In the close future, there is only war, and spilling drinks on the Citadel.[Mass Effect]

Shorty

Dichotomy wrote: »

Hobnail wrote: »

Man I'm pretty sure Valve is notorious for giving out release dates they clearly don't give a fuck about meeting

valve promised to shortly release paid DLC to the xbox live marketplace that would bring three campaigns from Left 4 Dead and one new community campaign to Left 4 Dead 2
I was eager to buy that DLC


that promise was last summer, and since then that DLC has remained "coming soon"

yeah, this is some bullshit

Stilts

Shorty wrote: »

wait

doesn't Valve usually just not give a release date until they're fairly certain they're going to hit it (like a few months before)?

at least on major stuff

I know that Valve Time is well-documented but that's mostly for small stuff

Yeah, the problem with Valve is not so much their long development times.

It's more their inability to communicate anything unless it is plans for more TF2 items.

Nerdgasmic

Bogey wrote: »

Also, how are they breaking their promise if they didn't even specify a date/time that a reward was going to be given out?

it's supposed to be every tuesday

fightinfilipino

ok, so, Valve is an example of bad management of expectations then

edit: a few good examples i can think of are Gearbox, Bungie, and Atlus.

Goatmon

Elendil wrote: »

surely waiting a little longer for your hurricane III can't be that onerous

Hobnail

Kwoaru wrote: »

Yeah but Valve, like bioware, produces excellent products so I dont even care if they get the dates wrong

I just shake my head and go "oh you!"

Oh, totally. I do dearly wish they'd stop fucking around and finish Half-Life, but I wish for lots of crazy things.

Besides, maybe I don't want Half-Life 3, because apparantly:

"In a March interview, Newell hints that Valve intend to return the Half-Life franchise to its psychological horror roots by exploiting the fans' deepest fears, which he summed up as 'the death of their children' and 'the fading of their own abilities'."

Half-Life 3 will threaten your children.

fightinfilipino

Half-Life 3: there are spiders on your face and in your pants.

every single level.

Dichotomy

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

Dux

Upon purchase of Half-life 3, it will pop out of it's box, stab your children and drain you of all your strengths, whereupon it will return to it's wicked master's side, feeding him with your power.

Hobnail

Imagine 3D Realms. I like to think every 3D Realms employee actually worked at the aquarium next door and paperwork got fuddled up somehow.

Shorty

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

not really

for serious

google "valve employee handbook" and everything will become clear

Dux

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

Designing hats.

fightinfilipino

Shorty wrote: »

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

not really

for serious

google "valve employee handbook" and everything will become clear

Valve sounds a lot like how Aperture Science would be run.

i'm not sure whether that's amazing or incredibly frightening.

Dongs Galore

fightinfilipino wrote: »

Shorty wrote: »

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

not really

for serious

google "valve employee handbook" and everything will become clear

Valve sounds a lot like how Aperture Science would be run.

i'm not sure whether that's amazing or incredibly frightening.

Since they work with video game software and not space-time-rupturing laser guns/nerve gas/artificial intelligences it isn't quite so frightening

Kana

Dux wrote: »

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

Designing hats.

But now they've got the steam workshop, where they get players to design hats FOR them

Kana

But the thing I will say in valve's favor: they may take their damned time releasing a game, but that game is polished as hell when it finally comes out, and if there are bugs you can fully expect them to be fixed at some point

Kwoaru

something about tf2 being driven into the ground, along with heavy breathing and a protracted fart

Dux

Kana wrote: »

Dux wrote: »

Dichotomy wrote: »

valve honestly confuses me

because they presumably employ people, right
and those people presumably come in for a typical day of work every day of the typical work week


but what the fuck are those people doing with that time

Designing hats.

But now they've got the steam workshop, where they get players to design hats FOR them

That does not mean they've stopped designing hats.

They will keep designing hats

forever.

Dichotomy

okay so from browsing that thing I get the picture that if valve didn't pull off that whole steam thing then they probably would have gone bankrupt some time ago

Shorty

Dichotomy wrote: »

okay so from browsing that thing I get the picture that if valve didn't pull off that whole steam thing then they probably would have gone bankrupt some time ago

nah, they just wouldn't have remotely as many people working there

Shorty

so, here's the thing

I'm sure HL3 or HL2:EP3 is getting made

but maybe the team that's working on it just doesn't have a lot of people

and I can't say I blame them, because half-life is boring

Kwoaru

Nope

Shorty

yep

Nerdgasmic

do you think someone in there is working on team fortress 3

Kwoaru

Shorty

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

do you think someone in there is working on team fortress 3

there's one guy

making the game all by himself

while listening to "while my guitar gently weeps"

over and over

Romanian My Escutcheon

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

do you think someone in there is working on team fortress 3

Nah, because once Meet the Pyro releases, the Internet will be forever sundered.

Antimatter

Shorty wrote: »

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

do you think someone in there is working on team fortress 3

there's one guy

making the game all by himself

while listening to "while my guitar gently weeps"

over and over

Oh my god

Nerdgasmic

every day, on his way to his dimly-lit basement office, he passes by the boardroom where the lead hat-designers meet

so much light and sound pours out of it

so much life

Butters

fightinfilipino wrote: »

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

companies like blizzard and valve don't release games "until they're done" because they have tons of cash and can afford to do so

and EA doesn't?

No not really:

EA Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/EA/profit_margin

Activision-Blizzard Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/ATVI/profit_margin

Both fluctuate quite a bit but EA has gone into the red quite a bit more often and deeper than Act-Blizz

Hobnail

Shorty wrote: »

so, here's the thing

I'm sure HL3 or HL2:EP3 is getting made

but maybe the team that's working on it just doesn't have a lot of people

and I can't say I blame them, because half-life is boring

This may actually be true, because judging by opinions around here, no one likes the Half-Life franchise now and no one ever did

Dichotomy

I like the half-life franchise

Shorty

Butters wrote: »

fightinfilipino wrote: »

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

companies like blizzard and valve don't release games "until they're done" because they have tons of cash and can afford to do so

and EA doesn't?

No not really:

EA Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/EA/profit_margin

Activision-Blizzard Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/ATVI/profit_margin

Both fluctuate quite a bit but EA has gone into the red quite a bit more often and deeper than Act-Blizz

blizzard's actually kind of boned in the long run since over 90% of their profit comes from WoW subs

and when I say "over 90%" I don't mean "a bunch" or "more than half"

I mean, over 90%

Shorty

Hobnail wrote: »

Shorty wrote: »

so, here's the thing

I'm sure HL3 or HL2:EP3 is getting made

but maybe the team that's working on it just doesn't have a lot of people

and I can't say I blame them, because half-life is boring

This may actually be true, because judging by opinions around here, no one likes the Half-Life franchise now and no one ever did

nah, lots of people here and everywhere else think it's the best series ever

mostly just me and tube and a dozen or so others who don't like it

Butters

I don't think that's a sign of a problem. It think it's more of a testament to how incredibly successful WoW is. They'll replace it when they have to and right now they don't have to.

Skull Man

never beat half-life but half-life 2 and ep 1 and 2 were pretty fun when I played them like 2 years ago in the orange box

not really flipping my wig for another but I'll play it if it comes out and it's like 15 dollars

Romanian My Escutcheon

Honestly, I'm just curious to see how Ep. 3 wraps everything up.

Though I'll thank Valve not to put me through another game of Defend The Dilapidated Farmhouse From Nine Striders.

Hobnail

Skull Man wrote: »

never beat half-life but half-life 2 and ep 1 and 2 were pretty fun when I played them like 2 years ago in the orange box

not really flipping my wig for another but I'll play it if it comes out and it's like 15 dollars

Well apparantly it's going to fly out the box and grab you by your testicles and whisper your most secret fears, that might cost more than fifteen bones.

fightinfilipino

Butters wrote: »

fightinfilipino wrote: »

Nerdgasmic wrote: »

companies like blizzard and valve don't release games "until they're done" because they have tons of cash and can afford to do so

and EA doesn't?

No not really:

EA Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/EA/profit_margin

Activision-Blizzard Profits: http://ycharts.com/companies/ATVI/profit_margin

Both fluctuate quite a bit but EA has gone into the red quite a bit more often and deeper than Act-Blizz

EA's market cap is $5.26 billion. it also looks like they made approx $306 million in profits last year? i'm fairly sure they're not hurting for cash.

then again, Act/Blizz has a market cap of $14.42 billion.

Cambiata

Skull Man wrote: »

never beat half-life but half-life 2 and ep 1 and 2 were pretty fun when I played them like 2 years ago in the orange box

not really flipping my wig for another but I'll play it if it comes out and it's like 15 dollars

This matches my opinion of the series pretty closely, though I did play the original half life. It's an OK game.