Steam subscription service will be having things like levels showing off Alyx's backs

[ImportLightning]

We played Barney once, why not again?

 

[Lobster]

and what happened to the mysterious Adrian Sheppared, Did he really become the gmans whipping boy? only time will tell.

 

[blahblahblah]

I am against this 100%.

I look at it this way. Most popular games release patches to fix bugs, but also add bonus content such as new models, new weapons and new multiplayer maps. I believe Valve has found a way to charge for such bonus material that would be normally free through patches. It really sounds like they are trying to create HL2 as some sort of MMORPG which I am against.

 

[The.Spiral]

I am against all MMORPG. But, if Valve actually gives us the option, I guess it's OK, as long as all the stuff they give to the subscribers is available somewhere else.

 

[kalayq]

I posted this in a thread a while back (I can't find it anymore) but if you do subscribe you will probably have to do so for a certain period of time, maybe 10-12 months. This way you as the consumer, can get to keep all the content you have paid for (HL2 + extra content), while Valve makes enough money (over time) to let you keep what you have already paid for. So in the end it will cost a person $100-120 USD over the period of a year. Now if they can pump out enough interesting content over that period of time, then I'll have no problem handing over $13.74 cdn of my paycheck each month. Thats only a little more then it costs for a movie ticket. If I can get the same entertainment value for about the same price, then I don't see the problem personally. And for those of you who are complaing that you don't have enough money to offord the subscription costs, well then you will only play HL2 w/o any extras. Which is the SAME as any other non mmo game being offered. Just remember, most if not all game publishers do NOT add new content for their games, so why is this any different?
</rant>

 

[blahblahblah]

I posted this in a thread a while back (I can't find it anymore) but if you do subscribe you will probably have to do so for a certain period of time, maybe 10-12 months. This way you as the consumer, can get to keep all the content you have paid for (HL2 + extra content), while Valve makes enough money (over time) to let you keep what you have already paid for. So in the end it will cost a person $100-120 USD over the period of a year. Now if they can pump out enough interesting content over that period of time, then I'll have no problem handing over $13.74 cdn of my paycheck each month. Thats only a little more then it costs for a movie ticket. If I can get the same entertainment value for about the same price, then I don't see the problem personally. And for those of you who are complaing that you don't have enough money to offord the subscription costs, well then you will only play HL2 w/o any extras. Which is the SAME as any other non mmo game being offered. Just remember, most if not all game publishers do NOT add new content for their games, so why is this any different?
</rant>

You are assuming the Steam Subscription will cost $10 or 13.74 cdn a month. I don't believe Valve has determined what price they will charge for the Steam subscription service.

 

[CyberSh33p]

WAIT!!! if i subscribe to steam i get a mod all about alyx's backside? !!! /me subscribes

heh, thats what I thought when I first read this

 

[kalayq]

I chose $10 USD because the cyber cafe program listed that price (when they had it on their site) for the monthly fee.

 

[Quixote]

Frankly, However they decide to charge, I think that there are a lot of people that would pay a lot of money to see Alyx's backside.

 

[Cutey_Kaite]

Frankly, However they decide to charge, I think that there are a lot of people that would pay a lot of money to see Alyx's backside.

that is until they relize that they can do it for free in HLMV

 

[jet jaguar]

If HL had been available via Steam back when it first came out up to present day...
1998 to 2004 = 6 years
6x12 months = 72 payments at $10/ea or $720 total
What you'd get for your subscription: Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic, Counterstrike, HL: Op Force, HL: Blue Shift, Gunmen, Day of Defeat, Hi-def pack.

Question you have to ask is this. Was that worth $720? Even if Valve doubled productivity over 6 years would it be worth $720? I don't think the subscription should even be an option because it gives Valve too much incentive to charge for stuff other companies have given for free(Epic with Unreal Tournament's expansion packs and Id with RTCW: Enemy Territory). Plus, with the money that Steam saves Valve wouldn't that be more than enough to pay for it's servers? Anyway, I won't be subscribing.

 

[Ahnteis]

IMPORTANT QUOTE FROM PCZone TALKING TO GABE:

"Our hope is that some people will be getting this new content from a subscription basis, while others will be buying a la carte over Steam or in retail stores."

(Emphasis added)

He continues by specifically mentioning Alyx's back-story and new multiplayer games.
There you have it folks.

 

[CrazyHarij]

This is pretty crappy, but still someone of the subscribers would be spreading it all out to everyone.

 

[ferd]

lol, this thread doesnt have the effect it should have

 

[Feath]

prove it.....

Prove that it is.

 

[Feath]

If HL had been available via Steam back when it first came out up to present day...
1998 to 2004 = 6 years
6x12 months = 72 payments at $10/ea or $720 total
What you'd get for your subscription: Half-Life, Team Fortress Classic, Counterstrike, HL: Op Force, HL: Blue Shift, Gunmen, Day of Defeat, Hi-def pack.

Question you have to ask is this. Was that worth $720? Even if Valve doubled productivity over 6 years would it be worth $720? I don't think the subscription should even be an option because it gives Valve too much incentive to charge for stuff other companies have given for free(Epic with Unreal Tournament's expansion packs and Id with RTCW: Enemy Territory). Plus, with the money that Steam saves Valve wouldn't that be more than enough to pay for it's servers? Anyway, I won't be subscribing.

I know what you mean! Three years ago I bought "Strange Days" on video and it cost me £7.99. But if I rented from the video shop, it would have cost me £2 a night. That's £2910. That's quite a lot of money!

OH EM GEE! I'm never going to rent a video ever. It's a complete rip off.

I think you can see my point.

(For those people who don't, getting a subscription isn't going to end up costing you more than the game, unless you have it for more than a few months).

 

[CrazyHarij]

(correction) Gunman isn't made by Valve or anything

 

[Sui]

I know what you mean! Three years ago I bought "Strange Days" on video and it cost me £7.99. But if I rented from the video shop, it would have cost me £2 a night. That's £2910. That's quite a lot of money!

OH EM GEE! I'm never going to rent a video ever. It's a complete rip off.

I think you can see my point.

(For those people who don't, getting a subscription isn't going to end up costing you more than the game, unless you have it for more than a few months).

i completely agree. i will be missing out on loads by not subscribing, but i am NOT paying monthly!!! its as simple as that. Valve will lose a LOT of gamers online by doing this.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

If I remember correctly, Valve said they would try to release 1 expansion pack of decent length every 2 months. To me, I don't think those are worth subscribing to. Most likely they will appear in stores and I'll like buy 'em off ebay or something. Hell, I might just not buy them cause I haven't beaten HL1 and played bout 5 mins of OpForce before it bugged out and I couldn't move.

If they also would release things like HL3 *cough cough* and like TF2 all for free with expansion packs and continuous tech upgrades etc etc then IDK could be worth it.... Doubt it tho cause I just don't have the funding.

*edit* I'm guessing this system could be much like Guild Wars, a MMORPG that does not charge monthly fees. They would release the first game (in our case HL2) and they would like release patches yada yada, but then they would release an expansion back that would open up more of the world to the player. In the example of Guild Wars, a player who doesn't buy an expansion doesn't have access to those areas or special features but can still mingle with those who do, however anyone who does buy the expansion has more access to the land that is constantly being created.

TBH I have a gut feeling that valve will release maybe like sets of expansion packs at a time, after the subscribers get them, in like sets of 2 (so maybe you get like alyx's backstory and you get to play as a combine in one pack) etc etc.

my idea on how it will go down..

 

[Feath]

Even if it subscriber only (Which no one said it was).

Here's what you do

Subscribe for one month. That's a new game for $10 which is next to nothing.

 

[Feath]

i completely agree. i will be missing out on loads by not subscribing, but i am NOT paying monthly!!! its as simple as that. Valve will lose a LOT of gamers online by doing this.

I'm going to assume that you meant to reply to the guy I replied to. Either that or you really do think renting videos is a rip off.

 

[moppe]

Well, the montly pay is optional?
You can just buy the games and play for how long as you want.

 

[ComradeBadger]

You can buy all the new content in stores ffs.

Valve aren't going to miss out on people's money.

 

[Quixote]

I plan on being one of the people that buys HL2 in stores but then orders ala cart from steam. I wonder what the price point will be on things like CS2 and the like.
Does anyone know if the physics system will be working during multiplayer player or will it be largely turned off as in far cry?

 

[jet jaguar]

Feath, believe it or not but some people have been playing HL or HL-mods since it was released back in '98. I personally wouldn't want to go through the hassle of signing up for a subscription everytime I wanted to play HL2 or one of it's mods or any other Valve-related game(I'm assuming that's what you meant with your video rental analogy). The point I was making was that if you subscribe you can end up paying a hell of a lot more than buying the games outright. If you're a casual player that can be satisfied with playing HL2 for a month then subscribing might be for you. I'm pretty sure that Gabe was aiming for some people to continually subscribe for Steam enabled Valve games...why else would he have talked about putting out new content on a consistent basis if it wasn't to lure subscribers?

Also, you can't compare watching a movie to playing a game. With a good game, the experience is not only highly interactive but it can also be very different everytime you play. I can't count the number of times I played through HL's Hostile Waters level just to see how the AI would react to different tactics and situations.

 

[Plug]

I read this quote somewhere else and interpreted it differently.

Why do people instantly assume Valve is the big bad money chomping wolf?
Why is everything that valve does stupid and terrible?

As if they're going to cut people off from playing the extra content if they don't use the monthly subscribe option.

The way i interpreted it is if you have a steam account, (subscribe to steam) you can download the extra content. Makes sense to me, but i may be wrong.

Either way, i think Valve is smart enough to know NOT to cut off most of it's community by only having the extra content through some monthly subscription service...

I emphasise this....
- - - - -V
Remember when everybody went ape Sh*t when they announced the subscription plan?
People left right and center jumped up and down screaming that their multiplayer was no longer free.

Pfft.

Just wait, in a little while. All you people who have bashed valve will find out that they aren't as stupid as you think.

 

[Varsity]

Also, you can't compare watching a movie to playing a game. With a good game, the experience is not only highly interactive but it can also be very different everytime you play. I can't count the number of times I played through HL's Hostile Waters level just to see how the AI would react to different tactics and situations.

Half-Life + Hostile Waters?