goishen
Macho Ma'am
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The Half-life 3 you will never play
- Thread starter Zaphid
- Start date
Big Phoenix
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Valve is the paradigm of cosmetics ruining the video game industry. Why take the risk producing a video game when you cant just sit back and churn on DOTA cosmetics at the fraction of the cost it would take to produce a video game and make far more money off of stupid fucking retards.
You could argue esports are killing the industry. Valve is the owner of the #2 and #3 esport titles and if you interlace cosmetics with esports you have a money printing formula.
Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
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A couple months ago, some of the main workshop artists that create most of these cosmetics came out and mentioned that Valve has been fucking them on profits, which has been driving many away from the scene. So it sounds like Valve may be even fucking that up lol
TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
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Depends if they can underpay them while still raking it in, capitalism at work. Besides, I thought most of the immortals and all the arcanas were made inhouse, which also make the most money. Who gives a fuck about random 2€ chests.
TrollfaceDeux
Pronouns: zie/zhem/zer
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I wish there was some gaming platform that is just as good as Valve but fuck that is impossible at this point...
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
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GoG is probably my favorite, no DRM is a big plus, but the selection is tiny compared to steam
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Amzin
Lord Nagafen Raider
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Well we're pretty much going full circle on the PC-software-platform ecosystem currently, we went from every game being its own install to Steam to now every company has their own launcher if they have 2 or more games on PC. Steam, GoG, GMG (not sure if they still have that), I'm sure HumbleBundle will at some point for their DRM free downloads you get, Ubisoft, EA Origin, Bethesdas stupid launcher, Blizzard's Battle.net Blizzard Battle.net launcher for Battle.net Blizzard, and I'm fairly sure I just heard about one or two new ones as well.
If we ever have another Steam, it'll be a company that convinces all those other fuckers to join in on it again, and I don't know how you do that when literally any option is more of a cut than they take for their own launcher. Valve's cuts aren't even outlandish by any means, and it was too much for some. Also having your own launcher lets you make your own fake digital currency that lets you take advantage of consumer psychology so there's also that, where Steam uses actual currency like some kind of reasonable company.
If we ever have another Steam, it'll be a company that convinces all those other fuckers to join in on it again, and I don't know how you do that when literally any option is more of a cut than they take for their own launcher. Valve's cuts aren't even outlandish by any means, and it was too much for some. Also having your own launcher lets you make your own fake digital currency that lets you take advantage of consumer psychology so there's also that, where Steam uses actual currency like some kind of reasonable company.
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Steam uses the steam wallet shit where you can only put certain amounts in it and you end up with like 50cents or 1dollar left. Luckily you can just sell some cards or whatever and buy some shit indie game for 3bucks next big sale to clean it out, mostly.
As for dota killing HL3, that's a load of bullshit imo. Steam killed HL3 long before dota was even a thing if we go the "money printing machine killed HL3" route. Why make games when you can sell games and make money. And then whatever ressources they had closer to HL2, they spent on doing TF2 and Portal. Great games and all but still probably took a bunch of time. Dota in comparison? All they had to do was the tech and HL3 was already a myth by that point. All the gameplay design and even character starting designs were already made for dota.
If HL3 wasn't released it isn't because all the artists were working on some dota cosmetics or whatever. It's because they could never decide on a good way to make the game, on a good story for it, the basic few first steps of development, which dota probably didn't affect at all since neither of these were really a large focus on dota(I guess there was some work on the dota2 lore, but shit's full of holes and disjointed things by nature so probably didn't detract much from it).
Especially in a company like Valve where people kinda decide on what they work and shit like that, if they actually had decided to go ahead with HL3, I'd assume a lot more people would have worked on that than dota, because having your name in the credits of one of the most anticipated video game ever(perhaps the most anticipated) would reflect a lot better on you. The fact is they never got past the early design steps because I assume they figured they might not be able to live up to the hype, and meanwhile they didn't need the money anyway. It's a risk with no benefit behind, you might tarnish your image and ruin a franchise(mind you, a franchise you're not using anymore, but still) and all that for what? 10% of the revenue of a Steam sale even if the game is a huge success?
As for dota killing HL3, that's a load of bullshit imo. Steam killed HL3 long before dota was even a thing if we go the "money printing machine killed HL3" route. Why make games when you can sell games and make money. And then whatever ressources they had closer to HL2, they spent on doing TF2 and Portal. Great games and all but still probably took a bunch of time. Dota in comparison? All they had to do was the tech and HL3 was already a myth by that point. All the gameplay design and even character starting designs were already made for dota.
If HL3 wasn't released it isn't because all the artists were working on some dota cosmetics or whatever. It's because they could never decide on a good way to make the game, on a good story for it, the basic few first steps of development, which dota probably didn't affect at all since neither of these were really a large focus on dota(I guess there was some work on the dota2 lore, but shit's full of holes and disjointed things by nature so probably didn't detract much from it).
Especially in a company like Valve where people kinda decide on what they work and shit like that, if they actually had decided to go ahead with HL3, I'd assume a lot more people would have worked on that than dota, because having your name in the credits of one of the most anticipated video game ever(perhaps the most anticipated) would reflect a lot better on you. The fact is they never got past the early design steps because I assume they figured they might not be able to live up to the hype, and meanwhile they didn't need the money anyway. It's a risk with no benefit behind, you might tarnish your image and ruin a franchise(mind you, a franchise you're not using anymore, but still) and all that for what? 10% of the revenue of a Steam sale even if the game is a huge success?
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
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Even if have some change left over, next time I buy something it lets me add just enough funds to fully clear it out. That is actually one of those things I adore about Steam.
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xzi
Mouthbreather
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This happened a long time ago as well, the creators would get 25% of the revenue the items made and valve dropped it to like 13% without talking to anybody at all about it. Which.. they don't sign a contract or anything there's nothing they can do about it but it's just really morally fucked up to do it without alerting anyone.
This recent thing specifically was battle passes, since you could get chests as rewards from the battle passes that are regular chests the people who made the items would be in, valve decided that since the revenue earned via the battle pass wasn't to get a chance at that specific item, that those chests wouldn't give any royalties at all to the people who made them. So they effectively gave out probably hundreds of thousands of chests that they absolutely didn't make inhouse and raked in the profit. Again, legally they're in the right but morally they're a bunch of cunts. I'm not sure why they are still being praised and that's coming from someone who has praised them since HL2 released until like 2 weeks ago.
Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
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Plus, outside the Arcana, they don't really sell individual sets anymore. Some of the model makers/artists out there used to be able to pull a decent income, but now with all the changes and payment cuts, some can't invest the time/effort anymore since it doesn't pay the bills.
If I recall, awhile back Valve tried to pull the same shit with TI...the talent/casters got shit for salary and they had to rely on the signature troves to make up the difference.
If I recall, awhile back Valve tried to pull the same shit with TI...the talent/casters got shit for salary and they had to rely on the signature troves to make up the difference.
Zaphid
Trakanon Raider
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That was around TI4 I believe and 2GD had to talk some sense into Valve. Dotacinema used to make sets that rivaled the new rares, the old EG shaker set was similar, shame that's not possible anymore. Really the whole cosmetic system is on one hand impressive by its sheer magnitude, on the other hand if they spent a few days actually designing the rarities and interaction with some kind of roadmap, it would be so much better. I'm pretty sad they never went further with stat counting items, I still have my old trusty jugg hound with gems that count gold spend and wards placed, but to actually see those numbers you have to dig deep instead of telling everybody my support is legit. Same for animations or skill look replacement.
It's obvious there's enough artsy folk to reap the fruits of their labor, but I have a suspicion the decision to screw them over was presented internally as so much more money for Valve for literally doing nothing.
xzi
Mouthbreather
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It's not the specific sets, it's that they gave money for the crates themselves if the item was in those crates, and those group of people take a % cut out of each crate key sold.
also I miss 2GD, but I'm excited for his game he's making maybe his company will become the next valve except they use the word cunt a lot more. ONE CAN DREAM!
also I miss 2GD, but I'm excited for his game he's making maybe his company will become the next valve except they use the word cunt a lot more. ONE CAN DREAM!
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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I dunno, I loved everything about HL1 and found HL2 to be boring and uninteresting comparatively. It's not a big stretch of the imagination to say that the fervor for the series died down after HL2 simmered as 'not quite HL1' with pending story segments and a vanishingly small modding/multiplayer scene compared to HL1. By that point they had already made other games (even if the same engine) better for MP, and then made a better SP game in Portal. Where do you go after that? Certainly not up. Can't shrink to greatness.
