Salty about Half Life: Alyx

[CaptainKipup]

Everyone tells me it's awesome... but I'm just not into VR. I've been hanging in there for a Half Life 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Portal 3, Team Fortress 3. Anything 3. Even the TF2 comic No. 7.

So they finally release a new game! And it's VR ... which I doubt I'm going to invest money in. I feel kind of left out.

And you might say "Pffft, don't get it then." But company loyalty is a thing. When Epic came out I was like "Pffft, steam forever". But lately I've been buying on there 'cos I'm not feeling the loyalty I used to have... and I like that the developers get a bit more money from games sold there.

GoG is even better. They're really pro consumer in their policies and I find that I genuinely want them to "win".

Maybe I can say it this way, I feel like Valve is interested in me as a customer but not as a fan. And as more and more game platforms are opening up they might regret that when I start buying my triple AAA's elsewhere. Just my thoughts anyway.

P.S. First time making a forum post, go gentle with the flamethrowers.

[Aachen]

“Customer loyalty is a thing” —except when there’s an absence of threes?

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

https://www.nexusmods.com/halflifealyx/mods/1?

[CaptainKipup]

Aachen eredeti hozzászólása:

“Customer loyalty is a thing” —except when there’s an absence of threes?

Admittedly, I struggle with not having closure. If you tell me "I went down the street and saw..." I will lose my frigging mind if you don't finish that sentence.

But it's more that we've all been asking for 3's. I would buy the hell out of a left 4 dead 3. Hell they can even use the same engine. Portal 3 with another goofy co op story to play through a friend? I'll buy a copy for myself AND a friend.

And Valve just doesn't deliver... and when they finally do, it's to sell their VR thing with a great game rather than to give something to the fan base. So yeah, my love waxes cold and my privileged, spoiled feelings are hurt.

So I'm going to out to dinner with my new bae GoG and try to make Valve jealous.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

You should watch this interview...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zXkwLs_lo

[Crazy Tiger]

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

But company loyalty is a thing.

I read that a lot around these forums, but why? Why are you loyal to a company, whose only goal is to make money of your back? What makes you think that your loyalty means something?

I'm genuinely curious here.

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

GoG is even better. They're really pro consumer in their policies and I find that I genuinely want them to "win".

GoG has been trying to win for years now. I love them for the older games they sell and modify to work on a newer OS so that I myself don't have to go through the trouble, but fact is that their drm policy is the one hampering them. They won't win until they change their stance on that. And their refund policy change provided more doubts to publishers than anything before.

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

I feel like Valve is interested in me as a customer but not as a fan.

Fun fact, they always have been more interested in you as a customer. That you're a fan is a nice bonus and means their marketing worked well, but nothing more than that. Fans don't necessarily provide money, while customers do.

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

they might regret that when I start buying my triple AAA's elsewhere.

Steams big market isn't the AAA games, though. Sure, they sell well, but the constant stream of money for indie games and market items is what's more important in that regard. Why else do you think that Steam doesn't make a move when some AAA publisher puts their games on their own store, or Epic for that matter?

Some users leaving Steam are not something they care about. Keep in mind that as long as the influx of new users is bigger than the people leaving and there is no downfall in the revenue, it's all irrelevant. Every company knows they can't please everyone and every company factors in acceptable losses (people who leave the platform).

[Kargor]

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

Anything 3.

Trine 3? Not a recommendation, though, as far as I'm concerned.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth 3 was pretty good.

Pinball FX3? Zen Studios earned a blacklist entry for me due to their FX2 handling, but that probably won't apply to you.

[CaptainKipup]

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

You should watch this interview...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zXkwLs_lo

:qr:

Thanks for posting that. It helped. Looks like they’re committing to the VR route and whatever it leads into. Good innovation I guess... I’m just so not into VR and I’m bummed that’s what the new Valve games will be based on.

[Xautos]

1% of the overall customer base, 240,000 users in total with VR. at most they can make is $10 million from it. that isn't a lot to profit from or how much they likely invested in the tech which is probably twice as much as they are attempting to claw back from costs.

It's EA and Dead Space all over again.

[Edifier]

Xautos eredeti hozzászólása:

1% of the overall customer base, 240,000 users in total with VR. at most they can make is $10 million from it. that isn't a lot to profit from or how much they likely invested in the tech which is probably twice as much as they are attempting to claw back from costs.

It's EA and Dead Space all over again.

Valve doesn't care about the profit from VR. They knew from the very start it wouldn't generate them billions. They supported it because they liked it.

So with Half-Life Alyx being on VR was just done because they wanted to do something new with HL series.

But they also sold out on Index, twice. A headset that costs 1000$ and that would at least generate a decent profit. Not to mention they probably sold a lot of HTC Vive at the same time.

Oh and if you try to use the Steam Hardware survey it's pointless. People can opt out of it and not everyone is asked.
Still sales of VR headsets are counted up towards about 2 million or more from retail stores.

[rezo]

Maybe theyre just trying to innovate. Its the first properly VR game which isnt a small indie game. Valve spent a lot of time and money to make a game which is tailored and suited for VR, if you cant run VR now then just wait 5 years when its more affordable.

You may find a lot of future titles from other companies will be VR only because its an upcoming technology and with VR headsets with the Steam Index with finger tracking etc makes developers come up with more interesting and interactive ways of game making and story telling.

Like in HL Alyx you actively search through maps for those token things which can be used to upgrade and build new weapons, similarly you have lots of problem solving tasks which would only make sense in VR

If you watch The War Owl's video on Alyx he talks about how valve has used VR cleverly and has used it to immerse people in the game more, such as in the scene where a CP officer is about to hit you in the head with a baton you instinctively move your hands infront of you to block it which builds a sense of immersion.

I reckon Half Life Alyx is just the setting stones for VR games and showcases whats possible to other developers.

[Halo]

Yes, a vanity project that is nothing more than an insult to any gamer that has played a Valve game in the past 20 years.

We get it - Valve is a retail platform developer, so just sell the IP rights to someone who will use HL and L4D.

Or just continue to insult a whole community for a decade and counting while putting out a game few if anyone will ever play on a platform few if anyone will ever own.

Probably a lot of mirrors at Valve headquarters.

[Edifier]

Halo eredeti hozzászólása:

Yes, a vanity project that is nothing more than an insult to any gamer that has played a Valve game in the past 20 years.

Speak for yourself because game has 98% positive reviews. Even if we're talking about massive Half-Life fans it's utterly amazing how the latest Half-Life game got 98% positive reviews.

The game is awesome and totally worth it. Coming from a long time Half-Life fan too.

[Zekiran]

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

cSg|mc-Hotsauce eredeti hozzászólása:

You should watch this interview...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I0zXkwLs_lo

:qr:

Thanks for posting that. It helped. Looks like they’re committing to the VR route and whatever it leads into. Good innovation I guess... I’m just so not into VR and I’m bummed that’s what the new Valve games will be based on.

I literally got sick at this. Like, my throat constricted and tears are in my eyes. Because really? Yeah I'll only ever be able to play their VR games if they can swap my brain's sensory disorientation out for one that can physically handle it.

It's bullcrap in the highest degree and so disrespectful to the people who cannot play because finances, biology, or situation. So elitist. So, so elitist.

[Zekiran]

Edifier eredeti hozzászólása:

Halo eredeti hozzászólása:

Yes, a vanity project that is nothing more than an insult to any gamer that has played a Valve game in the past 20 years.

Speak for yourself because game has 98% positive reviews. Even if we're talking about massive Half-Life fans it's utterly amazing how the latest Half-Life game got 98% positive reviews.

The game is awesome and totally worth it. Coming from a long time Half-Life fan too.

The smaller number of people able to play it will naturally reward it with that.

Given that "IT IS A HALF LIFE GAME OMG OMG OMG" that's I suspect about 80% of that high rating right there. That it exists.

I have watched numerous plays and found it entirely meh, disagreeable weirdness, and completely disconnected from the rest of the franchise. To me it looked very MUCH like a vanity project.

[Tito Shivan]

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

Aachen eredeti hozzászólása:

“Customer loyalty is a thing” —except when there’s an absence of threes?

Admittedly, I struggle with not having closure. If you tell me "I went down the street and saw..." I will lose my frigging mind if you don't finish that sentence.

Some stories are better left unfinished. Sometimes no closure is better than a bad one.

Maybe Valve should give Uwe Boll a try for the HL3 script?

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

So they finally release a new game! And it's VR ... which I doubt I'm going to invest money in. I feel kind of left out.

Now you know how PC gamers feel when a console exclusive happens. That's how the world rolls. It's a shame there's so many good games I can't play because I won't invest money on a console. But I realised long ago I don't need to play every game and the industry doesn't specifically have to cater to my tastes (They barely cater to my tastes in many genres nowadays, so I'm used to it)

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

But it's more that we've all been asking for 3's. I would buy the hell out of a left 4 dead 3. Hell they can even use the same engine. Portal 3 with another goofy co op story to play through a friend? I'll buy a copy for myself AND a friend.

I've been 19 years for another Dune RTS game to happen. But it'll be worse if it happens and it's a bad one, because the'd be a wasted oportunity.
A good HL/L4D/Portal game can still happen. But if it turns to be a bad game, then it's game over. Valve knows they cannot allow those franchises to become an Artifact 2.0 release.

CaptainKipup eredeti hozzászólása:

And Valve just doesn't deliver... and when they finally do, it's to sell their VR thing with a great game rather than to give something to the fan base. So yeah, my love waxes cold and my privileged, spoiled feelings are hurt.

Irony of the situation is Valve has a really hard time delivering anything up to the hype levels people have put their games.

Alyx plays with the advantage of playing in a totally different league. It's a new way of playing on a new gaming enviroment. The chains of PC gaming are too tight and solid as to try to do what Alyx is doing in VR.

Halo eredeti hozzászólása:

We get it - Valve is a retail platform developer, so just sell the IP rights to someone who will use HL and L4D.

Maybe they could sell the franchise to Peter Molyneux, or Tencent?

Beware what you wish for, may your wishes be fullfilled.
Life has an habit for fullfilling wishes through a monkey's paw

Zekiran eredeti hozzászólása:

I have watched numerous plays and found it entirely meh, disagreeable weirdness, and completely disconnected from the rest of the franchise. To me it looked very MUCH like a vanity project.

You can't really translate the feeling of inmersion throug a youtube video. And the feeling of Inmersion is the biggest role in VR gaming.