Poll: Why Valve Could Release Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Tomorrow

[Fidelias]

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The fact is, I'm kind of glad Valve doesn't endlessly churn out sequels. Instead we got interesting new gameplay features from L4D, TF2 and Portal. But that's just me.

What you did, unlike Radeonx, is provide criticism - and I've no gripes with that. But what the dude you're defending said was 'the PC gaming community bent over ready to take whatever it shoves out', which comes off as 'the PC gaming community lets Valve abuse it regardless of Valve's quality of games'. If Valve didn't make quality games, I can safely assume that we wouldn't be having this conversation about people hating a company for not making a sequel.

Though I kind of have to contend with this bit...

So, either they're idiots who can't understand how to make money, or they're assholes who are using the promise of Episode 3 to market their products. In my opinion, it's probably the latter. In reality, Valve should be the most hated company on the internet, but whatever.

First off, Valve can't be the most hated company on the internet purely because they own Steam - the digital distribution platform that kept the PC gaming market afloat when the XBox was released and retailers refused to stock PC games. Also, weekend deals.

And they certainly aren't idiots since they bagged a billion dollars last year.

Secondly, it's kind of unfair saying that HL3 is used to market their products, since each and every one of their games are good on their individual merits. And how exactly is HL3 being used to market anything, since the company barely ever talks about it? Valve never spent a single cent (to my knowledge) to hype HL3 - it's the community that does it.

HL3 is kind of like Homeworld 3 to me. Relic still hasn't released Homeworld 3 yet - but I don't hate them for it. My life doesn't revolve around it, and I've a lot of other games to try out. I'll be extremely happy when it is released, though.

Crap, you have a point. If I didn't have Steam, I would've never been able to get Stalker...

But I still think that Valve should at least give some official news on how far along Half Life 3 is. You know, whether they're making it or not, and when they think it might be ready.

 

[Couch Radish]

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The fact is, I'm kind of glad Valve doesn't endlessly churn out sequels. Instead we got interesting new gameplay features from L4D, TF2 and Portal. But that's just me.

What you did, unlike Radeonx, is provide criticism - and I've no gripes with that. But what the dude you're defending said was 'the PC gaming community bent over ready to take whatever it shoves out', which comes off as 'the PC gaming community lets Valve abuse it regardless of Valve's quality of games'. If Valve didn't make quality games, I can safely assume that we wouldn't be having this conversation about people hating a company for not making a sequel.

Though I kind of have to contend with this bit...

So, either they're idiots who can't understand how to make money, or they're assholes who are using the promise of Episode 3 to market their products. In my opinion, it's probably the latter. In reality, Valve should be the most hated company on the internet, but whatever.

First off, Valve can't be the most hated company on the internet purely because they own Steam - the digital distribution platform that kept the PC gaming market afloat when the XBox was released and retailers refused to stock PC games. Also, weekend deals.

And they certainly aren't idiots since they bagged a billion dollars last year.

Secondly, it's kind of unfair saying that HL3 is used to market their products, since each and every one of their games are good on their individual merits. And how exactly is HL3 being used to market anything, since the company barely ever talks about it? Valve never spent a single cent (to my knowledge) to hype HL3 - it's the community that does it.

HL3 is kind of like Homeworld 3 to me. Relic still hasn't released Homeworld 3 yet - but I don't hate them for it. My life doesn't revolve around it, and I've a lot of other games to try out. I'll be extremely happy when it is released, though.

Crap, you have a point. If I didn't have Steam, I would've never been able to get Stalker...

But I still think that Valve should at least give some official news on how far along Half Life 3 is. You know, whether they're making it or not, and when they think it might be ready.

It might be so amazing that if Valve mentions it, Jesus might be reborn again just so he can play it.

 

[Couch Radish]

I've mentioned why Valve would do it, now why wouldn't they?

 

[GrizzlerBorno]

That's a pretty cool idea.

It wouldn't Serve Valve much purpose, except labeling them as the coolest, ballsiest devs on the planet. I mean, it's not like the lack of an ad campaign is going to save them much money. They do their own ads remember. It would just mean less arbitrary work.

Though, the fact that this is even an imaginable marketing move, speaks volumes about how the Internet has forever changed Human society in ways we haven't even BEGUN to understand.

 

[Couch Radish]

That's a pretty cool idea.

It wouldn't Serve Valve much purpose, except labeling them as the coolest, ballsiest devs on the planet. I mean, it's not like the lack of an ad campaign is going to save them much money. They do their own ads remember. It would just mean less arbitrary work.

Though, the fact that this is even an imaginable marketing move, speaks volumes about how the Internet has forever changed Human society in ways we haven't even BEGUN to understand.

Society as a whole has never had such an easy way to spread and receive information as it does now.

 

[ultratog1028]

It would be gutsy, but would get me to send my credit card info over to Mr. Newell. I'd even get a credit Card.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

One problem that I'm certain that Gabe has foreseen.

Download speed.

If you remember back to when Alien Swarm or Left4Dead were released, the servers went buggier than The Escapist when ZP comes out.

Now imagine that one of Valve's servers bugs out...the forums would erupt into full blown murder threats.

By feeding the downloads out over the day, so Australia/UK/USA don't all jump on at once, they've got a far better chance of avoiding forum meltdown.

They COULD do it, but I'd be amazed if they did, because the knock on effect could cripple Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc. and that's NOT good PR.

 

[Couch Radish]

One problem that I'm certain that Gabe has foreseen.

Download speed.

If you remember back to when Alien Swarm or Left4Dead were released, the servers went buggier than The Escapist when ZP comes out.

Now imagine that one of Valve's servers bugs out...the forums would erupt into full blown murder threats.

By feeding the downloads out over the day, so Australia/UK/USA don't all jump on at once, they've got a far better chance of avoiding forum meltdown.

They COULD do it, but I'd be amazed if they did, because the knock on effect could cripple Twitter, Facebook, Reddit etc. and that's NOT good PR.

That is one important factor.