Gabe Newell sees Half-Life as a series of things that he will regret until the end of life

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Mountain shook, Gabe Newell did his "interview" on Reddit, and  set of very diplomatic answers got born that did not resolve the mystery of modern questions - what happens to the Half-Life 3? Founder of Valve among the other things, referred to the future of the franchise, broadening their universe, business plans for Steam, then work philosophy that Valve practices.

Most concrete link with the Half-Life series Gabe did, kind of ironic, gave the answer to the question what is his favorite game of his company. To the surprise of many, Gabe stated that he considers Portal 2 his best SP game, while he plays Dota 2 the most among MP games. Building on the absence of cult Half-Life series Gabe explained his view in these words:

"The issue with Half-Life for me is that I was involved in a much higher percentage of the decisions about the games, so it's hard for me to look at them as anything other than a series of things I regret. There's no information in my response about what we'll do in the future. It's simply easier for me to be a fan of things that in which I was less directive.If you are involved in a game, everything ends up being a set of trade-offs. Anything in a game is a sacrifice of things not in the game. I just feel those more personally about Half-Life for a bunch of reasons.

Gabe between the lines explained why for a long time we have not seen a new Left 4 Dead, Portal or even a new IP. Investing in hardware (Steam controller, HTC Vive etc.) he sees as laying the groundwork for expanding the options for making experiences. Or, easier with Gabe`s vocabulary - "The products are usually the result of crossing technologies that we think is popular, group of people who wants to work on them, and that intellectual property that suits best to the challenges of that technology and design."

Among the answers that are not so diplomatic, Gabe has confirmed that there is a chance that from Half-Life / Portal universe degenerate one more new IP, and also that the same series will really have movie adaptations that was earlier mentioned.

 


Tagged with: Half Life 3 Steam, Valve

Replies • 39
Galactic

I can understand that. He doesn't see just the game we love, he sees things left in the cutting room floor, things that took a lot of work, things that didn't work quite right. I am a perfectionist too, I can't unsee the flaws in everything I make.

The title of this post is a bit exaggerated: he doesn't say "until the end of time" anywhere.

Link to the reddit answer with clarification.




Galactic

I think that anyone involved in the industry can tell you that the appreciation of a product fundamentally changes when you're involved in the process of making it. 

Things like games and movies are always compromises between your vision, the technology available and time/money available to your team.

Gabe will always look at what he couldn't do or what went wrong there, because he was very intimate with the game, and that will always limit his enjoyment of it as a consumer. 



Unicorn Powered

We all knew HL was going to come up a lot and he had to answer it. So now it is out there... maybe people will shut up and stop going on about it, it's years now so maybe they drop it. 

Where can I see the entire question log? Anyone got a link to every question so I can read, please. 



̶H̶e̶n̶t̶a̶i̶ Anime Lover
jaquanor said:

I can understand that. He doesn't see just the game we love, he sees things left in the cutting room floor, things that took a lot of work, things that didn't work quite right. I am a perfectionist too, I can't unsee the flaws in everything I make.

Yeah but that also gives you the opportunity to make a new installment and make up what you saw as flaws in the previous.

kitsaina said:

Gabe will always look at what he couldn't do or what went wrong there, because he was very intimate with the game, and that will always limit his enjoyment of it as a consumer. 

But to see it in fruition and leaving an impact on others is a far more valuable emotion than only seeing the flaws of your processes. I think he's way too caught up in flaws and not focusing on what he can make better.


jaquanor said:

I can understand that. He doesn't see just the game we love, he sees things left in the cutting room floor, things that took a lot of work, things that didn't work quite right. I am a perfectionist too, I can't unsee the flaws in everything I make.

The title of this post is a bit exaggerated: he doesn't say "until the end of time" anywhere.

Link to the reddit answer with clarification.

totally agree with ya


Galactic
Abdication said:
jaquanor said:

I can understand that. He doesn't see just the game we love, he sees things left in the cutting room floor, things that took a lot of work, things that didn't work quite right. I am a perfectionist too, I can't unsee the flaws in everything I make.

Yeah but that also gives you the opportunity to make a new installment and make up what you saw as flaws in the previous.

kitsaina said:

Gabe will always look at what he couldn't do or what went wrong there, because he was very intimate with the game, and that will always limit his enjoyment of it as a consumer. 

But to see it in fruition and leaving an impact on others is a far more valuable emotion than only seeing the flaws of your processes. I think he's way too caught up in flaws and not focusing on what he can make better.

From what I've heard, Half Life 3 projects have been cancelled around 3 or 4 times.

If you remember the games when they came out, they were revolutionary. No game had the storytelling experience that half life had, before that it was mostly text dumps to inform you about your enviroment but Half Life managed to do it through the game itself. 

Half Life 2 also had the greatest physics engine of its time and provided experiences that weren't there before.

I think valve just hasn't found the new experience for Half Life 3 to form around yet. Maybe they could be waiting for vr to take off honestly so they can take it there.