I'm beginning to hate Valve.

[freaper]

I can't think of a single studio that would release information about a game before they feel they're ready to. What you have to understand is that their financial success puts them in a position that very few other game studios have, which is to produce games at their own pace/schedule, and to start, rework or even outright cancel games as they see fit. That's a luxury very few other studios even come close to having.

Personally, I don't mind waiting at all. They have high expectations to live up to, there's a console generation transition period right now, and they'll release the game when it's the product they're happy with. And I have no doubt it'll be awesome when they do.

Exactly this.

If it wasn't for Steam's success (among other things) we wouldn't be getting such polished games from Valve. I'm glad they're not rushing Ep3/HL3 and that they have the luxury to take their time. Look at all those other developers that are forced by their publishers to shovel out half-finished games that get slammed by critics and gamers. There's no doubt anyone at Bioware (or wherever) actually wants to release unfinished products.

 

[Undomesticated Equine]

Saying nothing does not equal lying. Also they do not talk about that because they do not have to. I suggest you to google valve time. It took them 8 years to create Team Fortress 2 and 7 years to create HL 2. Judging by that it will be long time before we will hear a word from them. Also saying that you do not care about HL 3 after you said that you are fed up with waiting some new information makes no sense.

 

[Malkav]

The thing about Valve is that while they take ages to get anything done, they usually deliver something worth the weight... wait. And since the wait is always so much longer than they say, so are their products.

Whenever a game gets rushed (often with the publisher to blame), gamers complain that good things take time and that they're just being moneygrabbing whores. Then, they point at Valve for being the guys who understood how it goes. You don't really want to give them shit for it, you want other devs to learn from them.

I'm not defending them. Their secrecy about HL3 / episode 3 is sickening. Years upon years without a single word.
It's the same thing with TF2. TF2 has made me unbelievably mad with it's persistent bugs and crashes. I must have lost days of my lifetime trying to fix that broken thing, but I never stop playing, and once it runs, it makes me forget all the frustration of fixing it over and over. Valve takes ages to fix anything. Hell, episode 2 lacks most of his voice files due to a recent update, and they've known this for months and haven't fixed it, although you'd think it's easy to do. There's absolutely no explanation for this, and I can't think of an excuse. As usual.

Whatever is up with Valve, they know they're getting away with it, and at least I can't stay angry at them once they finally get their shit together.

 

[BakedZnake]

I'm more excited if they announce l4d3 than HL3, was never a massive fan.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

There is a case to be made against Valve, but this is not it. I have quite a few problems with Valve, but not releasing Half-Life 3 yet - or ever, I suppose - does not mean they are "getting away with shit".

I tend to think it goes a fair bit further than that. Half-Life 2 Episode 3 has now taken as long to release as Half-Life 2 did from Half-life. In the Interim, they have produced two left for Dead games, found enormous financial success monetizing (and, as a bitter fan of Team Fortress Mega, ruining) Team Fortress. They have taken DOTA and while they may be proving to be good stewards of that brand, there is something terribly ugly about that process.

They have consistently failed to deliver the games I actually care about which is as much as any company has ever done to earn my apathy while running an operational plan that is as evil as anything Activision or EA has ever accomplished. They run a retail outlet loaded with features that, coming from anyone else, would be met with rage (see, for example, Origin - a platform that doesn't do anything more egregious than Steam). They purchase promising indie development efforts and buy up mod teams to monetize the work - something the communities have wrinkled their nose at more than once. They've even purchased the rights to a mod to a game they didn't make and dubious legality of that aside (that Blizard/Activision has not pursued any action on the subject is strange given their propensity for legal action and the relative strength of that position.) the deal was cause for significant uproar with talk that the proper makers weren't getting their due.

None of this is sufficient to generate hate from me though. But it is a long history of missteps that, had they come from a different company, would have been considered unacceptable by the vocal masses who shot about such things. Why Valve gets such protection is the better question. They aren't a tiny company anymore, and while their exact financial status is unknown (they are a private company after all), one could expect their revenues to be in the billions annually.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

The most that I feel towards Episode 3/HL3 would be: "God, I hope we don't get another Duke Nukem Forever".

Now lets talk about a game that dissapeared into obscurity: The Last Guardian

Dafuq's up with that? I thought it was going to be a PS3 release, now it's lost somewhere behind the Team Ico couch.

 

[DSK-]

I have no real issue with Valve, but I'm not overly keen on Steam in all honesty. I use it, but I use it begrudgingly.

 

[Zeles]

And that's what gets me. Valve blatantly lies about their plans, stays all secret and then someone thinks because they are Valve it is all okay to treat their fans like shit.

How is blatantly lying about their plans for a game any different from releasing bullshit like ACM?

I think at the time, releasing HL2 episodically was the plan. I don't think they were lying.
I'm unsure of how they treat their fans like shit. They just released an entirely community made TF2 update, which I think shows that they respect their fans.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Disagree. Yes, they haven't released HL2/3 yet, but in the meantime they've done a lot of stuff! Steam, Greenlight, Steam Workshop, Portal 1, Portal 2... etc. People defend them because they have a very good track record of releasing stuff.

Listen, I think I know what you're feeling right now. You're feeling kept in the dark, unheard, and to top it all off there aren't many people who agree with your point of view. I think anyways, that's what I'm getting from your post. And sometimes I feel the same way about Riot and LoL in regards to the lore and stuff. But maybe you could try sending them an email? It's a long shot, but it might work.

 

[Pigeon_Grenade]

maybe the Reason they havent made an Episode 3 for half life is because they Have no idea what to do with the Story Whatsoever and want to make a Quality Product- and it just is taking time

 

[KungFuJazzHands]

I generally try to find as many reasons as possible to harp on Valve, but their failure to release HL3 isn't one of them. If you're going to dislike them, dislike them for their horrid anti-consumer practices: their restrictive EULAs, their crappy refund policies, their obsession with software-as-a-service, etc.

I could honestly not care less about Half-Life 3 at this point. It's a real non-issue compared to all the shady stuff Valve is pulling off behind the scenes.

 

[crewreav]

Yeah! Fuck Valve! They've released only 5 games over the last five and they're regularly bringing free Updates to Team Fortress 2 and created the Steam Workshop.

Such Assholes.

 

[Xanadu84]

Theres all the difference in the world between lying and being wrong. Valve thought they would release episodes every year or 2. They were wrong. You can complain that they tried something different once you also praise the video game industry for all of its grey-brown military shooters, because they are the one type of game that can be released to you reliably, and deliver exactly what they promise.

They also have been pretty open about not knowing when they would release the next game. Your criticism was misplaced several years ago, and is blatantly false today. They haven't said they would release episodes with that sort of frequency in several years.

While other people get criticized for releasing an inferior, flawed product, Valve has simply not released a sub par product with the intention and purpose of eventually releasing a great one. They have never wasted your time or money on such products, they just havn't taken your time and money for a great one yet. Fun fact: Valve wants to make money. If they havn't shit out a new episode in all this time when there is such high demand, its because they want to be profitable through loyal and trusting fans who want quality products. Maybe there dev cycle is too long. In the meantime, there are plenty of other games for you to play. Nothing has been lost.

Yes, Valve is being stingy with the info, and they have handled that aspect of things poorly. They could be a lot more transparent. But thats not worthy of hate, thats an over-correction of a legit concern. They know that predicting when a game will be finished is difficult, and committing to a date means that they might be forced to chose between releasing an unfinished game and disappointing fans on "release" day. Instead, they stay quiet. I understand the reasoning. Sure, Ill be the first to say that they could easily give a LITTLE information and solve all the problems, but theres a legit reasoning to what they are doing.

 

[zzkill]

To add to this mess of a thread, I'll just say this: I don't care about Valve. I did enjoy Portal and Portal 2, I did play CS in school, L4D is good addition to the zombie games catalogue and Steam is a well made tool (after it's share of bugs and ton of crap), but other than that, I'm not impressed. And Steam was the only thing of its kind before Origin came along, talk about a monopoly. So, if they don't release Portal 3 I have nothing to hope from them.

Also, people should search "Valve Time". If you want to make the best game you can, why not make the release date even further in time and release it faster if it's done earlier? Hell, why take the deadline anyway? Just work on it and announce it when you're ready to get it out, you're Valve, you have a tone of support.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

CS:GO is a compentent multiplayer title priced accordingly. Now point out where you specified 'full price title' before because you are just now pulling stuff out of your buns.

I said their last "real" release and I don't consider a Counter Strike update a "real" release. Why does it matter anyway? My point was that they haven't been doing a whole lot recently.

 

[Woodsey]

And that's what gets me. Valve blatantly lies about their plans,

Plans change. It is not a lie to say that you are planning to do something and for that plan to then change. Stop whining and learn how the world works.

I don't get why this needs to be explained to a notable amount of people like they're children.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

(that Blizard/Activision has not pursued any action on the subject is strange given their propensity for legal action and the relative strength of that position.)

They did though. Albeit only over the name.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-22-dota-trademark-blizzard-valve-respond

the deal was cause for significant uproar with talk that the proper makers weren't getting their due.

While they did hire IceFrog, I agree it is cause for concern. In the development of mod creation it becomes hard to tell who "owns" the mod, Valve definitely could have broken some new ground by addressing that issue.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

I know that's akin to sacrilege among gamers, but I was just playing Half-Life and it occurred to me that it has been 5 years since Episode 2 came out. 5 years. The entire thing they said about releasing them in episodic format was so that we wouldn't have to wait so long. Well that was fucking bullshit.

And that's what gets me. Valve blatantly lies about their plans, stays all secret and then someone thinks because they are Valve it is all okay to treat their fans like shit. And yet people eat it up and defend them. "Oh, that's just how Valve does things," people say. "They're probably waiting for the next engine/console/big gaming thing to be ready." "Valve never releases 3's of their games"

We don't take that shit from other companies. This whole fiasco with Bioware and Mass Effect and more recently Gearbox and Aliens proves that. So what makes it okay for Valve? How is blatantly lying about their plans for a game any different from releasing bullshit like ACM?

I don't get it. I don't think it would be so much of an issue if they would just communicate and say they were not interested in making it right now or that they were indeed waiting for the technology to catch up with the vision. But nope. They're content to treat us all like shit and then people defend them tooth an nail.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Edit:

I love this. Most people here are missing the point of my post, whether intentionally or not. I am not "entitled" or "have problems."

My issue with them is not that I feel entitled to HL3. I don't give a shit about HL3 anymore. My problem, which I apparently failed to make clear, is that they keep everyone in the dark and sit on their high chair without communicating their plans or anything. It's the air of superiority and--frankly entitlement-- coming from them that pisses me off and the blind defense of their practices shown here. Not the fact that they haven't released it.

I get it, I get where you're coming from. The main thing is that they've already said that they are being silent because the development has been chaotic as hell. The game's apparently been done like 3-4 times now and they still aren't happy with it. I genuinely like a lot of things about Valve, including their employment structure and the way they develop games, but yes, I am tired of them being held on a pedestal. I know that if last year's Syndicate reboot had been published by them, it would have sold more copies simply because Valve's name was on the title, even if all they did was sign a check for the devs to have funding. But because EA was on the label, people immediately assumed it was the spawn of Satan. I'm not saying EA is a great company but they also aren't that bad.

I'm tired of both extremes, we need an even middle, as in most areas of life...

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Aha. DOTA2 (weekly patches), constant TF2 patches, annual game releases (sorry but what you consider 'real' is irrelevant. They seem to do quite enough.

None of which have anything to do with Half Life 3, the game that we have been waiting for since 2007. I don't consider making a couple new hats, fixing balancing issues with a F2P MOBA, and updating Counter-Strike do be a lot of work, especially when that's all they've done since April 2011.