Dr Kleiner making inappropriate suggestions, cue G man turning up and being all mysterious then fade to black and roll credits. That's all anyone really wants.

Pretty much. Although I don't agree with your earlier statement that they should stop at that point and move on from HL - the combine thing just isn't "done" and to stop without any real resolution would be pretty weak. I kinda resented HL2 didn't really end cleanly - HL's ending was open ended but at least left the impression that Xen was done and mission accomplished. The episodes were largely pointless meandering and just opened up more nonsense that didn't get resolved even in an unsatisfactory manner.

The episodes are definately valve's biggest blunder. ;/

[Nova]

More like, come join, come join our hopeless cause.

[Kadayi]

The episodes are definitely valve's biggest blunder. ;/

Well as Soldant highlighted in the other thread, the game style is showing its age and increasingly it's going to become harder and harder to deliver great story line and staying true to that proscribed approach. Change too much and you're in danger of no longer being recognizably a Half-life game.

As regards the episodes. I think the only blunder is Valves failure to deliver them in a timely fashion. They were one of the first developers to ever talk about 'episodic' gaming and also one of the first to fail at living up to their promises on the matter. As gaming experiences I thought they were acceptable. However they had to pull a lot of smoke and mirrors with the Source engine to make the exterior parts seem expansive (if you birds eye the maps using no_clip you'll see you that the roads all zig zag around back on themselves a lot in order to overcome the limitations of Sources map constraints). 10 times the size of the maps in HL sounds great, until you realise the map sizes in say Unreal are significantly larger. There probably is an argument that they should of just gotten on with making a complete new engine, Vs polishing Source up as much as they did. Still what's done is done.

[Snargelfargen]

It's too bad as I thought the episodes were a really good format for a shooter. It allowed Valve to play around with ideas that they probably wouldn't have put in a complete game, such as the part in Ep. 1 where you only have a flashlight and Alyx has the gun. Or the bizarre bomb-launching racing game at the end Ep. 2.

The story was... well, I didn't play it for the story, so I don't care about it too much. Half Life was always about mood & setting, and I'm pretty sure tying all the plot ends up would be really unsatisfying and overly expository. Nobody wants another Matrix: Revolutions.

[sinister agent]

Look, I love games, okay. Let's get that out there. But touting "continuing loyalty" to a series of games is just ... I mean... urgh. Loyalty is a virtue, something you have if you stick with someone through anything. It is not something that applies because you bought some games from the same people several times.

And no, I don't have a fucking nectar card. Stop asking.

[Nalano]

Valve doesn't owe anybody anything.

Considering that no matter what format Ep3 or HL3 comes in - including not at all - die-hards will bitch about it, Valve has zero incentive to do it merely to placate their fans.

Ultimately what they do is what they do, and if you, the consumer, don't want to be disappointed by it, your best bet is to come at it without preconceived notions as to what it should be.

[Kadayi]

Valve doesn't owe anybody anything.

I'm fairly sure when it comes to any other developer it's normally the opposite argument.