Fragmaster Leaves PHL, Thanks HL2.net(?)

i see fragmaster leaving as a good thing.

Say what you want but he was overly biased and because of 1 fluke geuss took a massive ego trip.

him leaving might actualy let people like myself go to Planet half life and not get banned after 1 post disagreeing with him or his "sources"
 
I really dont think fragmaster leaving PHL has any effect on the eventual play experience of Half-Life 2, therefore its a non event.
 
I was in the "Valve Supporters" camp, but now, seeing this, it rings true just a little too much.

Valve need to make a statement. They need to make a statement soon, and they need to cut bullshit, don't pander us, no lies, no exageration, just the bare honest truth about where things are now.

Then, after that, they need to set up a line of communication between them and us. Primarily one way, but two-way in places that make sense, like polls. The Half-Life community is too large to directly, individually comunicate with. Look at the Microsoft model. Recently, they got into blogging in a big way. You can now read the blogs of loads of Microsoft employees, find out what they're doing, discover the men (and women) behind the corporation. Look at http://channel9.msdn.com , that is a site for Microsofties to talk directly to their community.

Why can't Valve do the same?
 
You know the guy may have been right, and at least he can admit to being a jerk.

Thing is, I work with/know a lot of jerks and aren't impressed with them and don't find their company appealing. Basically what I am saying, is I wish Fragmaster well and happiness, but I would be a liar if I said I was going to miss him.
 
Epsi said:
I was in the "Valve Supporters" camp, but now, seeing this, it rings true just a little too much.

Valve need to make a statement. They need to make a statement soon, and they need to cut bullshit, don't pander us, no lies, no exageration, just the bare honest truth about where things are now.

Then, after that, they need to set up a line of communication between them and us. Primarily one way, but two-way in places that make sense, like polls. The Half-Life community is too large to directly, individually comunicate with. Look at the Microsoft model. Recently, they got into blogging in a big way. You can now read the blogs of loads of Microsoft employees, find out what they're doing, discover the men (and women) behind the corporation. Look at http://channel9.msdn.com , that is a site for Microsofties to talk directly to their community.

Why can't Valve do the same?
Click to expand...

Epsi for President!
 
Epsi said:
I was in the "Valve Supporters" camp, but now, seeing this, it rings true just a little too much.

Valve need to make a statement. They need to make a statement soon, and they need to cut bullshit, don't pander us, no lies, no exageration, just the bare honest truth about where things are now.

Then, after that, they need to set up a line of communication between them and us. Primarily one way, but two-way in places that make sense, like polls. The Half-Life community is too large to directly, individually comunicate with. Look at the Microsoft model. Recently, they got into blogging in a big way. You can now read the blogs of loads of Microsoft employees, find out what they're doing, discover the men (and women) behind the corporation. Look at http://channel9.msdn.com , that is a site for Microsofties to talk directly to their community.

Why can't Valve do the same?
Click to expand...

We can't have any of this common sense thing you speak of. :eek:

But I think Fragmaster is needed. We need somebody to put a reality check so we don't get carried away. Thats what he did, even though people may disagree with his conclusions, personality, etc.
 
Epsi said:
I was in the "Valve Supporters" camp, but now, seeing this, it rings true just a little too much.

Valve need to make a statement. They need to make a statement soon, and they need to cut bullshit, don't pander us, no lies, no exageration, just the bare honest truth about where things are now.
Click to expand...


E3 next month soon enough?
 
Dougy said:
i see fragmaster leaving as a good thing.

Say what you want but he was overly biased and because of 1 fluke geuss took a massive ego trip.

him leaving might actualy let people like myself go to Planet half life and not get banned after 1 post disagreeing with him or his "sources"
Click to expand...

Did you not read his message? He had reliable sources, he KNEW the game was delayed.
That's what he says, but, I don't believe he has a reason to lie at this point.
 
It really doesn't matter if they decide to make a statement or not, something is definately not right about their PR and since it really won't have any effect on sales whether they decide to say anything or not means that I am inclined to believe that they won't be revealing anything.
 
Depends what they say at E3.

But the real, definate thing that needs doing is to set up some sort of site where any Valve employee can just post up what they're doing, what's going on, reasons behind decisions.

If they do that, I think Valve would easily have the best community relations of any developer. And we'd be able to understand what's going on up there in that ivory tower of theirs from their point of view.
 
The Mullinator said:
It really doesn't matter if they decide to make a statement or not, something is definately not right about their PR and since it really won't have any effect on sales whether they decide to say anything or not means that I am inclined to believe that they won't be revealing anything.
Click to expand...

The first topic for discussion is bound to be the reasons for the delay.
 
I bet Valve will skirt any real issues. I have seen companies (real companies, not just game developers) do that. They don't want to expose themselves any more questions than they have too. But they forget they they are already exposed so it ends up hurting them more than they think.
 
I think exposure is exactly what they need. They need to be transparent. If they went wrong, they went wrong. If they acknowledge that, and move on, I think we can, as a community, forgive them for that. Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone deserves a chance to explain, and be forgiven.
 
When the game is out the door, the battle will be about whether u like it or not, and this stuff will be filed away for future valve bashing on the various other delays and stuff valve encounter.
 
Fragmaster at PHL Forums said:
The Anonymous Leaker, despite being an asshole such as myself, was basically correct. HL2 wasn't nearly as far along as Valve was hinting at, and a lot of the things Valve showed in the E3 demo were misrepresented. Did he really release all the work Valve had done on HL2? To be honest, I don't know for sure. It's a possibility. Valve certainly made little effort to dispute his claims.
Click to expand...

This is probably the statement that worries me the most. I don't want to get started talking about the beta or anything...But if the beta truly represented all the work that had been done up to then on HL2, that is quite depressing. I personally can't see how it could possibly come out this year if that is true. I hope its not.
 
DarkStar said:
This is probably the statement that worries me the most. I don't want to get started talking about the beta or anything...But if the beta truly represented all the work that had been done up to then on HL2, that is quite depressing. I personally can't see how it could possibly come out this year if that is true. I hope its not.
Click to expand...
If that really was all they had done then it is beyond me why the hell they would tell us they were planning on releasing on Sept. 30. It has NO benefits to them in either the short-term or the long term which is why I am pretty certain they were further along than what was in the leaked version. Even your average bone-headed moron could recognize the stupidity of making a decision like that.
 
The Mullinator said:
If that really was all they had done then it is beyond me why the hell they would tell us they were planning on releasing on Sept. 30. It has NO benefits to them in either the short-term or the long term which is why I am pretty certain they were further along than what was in the leaked version. Even your average bone-headed moron could recognize the stupidity of making a decision like that.
Click to expand...

Yes, that does make me feel better. There would be no point in saying the release was Sept. 30, if that was all they had. Okay...calming down now.
 
The Anonymous Leaker, despite being an asshole such as myself,
Click to expand...

Did he just subconsciously admit to being the hacker?


Woooohooo, FBI here I come.........
 
DarkStar said:
Yes, that does make me feel better. There would be no point in saying the release was Sept. 30, if that was all they had. Okay...calming down now.
Click to expand...
heh heh, ya everyone just needs to calm down.

I just took a look over at the planethalflife forums and it seems they aren't allowed to respond to Fragmasters final post.

http://www.forumplanet.com/planethalflife/topic.asp?fid=6549&tid=1352820

I guess I can respect their decision, but I find it kind of ironic that Fragmaster is getting more farewell and respect messages from the HL2.net community which PlanetHalfLife can really consider a rival.

Oh well, once again I say good luck to Fragmaster in his future.
 
Hapless said:
Did he just subconsciously admit to being the hacker?


Woooohooo, FBI here I come.........
Click to expand...

Lol! That's funny. I think it might be true. If I were Fox News I could quote him like this:


Fragmaster said:
The Anonymous Leaker, despite being...myself, was basically correct.
Click to expand...

And call it journalism! Looks like I got myself a scoop! WOOHOO!
 
GorgeousOrifice said:
Back on topic:

A lot of people are going to freak over the "content has been cut from HL2" comment. I don't know if it's true or not; I have no reason to disbelieve him, especially since I now know he's seen things I haven't. I assume that it is true. We really shouldn't stress over it: in any creative work (game, movie, album, book) things are cut or reduced for all sorts of reasons. Valve has said that there were numerous things they wanted to do in HL1 that the tech just wasn't capable of doing. I bet many of those things will be in HL2, especially since they're building the tech specifically to do those kinds of things. Don't take this to mean that the game will only be five hours long on hard, or that City 17 just lost half its office buildings. It's part of the normal creative process.
Click to expand...

there's a difference between cutting content to make it better and cutting content to make it ship sooner.
 
Mac said:
there's a difference between cutting content to make it better and cutting content to make it ship sooner.
Click to expand...

well said. I'm concerned, to be honest. I hope that little sentence was a result of fragmaster's bitterness and not completely accurate.
 
good-bye fragmaster, my furry little friend, i hope you have a good time doing something else...

BTW, no problem for teh funny posts :)
 
Well that post was a bit melodramatic but I just see the situation as: Valve made a mistake giving a date they couldn't meet, then, in attempting to right their wrong, the situation became worse. A lot of fans were 'hurt'. I don't really care about the Fragmaster thing because to me he is just pushing the Valve mistake more and more while most of us are already past it.
 
DarkStar said:
Lol! That's funny. I think it might be true. If I were Fox News I could quote him like this:

And call it journalism! Looks like I got myself a scoop! WOOHOO!
Click to expand...

:bounce: :thumbs:
 
I think he's completely right. Valve have screwed up this situation big time. They've misled the community on numerous issues and have yet to do anything to make up for it.
 
PainLord said:
Look on the bright side. We still get exclusive stuff in the next month. And we still have our health :cheers:
Click to expand...
Screw health. Give me HL2.
 
Frag was under alot of pressure, he did get a little crazy about all the HL2 stuff, maybe if he just toned it down a bit on the main page and posted some more opinions in forums and the like instead. I feel bad for him being in the situation he was in. Its like being accused of murder but KNOWING you didn't do it and there is no one that can back up your story... How crappy would that feel, to go to jail or die for something you didn't do. I would go crazy, I know Frag's position was not nearly as bad as my example but its the same feeling... after a while, with everyone against him, him not being able to say anything because of the NDA, he went nutty and had to throw in his hat. Good luck to you Frag. People do take what they read on the net too seriously, everyone needs to just take everything into consideration and judge for themselves.
 
Omg No More Fragmaster Movies?!

lol, well that final post was rather cryptic, but I must say, there is something I will miss, those Flash movies, nothing made me laugh harder on that site than those flash movies.

:)

Good luck and Godspeed, Fragmaster!

Tracker
 
I don't see the issue with cutting some content.

HL1's cut content consisted, to my knowledge, of two main things:
purple space frogs and the kingpin alien.

Despite that though, kingpin will be in HL2, based on released concept art; and the purple space frogs have a cameo appearance in Blueshift.

So, I guess the moral here is that anything that gets cut will likely appear in subsequent expansions anyways.

As for Fragmaster, I'm fairly ambivalent. He was just kinda there the whole time. I hoped that the game wouldn't be delayed after september, but it looked suspiciously like it would be. His posts simply re-enforced that equivocation. Whatever fragmaster said, I accepted as an opinion, and left it at that.

Maybe now he will put bonus emphasis on SA though, causing funny?
 
bleh

I can't really partake in any speculation until after E3. Things are starting to look worse, especially with the source leak debacle, and the outright denial of delay until 7 days before the original ship date. I need some cold hard facts from Valve, and if I have to wait until May, I shall.
On a side note, Lombardi reminds me of Mohammad Said al-Sahaf, Iraq's former propoganda man.
 
did the thread stray, your post looks like stuff posted months ago.

Fragmaster leaving for me is a sign of PHL's need for a revamp, the owners are all btter trolls wailing and thrashing around while looking for new forum users to claw at. Death to the weird!
 
I will miss Fragmaster. He was a funny guy, and I actually liked his "pessimism." While other sites, and magazines, and Valve employees were all holding steadfast to their initial claim "HL2 will be out on 9/30," Fragmaster was also adamant in saying, "No it won't be." People just didn't want to hear that. I, personally, didn't want to hear it either; but when I read it, I was inclined to believe him. I never saw him as being an ass about things, either. He was just being honest, and got a lot of flak for it.

*Salutes*

Fragmaster, you will be missed.

And about the cut content, I doubt it will be anything of significance. It will definately not be anything in the way of graphics, AI, or physics; to cut one of those three things will result in such a backlash against them it wouldn't even be funny. Imagine how many people would be saying, "So, you had all this extra time to work on the game, and you took out one of the main selling points?!" A slip in the release date happens all the time, but to cut a major feature of your game? If they did, anytime they made a statement about anything afterwards, ever, would be taken with about 50 gallons of salt.

I also don't see it being something significant to the plot. That'd mean Marc Laidlaw would have to go back and rewrite something in the script to make things fit; doesn't sound plausible to me. Why'd HL get so many accolades? Storyline. Valve knows that's what gamers want; in fact an article from a very long time ago quoted Gabe as saying, "I think for $50, gamers want, and deserve, a storyline." They're not going to drop something major or have some huge plot hole missing for the sake of time.

Also, remember that Gabe just made a statement this week that they'll push Half-Life 2 back to 2005 if they have to, to ensure the quality of the game. That statement doesn't add up to them cutting content; at least, like I said, nothing major. So could Frags have been wrong? Possibly. But given his track record, I'd say his words have a lot of credibility to them (moreso than Valve's, at least). Could something have been cut? Also a possibility, but it's not likely to be something you'll ever cry over the loss of.
 
Darkside55 said:
Also, remember that Gabe just made a statement this week that they'll push Half-Life 2 back to 2005 if they have to, to ensure the quality of the game.
Click to expand...

That quote was from last year, actually. How it resurfaced, I don't know..
 
I still wonder from time to time why they stuck to the godamn sept. 30 date so long... from out standpoint it seems like a blatant lie this even proves it more oh well I dont care as long as it comes out eventually and is good
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

P
Ex-PHL forum members
Replies
32
Views
1K
Jintor
Jintor
Kangy
Something lurking in HL2.exe?
Replies
28
Views
4K
fragShader
fragShader
B
  • Locked
Fragmaster's Rant on Valve (and HL2)
Replies
1
Views
850
Axyon
Axyon
Kschreck
  • Locked
Truth Behind Half-Life 2 REVEALED! -The Fragmaster Speaks-
Replies
11
Views
2K
Kschreck
Kschreck
G
CSN Counterpoint
Replies
8
Views
818
xrdanielalan
X
Back
Top