A rant to valve.

[astrav1]

Well then I would hate to hear what you think of every other developer in the entire goddamn industry. I think you might hurt Bioware's feelings.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

If you listen to interviews with Newell and such, you'll find that the whole Team Fortress 2 Mannconomy and hat updates and such came from experimentation, and then getting those ideas reinforced by the community that bought them. Unfortunately, for all intents and purposes, it's the game's playerbase (not fanbase) that has kept Team Fortress 2 alive. And as long as the community is making maps and items, Team Fortress 2 will be kept well and truly alive. Developer-approved and distributed mods? ...that's the recipe to keep your game alive and kicking well until everyone who bought the game on launch has died.

LFD2 is like what, a year old, and it has like 1000 players?

1000 players online, but L4D is sort of a co-op multiplayer title... how many people are playing on local servers? You aren't ever going to see Black Ops beat out L4D at a LAN party.

Also, good news! Valve is releasing DotA 2!! And considering how STAGGERINGLY popular DotA and all its runty little clones have been, the chances that DotA 2 will be "the next big open-ended multiplayer" title from Valve are basically locked in and secured...!

 

[Twilight_guy]

Actually its funny how many arguments about Valve can be made about Blizzard and nobody doubts them rolling in the dough. Of course nobody doubts Steam is bring in the dough.

 

[Pyro Paul]

LFD2 is like what, a year old, and it has like 1000 players?

well, first... wrong.
it has near 90,000 players that sign on each day across all systems.

Second.
L4D2 plays through diffrent mechanics.
you don't need 16 players to get a L4D2 game going.
you don't need full 32 player rooms to have fun.
infact, the most played L4D2 games are co-op, which is only 4 player.

This is the same reason games like 'Rainbow Six:Vegas' often don't top the charts with number of players online.

 

[Coranico]

Ok i have a few things to say

1. Both counter strike games usually have 30,000-40,000 players active at any time. =/= Valve dying

2. Valve are not, "relying" on using TF2 hats to sell games, they do it to boost sales, its like buying a toolkit and getting a couple of screws thrown in for free, it's not their last resort as they currently own 80% of the downloadable games market (im assuming this isn't through hats.)

3. Valve is an independant company, they also have enough money do do virtually whatever they want, if they wanted to move to an office shaped like a phallus they could. It should also be noted that they don't lose money because little Timmy Dingdong doesn't play TF2 anymore, they make their money from the initial sale, sales determine if future games in the franchise are made, not its online popularity and it's not like Activision steal Valve's money because more people are playing COD than TF2, so your argument that amount of players = distance from the grave doesn't make too much sense.

4.

OP's Statement:
"If a game isn't as succesful as Call of Duty: Black Ops, then it isn't succesful at all"

My facepalm just facepalm'd itself.

And when did I say that? OH WAIT, NEVER.

You might not have said it specifically but that's the overall message you've been sending. The fact that you think not making the most popular game on the planet means valve are fading creates doubt about the validity of your argument.


Now take a couple hundred steps back, take some time to research the industry and how it works (forming a rant like this without decent arguments is a bad move.) To me this all seems to be a disjointed effort to basically say, "Valve don't have 900,000 people playing TF2 + CS,, they should announce a new shooter cuz i think it'd be cool ." Once again not saying you have actually said that, just what i've taken away from this thread.


PS what do you mean by, "outsold up to black ops?"

 

[Kadamon]

To the Counter Strike rant: Isn't that kind of the consumer, not the company? The game is nearly flawless, and still has a large modding community creating maps, game-modes, and various new weapons. There isn't a problem there.

To the TF2 rant: Honestly, this just makes what I'm already getting better. I'm not going to pre-order a game JUST BECAUSE I GET A HAT FOR IT, and I'm not going to buy a virtual gun. Some people do, I don't. It shouldn't bother you, anyway, do you really want Valve going off on another tangent before Episode 3(which Gabe Newell has allegedly eaten)?

 

[WanderingFool]

Dont really care much for Valve, but I read the OP, and got the feeling that this was not going to end well.

 

[gigastar]

My xbox 360 good sir.

Dont make the critical mistake of comparing PC and console numbers. Doing so as you did there makes arguments entirely void.

Anyway, if Steam stats is anything to go by, theres about 10 million more people playing CS:S than BlOps on Steam. Now the same cannot be said for consoles, where theres infinitely more people playing BlOps than CS:S, no points for guessing why.

Point is, Valve hasnt stagnated itself as much as you might think. Thier market has always been PC's and theyve only recently started branching out onto consoles out of nessesity.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

I hate Valve. I would be happy if the company folded today. Still, complaining that people are playing an old game and the company still adding content to it isn't something to ***** about. Would you rather them not update and just turn what would be free (or cheap) updates into a full fledged sequel at full price? Just forget that it's Counter Strike and imagine it's Counter Strike 4: Modern Reach Wars Black-ODST Ops and get over it.

 

[Vern5]

I just thought of a clever if slightly tasteless metaphor for this rant:

It comes down to choosing to birth new children or support the ones you already have.

TF2 is a great game and its success leans on the constant updates and support of Valve. You seem to want this to stop, instead diverting those resources meant to maintain TF2 and dump them into creating new material. The conundrum is: Valve is always creating new material. They creating lots of small materials at rapid speed (updates and the like) at NO COST. So why are you angry?

You should be ranting about how Valve has forgotten about Episode 3 of the Half-Life 2 series or the bizarre update of CounterStrike: Source that muddled up the core mechanics and added a bunch of useless achievements.

 

[CJ1145]

A rant of my own to Valve: Where is Episode 3 goddamnit.

 

[Waaghpowa]

COME OUT WITH NEW IDEAS.

I find this funny since the most recent shooters haven't really had too many new ideas.

Okay, yes valve has created some cool ideas in the past, but none of them have reached the mainstream sucess of other titles

Considering titles like counter strike (both source and 1.6) have had a consistent player base for 7 and 11 years respectively while most of the modern shooters peak and slowly decline over time, I would have to say that they're rather successful, since it's survived the test of time. I would say a game is truly successful if it can keep it's players years after its initial release, whereas titles such as CoD and Halo are merely distractions between other similar releases.

I've been playing Counter strike for 10 years, and no matter what new IP is released, I end up going back to it because I don't have nearly as much fun playing them as I have with CS.

When Black ops was released it would peak at 90,000 players on steam. Now it's peaking at less than 35,000, almost half the number of CS 1.6 from 11 years ago.

Also you can't accurately compare numbers of players with multi platform releases. The fact that, Black ops for example, is basically on anything with a screen (excluding the PSP) it's a skewed comparison. Considering 70,000 people still play CS 1.6 after 11 years AND it's PC only is still impressive.

 

[soundoflights]

"But are steam players seriously so closed minded that this is the main game they play? Why don't they go explore new titles? If you ask me, It is pointless to have all of these other games on steam if your market is based around a crap old game."

Did you ever think that maybe a lot of gamers play more then 1 game at a time and Counter Strike just happens to be our old past time that we like to go back and play. I still play CS 1.6 and Quake on a regular basis.... guess why, because they are fun and they are some of the most balanced competitive games that exist.

"Okay, yes valve has created some cool ideas in the past, but none of them have reached the mainstream sucess of other titles. To this point, Valve has a sliver of the online game market, While other companies have a booming percent. It is like valve is becoming an exclusive cult, and their market is dying out because of this. You may think the games are popular, but look at the numbers, and compair those to other games. (Not the steam versions)"

Why do you think gaming has to be about the money, gaming is about the games not the money.

 

[Dogstile]

Really I'm thinking this is more of a rant on the whole gaming industry. Name a title from a major developer which came out recently and doesn't have a number on the end.

Mindjack.

Sorry, just wanted to throw that in your face, i'm feeling mean tonight >

 

[Legendsmith]

Alright now try it with an indie developer. (minecraft doesn't count, clearly brilliant and in defiance of the stagnation of the games industry) Rules: no 2d sidescroller or galaga clone. Damn, got me again.

Magicka? Star Ruler?
AI War Fleet Command? (That came out a while ago but they keep changing the game).

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

I am kinda annoyed at Valve. They are releasing a new campaign for Left 4 Dead 2 that they are not even making. Sure it is cool that people who make levels for it get to have their work promoted, but seriously Valve you can work on more than one game at a time and not just make hats.

Release schedule for this year says Portal 2 and DotA 2 are incoming from Valve, plus whatever they have unannounced. So what, 3 games at a time. And remember the TF2 team only consists of like, ten people right now.

As for the "releasing new campaign for L4D2 that they aren't making," I do believe they assimilated the developer of that mod while it was still a work-in-progress, so about 40% of the map will be of Valve's doing.

 

[4173]

Really I'm thinking this is more of a rant on the whole gaming industry. Name a title from a major developer which came out recently and doesn't have a number on the end. Homefront. ok cool, now name one with an original concept. Yea.
Alright now try it with an indie developer. (minecraft doesn't count, clearly brilliant and in defiance of the stagnation of the games industry) Rules: no 2d sidescroller or galaga clone. Damn, got me again.

Sounds more like a rant against capitalism to me.

 

[beniki]

Let me summarise:

1) Valve suck because they made a great game that people still play today. They also suck because they have a great place to sell downloadable games.

2) Valve suck for giving you a free hat if you pre-order another game.

3) Valve suck for not coming out with brand new innovations every 3 years.

For point one, if a games good people will play it. That's like asking why chess players are still playing the game. It's been out for like thousands of years, why haven't they tried Monopoly yet?

For point two, I honestly don't think a free hat is enough of a draw to buy a whole game. Perhaps it's more incentive to buy it on Steam than another place where you don't get a free hat, but that's hardly a kick to the balls. Not even sure what you would call it... loyalty appreciation maybe?

For point three, they're still playing around with their own engine, seeing what it can do. Let them have fun, so we can have fun.

As for your point about steam being for valve games... the last three games I bought on there were for other developers, and a lot cheaper than buying it at a shop.

To summarise my point of view:

Wha...?

 

[dragonhunter21]

...Valve has a sliver of the online game market, While other companies have a booming percent.

Counter-Strike 1.6 has, to this day, the most people playing. I don't mean that as, "The most people have played it", but as "The most people ARE playing it". Valve games are still extremely popular.

If halo 2 were still active, it would probably have 50,000 players.

I doubt it.

And bungi was able to make 2 more mainstream success games, barley breaking a sweat.

Yes, and both of those games were sequels. As in, more of the same. As in, not original.

I love half life, but Playing the same campaign over and over gets boring.

Go watch your favorite movie. Now watch it again. Now again. See how you're starting to get sick of it? Same thing with game campaigns. Go load up some HL2DM, some CS, some TF2 or some DoD and play that.

 

[Freshman]

Really I'm thinking this is more of a rant on the whole gaming industry. Name a title from a major developer which came out recently and doesn't have a number on the end.

Mindjack.

Sorry, just wanted to throw that in your face, i'm feeling mean tonight >

Oh, you got me there but...wait a minute... you left of the rest of my quote. Nice. like the rest of it says, "now name one with an original concept." 3rd person shooter based around the taking of cover is hardly anything new or different in any way. (the whole mindjacking business is just their particular gimick so that the game has at least something slightly original. but not really.)

want that in your face, i'm a night >

amazing what misquoting can do.