Valve, why are they loved?

[Eddie the head]

You're aware that EA was voted as the most horrible company, right? I think there was a thing about that around here, somewhere.

And that is complete bullshit. There are company's out there going onto people proprietary and poisoning there water. Bank of America has made people I know pay there mortgage twice in month, and stolen money form me flat out. What has EA done? Band my Origin for a bit of a contrived reason? Yeah that can suck but they are not I repeat trespassing and poisoning water. Worst in the industry maybe. Worst in America unlikely. Worst in the world hell no.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Valve makes great games, but has some terrible business practices. Terrible business practices don't faze many around here (in fact, a lot of members encourage them), and great games are always appreciated. Plus, they're a PC centric developer that has a Walmart-style stranglehold on the PC digital distribution market. This site leans heavily toward the PC gaming side, so of course one of the few PC centric devs left is going to have a lot of fans. The store has a lot of fans, too -- they didn't get that stranglehold by being terrible. There's stores out there that I'd rather do business with than Steam, but few if any that I can afford to (as in, monetarily) give as much business to. This is thanks to the sales, which Valve is able to put on /because/ they're the biggest DD platform. Bit of a chicken and egg situation, really.

 

[Doogan]

For me, the reason I love me some Valve is simply this.... They have NO STOCK HOLDERS!!!

That means they only have to worry about us (The consumers) and no one else. They make the games they want to and not some Copi Di Pasti CoD games and they are willing to take risks that the other game company's aka EA and ActiBlizzard aren't willing to take.

oh and their games are always MOD friendly.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Various reasons why they're loved.

Extremely good games, they created what I and many others consider to be the finest multiplayer first person shooter ever made. And they made Portal, a game which the amount of drool salivated onto it could probably power a very large nerdy city via water wheel.

Also, there's presently a big Steam summer sale going on where a ridiculously large plethora of games is sold for dirt cheap.

People love them because they at least seem to try to be generally nice to gamers and people using their service with such sales.

That "No refund" bollocks they have going on Steam is a wee bit janky though. I am pleased that there are European laws against that sort of thing.

 

[Wintermoot]

they made extremely good games
have really good deals on Steam
they don,t treat us like potential pirates
they treat pirates as customers waiting to be served

 

[bafrali]

Easy answer. Their games come with three hookers. What, didn't you get them? They even released a patch for the blonde one.

Seriously if you haven't found out by now, i doubt you ever will no matter how many people tells you

Captcha: full house

Hmm must be referring to the HL, TF, P and L4D

 

[NiPah]

Because people are blind sheep. I personally hate Valve. Portal and it's sequel where the only good games they've made in my opinion. They do better as retailers than game developers, yet Origin is less intrusive than that steaming pile of crap that is Steam.

Back up your facts with hard data, please explain;
What level of intrusiveness are you measuring the difference between Steam and Origin? What are some measurements that you have taken or found to correlate this data and when did you obtain them?
Also your second statement Steam is a pile of crap;
In what way has Steam failed to meet your intended use of the software program? At what time was this? What measures did you take to correct the technical difficulties you had with the software program and who did you communicate with on the technical support. If You had issues with technical support not answering your question in a timely manner what was the log number and time entered into the system? Was your issue with a first party program through the Steam software program, a third party program, or the installing and running of the Steam software program.
Thirdly with your first statement, in what manner are you referring to people as blind sheep? What is your measurement of following and given reasons? Would you also refer to yourself as a blind follower of Origin? If so why? If no why and in what ways are you different then the Valve fans.

 

[Vkmies]

They innovate, they put the customer first, they managed to make a DRM-system the preferable way to play video games, they have great PR,they have great customer service, they do great busines and they have never ever never ever ever never made a bad game.

 

[Havegun]

Valve is the MomCorp of the videogame industry.

They need to be big and strong like Germany, not weak and neutral like Switzerland!

Yes Germany is sooo strong losing 2 world wars and all.

to be fair, in WW2 germany had most of the world lined up against them, nor where their allies of any real use to them. They also took on two countries that were massively larger than themselves and made quite a showing.

-woosh-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBBm6W5LNco

I have little to add to the discussion though. I like a number of Valve's titles and appreciate them for doing Steam-sales.

 

[mad825]

They innovate, they put the customer first, they managed to make a DRM-system the preferable way to play video games.

That pretty much describes GoG there for me not Valve, they are okay but are still fairly tight on DRM. Even games that don't have DRM in the first place gains DRM from Steam.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

False. They also gave us Portal, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and a handful of others.

DOTA2 isn't another developers game. It's began life as a "game mode" or mod for Warcraft and DOTA2 creates an entirely new and standalone game based on that gameplay. League of Legends is the same.

What valve does differently is that its developers are given free reign to develop. EA and Activision chain their devs to their desks with strict orders to homogenise anything that comes their way, to create clone after clone of shitty franchise after shitty franchise. Valve dares to do original things and each and every game they release is generally highly polished, supported for years after release (instead of cast aside annually when the same game with a higher number goes on sale) and of very high quality.

Meanwhile Half-life 3, or episode 3 are becoming the new Duke Nukem Forever of gaming, jokes and all.

Actually neither HL3 nor Ep.3 have been officially announced. Ever. Any fan frothing at the mouth because there's no release date is a numpty for anticipating a game that Valve never announced they were making.

 

[Sacman]

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

At least EA allows the company to keep their logo on their games.

Uh no... in fact they've taken the mod teams of the original games, the entire teams, in the case of Portal and Team Fortress, on board, and had them head in the project to design the games based on their work, which was funded and published by Valve... for you know, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike and Dota 2... which are the ones that weren't entirely developed by designers already present at Valve...

Valve had as much in developing and publishing those games as anyone else... seeing as how it was their design teams, creative directors, budgets, and almost everything else that did the leg work...

EA on the other hand take over a design studio and crunch them for as much shovelware and crap as they can before collapsing them and eating their children...

OT: and to answer the title question, seeing as how all the questions you asked in your post were for the most part all rhetorical...

Valve treats their customers with respect and release great games at reasonable prices... which makes all the difference in the world...

Beyond that, Valve as designers have pushed what we understand about games... they have a very high standard of design quality and pacing, and more than any other company in the entire industry, really understand and implement interactive storytelling and player driven narrative, in success...<.<

 

[thirion1850]

They make great games and don't act like dicks. Matter of fact, almost every single one of their games is retardedly great and influential within the medium, and they're highly respectful and helpful towards their consumer base.

I also have no clue why Valve gets hate for adopting mod teams and their mods. Using that as an argument -against- them is pretty stupid, considering all the good it does.

 

[Rednog]

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

False. They also gave us Portal, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and a handful of others.

No, Portal, Team Fortress, and Left 4 Dead were all originally mods and or developed by people outside of valve and then brought in.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The only true valve games are the half-life ones. All the other games are either: Mods, made by another company that is taken over by valve and the game is relesed with a valve logo, or a remake of another developers game "dota 2 anyone?"

False. They also gave us Portal, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead and a handful of others.

No, Portal, Team Fortress, and Left 4 Dead were all originally mods and or developed by people outside of valve and then brought in.

I'm not so sure Portal and Left 4 Dead count. In both cases, the team that made the game was hired by Valve after making an unrelated game -- Narbacular Drop in the case of the Portal devs, and the UT 2004 version of Alien Swarm for the L4D team. I'll grant you that Team Fortress was originally made by a group of outsiders, as were Alien Swarm, DotA, and Counterstrike, but if Portal and L4D aren't really Valve games, then Pong isn't really an Atari game. You see, it was the first game ever made by a new hire -- it was never supposed to be released, it was just busy work to get him to prove himself. Atari called it the ten game rule -- your first ten games suck, and will not be released. His very first game did not suck, and wound up making them mountains of cash, and the point is he was just as much an "acquisition" from outside as the Portal and L4D guys.

 

[Vkmies]

They innovate, they put the customer first, they managed to make a DRM-system the preferable way to play video games.

That pretty much describes GoG there for me not Valve, they are okay but are still fairly tight on DRM. Even games that don't have DRM in the first place gains DRM from Steam.

GOG does everything Valve does as well, expect they have no DRM whatsoever. That's the stunning thing about Steam. It's not a service, it's not supposed to be nice, it's supposed to keep people at bay and kill piracy. The fact that Steam feels fun to use and is almost preferable than no Steam is the mindblowing thing about it. Revolutionary system.

 

[sb666]

Because Valve doesn't treat their customer's like big walking bag's of money, and they make great game's, what's not to love?

 

[mad825]

They innovate, they put the customer first, they managed to make a DRM-system the preferable way to play video games.

That pretty much describes GoG there for me not Valve, they are okay but are still fairly tight on DRM. Even games that don't have DRM in the first place gains DRM from Steam.

GOG does everything Valve does as well, expect they have no DRM whatsoever. That's the stunning thing about Steam. It's not a service, it's not supposed to be nice, it's supposed to keep people at bay and kill piracy. The fact that Steam feels fun to use and is almost preferable than no Steam is the mindblowing thing about it. Revolutionary system.

Wait, what?

DRM to keep pirates at bay and kill piracy? >.> They might want to fix off-line mode first. ^.^

When Steam was first implemented via HL2 it sucked balls so hard. It was totally unfair to those with poor internet connections at the time and only has recently fixed one of the most biggest flaws. 8GB patch anyone?

 

[Yopaz]

Also valve is sorta sadistic, remeber that April's fools joke? the one about half-life 3?, the only developer that could that is valve, and get away with it.

Valve wasn't behind that joke. Remember that the site that said Half-Life 3 was released was steamppowered.com not steampowered.com? If Valve had made that April fool's joke it would be on their own site rather than the site you'd reach if you happened to make a typo. Do a bloody fact check the next time.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116613-Clever-Trolls-Prank-Half-Life-3-Fans

As for why they are loved? They have some good games, a good digital distribution system and they treat their customers like people. Personally I don't love Valve for their games, but I like steam and think that it's a great service.

 

[Vkmies]

They innovate, they put the customer first, they managed to make a DRM-system the preferable way to play video games.

That pretty much describes GoG there for me not Valve, they are okay but are still fairly tight on DRM. Even games that don't have DRM in the first place gains DRM from Steam.

GOG does everything Valve does as well, expect they have no DRM whatsoever. That's the stunning thing about Steam. It's not a service, it's not supposed to be nice, it's supposed to keep people at bay and kill piracy. The fact that Steam feels fun to use and is almost preferable than no Steam is the mindblowing thing about it. Revolutionary system.

Wait, what?

DRM to keep pirates at bay and kill piracy? >.> They might want to fix off-line mode first. ^.^

When Steam was first implemented via HL2 it sucked balls so hard. It was totally unfair to those with poor internet connections at the time and only has recently fixed one of the most biggest flaws. 8GB patch anyone?

It did suck. And I was against it up until like 2008 and now I love it. It's awesome. And I have no problem with the offline mode. Only that you can't get achievements is annoying. I let my girlfriend play Skyrim on my account, but we put it on offline mode first, so my friends wont randomly start talking to her thinking it's me. She has had no problems, since I update the game and the mods when I play in online mode. I don't really see what's peoples problems with offline mode. It lets you play games offline. That's more that you can say, say about Origin or Uplay