Half-life 2 going gold!

[Sir Spankspeople]

Yeah, so apparently Gabe Newell's forum password was "gaben"...

*smacks forehead*

[Killer-Rabbit]

I dont see why people tollerate shit like this.

I say dont buy the game. Teach em to actually set deadlines they can reach and quit all this marketing and hype crap. Unfortunately you wont listen to me and still buy the game thus giving them money to plan their next scheme...I mean game.

I hate you all.

[Blackjack]

Well, whats worth more.
Missing out on good games becuase you don't like the fact that a company doesn't have a time machine and can't estimate and exact date.

Or buy a good game and put up with the fact they are called "Estimates" for a reason.

[BillyBlaze]

Why not pirate the damn thing and win both ways?

[Sir Spankspeople]

No, KR's right. If anything, Valve should be PAYING us for all of this time and effort we've put into waiting for the game that they're making.

Never mind even for a second considering how the gaming industry works at all, I don't care if they come up with any problems, or if the game is incomplete. A piece of software that's buggier than all Hell now is much better than having to wait for something good.

All of this bug testing and fixing is just lies anyways. Anyone can make a game as big in scale as Half-Life 2 in under two years, honest.

Valve owes us, and I for one am severely pissed off that I can't have everything that I want right this instant.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go sit in a corner and cry for a bit because this minute rice took five minutes to make. False advertising, I think I'm going to sue.

[BillyBlaze]

I say you should all steal your copies of HL2 on the sole basis that I have to use Steam (or as I call it, Steaming Pile of Shit) to play Counter Strike and Day of Defeat.

[Killer-Rabbit]

No, I am not mad because I am impatient. I understand that games take time to develop and debug. I would expect the people that make games for a living to also understand this, but it seem they dont since they cant even roughly predict when they will finish. And no, I neither said nor implied that Valve owes anyone anything. I just said not to support them.

I apologize for not being able to waive my morals and ethics the moment something shiney comes along. In the future I will try to be more understanding.

[StruckingFuggle]

Personally, I think they (as in "the industry") should just stop building hype, stop caring about "seasons", and stop giving us projected release dates "it'll be done when it's done" ... Seriously. How many people are going ot be like "well, it took so long to come out, I don't think I'll buy HL2" ... and how much will the sales numbers differ if it comes out now, or in "time for Christmas", or something? You know you're going to buy it. Like everyone else who is. No?

[BillyBlaze]

I'll tell you what. I'd rather be surprised than sit on my ass waiting patiently for years.

[Sir Spankspeople]

Mr. Rabbit, you are incredibly impatient and hold a very high opinion of yourself.

You obviously never waited for StarCraft, or Diablo 2. I've spent nearly a decade waiting for two games if you combine both.

I don't care if somebody misses their intended release date because their code is stolen and they have to recode THE ENTIRE GAME to make sure that it's not so easily hackable immediately upon release, and I don't care if I have to wait forever to get a game. The longer I wait, the more polished the game will be, and so many games these days severely lack polish.

As far as I'm concerned, a release date is not worth looking at unless it is following a "Gone Gold" statement(by the devellopers themselves, and not just on some forum). I don't spend my time sitting around pissed off because the companies lied to me.

I pay for games and support companies who take their time and put effort into their games. I do not support people who rush incomplete games out to meet a deadline.

Star Wars Galaxies launched with almost no content, and it's image has never recovered from it. I would much rather Half-Life 2 be a full game.

[Seraphim]

My local game stop said they are meant to have HL-2 on their shelves by November. Either the manager is misinformed, or it will go gold sometime during September or October.

I say dont buy the game. Teach em to actually set deadlines they can reach and quit all this marketing and hype crap.

I'm reminded of a Dilbert strip, when PHB asks him why he's behind schedule, following which Dilbert explains to him that Schedules are bullshit made up by management to coincide with certain events throughout the year, rather then reality.

When you set out to do an extremely complicated task, have you ever estimated perfectly? As the scale increases (years to develop the game) months become as significant as hours, when you're speaking of days to completion. That with source code theft factored in... I can hardly hold them being a year behind against them enough to not buy the damn game.

[StruckingFuggle]

Why should the source code being stolen have altered the release date at all?

[Killer-Rabbit]

Spanks, does your argument tactic work well for you? I do find it fairly clever how you make up your own version of what people say in order to portray them as the bad guy.
All I am saying is that if you have deadlines (especially ones set by yourself) you should reach them. Not sure on how long it will take? Dont set a deadline. Have somewhat of an idea but not sure exactly? Dont set a precise release date. If they set the year, I'd give em plus or minus a year. Set the month, give em a month or two. Set the day, a few weeks. If I recall correctly, Valve had at least the month set over a year ago.

Now just go off an think about the shiney objects. I'll be of doing something...you know...productive.

[Calus]

[quote="StruckingFuggle";p="390992"]Why should the source code being stolen have altered the release date at all?[/quote]

Would you enjoy finding out that you got hacked through Half-Life 2? LOTS of cheating. No, cheating that makes CS look friendly to n00bs.

[StruckingFuggle]

In the single-player game, that's no big deal. No one can MAKE you cheat. Fuck multiplayer.

...

Seriously, though (not that I wasn't being serious before*) ... they had to redo the whole thing? I mean, damn, that seems a bit excessive. I'm not a programmer, so I might be missing something, but why couldn't they just make multiplayer not work if, say, there were simple but hidden flags checked for that only existed after being added in, post-theft?


In fact, yes. I think that the demand for multiplayer has been one of the worst developments in the gaming industry in forever. So, yes, "fuck multiplayer".