frag.machine wrote:
Yeah nowadays everyone (
Microsoft included) wants to be the middle man that takes 30% by digitally delivering the goodies. And I agree, at this point Gabe could fund a small studio unrelated to Valve just to
MAKE THAT GOD DAMNED GAME WITH 3 AT THE END OF THE NAME TO HAPPEN DAMMIT. Sorry.
Edit: Read that piece. Dammit Microsoft, bad enough your nosy crapware (driven by your arrogant assumption that you own
MY hardware and
MY internet bandwidth that
I paid for, for your forced crap updates and adverts) is driving me into the Linuxverse, but you actually had the balls to try and pull something as gross and insulting as this...
Okay, some might find what I'm about to say offensive but you two have sorta hammered on something that's been bugging me for a while now. EDIT: Modified to be fairer and less unreasonable scathing.
Gabe would probably like to make HL3, but Gabecutus of CorporateBorg[Valve] feels otherwise. (And CorporateBorg[Valve] always gets what it wants...or else. It is its nature to forget the human, in favor of self-interest, profit and the bottom line after all...)
It's a bit more complicated than just keeping a few people working on it, those people have to be paid and paid well. (likely for at least a year or two for development / testing) That means, programmers, artists, modellers, voice actors, etc. And then there's the marketing, licensing, etc. At the end of all that, we're talking large sums of time and money. (ESPECIALLY since it's the big HL3 we're talking about.)
One way forward might have been the "episode" release paradigm, save that that too takes time and money but produces less upfront content, which means less profit margin per sale. (to say nothing of the inevitable complaints when releasing all episodes in one package later on for cheaper than buying each episode was) Also CorporateBorg[Valve] could always pull the rug out from under the project, if the latest episode doesn't meet sales projections.
Gabe could try and finance the development via crowdsourcing I guess, though profit margins again may not meet projections, and also Gabe likely isn't the sole owner of the IP either.
From the view of CorporateBorg[Valve] it is much easier and more profitable to just play middleman publisher / delivery service instead, especially since they more or less have a monopoly in said service.
Well, that and Gabe is already a billionaire so he probably doesn't really care if its simply about making money. :/
I do find it somewhat abhorrent and disgusting the trend towards exploitation of the "children of the mind" has become in regards to the commercial game industry, however. Churning out crap games every 6-12 months (puppy mill) for teh profits and then abandoning the game / churning out replacement for said game...it just doesn't seem respectful to the IP and fans, though I certainly can understand the business model. (Model relies on "planned obsolescence" -> "Replacement" -> "Repeat Process" income stream...)
But that's just my opinion, maybe I'm just seeing things wrong.
/me sighs
And now I try to imagine what "Linux: Teh Game Universe" would look like... It's all open source, where the universe is terribly fragmented and based around star systems and or pocket universes, everybody can make their own weapons and monsters based on certain rules, but it all follows the basic "Kernel" / Story premise...But then the the inevitable parallel dimension conflicts of Android invasion, etc. To say nothing of the great calamity of the great galactic civil war of SystemD. Just think! First Person Shooting, Third Person Giant Robot / Tank fights, and Epic Space Battles with Missile Massacres and Huge Beams of Insane Proportions(tm)!
Meh, you guys ended up making me think up weird, silly stuff.
Anyway, sorry about the giant offtopic rant everybody.