A Call for Communication

[-smash-]

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If you're a Half-Life fan then you're probably a lunatic, too. We've been tortured for years by Valve's silent treatment on the future of the series. I mean, we're seeing lambdas in the craziest f&amp;*#ing places, and we're mass sending $7 crowbars to Valve's PO box. Stimulating our minds and the economy.
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So, I think we can all agree on that we need help. We don't have to go through the healing process alone; we can heal and support each other!
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There's a Steam Community group out there that's perfect for us. Called "A Call for Communication", this group was formed by surfrock22 with the intention of, not asking for the release of a new Half-Life game, but sending a message to Valve asking for a little bit of communication. That's it. Fans are only asking for the simplest of answers to a question like, for lack of a better example, "Is another HL title being worked on at all?" Fans are hoping that Valve will respond to the message if it's loud enough for them to hear.
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This group has been growing pretty fast. Today the group is at 8000 members, and at almost a rate of 1k new member joins a day in the past 7 days, it's clear that HL fans are not the minority and that we do have a voice.
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So join the group today, support the cause, and help send the message to Valve.
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"A Call for Communcation" Steam Community group link

 

[MFL]

And if enough people join, maybe they'll start talking about a game they cancelled five years ago.

 

[blackout]

Hear Hear

 

[ríomhaire]

Meh. It'll be done when it's done.

 

[brad92]

Oh, I look forward to seeing Samon's response to this.

 

[Yorick]

Oh, I look forward to seeing Samon's response to this.

Why, so you can plagarise his opinion and claim it as your own on another site?

 

[brad92]

Days long gone, Yorick.

 

[Stormy]

Woh! good one, some 14 year old's mum must be super proud!

 

[Shem]

Can't see how this will be any more effective than the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott from 2009. Every attempt we've made to acquire information of this mystical and mythical game has failed. Not even an amassment of avid fans at Bellevue will bring about anything significant. It pains me to think of all this wasted effort falling into futility, but I cannot ignore my doubts. Best of luck.

 

[brad92]

I dunno. The L4D2 group did get a little recognition. Though I doubt this will achieve too much in the grand scheme of things.

A small group of regulars from SUF are going on a Joint Trip to Valve this August. Just in time for PAX Prime. We won't be harassing anyone for HL information though.

 

[Godron]

I don't want them to say a word until about six months before release. I honestly wouldn't even mind if they stayed quiet for another year. The longer the silence, the better the hype when it is announced.

"Is another HL title being worked on at all?"

Yes, it is. They've stated this several times in the past and I can't think of any reason why they'd abandon their most important franchise in mid-development. Now let's go home and get on with our lives.

 

[MFL]

The longer the silence, the better the hype when it is announced.

The same amount as any other time, sooner or later.

 

[rjthrog]

This isn't related, but i wonder why no one is talking about the Gabe troll that he put out.

 

[Tony]

This isn't related, but i wonder why no one is talking about the Gabe troll that he put out.

You mean the pic with him, his knives, and Half-Life 3 on the computer monitor behind him? Because that was a fan-made photoshop. Not Valve.

 

[Shem]

People can be so gullible in their desperation.

 

[Asknoone]

Sigh.

 

[Kadayi]

Joined, but I must admit I'm kind of done with the whole HL2 thing now. To me it seems that Valve have gotten a little too complacent over the last couple of years and have fallen into the trap of presuming they can do no wrong. Albeit I enjoyed Portal 2 it's strength lay in the humor more than anything else. The key problem I see is that even in HL2: EP2 Valve were having to come up with ever more ingenious ways to make the core Half-life game play interesting (a game play formula that dates back to Wolfenstein) and I'm not entirely sure they are necessarily capable of repeating the trick again as the FPS genre has evolved (and lets be honest HL2 wasn't as great as shooter HL1 was in comparison). I find it slightly ironic that Gabe's advice to budding game designers is always 'ship & ship often' a policy Valve themselves don't actually subscribe to. In between now and the launch of HL2: EP2 other development studios have shipped not only award winning games, but also the sequels to them. Where as all we've heard from Valve of late is how Gabe has clocked over 800 hours (or 33 whole days) of time playing DOTA2. I think with any franchise there exists the risk of redundancy as the wheels of time invariably move on, and I'd say Valve are very much in danger of letting Half-life fall into that situation unless they produce something within the next year or two.

 

[rjthrog]

I fully agree. Part of the problem with Duke Nukem Forever was development started 10 years before the release. Yeah, there was a big legal battle which is not going on here, but how could anyone expect a game to be any good after being in development that long. The next HL installment is rapidly approaching this same scenario, minus the legal battle.

Joined, but I must admit I'm kind of done with the whole HL2 thing now. To me it seems that Valve have gotten a little too complacent over the last couple of years and have fallen into the trap of presuming they can do no wrong. Albeit I enjoyed Portal 2 it's strength lay in the humor more than anything else. The key problem I see is that even in HL2: EP2 Valve were having to come up with ever more ingenious ways to make the core Half-life game play interesting (a game play formula that dates back to Wolfenstein) and I'm not entirely sure they are necessarily capable of repeating the trick again as the FPS genre has evolved (and lets be honest HL2 wasn't as great as shooter HL1 was in comparison). I find it slightly ironic that Gabe's advice to budding game designers is always 'ship & ship often' a policy Valve themselves don't actually subscribe to. In between now and the launch of HL2: EP2 other development studios have shipped not only award winning games, but also the sequels to them. Where as all we've heard from Valve of late is how Gabe has clocked over 800 hours (or 33 whole days) of time playing DOTA2. I think with any franchise there exists the risk of redundancy as the wheels of time invariably move on, and I'd say Valve are very much in danger of letting Half-life fall into that situation unless they produce something within the next year or two.

 

[-smash-]

Valve had gone completely radio silent on Team Fortress 2 for about 6 years. The total development time of the game was about 9 years. And, in its own way, it still succeeded in revolutionizing gaming as we know it.

I consider development time to be a non-issue for Valve.

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

The thing is, we ain't getting any younger. It's been what? 5 years since our last Half-Life installment?

Alot of things have changed since it last released, most notably the passing of Robert Culp, and Kelley Bailey leaving Valve. Also, perhaps the reason Gabe keeps mentioning that they have nothing to say in reguards to it is because they have nothing to show.

 

[Paulaner]

Joined, but I must admit I'm kind of done with the whole HL2 thing now. To me it seems that Valve have gotten a little too complacent over the last couple of years and have fallen into the trap of presuming they can do no wrong. Albeit I enjoyed Portal 2 it's strength lay in the humor more than anything else. The key problem I see is that even in HL2: EP2 Valve were having to come up with ever more ingenious ways to make the core Half-life game play interesting (a game play formula that dates back to Wolfenstein) and I'm not entirely sure they are necessarily capable of repeating the trick again as the FPS genre has evolved (and lets be honest HL2 wasn't as great as shooter HL1 was in comparison). I find it slightly ironic that Gabe's advice to budding game designers is always 'ship & ship often' a policy Valve themselves don't actually subscribe to. In between now and the launch of HL2: EP2 other development studios have shipped not only award winning games, but also the sequels to them.

Your analysis is spot on and I totally agree. Valve is an over-rated company, imo.

 

[Kadayi]

Valve had gone completely radio silent on Team Fortress 2 for about 6 years. The total development time of the game was about 9 years. And, in its own way, it still succeeded in revolutionizing gaming as we know it.

I enjoyed my time with TF2, but I'm curious to know exactly how TF2 itself revolutionized gaming as we know it? Can you point to some clear lineage of notable influence extending from it in some rock family tree style, or do you maybe want to back down from the hyperbole a bit there? Yes it's a good game, but it's not the second coming.

The thing is, we ain't getting any younger. It's been what? 5 years since our last Half-Life installment?

Exactly. Like rjthrog I do think a lot about the shitfest that was DNF and how with every passing year Valve move the half-life franchise closer and closer towards falling into the situation of turning up when the party has long since finished. 5 years is a hell of a long time in video games and audiences move on with their lives. Albeit we here might represent the more devoted fans, lets be honest our numbers have dropped off considerably as time has gone on. I recall when HL2 launched it was only 5 or so years since the original had come out, and quite a lot of people then hadn't played the first game. I'm not convinced that there's that much cultural relevancy to the half-life franchise for a lot of the younger gamers (who make up where the sales are) out there.

Your analysis is spot on and I totally agree. Valve is an over-rated company, imo.

Don't get me wrong. I believe they are capable of delivering innovative games, but I'm not entirely convinced the cabal model of development they employ works on a large scale Vs being a smaller operation. Certainly Gabe has an eye for spotting potential and nurturing it (Left4dead, Portal. TF2) and Valve are great at delivering polished products (because they QA like crazy dogs), but they've poorly served their principal franchise (as well as their primary audience) by procrastinating on delivering HL2: EP3. Valve time is a joke that's run increasingly dry over the last couple of years to be honest. Personally being an FPS/RPG player I honestly don't give a shit about DotA2 (of LoL etc, etc), and CS:GO looks like little more than a stop gap rather than a true sequel to CS, and Vs the MW3s & BF3s I'm not entirely convinced there's a huge audience out there for it given the inherently tough learning curve CS possesses in comparison to the latter. Until BF3 I'd never played a battlefield game, but within about 10 minutes of the beta I felt I was being effective, where as I recall getting into CS and getting brutalized for a couple of months before I actually found my feet in the game. Most people I know have neither the time or the patience to go through that sort of thing these days.

 

[-smash-]

I enjoyed my time with TF2, but I'm curious to know exactly how TF2 itself revolutionized gaming as we know it? Can you point to some clear lineage of notable influence extending from it in some rock family tree style, or do you maybe want to back down from the hyperbole a bit there? Yes it's a good game, but it's not the second coming.

My point is that regardless of what you think of the game, the things that Valve have put in to it have influenced other companies and developers. And it's not like the game came out, lived for a few years, then was forgotten.

 

[kineaesth]

I notice you're an admin of this group

 

[Kadayi]

My point is that regardless of what you think of the game, the things that Valve have put in to it have influenced other companies and developers. It's not like the game was released, lived for a few years, and was forgotten.

And I politely asked you to list them. Demonstrate to me how TF2 has changed the industry. People are still playing CS 1.6 does that mean it 'revolutionized' the industry as well? Or is it merely a case that it's popular with a certain group of gamers? Popularity does not = revolution.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I'm just realizing that in the time it's taking for Episode 3, I've gone pretty much completely through high school, and am joining the military. It's certainly been a while.

 

[-smash-]

Artistic style
Frequent updates
Micro transactions
DLC
Multiple channels for content (comics, videos, blog, etc)
Workshop
Trading
Things like the Saxxy Awards
Etc

Ok, Valve might not be the first to do these things, but they do them well enough to leave a lasting impression and influence.

 

[Kadayi]

Artistic style
Frequent updates
Micro transactions
DLC
Multiple channels for content (comics, videos, blog, etc)
Workshop
Trading
Things like the Saxxy Awards
Etc

Ok, Valve might not be the first to do these things, but they do them well enough to leave a lasting impression and influence.

You don't win silver, you lose gold. Claiming innovation after the fact is delusional.

 

[-smash-]

Twice now I've tried clearing up my point. Forget the hyperbole from earlier.

 

[BauerSlyer]

Maybe we should abduct Gabe. And starve him until he confirms that Episode Three was cancelled years ago.

 

[Yorick]

It actually astounds me how much "fans" feel entitled.

Like rjthrog I do think a lot about the shitfest that was DNF and how with every passing year Valve move the half-life franchise closer and closer towards falling into the situation of turning up when the party has long since finished. 5 years is a hell of a long time in video games and audiences move on with their lives.

I don't believe that's true at all.

Diablo 2 is getting a sequel after 12 years. The time between Fallout 2 and 3 was 10 years. Oblivion and Skyrim was almost 5 years. Hell even Zelda Twilight Princess to Skyward Sword was 5 years. It isn't like Valve is taking forever to when other companies aren't, and it isn't like they're doing nothing else in the meantime. They've made some quality games in the years between, and while I'd love a new Half-Life game as much as anyone, I feel like people are really ignoring what else Valve has done.

I also think that player's perceptions of the time required to make a quality game has been skewed by things like having a new Call of Duty game shit out every year since like 2006.

 

[Escaep]

All I have to say is with the wait the game damn well better be at least 12+ hours long. If all they could manage in 5 years is a 5 or 6 hour game then I'll be thoroughly pissed off.

 

[Asknoone]

I notice you're an admin of this group

Ahem, smash.

 

[Kadayi]

It actually astounds me how much "fans" feel entitled.

The day I give a damn about the opinion of a johnny come lately like yourself (registered 2005 wtf ...) with regards to notions of entitlement I'll let you know ok. In the interim realise the issue is not that I personally want HL2: EP3 now (I've enough games to keep me busy as it is) but more that in the broader scheme of things I'm concerned about Valves ongoing failure to deliver on a franchise that could well slide into mediocrity in a couple of years (in the same way that 3DRealms procrastinating on DNF for 12 years did). Valve pulled all the stops out on Portal 2 and were clearly hoping it was going to nab them another GoTY gong or two and albeit it did well both commercially and critically, I didn't see it top many critics polls as their GoTY at the end of the day. The competition got better and I'm not sure whether Valve have truly kept pace.

Diablo 2 is getting a sequel after 12 years. The time between Fallout 2 and 3 was 10 years. Oblivion and Skyrim was almost 5 years. Hell even Zelda Twilight Princess to Skyward Sword was 5 years. It isn't like Valve is taking forever to when other companies aren't, and it isn't like they're doing nothing else in the meantime. They've made some quality games in the years between, and while I'd love a new Half-Life game as much as anyone, I feel like people are really ignoring what else Valve has done.

Aside from the fact none of those games you list are part way through an actual ongoing story line that remains unfinished, unlike Half-Life 2: Episode 3.

Also I'm not ignoring what they've done, but quite frankly there's a reason why I come to www.halflife2.net and it's not because I'm majorly interested in Steam, TF2, Left4Dead, Portal or DotA2.

This place used to be pretty busy with activity, but as times moved on more and more people have dropped off. If we represent the 'hardcore' then you've got to wonder how much interest in the franchise there truly is now on a broader scale. When HL2 shipped a large number of the sign ups here had never even played the original game. There's a big question mark as to whether after a 5 year absence there's much interest by the latest generation of gamers (PC or otherwise) in the third episodic expansion of a game they most likely haven't or won't ever likely play.

 

[Yorick]

Now listen here, Weeping Wendy, not only was the comment about entitlement not directed at you, but what the goddamn **** does the year I registered on these forums have to do with anything at all?

 

[Asknoone]

Oh, I look forward to seeing Samon's response to this.

I'm going to do exactly what I did the first time. I'm happy for people to have the discussions Kadayi et al are having, but not here in a thread for a cause we don't support. Because it's dumb. Send your brains instead of crowbars: the postage will be cheaper.

 

[-smash-]

Samon, this group is not about sending crowbars...

And in anticipation for your next thought, it's also not a complete waste of energy. It's a simple process to support the group and its cause.


I am an officer. I've known surfrock for a while. I'm also an experienced moderator, so people tend to look for my help with keeping their own groups/forums in check.