cpoint: hot water Valve

[O_o]

That was an great article. Valve never listen to the community and the updates are gayer and gayer each time!!!!!

[Helkite]

OMG GAY eh?

[azz0r]

What a load of over-speckled crap.

[AZNballer]

Wow. Nice find and something to do. Heh, something to waste down by summer. But i do agree, if VALVe didnt update there games, i would probably be bored of it right now.

[footshot]

OK, so VALVe aren't pure evil....But:



1) Their PR sure does suck big time.

2) I think their pricing system for games over Steam shows that they dont want to pass on savings to the gamer.

3) Because of Steam's ease to update, we sometimes get buggy releases (or "unpolished" if you prefer the fanboy terminology) that have had limited testing.

4) You are absolutely right, when HL2 is released - nobody will care.



I respect fragmaster's views as much as I do rze's I don't think his departing shots can be dismissed as a typical rant simply because of who he is.

[GreddyKID]

A great read, however it's pretty long but i got through the biases comments. we all know valve has great ideas and bad ideas. so let's not dwell on the past or the present for the mistake that valve did to the community especially to cs.. Lets hold hand and cross our fingers and pray that the next cs will improve and bring back what used to be the cs communities.. (sound impossible but vavle does the impossible) Rizzuh made a good point but however it's ______ so yeah.. Basically after reading the post i'm angry and sexually fustrate hehehe.. j/k on my part. Valve should had done a better job and honesty is the best policy..



Will valve destroy the community or delay it for several years...

[xiri]

One thing i would jsut love valve for is to some how rid the community of all hacks and cheating modifications available. Hopefully that will happen once HL2 hits the stores and i will love them for it. But how long will it be till a stupid undergraduate developer designs a cheat for HL2 and turns the next generation community into the same hack infested frustration.



PS i read it all and i must say my eyes hurt.

[I2o[G]uE TacT-X]

I'm just sick of waiting weeks and sometimes years for one little bug fix. The gameplay changes that come out of the blue come from (I hate to say it) "n00bs" that troll the Steampowered Forums. There is always somebody complaining that (insert random Counter-Strike thing) is being abused.

[M4rine]

Polishnerd wrote..

"asspennies" needs to take english again :p

http://mercury.walagata.com/w/polishnerd/right.jpg

Stop making fun of asspennies, it isnt write in the first place!

[Omnova]

Yay, lockhart saved me time...Steam is nothing more than a perpetual beta testing environment. Personally I think Valve should stop releasing these untested baby patches and actually think before they put them out: a change in the quality/quantity ratio. It would be even more amazing if they could stop breaking stuff while they're at it.



Or since CS source or whatever its been dubbed is on the way, why bother even supporting the game any longer if its about to be replaced?



Oh wait, its not out yet because they're still using us as free beta testers...



As a friend said, its a great business model, but one thats hard to accept morally.



I'm also against their (to me) poorly conceived "punishment" methods for things such as constant jumping and awp delay. Any delay that should exist should delay putting the weapon DOWN, not bringing it up. All I see is a lack of both common sense and good judgement.

[sphyx]

I think Valve do the tnings they think are right. Thats marketing, thats manipulation. Fragmaster doesent like the way it has to go neither I.

i expect fom csnation an independent pov. i think now thats no truly possible. cu

[Thortok2000]

Edited by [user="152360"] @ [time="1087555944"]

SALAMIjedi wrote..

Steam is also incredibly user friendly. it allows to access multiple games at the same time without even entering the game itself (thus saving memory until you really need it) as well. also it auto-updates without a single click.

You know how I have access to multiple games at the same time without entering the games themselves? Shortcuts on my desktop. In fact, I have a shortcut to Counter-Strike which will open Steam and then automatically open CS. I don't use Steam for anything else. I tried that Codename: Gordon thing for about 5 minutes, then deleted it.



In fact, I find it semi-bothersome to exit Steam when I exit CS, because if I don't, Steam keeps running.



I like the autoupdate features but since I never run Steam without the intention of playing CS within the next few minutes, it's no different than Battle.net as far as auto-patching goes.



You really wanna compare? Let's compare.



A) Can download the game if you have a valid CD key.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - No



B) Can purchase games.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - No



C) Automatically patch your game to the latest version before playing.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - Yes



D) Ability to recall updates.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - Never had the need



E) Still has bugs.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - No



F) Built-in friends system.

Steam - Yes, with better features. Is nonfunctional often.

Battle.net - Yes, features kinda suck. Always works.



G) Anonymous matchmaking so you play against/with people of relatively equal skill.

Steam - No

Battle.net - Yes



H) In-game compatible GUI.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - Yes



I) Can run the service without playing a game.

Steam - Yes

Battle.net - No



J) Ladder ranking.

Steam - No

Battle.net - Yes



K) In-game clan support.

Steam - No

Battle.net - Yes



L) Chat rooms.

Steam - No

Battle.net - Yes



Again I say, the only major difference is game delivery, not patch delivery. Steam may have a better design, but as of this point in time, Battle.net has better implementation.

[BBG]

IMO, Valve needs to stop focusing on CS so much. What about DOD or even TFC? Hell, what about fixing some more Steam issues first?

[-:Nighthawk:-]

DoD just went through some major updates maybe 2 weeks ago, and TFC doesn't have the kind of community support anymore to justify spending lots of extra time on it, when they could be spending that time on TF2 instead.



Anyway, I think the main views I hold have been expressed at one point or another by some of the various people here. I don't understand the extreme of fanboys who think VALVe can do no wrong, nor do I understand the opposite extreme of the haters who feel enduring a crosshair size change was quite possibly the worst thing since Auschwitz.



All of us can agree that VALVe's PR has been pretty rocky, to put it kindly. I'd say "worse than I've ever seen in any other notable game developer" or something along those lines personally, but I know not everyone would view it as that extreme.



Sure, in the grand scheme of life, claiming you'll release something one date, and further insisting on that even when you know it isn't true, really isn't the biggest deal in the world. But people are human, and you have to know that if you take a big group of people and smash the thinner skinned ones with disappointment, the backlash won't be pretty.



Steam and patching is bound to get VALVe flak, and they have to know this. On one hand I appreciate the continued support, but on the other, the programmer side of me is screaming at the obvious release decisions that just weren't well thought-out. Like many others, I love the conceptual idea of Steam, but I definitely find it to be nearly as frustrating now as it was in the beginning beta stages.



Ultimately, I like VALVe. I think they make lots of mistakes and poor judgement calls, sure. But you know what? We all do. And despite those stupid decisions that come at times, I still see them trying to put out awesome games, support their existing ones beyond what any other company has ever done, and always trying to move forward and try new things.



Yeah, they're downright frustrating at times, but is it all that surprising that a group of nerds lacks phenomenal PR skills? :)



So you know what? I'll continue to support VALVe with my gaming dollars, because in the end I still love their games, and I know whatever I buy next will last far longer than any other game I might buy.



Anyway, nice Counter-Point. I found nuggets of truth in each of the three perspectives given, and didn't find any of them to be horribly offensive, which was a nice change from your typical discussions on this matter. :)

[Thortok2000]

That's why you hire PR guys, isn't it? I don't know how Blizzard does it but they handle PR pretty fine. Otherwise, as usual, I mostly completely agree with everything Nighthawk says.