Why is it called Half-Life?

[Investigator]

because once you buy it thats what it will become..

i thought the same. Once you are into the game it will coste you half of your life because it is that adictive ( hl actually did this to me).

That may be the most abstract and inovative reason why they chose the name.

:cheers:

 

[CrazyHarij]

Is anomalous [materials] a word?

Errm, yeah.

 

[Gorgon]

The question is: Did we notice any HALF-LIFE happenning during the first part of the sega ?

 

[ASnogarD]

Name of the game could be a deep hidden mystery clue into the game, or could be a simple case of 'that sounds cool'

Could almost see at a dev meeting :

Gabe: Make the game as close to Real Life as possible.

Team:Err sorry Gabe we only got it half right...could we just call it Half Life ?

 

[CrazyHarij]

Name of the game could be a deep hidden mystery clue into the game, or could be a simple case of 'that sounds cool'

Could almost see at a dev meeting :

Gabe: Make the game as close to Real Life as possible.

Team:Err sorry Gabe we only got it half right...could we just call it Half Life ?

LOL! Heh, kinda like a guy in a former thread said, "You know why it's called Half-Life? Because you spend HALF of your LIFE playing it!"

 

[Driftlight]

Another scientific term for ya - the Gluon Gun. Gluons are the strong force messenger particles. The strong force is what holds atomic nuclei together, so it is entirely appropriate that the gluon gun vaporizes people (ie, weakens the strong force).

Edit: typos

 

[Runteh]

Half-Life was used as a game title to represent how much of our lives we have (will) spent waiting for HL and HL2.

LOL nice :cheers:

 

[JimmehH]

Tau Cannon/Gauss Gun are also physics puns along with the chapter names.

(Edit: OK, two of them)
(Edit 2: OK. Just the one)

 

[Lanthanide]

I think they probably called it Half-Life towards the end of the game's development, rather than the start. Probably had a bunch of names they were tossing around.

But anyway, the Lambda Complex/Core is obviously a large part of the game, and it was named that because it's sciency and black mesa is full of scientists and scientists are geeks so they like having themed names for such things. So if you look at the symbol for Lambda, you also know that it's the constant for radioactive decay, which is called a Half-Life.

Perhaps there are other reasons they chose the name, but IMO this seems like the most likely route to take.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

It's called half-life because it sounds cool.

 

[DEATH eVADER]

ive never known the answer to this question and ive never thought to ask. Until now.

Does anybody know why it's called Half-Life. I know what half-life is, but i dont understand how it could apply to the game half-life.

I'll delete this thread when i get an answer.

I actually posted questions to Gabe on the lines of
"Why did you decide to call the original game HalfLife?"
And
"Does this title play a significant roll in the sequal"

Never got a reply, but this is my theory

HalfLife- The time it takes for our Hero, Gordon Freeman, to fall to half his health percentage

 

[RogueShadow]

If HL1 is half-life, shouldn't HL2 be full-life? Since we got two half-life's? :O
Just kidding around.

I'm sure of this, It is based from the physics thing. Once of the reason's has to do with the type of work they did at black mesa. And there are likely half a dozen other reason's why it's called that.

Kinda like Good Will Hunting. His name is WIll Hunting, He is WIll, and he is hunting for answers, he's a Good guy and his name is Will.

 

[killerteoz]

why somone don't mail gabe? :bounce:

 

[DreamWraith]

heh. forgot to mention in my first post in this thread that this was 'sort of' being discussed in another... talks more about what the name means rather than why the name is therehttp://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=24038

 

[wonkers]

They used the Lamda symbol because it looks like an 'H' & a tilted 'L'. That was the first thing I thought before I even knew it was Lamda.

 

[peoplesuc]

A reason for the title.

I think it is because you are always going around the game with 50% health. You don't want players to always be an inch from death as well as having 100% shield and health.

I really don't care what the reasons are for calling it what it is. The majority of people know that the name refers to a video game and not the radioactive decay of an element.

 

[Tea]

I wonder the same about Condition Zero.. what in the world does the name have to do with the game anymore?

...obviously using the same Two Completely Unrelated and Confusing but Cool Sounding Words Generator™ used by the people who make Rainbow Six sequels.