Source 2 Tools Will Ship with ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ for VR Content from the Modding Community

No one said otherwise regarding profitability. Thing is, Valve is not like most studios. They can lose and or waste money, be horribly inefficient and inconsistent because they have a publishing platform bringing in enough money where their losses are always going to be offset.

The person I was responding to had the premise that this some how allows them to be better, which is not always the case. One extreme is just as bad as the other.

No worries, I am also a fan but I tend to be the more objective and rational type. I can hold studios I like to the fire just as much as praise what they do right. The more you like a studio, often times the more you are going to be willing to have an opinion about what they make.

That said, I could easily name a flop release. Artifact for example. Even Valve came out and said they need to basically remake the game.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2019/01/16/valves-artifact-has-lost-almost-its-entire-playerbase-in-the-two-months-since-launch/#cdd672b2c4f1

On the hardware end, the steam machine initiative basically fell flat as well. In fact when Steam first came out, it was not well liked, but we dealt with it because you had to if you wanted to play Half-Life 2.

Granted their track record so far has been pretty good, but their best work is generally considered old and not new.

My implication was only with reference to what you your self stated, which is bias. The exact quote is ”
I am admittedly biased”. A bias in this context is defined as an interference in rational thought. Its not a dig at you by any means, everyone has a bias somewhere, myself included. Thing is, once you are aware of the bias they can often be negated, which you have done since you admitted to it. This is a fair assessment and not meant as an insult.

The subject was on the flop releases and so we have to discuss those objectively. Games like Artifact and hardware initiatives like the steam machine are two examples of some flops.

The reason to bring up the steam machine is because it is an example of something Valve promoted then dropped because it did not do well. Both consumers and manufacturers kind of got screwed over on that one. For what its worth I do think it was a learning experience for Valve.

I gave you the most truthful answer, which is that their best track record so far leans more towards their older work rather than the newer. This is simply a fact. Nothing wrong with that.

Once Valve became more of a publisher and distributor, as opposed to a game developer, their priorities changed. They felt no rush to finish a game or source 2, they took their time. Thus, yeah their track record leans towards their older content simply because they chose not to release much after that. You could, if you want, argue that’s a good thing as they are picky about what they release or find suitable for release.

Word is that they have started many projects and just dropped them or put them on hold internally. The appeal of Alyx in turn has them looking at those neglected projects as possible new content to pick up again for VR.

Finally, saying I am full of **** and have a bug up my arse simply because you don’t like my opinions goes right back the subject of objectivity and rational response, as well as the admission of bias. I have been a fan of Valve since HL1 came out on PC. Being a fan however does not require one like or worship every business decision they make, or even filter it through rose tinted glasses. Some people seem to have trouble accepting that even good companies can get criticism.

In fact, one of policies at Valve was not to post on social media much when looking for feedback, because fans would only give positive responses rather than the critical ones they were looking for. Food for thought.

Eh, the “OS” is around 5 or more years old at this point. It has seen very little meaningful updates or improvements. They swapped focus over onto Proton, which was comprised of other linux software for use in creating compatible steam games on Linux. The whole SteamOS Steam Machine iniative really fell flat on its face, its also why they stopped advertising and selling the machines on Steam.

I am not saying what some of their developers do is not beneficial, but the marketing initiatives tend to have a bad track record so far.

You have heard of the phrase “Valve Time” right? Its a bit tongue in cheek, but its basically saying that Valve’s time is completely different from our time. If they say a game will be out in 2017, we then use “valve time” to translate that to 2020. Its basically saying Valve tends to claim stuff, often advertise or hype up (sometimes at devday meetups) and not actually deliver, instead pure radio silence.

I like Valve quite a bit but even then one has to admit that they are another kind of extreme and these extremes are not always good.

3 short paragraphs is a book in your eyes? Despite your obviously hyperbolic statement, it says a lot about a person when they can’t actually make an argument and instead opt to attack someone for posting 3 short paragraphs. Pro tip, focus on the content of a post, not its size and especially don’t whine about its size when its objectively short for the majority of mature adults.

SteamOS hasn’t been shelved.

It had more to due with Valve’s development habits. A lot of steam machine manufacturers were reliant on the updates but the schedule was too inconsistent for them to build around, and on top of that many emails were left unanswered. It goes back to the term “valve time”, which is valve’s ability to have their release schedules be off by years and often with little to no information (transparency) given to the public (or even their hardware partners) between then.

Source 2’s first target date I believe was 2017, however what people ended up getting was some mod tools with relation to Dota. Now its looking like more mod tools for Alyx. I have no doubt it will be open to commercial use at some point, even for mod purposes (that’s how Team Fortress and Counter Strike came to be). The question is more of when and with how much competitive features when compared to the Unreal Engine and Unity. We really don’t know because Valve is generally very tight fisted with information on this front, and the dates they do give are usually off by many years.

What does that even mean? Give context. They ask how anything I said affects the Source 2 negatively and I reply that I never claimed it would. You say “you don’t offer facts”.
What an oddly out of place response.

What specially do you need facts over? Make sure you are reading my post objectively, avoid putting words into my mouth which a lot of you have been doing so far.

Where did I claim “Valve shelved SteamOS”? Read my post again objectively.

Its a known factor with Valve making an announcement and then not hearing anything about it or see it get sidelined to a various degree. They call it “Valve Time”. Valve even adopted this community made term for their own use, acknowledging its legitimacy.

Here is one quote explaining it further detail:

“Valve time is a term which began in Valve’s fan community and has since spread to the development community as a whole. Valve time refers to the company’s longstanding tenancy to release games far later than they were originally announced, often being off the mark by a matter of years. Outside the Valve fandom, Valve time refers to any large difference between the announced released date and the actual release date. Valve itself has acknowledged the term, and now uses it when announcing release push-backs. They have even created a post on their development page chronicling the notable incidents.”

This is exactly what I was discussing. A lot of the hardware manufacturers for the steam machine were screwed over (according to PCgamer) because they committed to and were reliant heavily developing systems around the SteamOS, but the necessary updates they needed and correspondence never appeared in a timely manner. Many of Valve’s hardware partners complained that their emails to Valve would result in no response. Valve later quietly removed the steam machine section from the Steam Store.

It is what it is. Valve is not good at following up on commitments they have made within the time frames they often give. Thus we get “Valve Time”.

I already explained it to you in my previous post. Did people here collectively forget how to read post objectively?

Again I just explained to you what the steam machine manufacturers were complaining about and how it dealt with the slow and inconsistent release of SteamOS updates followed by unanswered emails.

This, “Current Valve has a bad habit of not follow up on their commitments or what they announce. Remember the SteamOS”, does not mean “claims of shelving the SteamOS”. I think you just got caught in some confirmation bias. You are reading into my post beyond what was actually typed. Go back from the beginning and read through it with the understanding of “Valve Time”, a phrase many in the Valve community are aware of (and joke about).

I did not deflect. I literally just explained it to you twice, which addressed your “question”. You asked what that meant, and I explained it. How is that deflection? C’mon. Don’t argue in bad faith.

My entire chain of posting was done around the Valve community understanding of “Valve Time” and subject of the steam machines. My mistake is assuming many of you already knew about it. Go look it up.

Still waiting for an explanation what SteamOS has to do with Valve Time.

lol

” Did people here collectively forget how to read post objectively?”

Or you could be wrong.