Marc Laidlaw has left Valve

jelly

Member
I really doubt they'd create Source 2 for the sole purpose of custom games for Dota 2. Source 2 has to have been planned for something else, with the Dota 2 port being a trial run of the engine (similar to Half Life: Source being a test of the Source engine).

Valve making multiplayer games is actually what they do and always have done. The majority of their games have been multiplayer, even right in the beginning. Team Fortress is even older than Half Life, made by some of the first employees of Valve (before they worked at Valve, or even before Valve was a thing).


Portal as well.

The mod it's based off of is nothing like Portal at all, and is like saying Pikmin is a Mario game because it was born from a Mario tech demo.


Valve has been making multiplayer focused games since the company was founded, them continuing to make them isn't some new trend.

The majority of the early staff at Valve were from multiplayer mods of Quake. Counter Strike and Team Fortress were some of Valve's first major games, and even Half Life had a popular multiplayer component to it.

Isn't the Source SDK absolutely awful, the editor or something is archaic. I think that's more the reason for Source 2.0 than new games and porting their games to Source 2.0 seems like they are sticking with the golden gooses rather than moving on to new stuff.
 

nekkid

It doesn't matter who we are, what matters is our plan.
I don't understand why one would cause themselves frustration over this. Like, if nothing is being said about a hypothetical game I'd like to see, then I just assume it ain't happening. If information is announced at a later date, then great. If not, then it's whatever.

I totally get that, and in most cases you're right. But when you love a game series and they leave the last instalment on a cliffhanger and don't mention it again for 10 years, it really is a bitch.

To be fair, if they weren't planning on making it I can't believe that they wouldn't have concluded the story in a graphic novel or something by now.
 

Sibylus

Banned
My thoughts as well. Whatever is going on with HL3 at valve, I imagine story isn't one of the hurdles keeping it in development hell.
No imagining necessary, Laidlaw said that the holdup was explicitly not to do with story years ago (and that he had the story beats planned out already).
 
Welp.

HL2 is my favorite game of all time. It is really too bad that Valve feels they have nothing to add to the franchise. I would have been happy with just another episode.
 

amnesiac

Member
If Half Life 3 doesn't exist, why doesn't Valve just come out and publicly say something like "We are not making Half Life 3 right now and we have no plans to change that?"

I'm sure some representative somewhere down the line has said something along the lines of "no comment," but Valve should make it clear to everybody that we shouldn't be expecting HL3 if it's not going to come out.
 

wheeplash

Member
If Half Life 3 doesn't exist, why doesn't Valve just come out and publicly say something like "We are not making Half Life 3 right now and we have no plans to change that?"

I'm sure some representative somewhere down the line has said something along the lines of "no comment," but Valve should make it clear to everybody that we shouldn't be expecting HL3 if it's not going to come out.

If they don't feel like telling the world, they won't.
That's how that company works.
 

GlamFM

Banned
If Half Life 3 doesn't exist, why doesn't Valve just come out and publicly say something like "We are not making Half Life 3 right now and we have no plans to change that?"

I'm sure some representative somewhere down the line has said something along the lines of "no comment," but Valve should make it clear to everybody that we shouldn't be expecting HL3 if it's not going to come out.

Our perception of them as a company would change.

We wouldn´t feel the need to support them anymore.

They want to be perceived as the genius developer they once were - not as the salesmen they actually are.
 

rrs

Member
Who knows, considering the HL2 mess I totally expect Valve to just dump HL3 with no warning. Then again, maybe the valve that was 4-5 years ago is dead and killed by hats. Such a waste.
 

Peltz

Member
They'll release it if and when they want to.

If FFVIIRE, Shenmue III, and TLG taught us anything, it's that these things are never truly dead.
 

Azih

Member
The Winter Sale Christmas Noir comic was pretty bad. Surprising as Valve had a perfect record on comics before that. It was like a last minute excuse to generate art for new cards.
 
That's disappointing, but I'm sure there's notes and outlines he had for Half Life 3 or where they generally wanted to take the story, if it ever happens.

Hope he enjoys his retirement.
 
If Half Life 3 doesn't exist, why doesn't Valve just come out and publicly say something like "We are not making Half Life 3 right now and we have no plans to change that?"

I'm sure some representative somewhere down the line has said something along the lines of "no comment," but Valve should make it clear to everybody that we shouldn't be expecting HL3 if it's not going to come out.

Wouldn't that be stating the obvious after the 10+ year hiatus?
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/dota-2, currently has about 12 million unique players, recently landed at #39 in the EDGE 100 Greatest Videogames special.

I don't see why that's a suspect statement.

And Avatar made the most money ever at the box office. Doesn't mean its better than movies like Casablanca or 2001.

Hell its not even James Cameron's best movie by a country mile when the guy has made stuff like Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, True Lies and so forth.
 

Vitor711

Member
You mean Blizzard.

Yeah, can we stop every Half Life 3 thread from turning into DOTA 2 bashing?

Also, the current version of DOTA 2 is so far from what it was on the WCIII mod that this whole stigma that Valve just copy pasted the game into a nicer looking engine needs to end.

There are huge, fundamental differences between those games and DOTA 2 absolutely deserves to be high up on a greatest games of all time list.
 

Zia

Member
You mean Blizzard.

Blizzard made Dota, folks.

And Avatar made the most money ever at the box office. Doesn't mean its better than movies like Casablanca or 2001.

Hell its not even James Cameron's best movie by a country mile when the guy has made stuff like Terminator 1 and 2, Aliens, True Lies and so forth.

Hence I included links to a reviews aggregate site and a ranking in the list of what many people consider gaming's most prestigious magazine. I'm not sure the point you're trying to make. Casablanca is also insanely popular.
 
Steam client is a bloated disaster, Greenlight's a punchline of a service, SteamOS/Steam Machines/Steam Controllers are all basically DOA, Steam sales are a shadow of their former selves, the winter ARG was a waste of everyone's time, TF2 is made more by the community than by Valve at this point, the 75% cut they take selling user-created content for their games is an absolute ripoff, every new service or feature they roll out is half-baked at best, they haven't made a single player game in four years with no signs of that changing any time soon, and they keep making mistake after mistake without ever learning because all their failures are subsidized by the endless cash flow that is the Steam store. I also don't give a fuck about Dota or CS:GO, which I fully realize is Just My Opinion, Man, but the fact that all Valve makes now seems to be microtransaction-funded multiplayer stuff makes them all the less appealing to me, especially after watching how their business model shift kinda fucked one of my favorite games of all time (TF2). I'd almost call them the Nexon of the west but at least Nexon is prolific.
Ether I happen to agree with.

I'll go cry in a corner now.
 

Calabi

Member
tumblr_m2et85dFqW1rszru2o1_500.gif


I don't have the heart to post the Half-Death Replay thread. RIP.

In all seriousness, Laidlaw's major story work on Half-Life's continuation was finished years and years ago. His retirement won't be a major factor in either Half-Life 3's death or eventual release.

But even Valve has said there stories arent fixed in stone right from the beginning, but that they evolve and are rewritten as the game play changes along the way.
 

inky

Member
The majority of which are now Valve employees
Sure, but the basis and the game itself was created and iterated lots outside of Valve first.

I like Valve and Dota, before anyone gets their panties in a bunch, but the game didn't start to grow from the minds of Valve or Blizzard first. The former daw the Value and acquired the talent, the latter didn't know what to do with it so did nothing for it.
 

Spirited

Mine is pretty and pink
What I've learned from this thread is that valve doesn't make games anymore because they're not making HL3 and that dota 2 doesn't count or is a shit game.
Well well this went like all valve threads do.
 

Fox318

Member
Hope Brad Muir realizes now what a mistake he made.

He will never make or release a game again. They will just spend all their time moving desks from one shortsighted project to another.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Blizzard made Dota, folks.



Hence I included links to a reviews aggregate site and a ranking in the list of what many people consider gaming's most prestigious magazine. I'm not sure the point you're trying to make. Casablanca is also insanely popular.

Casablance also didn't gross 2.7 billion world wide to confirm its grandness. Not too mention there are tons of movies that critics absolutely adored that you never ever hear about even a few years after their release and vice versa there are movies that critics absolutely hated and despised and are still in the popular culture.

Remember movies called Blade Runner and the Thing, well those were basically panned by critics when they came out and nearly bombed at the box office. Just saying because it rates highly in one manner doesn't mean its an all time great.

I just don't like people going,"Look at how huge the box office was, it must be great!" or "Did you see, its got a 99% on rottentomatoes.com" and presenting that as a conclusion this movie is incredible. I'm not trying to discredit those either but I just dont see them as some kind of ultimate tell on whether something is good or great or whatever.
 
Hope Brad Muir realizes now what a mistake he made.

He will never make or release a game again. They will just spend all their time moving desks from one shortsighted project to another.

Brad is a huge Dota fan, so it wouldn't surprise me if he worked on that.
 
yeah and some don't give two fucks about HL3
then what ?

I would say we get mad at Blizzard who sat on the entire MOBA genre for so long doing jack shit with it that it causes the one company who makes Half Life games to devote all their resources to another MOBA and now of course everyone and their mother is making MOBAs and we have no new Half Life to play.
 

Fox318

Member
Brad is a huge Dota fan, so it wouldn't surprise me if he worked on that.

They barely work on that.

Most of the stuff is community created right? All Valve does is approve items and maintain the game infrastructure.

I'm just pissed off that Valve doesn't comment at all especially after they were so bold with talking about how episode games would change everything and the cliff hanger to episode 2.

At least fucking make an honest statement to the fans regarding what happened and what is going to happen with the franchise.
 

Whompa02

Member
Every Valve thread turns into people whining they don't make the games they want them to make.

I mean, can you blame people for wanting something they grew up with and really liked?

I'm sure Harry Potter fans would be bummed if J. K. Rowling was like, "I can't talk about the ending to the book series, but um...yeah" and never released the final book. That kind of non-messaging would drive people insane...
 
TF2 is made more by the community than by Valve at this point, the 75% cut they take selling user-created content for their games is an absolute ripoff

This has never been true. TF2 is still actively developed by Valve, the community just supplies art assets, it's Valve that implements them. Does anyone say Mario Kart 8 was mostly Monolith made, because they were outsourced as asset creation? No, that'd be ridiculous. Valve still needs to implement, test and then maintain anything they add to the game. For weapons they need to balance, test far more extensively, and maintain for a lot longer with more serious consequences on the game if they mess up.

This is also a weird thing to say now, considering they've released a few major updates within the last few months adding new features and modes, and they're building a massive competitive oriented update to be released in a few months. Something that will have a huge impact on TF2, and something the community is not developing at all.

I've also seen contributors mention that the royalties on their assets is actually at or above the usual royalties offered for out sourced assets. A single model in a video game is not going to give the artist 10,000 dollars within the first few months, and then a steady income of a few hundred after that. And yet that's about the average for cosmetics (or was a few years ago, not sure where it is these days).

They barely work on that.

Most of the stuff is community created right? All Valve does is approve items and maintain the game infrastructure.

They ported Dota 2 to an entirely new engine a few months ago, and release several major updates a year that make huge changes to the game, adding new heroes, a new map, new creeps, items, visual updates and stuff that the community could never, ever make. In addition to hosting four multi-million internationally hosted tournaments.
 
I would say we get mad at Blizzard who sat on the entire MOBA genre for so long doing jack shit with it that it causes the one company who makes Half Life games to devote all their resources to another MOBA and now of course everyone and their mother is making MOBAs and we have no new Half Life to play.

Just to pour some salt in the wounds last year Rob Pardo said they were in talks with IceFrog years before Valve hired him, but ultimately decided not to hire him and do their own MOBA, because they were busy with SC2 and D3. hahahaha.
 

Sibylus

Banned
But even Valve has said there stories arent fixed in stone right from the beginning, but that they evolve and are rewritten as the game play changes along the way.
Wolpaw and Faliszek are talented enough to helm the series themselves, let alone "merely" adapt Laidlaw's story as the game evolves, though to be frank I don't think it's known how much of Half-Life's story post-HL2 is theirs to begin with (they and Laidlaw all worked on Ep1 and Ep2, and presumably HL3). May be a little. May be a lot.
 
Is this based on anything other than preference?

Isn't that how opinions work?

You mean Blizzard.

No Blizzard created Warcraft 3 which Dota was spun off from. They're nothing alike in terms of gameplay. That's like saying id made Half-Life because it ran on a modified Quake engine.

They ported Dota 2 to an entirely new engine a few months ago, and release several major updates a year that make huge changes to the game, adding new heroes, a new map, new creeps, items, visual updates and stuff that the community could never, ever make. In addition to hosting four multi-million internationally hosted tournaments.

They've also been making some awesome custom game modes.
 

Fox318

Member
This has never been true. TF2 is still actively developed by Valve, the community just supplies art assets, it's Valve that implements them. Does anyone say Mario Kart 8 was mostly Monolith made, because they were outsourced as asset creation? No, that'd be ridiculous. Valve still needs to implement, test and then maintain anything they add to the game. For weapons they need to balance, test far more extensively, and maintain for a lot longer with more serious consequences on the game if they mess up.

This is also a weird thing to say now, considering they've released a few major updates within the last few months adding new features and modes, and they're building a massive competitive oriented update to be released in a few months. Something that will have a huge impact on TF2, and something the community is not developing at all.

I've also seen contributors mention that the royalties on their assets is actually at or above the usual royalties offered for out sourced assets. A single model in a video game is not going to give the artist 10,000 dollars within the first few months, and then a steady income of a few hundred after that. And yet that's about the average for cosmetics (or was a few years ago, not sure where it is these days).

TF2 had bugs for years that they didn't fix that happened the esport scene. Things like the wrangler being busted fucked up things like 6v6.

Valve used TF2 as a transition for new employees to get used to working at valve then you would move your desk to something new.

Then you have stupid short sighted ideas of R8 having any sort of balance at all. Plus it was buggy as shit when they patched it recently.

All I know is the VR team right now is the largest and if they don't announce a game to come out with the Vive soon then as far as I'm concerned all they have done is run in place.
 
If Half Life 3 doesn't exist, why doesn't Valve just come out and publicly say something like "We are not making Half Life 3 right now and we have no plans to change that?"

I'm sure some representative somewhere down the line has said something along the lines of "no comment," but Valve should make it clear to everybody that we shouldn't be expecting HL3 if it's not going to come out.

Valve has trouble coming out and saying anything when people's steam accounts get compromised. Saying anything about HL 3 would be a massive leap. They aren't the best when it comes to PR.
 
Whya re people surprised? Its been 9 years since anything with the name Half Life came out. Valve is obviously not working on anything regarding Half Life.
 
wtzgU.gif


I've made peace with the fact that Valve doesn't have an interest in making single player games any more. The sooner you all get to the same place the happier you will be.

Source:
"Portal 2 will probably be Valve's last game with an isolated single-player experience," Keighley wrote in Final Hours, "What this all means is something Newell is still trying to figure out."
http://kotaku.com/5795355/valve-probably-done-with-single-player-games
 
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