As a guy who reads, trusts and respects slashdot and the community here, I figured I'd take the time to clarify my position since my intent has been construed out of context.
As a gamer, I *love* Valve's games. Hell, I've *made* some of Valve's games!
As a customer, I love Steam. I like owning a credential that I can use from any terminal and I like the software. There are other things I like, too.
As a businessman, I appreciate the access to Valve's customers that they are providing with Steam. I think there's value to that access. I'm really happy that the Brothers in Arms games are available on Steam and I think Steam customers are really going to dig Borderlands. I have been and hope to be a partner to Valve for many years.
From an industry perspective of digital distribution on the PC, I think Steam is doing it the best right now. They're in front and they're really getting value out of their leadership position with digital distribution on the PC.
From an industry perspective, I believe that Steam would be even better off if it were a separate company. Trust issues that result from conflict of interest could be mitigated if Steam were a separate company. Take that only as analysis. It doesn't matter how much I trust Valve or how trustworthy Valve actually is - it's just perception within segments of the publishing and development community that, I guess, no one is really talking about. I'm on record in this article saying how I personally trust Valve. I was attempting to comment on perception from some angles of the industry.
I also believe that gamers and customers and anyone making games using 3rd party digital distribution systems would be greatly benefited if Steam had some viable competitors. Competition generally drives higher quality products and services at lower prices. I can't see how anyone could argue against that point. If we love Steam, we should hope that as competition appears that it prompts the Steam folks to go faster and better towards improving the service and the pricing.
In spite of the implication made in the original source article, I do not want Microsoft to control digital distribution on PC, but believe they (and others) could enter the space if they wanted to and help the competitive landscape and even, perhaps, help to standardize the landscape a bit. I believe that because Valve is a game maker that generally "gets it" I think there's a lot of value to the position they have and I'm really excited about the risk they took and the foresight Valve showed in paving the way there.
These are not mutually exclusive feelings and they are all honest and forthright.
What about three out of four?
It's just difficult to do BF1942's vehicle system if you want to blow Day of Defeat out of the water with authenticity and realism...
Having said that, any authentic game about the subject must also have authentic vehicles:)
I find it interesting that whenever we hear about a game like Quake or Halo or Breed or Chrome or Half-Life or freakin' Halo for that matter that people don't come out with "Isn't the Sci-Fi market saturated?!?"
Same can be said for any subgenre...
The truth is that anything based on familiar ground has been toyed with before.
While we haven't been lacking any game set within a WW2 context what we have been lacking is:
- A half-way interesting/engaging story
- Authenticity as strong and well researched as SPR or BoB
- Real squad combat and tactics (as opposed to "Army of One" games that are basically like Half-Life with WW2 textures).
Gearbox is telling this particular story because it has wanted to for many years and finally has the capacity and technology to tell the story it wanted to tell.
It's concept was born prior to MoH: AA and it started actual pre-production before Call of Duty was an inked deal...
I was working at 3dRealms when Duke Nukem Forever began development.
I left the company in May of 1998.
Before licensing the Quake 1 engine, Allen Blum and Dirk Jones had begun prototyping some things in a iterated version of BUILD - that stuff was pretty cool at the time.
Prior to that, when Apogee was still working with external developers and the shareware model, there was even a Duke Nukem side scroller in development, being produced by Keith Schuller, it was brilliantly named: Duke Nukem 4-ever.
In any case, I, like everyone else, is just waiting for official information. The last Duke Nukem 3d mission I designed at 3dRealms was called "Area 51" - it was the secret mission in the fourth Episode (Atomic Edition). Last I heard, Las Vegas and the business with aliens around Area 51 was central to the Duke Nukem Forever story. So, I'm probably a bit more curious than most to see what comes out.
But, think about it for a moment...
Since inevitable comparisons to Valve will be made - remember that HL2's "Source" is very likely Valve's eventual reconstruction and iteration of technology they once licensed from id Software.
Given that 3dRealms certainly has to be doing something and given that they have been working on DNF with an Unreal engine since before Half-Life had shipped, they may be just as distant from their foundation as Valve is.
Ok, back to Halo PC...
Slashdot Mirror
As a guy who reads, trusts and respects slashdot and the community here, I figured I'd take the time to clarify my position since my intent has been construed out of context. As a gamer, I *love* Valve's games. Hell, I've *made* some of Valve's games! As a customer, I love Steam. I like owning a credential that I can use from any terminal and I like the software. There are other things I like, too. As a businessman, I appreciate the access to Valve's customers that they are providing with Steam. I think there's value to that access. I'm really happy that the Brothers in Arms games are available on Steam and I think Steam customers are really going to dig Borderlands. I have been and hope to be a partner to Valve for many years. From an industry perspective of digital distribution on the PC, I think Steam is doing it the best right now. They're in front and they're really getting value out of their leadership position with digital distribution on the PC. From an industry perspective, I believe that Steam would be even better off if it were a separate company. Trust issues that result from conflict of interest could be mitigated if Steam were a separate company. Take that only as analysis. It doesn't matter how much I trust Valve or how trustworthy Valve actually is - it's just perception within segments of the publishing and development community that, I guess, no one is really talking about. I'm on record in this article saying how I personally trust Valve. I was attempting to comment on perception from some angles of the industry. I also believe that gamers and customers and anyone making games using 3rd party digital distribution systems would be greatly benefited if Steam had some viable competitors. Competition generally drives higher quality products and services at lower prices. I can't see how anyone could argue against that point. If we love Steam, we should hope that as competition appears that it prompts the Steam folks to go faster and better towards improving the service and the pricing. In spite of the implication made in the original source article, I do not want Microsoft to control digital distribution on PC, but believe they (and others) could enter the space if they wanted to and help the competitive landscape and even, perhaps, help to standardize the landscape a bit. I believe that because Valve is a game maker that generally "gets it" I think there's a lot of value to the position they have and I'm really excited about the risk they took and the foresight Valve showed in paving the way there. These are not mutually exclusive feelings and they are all honest and forthright.
What about three out of four? It's just difficult to do BF1942's vehicle system if you want to blow Day of Defeat out of the water with authenticity and realism... Having said that, any authentic game about the subject must also have authentic vehicles :)
I find it interesting that whenever we hear about a game like Quake or Halo or Breed or Chrome or Half-Life or freakin' Halo for that matter that people don't come out with "Isn't the Sci-Fi market saturated?!?" Same can be said for any subgenre... The truth is that anything based on familiar ground has been toyed with before. While we haven't been lacking any game set within a WW2 context what we have been lacking is: - A half-way interesting/engaging story - Authenticity as strong and well researched as SPR or BoB - Real squad combat and tactics (as opposed to "Army of One" games that are basically like Half-Life with WW2 textures). Gearbox is telling this particular story because it has wanted to for many years and finally has the capacity and technology to tell the story it wanted to tell. It's concept was born prior to MoH: AA and it started actual pre-production before Call of Duty was an inked deal...
I was working at 3dRealms when Duke Nukem Forever began development. I left the company in May of 1998. Before licensing the Quake 1 engine, Allen Blum and Dirk Jones had begun prototyping some things in a iterated version of BUILD - that stuff was pretty cool at the time. Prior to that, when Apogee was still working with external developers and the shareware model, there was even a Duke Nukem side scroller in development, being produced by Keith Schuller, it was brilliantly named: Duke Nukem 4-ever. In any case, I, like everyone else, is just waiting for official information. The last Duke Nukem 3d mission I designed at 3dRealms was called "Area 51" - it was the secret mission in the fourth Episode (Atomic Edition). Last I heard, Las Vegas and the business with aliens around Area 51 was central to the Duke Nukem Forever story. So, I'm probably a bit more curious than most to see what comes out. But, think about it for a moment... Since inevitable comparisons to Valve will be made - remember that HL2's "Source" is very likely Valve's eventual reconstruction and iteration of technology they once licensed from id Software. Given that 3dRealms certainly has to be doing something and given that they have been working on DNF with an Unreal engine since before Half-Life had shipped, they may be just as distant from their foundation as Valve is. Ok, back to Halo PC...