Valve is very accessable, though. Send Gabe an email and he'll respond within a few hours. Sometimes he'll respond to a rather big issue, and it winds up here.

And he's being faulted for that. Email Carmack and anyone at id and see if they'll email you back. But Valve keeps communications with the average player open and get faulted for that.

That's because carmack is too busy coding game engines ( and building rockets ) to reply to every gamer out there that wants to email him. Having said that I've read (technical) forums before where someone has mailed JC for confirmation of something and they have had a useful reply back.

Gabe on the other hand obviouly has more spare time to answer more people, good for him. Good for you, bad for everyone that's desperate to see HL2 on the shelves.

TF2 was shelved because Dice beat them to it.

Why would there be an official announcement that TF2 was discontinued?


It was shelved, and there were announcements about that. They were fairly open about its development being significantly reduced.

Why was there no announcement?
1) It would have made it clear that HL2 was being worked on. Had they made that clear back in 2000 you'd all be whining about it.
2) It would be another official press release for you to whine about.



Basically, you just whine a lot, and seem to hold Valve to a standard you hold no other developer to, some creepy "I'm important, all hype sucks, you suck" standard.


Go contribute something to society.

Alright! Just release a alpha version and patch it to final over the years (if we sell enough that is). ROFL

________
I'm not... gonna... cry... you... dumb... doo-doo brain!

You're saying that a better solution to you simply looking away or scrolling on is for Blue to develop what? A special mailing list for every game that generates news??? Are you really serious?

Not every game, you moron. Just one, i.e. Half-Life 2. Other games aren't generating the incessant stream of unimportant development "news" that Half-Life 2 is. And, no, it would not be difficult at all for Blue or Valve to add a forum area where people can come in and post their Half-Life 2 news sh*t.

What are our expectations? To receive a buggy product? No, you can't possibly mean that, can you?

The history of PC game development suggests otherwise. Relatively few games are not updated or patched (that means almost all games receive an update or patch), and of those few that are not updated or patched, the reason they are not is not because they don't actually need updating. It's because the developer and/or publisher didn't want to spend the money to update the game.

And is it any more expensive to fix bugs before a release than it is after?

Of course it is! Why, you ask? because when you fix them beforehand, you have already spent the money on the labor to fix them. However, if you wait until after the game is released, you can judge if fixing the bugs is worth the effort based upon sales and customer satisfaction.

Anyway, please let me know how I fared with my analysis of your paragraph.

Damn poorly. I suggest you learn to read better. Go over the words again very slowly until you can grasp the meaning.

Your rant about TF2 at the end of your post is completely unintelligible because you totally misinterpreted the lines to which you responded. Go back and read them again.

This comment was edited on Oct 5, 06:27.

Again, show me one company that hasn't stopped development of an announced project.

Since everyone likes to compare Half-Life 2 to Doom 3, how about ID. Name one of ID's projects which was announced, shown off at E3 like TF2 was (where it even won best of show), and then terminated or shelved for at least 5 years?

So why is TF2 any different?

Because TF2 was talked about and publicized by Valve repeatred since TF1 was released, and TF2 even won best of E3 in 1999. For years Valve has strung TF fans along with the promise of TF2. With other games which have been discontinued, there was always an official announcement. Fans were not strung along with the idea that the game would eventually be available.

This comment was edited on Oct 5, 06:29.

Carmack's quote was in reponse to a question about Doom 3's release date; not to a question about Doom 3 at E3.

The bottom line is what actually Carmack said. He did NOT say the game would be done before the next E3. End of story.

Oh yeah, there was the HUGE sign at one of the quakecons that said "Doom III: Coming 2003" now that I think about it

Activision was responsible for that sign (if it is not a photoshop job). ID didn't promise a 2003 release date.

They actually HAD a singleplayer only package; and everyone bitched at them say it's just another moneymaking scheme and ways to trick morons into having to pay extra for the full version.. Then they had to get rid of the SP only package when Sierra died. Funny how people are bitching about THAT too.

EDIT: And did you really have to spam that into this thread after double-posting it into the other Source thread that's STILL on the popular threads list? Yeesh..

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunn

I don't know much about anything but dolls and dresses so I wanted to know what other people thought about it.

Anyway, better get back to the kitchen and the sewing.

No wonder you're single, Jeremy.

"The fiasco of Team Fortress 2 shows a history of prerelease hype and deceit by Valve."

LOL! i love it!!!

you people are funny lots of flame wars and a bunch of useless whiny's... it's great reading!

honestly, valve has got to have at least half a brain for marketing, i mean noone had heard of them before HL, and it rocked. No semi-intelligent company is going to actively deceive customers unless they plan on disappearing soon afterwards.

Now i know this will start some posts like Gabe's gonna release s**tty HL2 and take all the money and hide in Virgin Islands, I KNOW HE WILL.

And those posts will be funny too... but enuff is enuff ppl, HL2 will be their best effort to make a game fun enuff / good enuff to make them lots of money. I know we all wanna have our grubby hands on the new toy, but just think how lucky we are to have companies that are willing to say (it's gonna take another year, we wanna make it better),,, instead of,

Hey everybody! Here's Nsync CD #24!!!

pssh...

This comment was edited on Oct 4, 21:08.

Ghandi's right. People are still going to buy HL2 no matter how late it is. Who cares anyway? Ok so Valve have lied, so what? get on with your life and find another game to play. Get Rome: Total War, that'll keep you occupied for more than is necessary.

I remember all the hype about TF2, i saw no reason in believing it. Anyone remember BREED? Halo/HL killer? No? didn't think so. Hyped up to it's eyeballs, then majorly flops. I so hope HL2 does this. It'll provide me so much entertainment for such a long time.

Personally i'll buy it if/when it comes out, and also when i have the money if it doesn't flop that is.
This comment was edited on Oct 4, 16:38.

Again, show me one company that hasn't stopped development of an announced project.

So why is TF2 any different?

It isn't. Most of the whiners posting here are going to buy HL2 when it's released. Or they will warez it and are posting here to justify their illegal downloads.

You cannot make anything fool-proof. The fools are too inventive

Again, show me one company that hasn't stopped development of an announced project.



How about Sid Meier. Anyone remember Dinosaurs? For months Sid posted his design documentation on the Firaxis website. Lots of hype.

Then he pulled the plug, stating it just didn't work.



Much more hype there than TF2, but no one whined that they wouldn't buy Civ 3 because of it.

No one said they wouldn't buy Warcraft 3 due to Warcraft Adventures.

So why is TF2 any different?

"The fiasco of Team Fortress 2 shows a history of prerelease hype and deceit by Valve."

All they did was release a few screen shots and announce the game was in the works.

Oh how wrong you are.
Don't you have the videos of the game that they released? Remember the guy underneath the bridge when a tank was on it and he blew the brdige hanging from a wire? Come on....

Are you sure you were able to be on a computer back in 1998?

You go girl.

That is one sadly pathetic girl.


I guess her name says it all... (pronounce phonetically)

This comment was edited on Oct 3, 22:59.

I don't want that shite Counterstrike. I just want HL2 and HL1: Source. Why don't they have a single-player option? Having Counterstrike bundled with any HL2 option is like having to install Internet Explorer with Windows... purely Gates-ian.

They actually HAD a singleplayer only package; and everyone bitched at them say it's just another moneymaking scheme and ways to trick morons into having to pay extra for the full version.. Then they had to get rid of the SP only package when Sierra died. Funny how people are bitching about THAT too.

EDIT: And did you really have to spam that into this thread after double-posting it into the other Source thread that's STILL on the popular threads list? Yeesh..

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunn

This comment was edited on Oct 3, 19:25.

What she said.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

-Albert Einstein

That fat f**k Gabe learned well from the evil Bastard "Satan" Gates: trying to get the biggest piece of the pie possible... and Gabe obviously loves his pie.

I don't want that shite Counterstrike. I just want HL2 and HL1: Source. Why don't they have a single-player option? Having Counterstrike bundled with any HL2 option is like having to install Internet Explorer with Windows... purely Gates-ian.

I think I'll hold off a few months after release and then pick the game up in the bargain bins, but that could be in 2010 with all the smokescreens Valve are ushering up. (theft and now the latest problems with Vivendi: don't be surprised if this leads to yet another long delay)

Let's see if it beats Quake 4 out the door.

One girl's opinion. PEACE!!!

As for TF2 - it isn't relevant. Show me one company that hasn't had vaporware. Even Blizzard announced their Warcraft adventure game only to kill it a few months before release, and after tons of enormous hype. People don't whine about that.

Sniff.. You had to bring that game up, didn't you? Most dissapointing canceling I've ever been witness to.. Although it's kind of funny now that I hear the reason Blizzard canceled it was because it fell several stories short of their expectations. Probably for the best; I guess.

TF2 is still coming, too. Most likely as a free addon to HL2. Again, you whine and whine, but would you rather have paid $50 for it two years ago and see HL2 two years from now or get HL2 before the end of the year and download a free TF2 in 6 months?

Heh... No way in hell it's going to be free.. Just.. no way in hell I doubt even TFC: Source will be free; let alone Valve's next (previous) big game.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Dunn
This comment was edited on Oct 2, 23:00.

I am not sure if it's because people from id remains silent most of the development time, only releasing a bit or two of info in the right moment

Valve was actually better about that. They only released info when they though the game was 4 months away. id was giving screenshots and previews for years before HL2 was even verified as existing.

Valve is very accessable, though. Send Gabe an email and he'll respond within a few hours. Sometimes he'll respond to a rather big issue, and it winds up here.

And he's being faulted for that. Email Carmack and anyone at id and see if they'll email you back. But Valve keeps communications with the average player open and get faulted for that.


No one would be complaining about Valve if they didn't give so much fanfare over HL2 being close then push it back a year. Like I said, they most likely sat down and realized it wasn't good enough, so they made a hard decision to sink more money into it. As a result you get a better product. Oh No!



As for TF2 - it isn't relevant. Show me one company that hasn't had vaporware. Even Blizzard announced their Warcraft adventure game only to kill it a few months before release, and after tons of enormous hype. People don't whine about that.

TF2 is still coming, too. Most likely as a free addon to HL2. Again, you whine and whine, but would you rather have paid $50 for it two years ago and see HL2 two years from now or get HL2 before the end of the year and download a free TF2 in 6 months?




I don't want to keep defending Valve, but they get such shit because all these kids feel entitled, as if Valve owed them something. Hell, it isn't as if Valve made a contract with you.

Bush Sr. got less shit when he broke his promise to not raise taxes...