Why Devs Owe You Nothing

Eurogamer: When does a game belong to its fans rather than its creators?

Last week, 10,000 people took to Steam to play Half-Life 2 as part of a gentle protest against Valve's silence on the development of the series' next instalment. It's part of an ongoing campaign that rose from the background noise of forum discontent to deliver an open letter to Valve.

[DA_SHREDDER]

screw TF2 and screw anyone who wants to bring that mediocre franchise back. Waste of everyones time

[Ravenor]

Not sure if serious....

Nothing Mediocre about Half Life though. Not even close, in fact I'm going to go so far as to say that comment is offensively inaccurate.

[pandaboy]

yeah but if it was ps3 exclusive it would be amazing right? we know how you guys roll.

[KingPin]

not all games would be great if they were ps3 exclusive.

i didnt like half life since the first one. i found it boring. i didnt see what the hype was all about. i played half life 2 on the original xbox. apart from the great visuals, the gameplay and story wasnt anything i havent seen before.

i can tell you now, not everyone thinks uncharted series is the bees knees either.

not all games are for everybody.

OT: devz dont owe us a damn thing, thats 100% true. but if devz want their games to sell, they should strike while the iron is hot. thats what Activision are doing with Call of Duty and see how well thats working for them.

[Ravenor]

@Kingpin

In 1998 Half Life was more or less unlike anything that had come before, sans some jumping puzzles. At the time it was a masterpiece, and by far one of the best Single Player Shooters available.

So with comments like yours its a touch hard to take serious. Lemme know the other shooters you were playing in 1998 that were leaps and bounds better SP wise. Maybe you can point me to games from 2004 where HUMAN characters didn't emote like there face was half frozen and sounded like a robot or a bad Anime dubber?

Not all games are for everyone, but I have the sense and maturity to be able to see quality and innovation in video games when I see it. Even if I don't like the title.

[KingPin]

@ravenor
you missed the entire point i was trying to make.

by the way, im not saying half-life was a bad game nor am i saying half life 2 sucked balls all im saying is that i personally found it boring and hard to get into. it has nothing to do with maturity but what i am saying is to pandaboy that it shouldn't matter which hardware the game runs on for it to be considered great or not.

[pandaboy]

Tell it to Da Shredder, kingpin. You only need to read his comment history to understand what I meant.

[KingPin]

@pandaboy
just did as requested.

My bad bro. But if you gonna be sarcastic, give us a sign.

[Ravenor]

@Kingpin

If you can't see how your response basically runs in circles, I give UP. For the last time, this community has to learn that you can't state something is poor or less then something else without first listing some evidence to support it. You simply can't say "I found Game A boring" and consider that a fully fledged opinion worth sharing. It really isn't.

I played a large portion of what was available on the PC and consoles in 1998 and 2004 and for the most part Half Life 1 & 2 towered above everything else released in those years. You never listed things that you felt were better games, because you can't.

[Dark_Overlord]

There only 1 thing I ask for off devs (make that demand) is that the game f***ing works. All too often nowadays, we get hurried games that run like s*** and barely work, and the only way to actually play them is wait for 6 months and numerous patches >:(

I would love Sony/MS/Nintendo to fine companies for shoddy work, but that will never happen :(

[Bigpappy]

Well I agree that everyone should have a working game. Having said that, the developers are in a no win situation. They are able to get their games working on some platforms way before others. Should they release on those that run well and let the other wait, or should they hold their games back, from the period where sales will be maximized, to get it perfect for all and release then? There is pressure from the fans, from maketing, and the publishers. Not everyone can win.

I think in the in the case of Skyrim I would have made the same decission, as it was really just the PS3 where they were having major issues. Fans on other platforms where happy to have the game, even though there were minor bugs. Even some PS3 guy were able to play and enjoy the game. Had they not release on the PS3 with the others, the cry of bias would have been much louder, as PS3 fans refuse to acknowledge that PS3 requires much more effort to have the games run properly. Developers have been saying this for 5 years and yet the base still cries fawl and call them all kinds of names when the performance is not up to par. This is Sony's fault. They made the bad decission to have such a complex console.

[PamPoovey]

Thing with Half life is that Valve has brought it on themselfs, they've consentely trolled and teased us over and over since the cliffhanger in HL2E2, where it's went beyond a joke now...plus it dosen't help when they put other games before HL3, I mean if they announce a new game at E3 this year then HL fans will be ticked off

We at least deserve a screenshot or some infomation on the game. I think this year could be the last chance they have to show something HL related off or the fanbase is really going to get ticked off

[SageHonor]

supply and deman
NUFF SAID

[CrimsonEngage]

Why they do-

I pay your bills.

[BattleAxe]

Zipper made awesome games on the PS2, but on the PS3 they've made mediocre games and have gone against everything that SOCOM fans have asked for during the life of the PS3. They took their fans for granted and since fans don't owe devs anything, that,s why they've only sold around 660,000 copies of SOCOM 4. If you screw your fanbase, your fanbase will screw you!