"Let's see, if they actually gave us a discount, like $44.99 (vs $49.99 store price) then I'd actually feel sorry for them, but all they are doing is trying to cut out the publisher (yes, the publisher that gave them the funding to produce the game in the first place!) and stuff their pockets full of money."

Umm, no. Valve has stated on numerous occasions that they funded HalfLife 2 OUT OF POCKET. That's the only reason it's been a full 4 year development cycle: VU couldn't call the shots.

Having played several hours of the game, it's worth every penny.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with this sentiment. While I know I'm going to get flamed by people saying "if the hole is there, someone will exploit it", and to an extent I agree, we have to remember that perhaps the guys at Valve have been so busy creating the game they never put much thought to protecting it.

From the tone of Gabe's messages, it's clear that whomever did the infiltration had to work at it. This isn't just a quick "map a drive for a snatch and grab" type situation. They were specifically targeted.

Hold your horses, folks. YES, I agree that a 2nd network would have been a good idea. YES I think that Valve dropped the ball on network security. BUT - and this is the big point I wanted to make - the responsibility for the theft does not rest on Valve's shoulders. If I leave my front door open, it's not my *fault* if someone comes in and steals things. THEY made the decision to commit the crime. Yes, Valve should've handled security better. But it's some overzealous geek (unfortunately like us) that decided to fuck up the release for everyone else.


Edit: grammar/spelling changes
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This comment was edited on Oct 5, 13:45.

Sorry, just had to get the 150th post in.

The ultimate reason for the revolution was the English government being able to impose taxes

*laughs head off*

Damn right. YOU can't tax us, WE want to do it.

One group of rich guys for another indeed...

BUT EVERY ASSHOLE can make a new human being, and ruin his/her life. there should be a parent-licence. then we wouldnt need such laws, and a lot of other things would change to good.

Ahem.. there's another country that does this. China. Do we really want to start modelling our social policy after them? Families are allowed ONE child, and they have to register for and receive approval BEFORE conception. Any other children from that marriage are killed or taken to another family.

As for myself, my wife and I have two children, and while we're not Harvard-educated professionals, we're both having to work full time JUST to pay the bills. Please don't lecture anyone on this type of situation unless you're in it. To do so is just asinine.

You see, it's these types of blanket statements that get people in trouble. I have several friends that are devoutly religious (me=athiest) and once past the initial probe as to my spirituality, it just hasn't come up again. I take exception to all religious people being called "nazi". Show me an example of a rabid Christian, and I'll show you a picture of you. Dumbass.

Before I post this, I just reread your post, and something strikes me:

"As far as i'm concerned if you practice any form of religion or faith your as bad as the nazis..."

Hmm. Based on how you said that, you mean then that EVERYONE is as bad as the nazis, et al, because even a LACK of organized belief is technically a belief.

*sighs and goes back to reading the intelligent posts, few though they are*

Actually, I agree with you on that. I don't mean to imply that people should wait until it's absolutely perfect before it's released, delaying it to the detriment of the company/studio. Not at all. What I'm against is silly things, such as Pools of Radiance's uninstaller frying .dll files, or refusing to install to anywhere other than C:, or ALWAYS corrupting a save file at a certain point.

These aren't little bugs that should be patched. They're an indicator of sloppy/complacent QA (Quality Assurance) testing. I can understand graphical artifacts, or lack of support for some obscure piece of hardware. But crash-level bugs that are easy to duplicate should never make it out the door.

Exactly right, Ghandi.

RtCW was great in the single player, most of the patches have been to optimize multiplayer stability, etc. Jedi Knight: OC is also a great game; finally LucasArts is (perhaps) redeeming their name for stable, well done games. No, it wasn't groundbreaking, but damn it was fun.

Anyway, you've helped prove my point that it is pretty much a fact that most (and I stress *MOST* - I'm not making wild generalizations here) games released these days are closer to late-beta than they are really ready for the shelves.
<minirant>
Having worked for one of the game developers up here in Seattle at one point, I know that sometimes politics and promises will outweigh whether or not a game is really ready for the store shelves, but it's still irresponsible on the part of the upper-ups in the games companies. That's why I respect Morrowind's makers to a point - They could easily have released this game in time for Christmas, only to piss us all off, but they didn't. For that, I'm glad. I have high hopes for the game.
</minirant>

I just wanted to justify my reasons for being jaded, as they were called into question.

If you're silly enough to put 80+ hours into it and only THEN realize that it's unstable and stinky, you might want to rethink your gaming ethics.

Up until the save-game crash, I was one of the lucky few not to have a single problem with PoR, gameplay- or technically-speaking.

As for the Daggerfall comparison, I don't believe I made a direct comparison, but Daggerfall was the last release in this series by this company, so I'd think that comparisons based on track record will be inevitable.

And the point about it being a fact that most games come out with a number of issues? Show me a list of games that have come out in the last couple years that were buggy as all hell, and I don't mean little bugs, I mean damn near unplayable, then show me a list of games that came out bug free, no worries, right out of the gate.

Hmm? Thought so.

I remember all too well having to fight with Daggerfall. While it's great that all the previews and beta tests look stable, so did Total Annihilation: Kingdoms when we tested that a few years ago, and all of us in-house thought that it was in good shape... until it hit the masses.

I'm really not going to disparage Morrowind...yet. Yes, I'll try it (no, not via .iso :P), and I have an open enough mind that I hope it'll be good. But I'm also jaded enough to expect a great deal of problems. It's unfortunate, but a fact these days. I was one of the many that pumped 80+ hours into Pools of Radiance, only to get killed by the save game bug, having to start over.

Jaded? Yup. Still hopeful? Always, even after 15 years of doing this stuff.

...and contrary to other posters, not all 25+ year olds get stupid on beer.


This comment was edited on Apr 29, 21:12.