WillH visits Valve!

[Huntee]

Hey, WillH what kind of school project did you do to be able meet him? I live in kirkland and were going to have a huge senior project where we pick a subject and I would like to know if it would be feasible to visit valves offices. Thank you for your time.

 

[Cunni]

I was wondering if any fan who makes an appointment can visit?

 

[LAYP]

Sigh, the best support we can give valve is not bothering them and let them get the game out. Patience... And I can't imagine what the forums will be like when the game is out. Total "OMG HL2 IS OUT GET IT NOW IM GONNA GO PLAY BYE!!!" And then it will be silent for a couple hours, with the occasional guy posting saying "well, my game glitched when i threw a grenade at alyx while she was handing me my mp7." so he'd thawt he'd post it. And also there's the moaning section where people who can't get the game are just whining about it. Then poeple will take a little brake and talk about their first impressions. And more playing... then the next day some walkthroughs will be developed, people will update their HL2 info sections on various fan-sites, bug reporting, busy day for Valve. After a month or two poeple will have beaten the game, and will start forming clans like -_M4nipuLATOR onLY XxlZ RTSDF CLan_- And perhaps a patch will be released fixing the reported bugs. Mod makers will be busy modeling and mapping away. Poeple will start posting thier fun game experiences and "physics testing" levels. Forum mods will be busy cleaning all the spam they got on the initial release... What a happy time it will be...

Yeah, that just aobut sums it up. C'mon Valve get the game out!

Then they announce an expassion should arive by 2005!

 

[Vegeta897]

Ohhh yeah, expansions... "Opposing Force 2" Where you are a combine soldier, and something like, "Citizen #581" Where you are a C17 prisoner. But isn't there a mod coming out called "Citizen 132" with the same idea? Oh well whatever it's going to rock any way they do it. I'd be happy enough with Half-Life 2 SP, no multiplay, no mods no expansions. SP is all I need to keep me busy for atleast 28 years.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Sorry to go OT

are you vegeta from the gamingsites200 forums?



I'm waiting patiently for HL2 tbh

 

[Vegeta897]

Uhhh... I don't recall "Gaming Sites 200" Could you give me a link to one of "my" posts? Sorry for OT.

Uhhh, yeah, go Valve! Ummm. Right.

 

[ComradeBadger]

Nah, the guy was a regular

I was just stopping by

 

[RblDiver]

So Will, do you actually GO to DigiPen, or are you simply an interested candidate? If so, what year (I'm 2nd semester)? And he's right, we're 100% game over here! I love it! Hard, but fun!

 

[WillH]

Hey, WillH what kind of school project did you do to be able meet him? I live in kirkland and were going to have a huge senior project where we pick a subject and I would like to know if it would be feasible to visit valves offices. Thank you for your time.

Yeah I'm sure, just email Gabe, I bet he'd be more than willing to help out.

So Will, do you actually GO to DigiPen, or are you simply an interested candidate? If so, what year (I'm 2nd semester)? And he's right, we're 100% game over here! I love it! Hard, but fun!

No, I don't goto Digipen, still in High School right now, they are way up there on my future choices though.

*Big Edit*
I realized alot of you were confused by not seeing the questions just the answers so I went through my logs and copied the whole chat, skip the rest of this post if you don't care, its quite big.
* WillH met gabe!
* WillH is still happy
* Mitoboy curses violently at WillH
* Mitoboy is pissed off now
<WillH> He's actually a cool guy
<WillH> and the camera doesn't add 20 pounds
<synth> willh did you take pics?
<Mitoboy> Synth, why would you ever want that in your signature? I mean, people would corner you and beat the living crap out of you for having something like that in your sig.
<WillH> no pics, I didn't have my cam
<synth> you just don't like your name associated with it
<synth> bastard!
<synth> when you go to valve you are *required* to present evidence
<WillH> I'm not required to do anything
<synth> you are now!11
<WillH> a little to late for that
<synth> plus it'd be neat to see more of Valve's offices and staff
<Mitoboy> Synth, ill hold him, you take the shots at the gut and face
<WillH> Although I did see Hammer in action
<WillH> it was a cool looking house like scene
* tr0n has joined #halflife2
<synth> is it much different than the released hammer?
<WillH> nope
<WillH> looks practically the same
<Mitoboy> i gtg now. Bye, nice meeting you again.
<synth> post a big description of what you saw (remember as many details as possible without pulling shit out of your ass), and I'll post it on the front page
<WillH> I got an HL2 poster too
<WillH> What I saw?
<synth> bye mitoboy
<WillH> I didn't see much
<WillH> Nothing that hasnt' already been said
<synth> well post something on the forums anyway
<WillH> I just met the people there and interviewed Gabe
<synth> in case there's anything new that hasn't been described
<WillH> Why? its not that big of a deal
<Mitoboy> Synth, you sure you dont want me to hod him while you beat him?
<synth> did you ask gabe any new questions?
<WillH> Uhh I saw their NES
<synth> Mitoboy you were supposed to be away
<WillH> I asked him stuff related to the Video Game industry
<WillH> nothing HL2 related
* _Mace has joined #halflife2
* Mitoboy hears the tabliods
<WillH> it was for a school project
<synth> ffs
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* Q sets mode: +o Abom|Away
<synth> you visit valve and you don't ask about half-life 2?
<WillH> I was trying to get questions together the night before I went but nobody was on
<DiSTuRbEdofX> WillH
<Mitoboy> i was on
<WillH> I got one hl2 related question so I didn't bother asking any
<DiSTuRbEdofX> you get your interview?
<synth> couldn't think up your own?
<WillH> yeah
<WillH> no
<synth> :|
<WillH> I'm unoriginal
<synth> okay...
<DiSTuRbEdofX> WillH who did you meet from VALVe?
<WillH> Although Gabe gave me new found inspiration to make a mod
<synth> so, tell us what he told you about the game industry then :/
<Mitoboy> Are you sure that i cant hold him while you beat him synth?
<synth> what did he say about you and mods willh?
<WillH> Met Gabe, their secretary, Mark Laidlaw
<synth> Mitoboy - sure, if you insist
<Mitoboy> ill get the bamboo shoots also
<WillH> some other people I don't remember
* Sarin has joined #halflife2
* Mitoboy holds Willh's arms behind his back while waiting for synth
<WillH> I don't remember the guys name but he worked on Duke Nukem 3d and HL2
<WillH> er... 1
<WillH> and 2 now i guess
* synth kills WillH. Job done, everyone rejoices
<WillH> Why kill me?
<Sarin> lo all
<Mitoboy> yay
<synth> because of no HL2 ;(
<Sarin> me birthday today!
<Sarin> happy birthday me
<DiSTuRbEdofX> synth
<Mitoboy> happy b-day
<WillH> Anyway Gabe told me the best way to get into the Games industry is Mods
<WillH> no.1 for sure
* synth changes topic to '010,1H A L F - L I F E7,1 ² 7:: www.halflife2.net 7:: Sven Co-op 3.0 -> www.svencoop.com 7:: happy birthday Sarin \o/'
<WillH> and the worst way is Quality Assurance
<synth> lol
<DiSTuRbEdofX> tell algro to send you the unedited pic of the black board
<synth> like beta testing?
<WillH> yeah
<synth> anything else about mods?
<WillH> He said that there is practically a wall between the QA people and actually devs
<DiSTuRbEdofX> QA?
<WillH> Quality Assurance
* Retrieving #halflife2 modes...
* Mitoboy alrady has his mod making books, but gives up becuase he has no F-ing clue what to do first or undertand anything they say.
* GAME|JelloCube is now known as JelloCube27
<DiSTuRbEdofX> what do QA people do?
<WillH> Hmm... about mods, well if you release a mod and continue updating it that is 10x better than working on a commercial project that was canned
<WillH> He said having released a game is the A, no.1 way to get into the industry
<synth> Did he say why?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> what do QA people do?
<WillH> They test the games
* Mitoboy jumps from a plane, and forgot his parachute on the seat.
<synth> DiSTuRbEdofX: beta testing
<synth> WillH what else did you talk to him about?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> thats my new damn position, DiSTURBED QA person
<Mitoboy> AHHHH SPLAT!
* Mitoboy has quit IRC (Quit: Dead)
<WillH> Programming, EA, Steam,
* JelloCube27 is now known as Gone
<WillH> ahh and Digipen
<synth> can you explain these other topics and what he said about them?
* Sadako has quit IRC (Read error: EOF from client)
<WillH> About programming, it was pretty much just the whole, Making a mod is the best way to get into the industry, its a good Idea to take Fine Arts classes like drawing and drama if you want to make games
<DiSTuRbEdofX> what do QA people do?
<synth> what about Steam?
<WillH> He said that a Computer Sciences degree wasn't a requirement at all, one of their best programmers (Yahn, I think) has a Fine Arts degree
<WillH> About steam he said its going to be the way of the future as it eliminates all the expensive parts of game distrobution like advertising, packaging etc
<WillH> nothing really new but it was relevant to the question I asked
* Gone is now known as MooseAWAY|Jello
<synth> what about EA?
* MooseAWAY|Jello is now known as Stuff|JelloCube
<DiSTuRbEdofX> did you ask him, did he laugh when CXG where cancelled?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> b/c I wouldve been sitting there laughing
<WillH> He said their way of marketing over the TV and in newspapers is going to be less and less effective as the years go on
<synth> that's all?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> EA?
<WillH> because gamers are getting less and less of their info from print forms and more and more from web sites
<DiSTuRbEdofX> saves money too
<WillH> He pretty much trashed EA's whole business planb
* Stuff|JelloCube is now known as Scrpt|JelloCube
<synth> what did he say about Digipen?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> EA=Electronic Arts?
<synth> yes
<WillH> He said they are a great school because everyone there is 100% about games, they love games, games are their lives and they aren't there to get drunk waste 4 years etc. they are their cause they love games
<WillH> I don't think I could get into Digipen though...
<WillH> I wish I could
<synth> is it very competitive?
<WillH> very
<DiSTuRbEdofX> who is competetive valve or ea?
<synth> Digipen
<WillH> Digipen
<synth> www.digipen.edu
<WillH> I'll be applying there anyway of course
<synth> ok willH, did he say anything else?
<WillH> Hold on lemme look at my questions and jog my memory
<synth> brb
<WillH> Hmm.. nope I think I pretty much got it all
<DiSTuRbEdofX> wtf is digipen?
<WillH> its a school
<WillH> for Video Games
<WillH> development anyway
<DiSTuRbEdofX> oh
<DiSTuRbEdofX> valve look like a frenzy when you went?
<WillH> nope
<DiSTuRbEdofX> finishing shit and whatnot?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> or tweaking?
<WillH> Mostly people just working
<DiSTuRbEdofX> could you see what tehy were working on?
<WillH> Yeah
<WillH> some of em
<WillH> synth are you making a news post out of this?
<DiSTuRbEdofX> can you tell what you saw plz?
* Scrpt|JelloCube is now known as Away|JelloCube
* Away|JelloCube is now known as SLEEP|JelloCube
<WillH> I didn't see much in detail
<WillH> Saw Hammer
<DiSTuRbEdofX> Did it look like they are still working on HL2?
<WillH> yeah
<DiSTuRbEdofX> like still much to do?
<synth> WillH, I will be
<WillH> no
* SLEEP|JelloCube is now known as Away|JelloCube
<WillH> didn't look like it to me

 

[Huntee]

Hey, whoever said you are in second semester at Digpen I'm wondering what you did to get there. I plan to go but I'm not sure what exactly I need to achieve in order to go there. I know the requirements but I want to know what you actually had to go there.

 

[mawibse]

(WillH) He said that a Computer Sciences degree wasn't a requirement at all, one of their best programmers (Yahn, I think) has a Fine Arts degree

That would be Ken I think, Yahn is a lawyer. (no I'm not kidding)

 

[RblDiver]

Huntee, I'm the one who's going to DigiPen. At least for me, it wasn't hard at all. Get at least the minimum grades that they expect (I had higher (ie like 3.8something GPA), so perhaps that gave me an edge), fill out their form, and be ready to work. That's all I had to do. You don't have to have experience; most people who go in have zero programming background (I had a minor bit of visual basic, but that's it). They teach you everything.

And like I said, BE READY TO WORK. ...I should go do that :O

 

[WillH]

That would be Ken I think, Yahn is a lawyer. (no I'm not kidding)

Ahh Yahn is the lawyer? Then I met him.

 

[B_MAN]

No actually he was saying that EA's style is business is going out the window and Valve and the other companies will pass the by.

well he's right about that.