Gabe Newell AMA tomorrow

Zethor · 18 Jan 2017 at 22:35

Smeghead said:
I used to be a firm supporter of Valve, and I held on to the hope that HL3 was still in development, they were just making sure it was absolutely perfect before release, but now I really couldn't care less about them. There's only so much goodwill I can afford before they start draining the savings account, and they've long passed that point in my books.

You see early interviews about TF2, and how adamant they were with "maintaining the aesthetic", which was very unique and they did build a very cool universe. But then you look at it now and it's a complete embarrassment. Props which have absolutely no place flying left and right.

They created one of the most beloved series in gaming history with so many people anticipating HL3, and they're just stringing people along without a single peep, despite being more than financially capable of developing it.

But no, I suppose they'd prefer using their time developing SteamOS and Steam Machines instead of giving their fans what they want, because they turned out to be oh so popular.

They just seem to have completely lost sight of what they were first and foremost - a top calibre game developer. Now they'd rather just crank out some stupid hats or weapon skins and call it a day.

The problem is Steam, which is a huge brand now that makes tonnes of money. If Valve releases HL3 and its success is moderate or, Gaben forbid, its unsuccessful, the Steam brand will get hurt, a risk which the corporate fat cats who now control the company would rather not take.

platypus · 19 Jan 2017 at 11:35

So sell it off to a third party but retain some creative control.

Rifte · 19 Jan 2017 at 11:38

titaniumx3 said:
I'm more concerned about the state of L4D3 to be honest. The firs two games were probably some the most worthwhile purchases I've ever made.

THIS!

the L4D games as about as good as it gets for co-op IMO.

Although I am enjoying Zombie Trilogy at the moment, which also has a great co-op mode.

Rezident · 19 Jan 2017 at 13:35

I always assumed they were just waiting until they had perfected the concept or whatever for HL3, but it sounds like they’ve made so much money they couldn’t give a toss about it anymore. Maybe when you become a billionaire, you forget where you came from (although he came from Microsoft didn’t he!?) and you have to worry about your bankers and private jets instead. It’s sad

megasadface

Do valve even make games anymore or do they just sell games?

Mark A · 19 Jan 2017 at 14:27

The big thing right now is broadening the range of options we have in creating experiences. We think investing in hardware will give us those options. The knuckles controller is being designed at the same time as we're designing our own VR games.

Portal 3 VR would be awesome!

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titaniumx3 said:
I'm more concerned about the state of L4D3 to be honest. The firs two games were probably some the most worthwhile purchases I've ever made.

He said this when asked about L4D3...

Products are usually the result of an intersection of technology that we think has traction, a group of people who want to work on that, and one of the game properties that feels like a natural playground for that set of technology and design challenges.

When we decided we needed to work on markets, free to play, and user generated content, Team Fortress seemed like the right place to do that. That work ended up informing everything we did in the multiplayer space.

Left 4 Dead is a good place for creating shared narratives.

I have no idea what that even means, don't know why he can't just answer things properly. Makes these AMA things pointless.

Freddie1980 · 19 Jan 2017 at 21:54

Ask me anything but I may not answer you.

StriderX · 20 Jan 2017 at 01:03

Mark A said:
Portal 3 VR would be awesome! .

He said this when asked about L4D3...

I have no idea what that even means, don't know why he can't just answer things properly. Makes these AMA things pointless.

Thats funny, because L4D2 was basically a reskin, hardly something that came about because "herp a derp gotta spout useless crap to spur investors".

MoNkeE · 20 Jan 2017 at 09:12

Reading that it sounds like L4D came around because they were trying to prove that generating crowds of mobs was possible in the source engine. L4D2 then pushed the envelope further - bigger crowds, and each zombie had randomly generated characteristics (texture, clothing, heads, gender etc). So what I suppose he's saying, is they created the experience as a technological test for the engine, and the game wrapped around that. Much like Dead Rising (from what I remember) was an early Grand Theft Auto crowd generating demo.

I guess that now Valve don't have a new engine to sell (I don't think the Source engine was commercially successful beyond the Valve games and Titanfall), their development of new games seems stuck in the mud. They're unlikely to buy an engine like UE5 from their old competitors, and don't seem to be producing anything themselves.

Disappointing, as I recently purchased L4D2 again as me and my mate are still partial to a zombie slay fest.

Rezident · 20 Jan 2017 at 12:39

Freddie1980 said:
Ask me anything but I may not answer you.

That is exactly what happened on everything that everyone really wanted to know about didn't it? Smacks of Julian Assange's AMA where he ignored all the tough questions about his funding and Russia etc. If this was an exam, they both failed. Boo!

Valve did say at one point that there would be 3 HL 'episodes' or whatever after HL2 didn't they? They made 1 and 2 and then what? The least they could do is tell the truth on it. At least let us know where it is. If it's dead put us out of our misery FFS. All that amazing goodwill really is draining away isn't it?

They're doing great things in VR so there's hope there at least.

Macro · 20 Jan 2017 at 13:13

Rezident said:
Valve are the closest we will get to the good guys in this life.

Ummm... They have what amounts to a monopoly for PC digital game distribution for which they charge game developers a huge slice of, had to be forced to offer some semblance of refunds and still refuse to allow resale of the games you purchase whilst seniors are multi billionaires. Why bother making your own game when you can just keep on getting rich milking other devs efforts?

Yep, they're in it just for the lulz and the good of PC gamers - honest!

Mark A · 20 Jan 2017 at 13:22

They also almost destroyed the PC modding community by trying to cash in on mods :mad:

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Freddie1980 · 20 Jan 2017 at 14:20

Mark A said:
They also almost destroyed the PC modding community by trying to cash in on mods .

We all make mistakes in life, at least Value recognised it and got it sorted.

Vulcan · 20 Jan 2017 at 15:51

Zethor said:
If Valve releases HL3 and its success is moderate or, Gaben forbid, its unsuccessful, the Steam brand will get hurt...

How? When EA releases a bad game people don't hate on Origin. People are capable of realising that a bad game doesn't reflect on the platform or distribution system it's release on.