Gabe Newell ruined PC gaming

[Ɖrəɐɱ]

If Gabe Newell never created that subpar shooter, he would have never made enough cash to create the social network game platform we've come to accept as the norm. Which in turn would have ensured that the standard for game releases would have been much higher, and 99% of these indie jokes would never see the light of day. Instead, we're now locked in this fever dream of amateur hell where "anything goes." The quality of every genre has tanked. The pushing of technological and gameplay limits has completely ceased to be a thing. In fact the only innovation in the last decade+ has been VR, and there are maybe 2-3 titles worth looking into on that front. Despite the several years of the stagnate priced tech being around. Throughout the history of this industry there have been moments that really questioned the validity of this medium. Catastrophic moments that shifted things far away from what they once were. Valve with Steam has been the worst of them all. The total monopoly over the gaming market and lax standards on quality has made it so even the big name devs no longer bother trying to release anything even resembling a final product. Why should they. If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel. I'm not saying all indie devs are bad. There definitely are exceptions, for example, Dave the Diver is a phenomenal game. One of the best of the decade, easily. Though the greats are too far and few in between a horde of asset pasting nonsense, that in truth has no business being on this platform, let alone having a price tag.

So you might be asking at this point, what can be done. Well, truthfully with EA gobbling up every developer of note and cannibalizing their content, Bethesda being devoured by the sinking ship known as Microsoft games, Blizzard being a branch of Antifa and valve standardizing garbage as triple A releases (looking at you Hell Divers 2). I don't think there is much that can be done. Short of waiting on new developers popping up with passion projects to carry the torch of bygone days, such as Warhorse Studios, we're just going to have to "try" before buying. If not, we're going to be locked in with something that would barely qualify as a beta test back when full release meant something.

[Castyles]

Valve: Don't accept shovelware/early access on the store.

Customers: Don't buy shovelware/early access games.

Problem solved.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Valve: Don't accept shovelware/early access on the store.

Customers: Don't buy shovelware/early access games.

Problem solved.

The latter is the key one since one person's shovelware is another persons time killer :P

[nullable]

If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel.

If enough consumers are willing to buy a gimmick and a dev makes millions, why shouldn't they do that over upholding your values?

Are you mad at developers or consumers then?

Let's not forget the whole premise is a false dichotomy, let's count the ways.

1. Most one man games, or gimmick games, don't make millions.
   
2. People still like AAA titles that are beyond the ability of one person to churn out.
   
3. Not every game is developed with the intent of there being a sequel. Good performance may yield a franchise, mediocre performance maybe not. That's always been the status quo. One man projects aren't causing big games to fail. And neither approach is holding good games down.
   
4. You don't seem to have a concept of how big the gaming pie is. If you did, you wouldn't rely on all or nothing arguments.

[GGcake]

yes

[mrunuick]

Calling half life a mediocre shooter is uh...questionable, considering it was among the first to have a fully fleshed out story in a shooter and received critical and audience acclaim. Anyway, put your money where your mouth is and stop buying from steam if you don't like it. Nothing will change and your opinion will be inconsequential because wow, imagine that, most people like steam as it is.

Saying that the stuff that isn't great (screw the stuff that's just good, I guess) shouldn't have a price tag is laughable. People need money to live in this modern hellscape that barely gives people enough time to have recreation, let alone a second job like making a game.

There's also this whole matter of preferences that could be gotten into but I'm not sure that subject matter would be fit for such a thread, given how it always goes.

This OP was not worth responding to.

[Mountain Months]

steam had a good run but between all the recent terrible decisions terrible updates and greed its just circling the drain at this point

[Paratech2008]

Some of us like the early access and Indie games we purchased. I have over 100 hours on multiple ea games that were or are still early access.

[Knee]

All the early access games I bought were fairly satisfactory, but because I vetted them (to myself) first

[Ben Lubar]

Most of the games I play are early access, and the ones that aren't have been "released" but in active development for over a decade. Regardless of team size. 300 people? 3 people? It takes a long time to make a game. And art is never finished, only abandoned.

You claim that Valve made a sub-par shooter game and that's what put them on the map. Which game is that? Even Day of Defeat, the one nobody talks about, has a metacritic score of 79% https://www.metacritic.com/game/day-of-defeat/

[CEO Hunter]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Valve: Don't accept shovelware/early access on the store.

Customers: Don't buy shovelware/early access games.

Problem solved.

Little timmy and clueless Karen are going to buy Early access and shovelware

[BlackOut]

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

If Gabe Newell never created that subpar shooter, he would have never made enough cash to create the social network game platform we've come to accept as the norm. Which in turn would have ensured that the standard for game releases would have been much higher, and 99% of these indie jokes would never see the light of day. Instead, we're now locked in this fever dream of amateur hell where "anything goes." The quality of every genre has tanked. The pushing of technological and gameplay limits has completely ceased to be a thing. In fact the only innovation in the last decade+ has been VR, and there are maybe 2-3 titles worth looking into on that front. Despite the several years of the stagnate priced tech being around. Throughout the history of this industry there have been moments that really questioned the validity of this medium. Catastrophic moments that shifted things far away from what they once were. Valve with Steam has been the worst of them all. The total monopoly over the gaming market and lax standards on quality has made it so even the big name devs no longer bother trying to release anything even resembling a final product. Why should they. If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel. I'm not saying all indie devs are bad. There definitely are exceptions, for example, Dave the Diver is a phenomenal game. One of the best of the decade, easily. Though the greats are too far and few in between a horde of asset pasting nonsense, that in truth has no business being on this platform, let alone having a price tag.

So you might be asking at this point, what can be done. Well, truthfully with EA gobbling up every developer of note and cannibalizing their content, Bethesda being devoured by the sinking ship known as Microsoft games, Blizzard being a branch of Antifa and valve standardizing garbage as triple A releases (looking at you Hell Divers 2). I don't think there is much that can be done. Short of waiting on new developers popping up with passion projects to carry the torch of bygone days, such as Warhorse Studios, we're just going to have to "try" before buying. If not, we're going to be locked in with something that would barely qualify as a beta test back when full release meant something.

....umm you know that Valve has nothing to do with HellDivers 2 right? It was developed by Arrowhead game studios...or did you just made this post to rant and troll? I'm quite curious.

[Ben Lubar]

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

Blizzard being a branch of Antifa

Wait, I missed this part on my initial read. Do you really think Blizzard is a branch of the informal categorization of anti-fascist movements? And even if they were, that that would be a bad thing?

[76561199648916059]

Half life didn't actually gain steam any recognition, it was counterstrike, and the mod maps that paved the way for steams success, halflife was a mediocre story which about 90% of the people who played it didn't go past 20 minutes into the game.

Counterstrike however was fun and offered a level of skill for players that was untold, however most of that skill based gaming was from actual cheating, which even today cheating is the core of the csgo community.

[Komarimaru]

Originally posted by Majestically Awkward:

Half life didn't actually gain steam any recognition, it was counterstrike, and the mod maps that paved the way for steams success, halflife was a mediocre story which about 90% of the people who played it didn't go past 20 minutes into the game.

Counterstrike however was fun and offered a level of skill for players that was untold, however most of that skill based gaming was from actual cheating, which even today cheating is the core of the csgo community.

Uh...

Half Life was one of the most influential games of the time and changed how the FPS genre could be done. Before it, games were just combat based, nothing more. There was no story, there was no voice acting etc. Just run, shoot, collect things, done and load new arena to fight in.

NPC's would literally talk to you, and react on what you did and direct you. Enemy AI would even take cover, and try and get you out of cover. Some aliens would even run from you, to seek others to help them fight you.

Have you posted anything accurate yet?

[76561199648916059]

I didn't care for halflife, I think i got a hour into the game and kept dying, I dunno some years later I'm played portal and learned the cake is a lie, which made me consider steam itself was a lie, which was what I imagine the developer was actually intending when they slipped that little cake easter egg into the game.

I don't consider half life amazing, I was far more amazed with daggerfall and fallout as far as interactive gaming, things like D&D dos byte games where also more interactive then half life. Over all duke nukem 3d in n like 95 or 96 had a better story then half life, recuse the dancing girls for the cash they carry and kill aliens.

Now that I really 🤔 about it, there where tons of dos games that had story's in fps shooter dynamics years before half life ever released.