Why I think Valve is keeping information from us

[Calerules123]

The developers at Valve are incredibly mysterious and because of that, we all have our theory as to why they keep information from us.

The developers at Valve(especially Gabe) know that we will explode in joy if ANY information regarding Episode Three is released. For all we know, Episode Three is making progress than we think. Anything Half-Life has a MASSIVE impact on Valve and their fans. The devs know that Ep3 is a much bigger project than L4D2 and they want L4D2 to make a lot of money. So, if they were to reveal anything about Episode Three before the year ended, it would take away Left 4 Dead 2's impact.

The Half-Life games don't sell amazingly but they do sell substantially. They learned last year that L4D can be used as a cash cow and they have L4D2 to prove that even further. They Half-Life games don't sell 3 million copies in the first two days after release like Halo 3; but Valve knows they been holding in Ep3 for long enough that even if Gabe Newell stepped up on a stage and said "Half-Life 2: Episode Three" then walked off, that we would scream like tweenage girls who had just seen Robert Pattinson.

I don't expect Valve has very much done with Ep 3 just yet. I say that they're maybe 2 fifths through the game. But that's more than what most of us think. They don't want us to know production on Ep3 is making progress at all. They want us to have our mind in the gutter until a few months after L4D2's release. The soonest I see info is maybe a little teaser at The Spike VGAs.

Lemme know your thoughts on this but if you're going to criticize, please be constructive rather than say "ZOMG UR SOOO DUM BCUZ YYOU TINK DAT!".

P.S. Sometimes I like to pee on children then yell at their parents for trying to stop me.

 

[henno13]

Becasue they want it to be a suprise.

 

[Przemek]

Yeah, I also think they simply want to make it a surprise, although keeping their mouths shut about it before L4D2 ships is also very likely.

I personally think that since Ep3 is an ambitious project, they want to surprise us - if they'd show us a screenshot, the wow effect would be gone. If Gabe told us "Gordon will be piloting the chopper, we have virtual texturing similar to idtech5 which makes the return to Xen look better than you'd expect"... it could be devastating

 

[Calerules123]

It's most likely for the shock we get when it comes out and for L4D2. Kind of like the way they revealed Half-Life 2 at E3 2003 and everybody pissed their pants in excitement. As Przemek said, Episode Three is an ambitious project. Left 4 Dead made quite a decent amount of money last year, I'd expect they'd be worried about the sequel's thunder getting raped if they revealed anything about Ep3.

 

[Polaris]

I still hope it's some kind of antibuzz marketing strategy...

 

[Apiary]

god I hope so...

 

[Darkside55]

The devs know that Ep3 is a much bigger project than L4D2 and they want L4D2 to make a lot of money. So, if they were to reveal anything about Episode Three before the year ended, it would take away Left 4 Dead 2's impact.

I STILL say that L4D2 is the Episode 3 marketing strategy.

Valve can't talk about Episode 3 because every time they talk about a game earlier it flubs on them and they end up cutting stuff they talked about and end up looking like liars, or they talk about stuff too early and everyone's gotta wait around with their thumbs up their butts listening to "We'll release it when it's done. We'll release it when it's done."

So how do you keep the hype going for a game that's not going to come out for a year or two, while not saying ANYTHING on it?

YOU RELEASE A GAME THAT CAUSES CONTROVERSY AND MAKES EVERYONE ASK, "WHERE'S EPISODE 3 VALVE? I DON'T CARE ABOUT L4D2, IT'S TOO SOON FOR A SEQUEL AND WE DON'T EVEN HAVE OUR CONTENT FOR L4D; WHY AREN'T YOU WORKING ON EPISODE 3 INSTEAD?"

And everybody keeps asking about Ep3. Everyone keeps wondering when the first news of Ep3 will be released. And every gaming convention Valve has been to in the year 2009, everyone's always a-titter: "OH! Valve's going to be at this games show! I wonder if they'll talk about Episode 3!"

And then they show L4D2.

And everyone's like, "WHERE'S EPISODE THREE?! Why are they only showing L4D2? Where is Episode 3?"

It's a perpetual hype machine.

 

[FISHY CRACKERS]

... Yeah... That.

 

[Calerules123]

The thing about Valve is that they make amazing games and come out with a new game about every year or two that have been in development for a a relatively long time(TF2 2007, L4D 2008, L4D2 2009 etc. People are worried about the quality of Left 4 Dead 2 because it's Valve and it's unusual for them to come out with a sequel so soon.

I respect Valve's marketing strategy as it has been proven to be quite useful but I must say that they're relatively lazy but whenever a simplistic game comes to mind (e.g L4D2, Portal), they get right on it like a god damn 10-year old on christmas opening a copy of Halo 3. But when the complicated things come along like EP3, CS2, or even TF2( seeing as it took ten years to develop), they seem to have to dismiss it until the the smaller games are done.

Ep3 is obviously a MUCH harder game to develop than L4D2, so Valve focuses less attention on it.
The good thing about Valve is that they DON'T pump out shitty cash-in sequels like Infinity Ward with the CoD franchise.
Modern Warfare 2 is obviously not going to be a great game, but the fans of the series will love it just because of the fact that it's a sequel. Same goes for L4D2. But it'll be better than MW2.

(Yes, I know there are separate teams working on specific games)

 

[Tyguy]

P.S. Sometimes I like to pee on children then yell at their parents for trying to stop me.

What if the parents are encouraging you to continue?

 

[Darkjigglypuff]

I just assumed they were pricks and wanted to grab their fans by the balls.

 

[gFrohman]

I STILL say that L4D2 is the Episode 3 marketing strategy.

Valve can't talk about Episode 3 because every time they talk about a game earlier it flubs on them and they end up cutting stuff they talked about and end up looking like liars, or they talk about stuff too early and everyone's gotta wait around with their thumbs up their butts listening to "We'll release it when it's done. We'll release it when it's done."

So how do you keep the hype going for a game that's not going to come out for a year or two, while not saying ANYTHING on it?

YOU RELEASE A GAME THAT CAUSES CONTROVERSY AND MAKES EVERYONE ASK, "WHERE'S EPISODE 3 VALVE? I DON'T CARE ABOUT L4D2, IT'S TOO SOON FOR A SEQUEL AND WE DON'T EVEN HAVE OUR CONTENT FOR L4D; WHY AREN'T YOU WORKING ON EPISODE 3 INSTEAD?"

And everybody keeps asking about Ep3. Everyone keeps wondering when the first news of Ep3 will be released. And every gaming convention Valve has been to in the year 2009, everyone's always a-titter: "OH! Valve's going to be at this games show! I wonder if they'll talk about Episode 3!"

And then they show L4D2.

And everyone's like, "WHERE'S EPISODE THREE?! Why are they only showing L4D2? Where is Episode 3?"

It's a perpetual hype machine.

This.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Becasue they want it to be a suprise.

The only surprise I want to see is Gabe jumping out of a massive cake shouting out "We've gone Gold"

It would certainly raise a few eyebrows on youtube

 

[DEATH eVADER]

It's a perpetual hype machine.

If it is, its working

 

[Calerules123]

I just had an amazing yet unlikely idea. Would you expect maybe a teaser trailer included in the extras for L4D2?

 

[JUL3]

If Gabe Newell stepped up on a stage and said "Half-Life 2: Episode Three" then walked off, that we would scream like tweenage girls who had just seen Robert Pattinson.

That made me laugh, thank you

 

[henno13]

If Gabe Newell stepped up on a stage and said "Half-Life 2: Episode Three" then walked off, that we would scream like tweenage girls who had just seen Robert Pattinson.

If footage was shown after that I would spend all day watching it while trying to stop my limbs from shaking with excitment.

But, if it that just happened without any footage whatsoever, I would be absoluely pissed. I would be like this: