Valve is a bunch of hirers.

[Firetaffer]

Really I've been thinking about this for the pass few months, the only game series they have really made is the half-life series. Their other games seem to be taken from someone else in one form of the other.

Counter-strike and Team Fortress were both mods that they bought.
Alien swarm was bought partway in development as well.
Portal was aquired from some students.
Left 4 Dead was originally made by Turtle Rock Studios.
Didn't they recently aquire the Dota IP?

Sure you could argue that without their aid the games would not be like they are today, but I would just like to point out they they seem to just buy ideas off of people :O.

Edit: I don't dislike valve, actually they're one of my favourite companys . I just find it interesting that unlike developing most of their own games from scratch such as Blizzard or Bioware, they only join them partway through development. I created this thread just to point out that I found this rather interesting and so that I can get opinions on it.

 

[Danpascooch]

Portal was a concept not a GAME that was "acquired"

Hell, when those students were working on it, it was based on medieval cave dungeons, Valve built it from the ground up

 

[baddude1337]

They seem to have a tendency to pick up mod teams and small devs, which is why I don't get why they haven't picked up the developers of Black Mesa yet.

 

[No_Remainders]

Hold the phone...

What's with all this seemingly anti-Valve dribble recently?

Seriously, they're one of the most community-involved gaming companies that exist.

But you're also missing out on the fact that while TF and CS WERE mods, they WERE mods for a Valve game. So, really, they had every right to buy them off

 

[scorch 13]

Hold the phone...

What's with all this seemingly anti-Valve dribble recently?

Seriously, they're one of the most community-involved gaming companies that exist.

But you're also missing out on the fact that while TF and CS WERE mods, they WERE mods for a Valve game. So, really, they had every right to buy them off

I think the people are fed up with valves bullshit and how they have a worse release calender than blizzard.

 

[Delusibeta]

But you're also missing out on the fact that while TF and CS WERE mods, they WERE mods for a Valve game. So, really, they had every right to buy them off

Correction: Team Fortress was a Quake mod, Valve got them to port it to the GoldSrc engine after buying them out.

 

[Aidinthel]

So you're complaining that the company is able to recognize talent when it sees it and is willing to give newcomers a chance?

 

[Wintermoot]

its a win-win when you think about it the game gets released Valve works out the bugs and both get a share of the profit

 

[Woodsey]

They tend to pick up ideas and their creators as opposed to the actual games.

It's not like they bought Portal from someone and then shat it out a month later.

Even if your argument were true, the Half-Life series is one of the most revered series in gaming, so it's hardly anything to criticise them for.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

They made Half-Life and that's better than everything, your argument is invalid.

They seem to have a tendency to pick up mod teams and small devs, which is why I don't get why they haven't picked up the developers of Black Mesa yet.

Probably because Black Mesa is a remake of HL. To be honest, considering the delays of Black Mesa, I'm starting to think it's secretly being developed by Valve anyway.

 

[No_Remainders]

But you're also missing out on the fact that while TF and CS WERE mods, they WERE mods for a Valve game. So, really, they had every right to buy them off

Correction: Team Fortress was a Quake mod, Valve got them to port it to the GoldSrc engine after buying them out.

That's my bad. Wasn't entirely sure about the history of TF.
In any case, they're mainly helping people who obviously have talent. TF and CS wouldn't have become nearly as popular if Valve hadn't hired them.

]I think the people are fed up with valves bullshit and how they have a worse release calender than blizzard.

Meh. I like Valve (mostly).
And nobody's is as bad as Blizzard. Seriously, how long since Diablo 2? It was released ten and a half years ago....
Nah. Blizzard's is definitely worse.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

So you're complaining that the company is able to recognize talent when it sees it and is willing to give newcomers a chance?

Seems like it to me.

How dare they 'commercialized' these mods and made sure the whole world would recognize the name! These mods should of died off into obscurity, never touching the 'filthy corporate money' that would lead to fame.

Honestly, I lean more towards communism and even I would never ***** about this part of the corporate structure. The purchasing of good product with the intent to market it to a larger audience is one of the few good things that come from this structure. Without a large amount of money to back products like Team Fortress it would never become a house hold name. Hell I would bet that less then 5% of the people here would have heard of it and the damn thing would be long dead to all but the nostalgia critics of the gaming world.

The bankrolling of a good product is not something to ***** about, it is the only reason the majority of us know of these products to begin with.

If one wants to ***** about Valve then there are many other reasons more just to complain about.

 

[Mr Pantomime]

The DoTa IP was Icefrog's. They hired him for DoTa 2. But you do have a point, they seem to do this a bit. I think Day Of Defeat was a Source Mod for Ultra-realistic war fighting. Not sure if they bought that or made it though.

Also, how many of those Half-Life Mods they sell are actually ones they made?

Its kinda interesting when you look at it as a whole.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Sure you could argue that without their aid the games would not be like they are today, but I would just like to point out they they seem to just buy ideas off of people :O.

This is called good business practice.

You employ people/buy products who you think/know are going to improve your company's value voer time. So far everything Valve's bought has had a positive outcome.

You should also point out that Valve keeps these people on staff and pays them what they are promised. Which is the opposite of EA and Activision's efforts over the last two decades, which principally consist of buying a good idea, then sacking the guy who had it for someone cheaper.

Leading to the hilarious cycle of Medal of Honor, Call of Duty, ??future project??? of 2015inc-Infinity Ward-Respawn as they creat a series, make it successful, get shafted then get bought by the opposition. For extra irony points, the Infinity ward fiasco became public almost eight years to the day after Allied Assault's release, which was the catalyst for 2015's staff to leave EA and start... Infinity Ward.


It's as funny as it is destructive. At least Valve are, as you rightly point out, a bunch of hirers and not complete shites.

 

[SmokingMirrors]

So you're complaining that the company is able to recognize talent when it sees it and is willing to give newcomers a chance?

Seems like it to me.

How dare they 'commercialized' these mods and made sure the whole world would recognize the name! These mods should of died off into obscurity, never touching the 'filthy corporate money' that would lead to fame.

Honestly, I'm a communist and even I would never ***** about this part of the corporate structure. The purchasing of good products and marketing them to a larger audience is one of the few good things that come from the corporate structure. Without this money to market products like Team Fortress only 5% of the people here would have heard of it and the damn thing would be long dead to all but the nostalgia critics of the gaming world.

The bankrolling of a good product is not something to ***** about, it is the only reason we know of these good products to begin with.

... Wa- wait, wait.. hold on... where exactly in his observation did he "complain" about this fact he happened to point out? I'm serious, show me, because I can't see it...

 

[fix-the-spade]

Also, how many of those Half-Life Mods they sell are actually ones they made?

Technically speaking, they made Half Life, all the Source games (except L4D1) and TF:Classic. All the rest they bought in either at an advanced stage of development or atfer release.

Team Fortress is older than Valve, it was a Quake mod to start with. Counter Strike and DoD were Half Life Mods that hit success, consistent success as it happens.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

... Wa- wait, wait.. hold on... where exactly in his observation did he "complain" about this fact he happened to point out? I'm serious, show me, because I can't see it...

I could give you that on a technicality but lets bite.

The language used brought up the possibility of this being a debatable topic. Taken as a obvious example here. This word creates a feeling that something was unjustly confiscated or used in a way that might not be in the best benefit of the original owner. He does make it a bit better later on, using words like purchased, but even these words can bring the image of someone using money unjustly for their own benefit and nothing more, twice so when other words have laid the groundwork in a person mind.

Language does that, the right words can sway the emotional and non-logical responses of a person.

The closing of the opening post was also a preemptive counter argument, a move that is normally seen when you want to undermine anybody who might argue with you. In stating a general opinion one does not need to worry about the argument it might create. The counter statement also wasn't based around pointing out all the other games Valve acquired or produced but was directed at how Valve used it's money. I won't hold the original poster in folly for not looking into all the games Valve has produced/marketed, as that would make a huge list involving a level of research even I won't go to for a official debate topic. No, it was aimed at weakening the argument that using money in this way is a beneficial thing.

If he really was just pointing out a quirky thought that popped into his mind then why feel the need to try and weaken a differencing point?

Given that it was irrelevant to the original post, till he put it in the original post and gave it validity, it makes it twice as puzzling unless he was hoping to create an argument?

A simple statement of opinion would make any argument completely irrelevant! It would not matter if Valve made these games better or not had he not brought up the possibility of this being a counter argument to his own. So this move shows it was resting in his mind that his opinion needed to be defended. I, personally, have never felt the need to defend general observations myself, and in fact welcome counter arguments to them as a possibility to learn something. Only when I feel I have a legitimate problem with something, and thus am complaining about it, would defending a point of view become a concern.

A better ending would of been to ask if someone could provide any other games Valve has designed from scratch, as then it is less of a challenge and more of a query.

Then there is the fact he posted it here... sorry but this forum, more so when it comes to games in general, is more designed to complain and whine about something. Given that it was directed at Valve, a company that gets more then it's share of people whining over something or other, it is a easy assumption to make.

So I guess we will leave this open to the original poster to clarify:
Was this a complaint or a general inquiry?

PS: I think to deeply on a language I never bothered to really study, let alone use correctly myself, don't I?

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

This is called good business practice.

It's a good long term business practice.

If you read the EULAs for a lot of old editting/modding tools there was always a section that translated into "and we own any shit you make with these tools and can publish them without giving you anything more than a creator credit". A lot of expansion packs back in those days consisted of a few pro levels and a shitpot of 'player created' levels that the creators never saw a cent for... and the games where that happened often lost most of their modding communities afterward.

Valve's way of doing things shows that not only aren't Valve going to reave your hardwork but if shit really works your modteam will be offered jobs. That means modding teams are more confident about working on Source Engine titles, which in turn means more mods using Source for Valve to investigate as potential titles AND more people with solid working knowledge of the Source engine. As far as working with their own modding communities Valve has surpassed even Epic in it's heyday before they soldout to wrap lips around MS.