*smile*

I try to have an open mind about things as often as I can. I do an okay job at it.... it helps if you're someone who has the ability to pretty much ignore all insults.

I've pretty much always been a strong believer in the "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" school of thought.

Mr. Tact wrote on Sep 1, 2017, 00:32:
I'll bite. What does Valve "owe" their customers as far as HL3 is concerned?

You are consistently a glutton for punishment. Don't get me wrong, it's nice knowing that people like you exist.

Don't you know that if you're not an entitled gamer you fall into the category of Diehard Valve Fan cuck snowflake raycist apologist.

Slick wrote on Aug 31, 2017, 23:30:
It's pretty amazing to see the Valve corporate apologists on here.

"Why should they bother making HL3? They owe their fans nothing!" - Diehard Valve Fan

No apology for them here...
I'm saying their no-management, wheels on desks, flat hiearchy fucking makes it impossible to do much other than buy actual functional development teams and otherwise make hats and steam updates.

I'll bite. What does Valve "owe" their customers as far as HL3 is concerned?

It's pretty amazing to see the Valve corporate apologists on here.

"Why should they bother making HL3? They owe their fans nothing!" - Diehard Valve Fan

It really isn't risk.
There are people at Valve trying to make the game, it fails because of lack of commitment and organization to develop such a game.

Why in the world would a company making billions a year, for basically no work, take an enormous risk? And it isn't a financial risk, at this point next to nothing is a financial risk to Valve, but a goodwill risk.

EA and Activision, sure, they can take financial risks. Valve is at such a point that developing games is such a secondary income stream that no dev investment would be even remotely risky. Beyond that, they're private, and I believe wholly owned without an outside board, so they can do whatever the hell they want without answering to anyone.

And taking this another step, virtually anything with "HL3" on it will recoup dev investment and then some. It's probably the single safest development bet outside of a new Mario, new Zelda, and new GTA. Possibly higher than some of those.

No, it's a goodwill risk, in that it is essentially guaranteed to make the tiny little peabrained children that think they are entitled to the exact HL3 vision they have in their head freak out. CJ will be here whining about the same stuff he always whines about, every Valve game will get negative reviews on every platform, and any dev at Valve will have to delete their social media due to death threats coming in because they dared change something some immature asshole thinks was sacred.

Why would anyone mess with that? It isn't cowardice, as mentioned, it's guaranteed money.

Slick wrote on Aug 30, 2017, 00:18:
No, it's the *chance* that you'll have a bad day. If everyone was a slave to this baser impulse, no one would ever leave the house.

Ahh, but this is my exact point. Valve knows without a doubt, if they make HL3 they will be criticized endlessly, period. The only way this wouldn't happen is if they managed to produce a game which somehow transformed the landscaping of gaming -- something like the impact the original Doom had -- which isn't very likely.

So, their choice is to knowingly walk into a shit storm, or stay in the house. Their choice is perfectly reasonable.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 15:13:

Slick wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 14:17:
Dude, that's the very same dilemma every human faces when walking out their front door every day. Some people will just shit on them, it's called the human condition.

Lulz. I don't know what your situation is, but I don't walk out my door everyday knowing hell will rain down on me.

There's no doubt Valve has lost its creative edge, and I'd agree it is unlikely they'll ever get it back. *shrug* They had a good run.

No, it's the *chance* that you'll have a bad day. If everyone was a slave to this baser impulse, no one would ever leave the house. What if your boss shits on you today? What if your girlfriend is mad at you today? Why bother doing anything at all if there's a chance that the outcome could be negative?

This is doubly true in the creative sphere, where artists are by definition trying to make something unique. Some people think that the point of art is to inflame. And I can think of few artistic endeavours that are less inflammatory than making possibly the most eagerly awaited game in history, especially with the billions Valve makes every year. They could easily just put job postings for the best talent in the industry to come work on HL3, and people would break down their front door for the opportunity.

Slick wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 14:17:

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 07:24:
I don't know -- it just struck me as completely unfair to imply they are cowards. HL3 is a no win situation for them as far as I can tell. Yeah, it would probably make money, but no matter what they do, hell will rain down on them.

Dude, that's the very same dilemma every human faces when walking out their front door every day. Some people will just shit on them, it's called the human condition.

Being paralyzed by fear is cowardly.

"This thing that everyone wants, that we BUILT our whole brand on, we're not going to fulfil the storyline because waaaaaaah trolls exist. Better to never even try!"

Buck up, grow a pair, and get it done. If you're too scared to do anything because some people might not like it, then you have no business being in a creative field.

The problem with these huge gaming companies like Valve and Acti-Bliz is that they don't take chances. And the fact that we're defining THE MOST REQUESTED game in history (HL3) as "taking a risk"... then we have a big problem. And it's a fucking sequel... why in the hell are we having to beg for a fucking sequel of a top 5 most well-known IPs in gaming history... that's the definition of "low risk"

If they're more concerned with keeping their image and not fulfilling this storyline that's 20 years old, then they're openly shitting on their fans, and are more concerned with utter market dominance rather than making games. Not really a newsflash if you've been paying attention for the last 10 years, but still, I think this is a final nail in the coffin. Valve isn't a gaming company, they're an online 3rd party reseller store. No point in even thinking otherwise.

You're arguing with a made up narrative in the first place...
It has nothing to do with risk and everything to do with motivation.
Their employees can do anything they want at an individual level... that paradigm doesn't support a full length AAA game.
So until everyone decides to work on the same thing (and not quit when the going gets tough) or until Gabe says, "guess what, no more laissez faire... we're all making HL3 and I'm starting by assigning roles" it's not going to happen.

It hasn't happened since Portal 2... and that's because everyone was so happy with Portal (which was mostly developed by new hires) that they couldn't wait to start working on a sequel... The old timers paused their pet projects and went to work on big AAA title... and even then once the going got tough (the tedious, tough things, bugs, QA, translations, etc. etc.) Gabe had to step in and make sure it got finished. Right after that he basically said not to expect another single player game, because he knew it would break his studio paradigm again.

Slick wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 14:17:
Dude, that's the very same dilemma every human faces when walking out their front door every day. Some people will just shit on them, it's called the human condition.

Lulz. I don't know what your situation is, but I don't walk out my door everyday knowing hell will rain down on me.

There's no doubt Valve has lost its creative edge, and I'd agree it is unlikely they'll ever get it back. *shrug* They had a good run.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 29, 2017, 07:24:
I don't know -- it just struck me as completely unfair to imply they are cowards. HL3 is a no win situation for them as far as I can tell. Yeah, it would probably make money, but no matter what they do, hell will rain down on them.

Dude, that's the very same dilemma every human faces when walking out their front door every day. Some people will just shit on them, it's called the human condition.

Being paralyzed by fear is cowardly.

"This thing that everyone wants, that we BUILT our whole brand on, we're not going to fulfil the storyline because waaaaaaah trolls exist. Better to never even try!"

Buck up, grow a pair, and get it done. If you're too scared to do anything because some people might not like it, then you have no business being in a creative field.

The problem with these huge gaming companies like Valve and Acti-Bliz is that they don't take chances. And the fact that we're defining THE MOST REQUESTED game in history (HL3) as "taking a risk"... then we have a big problem. And it's a fucking sequel... why in the hell are we having to beg for a fucking sequel of a top 5 most well-known IPs in gaming history... that's the definition of "low risk"

If they're more concerned with keeping their image and not fulfilling this storyline that's 20 years old, then they're openly shitting on their fans, and are more concerned with utter market dominance rather than making games. Not really a newsflash if you've been paying attention for the last 10 years, but still, I think this is a final nail in the coffin. Valve isn't a gaming company, they're an online 3rd party reseller store. No point in even thinking otherwise.

I don't know -- it just struck me as completely unfair to imply they are cowards. HL3 is a no win situation for them as far as I can tell. Yeah, it would probably make money, but no matter what they do, hell will rain down on them.

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 26, 2017, 07:48:

Nucas wrote on Aug 26, 2017, 04:11:

Mr. Tact wrote on Aug 25, 2017, 16:49:

Suckage wrote on Aug 25, 2017, 16:44:
What excuse does Valve have to not bring closure to HL?

Err, the excuse that no matter what they created they would be criticized.

pure cowardice and total bullshit aside.

Oh yeah? What was the last time you did something you didn't need or have to do which when completed you knew you would be seriously criticized for no matter how you completed the task? My guess would be never.

Uhh, how about everytime I open my mouth? WTF are you on about?

Nucas wrote on Aug 25, 2017, 14:42:
there's been leak after leak over the years with anonymous employees all telling the same story - gabe newell doesn't want half life 3 made, despite the fairy tale "valve is a totally flat structure!!!" thing that always gets parroted.

the last one i saw by the funhaus guys a year or two back expanded on it further by saying a half life 3 project started to gel around 2010 but apparently the rabid over-reaction to the mass effect 3 ending caused gabe newell to declare it was too risky, among other factors. seeing a fan-base completely turn on a franchise and devalue the property, etc etc.

he probably feels pretty comfortable in that assessment now after seeing the mass effect franchise completely destroyed and 'retired' after the complete fucking hysterics people were in over andromeda.

Interesting.

I mean, let's not mince words, this is Valve's fuckup. But it's curious to hear them blame it on the fans. I mean, if I make a movie, write a book, or program a game, people might fucking hate it, I'm cool with that, I'm an adult.

They should take a page from Michael Bay, did he quit after Transformers 1? NO! how about the 18 sequels? HELL NO! He has his fans, and his critics, and not for one second does he warp his movies around what critics want.

Sad, but I think I just said Michael Bay is more of a true artist than anyone working at Valve.

I mean, we're begging for a fucking SEQUEL here, that's how low the bar has gotten. God forbid they throw some money at developing a new IP. And I actually mean a NEW IP, not something they stole/borrowed/bought from other indy devs/modders, like you know... EVERY GAME THEY'VE PUT OUT SINCE HALF LIFE 1 (not counting The Lab, it's a tech demo).

Someone prove me wrong.

I do have to agree with whomever said it - the story is underwhelming.

I get that video game stories often are, it's how they're told not what they're telling, and boiling them down to a few paragraphs of text on a single page would make most seem basic and inconsequential, but... initially I read it and was excited to see the familiar names, and while I disliked the ending, I put that on it just being that he was working in commentary on Valve (does this mean there is active work on an Alyx spinoff? Haha!) But, thinking back, yeah, it does kind of go nowhere with little happening in between. It feels like something thin connecting setpieces, which most games plots are, but you hope for more in HL. I think, also, HL was always this way, it just had really strong fiber as the little details added in.

CJ_Parker wrote on Aug 25, 2017, 19:53:
Bwwwahahahaha there is nothing quite like the stench of triggered, angry Valve fanbois in the morning!

You know, I very rarely post here anymore but one thing thing others have mentioned is absolutely true......you're a pathetic asshole.

CJ_Parker wrote on Aug 25, 2017, 19:53:
Bwwwahahahaha there is nothing quite like the stench of triggered, angry Valve fanbois in the morning!

You're making a lot of assumptions. My comment has everything to do with the content of your posts. Virtually every thread I look at has a post, or eight, of yours pissing on the subject. Typically, I'd agree that you're just a run-of-the-mill troll, but those kiddos tend to grow up and move on to other things. You have been on this bent for years. I don't expect you to have a sudden epiphany and stop, but it's fun to remind you on occasion what a disagreeable, diseased and festering twat you sound like.

MoreLuckThanSkill wrote on Aug 26, 2017, 18:06:
Half-Life 3 Confirmed. Don't fall for this misdirection! I'm sure HL3 will be out for Christmas 2017.

I like the way you think. Can't wait!

Half-Life 3 Confirmed. Don't fall for this misdirection! I'm sure HL3 will be out for Christmas 2017.