ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up - 4th November 2013 + Costume Contest Winner!

[Omnomnick]

Halloween is always a busy time for Valve and the community. In the past week, Team Fortress 2 received its fifth annual "Helloween" special, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was updated with a few small Halloween touches, and Dota 2's Diretide update failed to appear. Yes, you read that correctly. Check out the ValveTime Weekly News Round-Up for 4th November 2013 to catch up on all the latest game updates, announcements, and community rampages!

Don't forget to subscribe for more ValveTime videos, news, and reviews coming soon. While you're at it, be sure to check out our Dota 2 Announcer Pack over on the Steam Workshop to rate us positively! As always, thanks for watching.

 

[Gloone]

Valve's pretty atrocious communication is starting to tarnish their reputation as a company. The shitty attitude towards the still-unexplained absence of Episode Three has long since become a running joke, but this time they tried to pull the same shit with an active fanbase, and they just flipped. I've been hearing bad things from the Dota 2 fanbase for a while; it sounds like this was the tipping point. Valve broke a promise, pulled their usual "say nothing and pretend nothing has happened" shit, and just for good measure, added some new hats to the game, rather than, say, fixing any of the long-standing, totally ignored major issues. It boggles the mind that Valve still haven't fired Lombardi. Their attitude is terrible and it's starting to become part of Valve's image.

 

[Omnomnick]

The shitty attitude towards the still-unexplained absence of Episode Three has long since become a running joke, but this time they tried to pull the same shit with an active fanbase,

The community knows what happened to Episode Three, and Valve knows we know. Also, are you saying the Half-Life fan base isn't active?

 

[Gloone]

I think it's clear what I mean. Dota 2 is a huge game at the moment; the Half-Life series isn't. Personally my opinion of Valve is quite a bit lower post-Dota. I don't play it personally, but from the sounds of it, there are some really big, long-standing problems with things like abuse, reporting, and matchmaking, and Valve have simply ignored everybody and done nothing. It's surprising, bemusing, and very disappointing.

With respects to Episode Three, it's just a fact of history. Valve had announced the game, missed the release date with no explanation, and said nothing at all for a very long time. Even now they refuse to speak about it properly. What's going on with the franchise is frankly anyone's guess. It was also, I hasten to remind you, the same with HL2. They lied about the release date for a year, and when it came and went, they said bugger all. Exactly the same deal here with Dota. They simply refuse to learn from the past.

 

[Omnomnick]

I think it's clear what I mean. Dota 2 is a huge game at the moment; the Half-Life series isn't.

Tell that to the entire gaming industry and a lot of it's audience.

I don't play it personally, but from the sounds of it, there are some really big, long-standing problems with things like abuse, reporting, and matchmaking, and Valve have simply ignored everybody and done nothing.

You've been reading too many threads on PlayDota and the Dota 2 Dev forums.

With respects to Episode Three, it's just a fact of history. Valve had announced the game, missed the release date with no explanation, and said nothing at all for a very long time.

What release date would this be?

What's going on with the franchise is frankly anyone's guess.

No need to guess. We know what is going on with it.

It was also, I hasten to remind you, the same with HL2. They lied about the release date for a year, and when it came and went, they said bugger all.

Lied about the release date? Delaying a game in order to improve the quality is not the same as lying. Not to mention Valve did actually acknowledge the delay and announce that the game was pushed back until 2004, not that this has anything to do with Dota 2 or Half-Life 3.

 

[Vegeta897]

Gloone is a prime example of the new age of entitled gamers. I see plenty of them on the /dayz/ subreddit. If developers aren't being 100% transparent about every little thing, they complain ceaselessly.

 

[Gloone]

God, you talk so much nonsense.

Tell that to the entire gaming industry and a lot of it's audience.

...tell what? I just explained what I meant. Do you honestly not understand or do you just like arguing for the sake of it? There haven't been any new Half-Life games for many years. Dota is a new release, an active franchise with hundreds of thousands of active players. Half-Life, currently, isn't. Do you deny this or something? Because that's all I was ever saying.

You've been reading too many threads on PlayDota and the Dota 2 Dev forums.

I've never been to either.

What release date would this be?

They never gave a specific day, but they said 2007. The episodes were supposed to be episodic, released within months, not years. The salient point is that they must have abandoned the third such release a long time before they told anybody.

No need to guess. We know what is going on with it.

...we have no idea if the series is being actively developed. We know of only a very small core team of people dedicated to its development, and that was through a leak, not Valve's communication.

Lied about the release date? Delaying a game in order to improve the quality is not the same as lying. Not to mention Valve did actually acknowledge the delay and announce that the game was pushed back until 2004, not that this has anything to do with Dota 2 or Half-Life 3.

Uh... I was the one making the point. Please don't tell me what's relevant to my own point - which was Valve's reputation, namely its chronic problems with customer relations. HL2 is blatantly directly pertinent to this.

As to them lying about HL2's release date, you clearly have simply no idea what you're talking about. Go read "the final days of Half-Life 2". They knew for a long time that they weren't going to make their promised release date, and yet they didn't just go silent - they kept lying, to their fans and even to their sponsors, 'til within a few days of the release. And when the release date came and went, they gave no explanation whatever as to what had happened or what was going to happen.

Gloone is a prime example of the new age of entitled gamers. I see plenty of them on the /dayz/ subreddit. If developers aren't being 100% transparent about every little thing, they complain ceaselessly.

Except I'm not talking about them keeping secrets, I'm talking about them lying. Don't you know the difference? Valve promised this event to the Dota fans, and it didn't happen. When it became clear they'd been dishonest, Valve said nothing at all by way of explanation. If you don't think this is grounds to lower your esteem for a company, then you're just a chump, pure and simple.

 

[TechnoHippyChic]

No need to guess. We know what is going on with it.

We do? I must've missed it.

Lied about the release date? Delaying a game in order to improve the quality is not the same as lying. Not to mention Valve did actually acknowledge the delay and announce that the game was pushed back until 2004, not that this has anything to do with Dota 2 or Half-Life 3.

To be fair, IIRC, they were saying up until a few days before the 30th "Yep, still on track for release". Surely they knew long before that it would be delayed.

 

[Omnomnick]

There haven't been any new Half-Life games for many years. Dota is a new release, an active franchise with hundreds of thousands of active players. Half-Life, currently, isn't.

Apparently thousands and thousands of people have to be playing a title for the series to be active. Only multiplayer games can now be classed as active by that logic, unless you expect people to continuously replay linear singleplayer games until a new release.

They never gave a specific day, but they said 2007. The episodes were supposed to be episodic, released within months, not years.

That would be 2008. Saying "2008" is not a definitive launch date, it's a deliberately broad estimate.

The salient point is that they must have abandoned the third such release a long time before they told anybody.

Remind me how you have a right to know what Valve are doing? You never placed a pre-order or put down a deposit. Valve never promised you anything. They owe you nothing.

...we have no idea if the series is being actively developed.

No, we know. We knew before the leak. The leak just provided us with concrete evidence.

Except I'm not talking about them keeping secrets, I'm talking about them lying.

Staying silent is not lying.

Don't you know the difference? Valve promised this event to the Dota fans, and it didn't happen.

When did they promise it? Valve hasn't made any reference to Diretide since the last event ended in November 2012. The only reference point people have for complaining is the word "Annual", which appeared once or twice in the original announced. The announcement has since been removed from the blog panel and is only accessible via external links or through the original blog posts. They promised nothing.

Sure it's disappointing that they didn't release the gamemode this year, but I can't exactly blame them for not doing it after the utter cluster**** which happened during last year's event. You're right in saying it would be nice for Valve to communicate with fans more, which is something that applies to all businesses, but you have no right to demand it.

 

[kineaesth]

You have no right to demand him not to demand it

 

[Omnomnick]

You have no right to demand him not to demand it

You have no right to demand that I don't demand him not to demand it.

 

[kineaesth]

None of us have rights - none of us are free.

 

[Vegeta897]

Bring back Munro.

 

[Gloone]

Apparently thousands and thousands of people have to be playing a title for the series to be active.

Well that's how I was defining it, so yes, well done.

That would be 2008. Saying "2008" is not a definitive launch date, it's a deliberately broad estimate.

They announced 2007, actually - Christmas 2007.

I'm not sure which universe you're living in, but if you say you're going to release in a specific year, and then that year passes without release or explanation - that's called missing a release date. Stop wasting my time with utter nonsense.

Remind me how you have a right to know what Valve are doing? You never placed a pre-order or put down a deposit. Valve never promised you anything. They owe you nothing.

Uh... what do you mean, "right"? A legal right? I never claimed to have any kind of legal right. Stop with the pathetic strawmen.

All I have said is that Valve's communications with its customers have been bad, and that has lowered my opinion of the company. Why is the logic of this so utterly bamboozling to you? I have the right to form a negative opinion if a company does negative things. If you don't think I have that right... 'grats, you're a chump.

No, we know. We knew before the leak. The leak just provided us with concrete evidence.

Care to cite the specific piece of communication which finally gave us a clear idea of how active the development was and is?

Staying silent is not lying.

Again, I can't speak for whichever universe you inhabit, but in mine, saying you'll do an annual event, and then not, without telling anyone... is called 'lying'.

Same goes for HL2. Saying the game will be published on September 30, when it's a few days before and you know that you're a year or so away, isn't called 'staying silent'. It's called 'lying', and unless you're a complete sucker, you'll lower your opinions of a company for behaving like that.

 

[Omnomnick]

-blah blah, I am entitled to talk with Gabe Newell on a daily basis via Skype-

Unfortunately, you're going to have to find something new to complain about. Maybe you could complain about hats in Team Fortress 2 and how they have ruined the game.

http://www.valvetime.net/threads/dota-2-team-discusses-diretide-absence-announces-return.244067/

http://blog.dota2.com/2013/11/not-my-best-work/

 

[MFL]

Man, I think TF2 started goin downhill around the time they added backblast.

 

[Omnomnick]

Man, I think TF2 started goin downhill around the time they added backblast.

Goldrush killed the game.

 

[Gloone]

Unfortunately, you're going to have to find something new to complain about.

This is just Valve themselves admitting to what I've been saying this whole time: their communication sucked.

They knew they weren't going to make a promise, and by their own admission, for some bizarre reason they actively decided to stay silent instead of just... explaining to everybody. As a result things became ten times worse than if they'd just been honest. It's what they did with Episode Three. It's what they did with Half-Life 2.

It's become a recurring theme and I can't fathom why they are unable to just get to grips with the problem and learn to just tell people when they haven't met a promise. How many more times does this have to happen before they learn the lesson?

 

[MFL]

Nah, the cartoon art style did em in.

 

[Gloone]

Nah, the cartoon art style did em in.

Lol