Get yourself even more excited... if possible.

also, here's an e-mail exchange i had with Mr. Birdwell.


-----Original Message-----
From: [me]
Sent: Monday, June 30, 2003 2:34 PM
To: [ken]
Subject: The Cabal Process


Mr. Birdwell,
I suppose you are (I know Gabe Newell is) recieving a ton of these e-mails,
but here i am, with another question about half life 2. I'd watch out, as
planethalflife.com has posted a link to the halflife2.net forums' thread
about e-mailing valve software employees with our questions. I'd imagine
that the flood of e-mails is soon going to become a torrent.

My guess is that at some point, Valve is simply going to have to stop
responding to e-mails, so I'm going to try to get my question in. Your old
article that you wrote for Gamasutra is one of my favorite articles about
the gaming business. I find it inspiring that that much innovation can be
created in an industry domintated by repetition, old ideas, and stale
technologies. My question is simply this: Did Valve continue to use the same
process for Half Life 2? If you did, i can't imagine how the game could
possibly fail.

Of course, that's not my only question, i have bunches more, but in the
interest of not writing out a list for you, i'll hold myself back and simply
congratulate you on consistently surpassing the public's expectations, and
creating games that define the genre. Please, on behalf of all of your fans,
keep up the good work.

I hope to hear from you soon,
Sincerely,

[me]
Wechsler & Ross Inc.

--------

Thanks.

We tried a few variations on the Cabal process over the last few years -
larger groups, different combinations of people, etc. - but they weren't
overly successful so about the middle of last year we reverted to our
original process.
 
I'd watch out, as planethalflife.com has posted a link to the halflife2.net forums' thread about e-mailing valve software employees with our questions. I'd imagine that the flood of e-mails is soon going to become a torrent.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks for singling this site out in a negative light yet again. It's not like people hadn't been emailing them before that thread, and people still are even without knowing about that thread. Half the mails on that thread existed before it was even started.

That said, I've always been really impressed with the Cabal process, and I think Valve's approach is definately what is needed: they really THINK about what a game should be, rather than just trying to dump in cool things and add on room after room.
 
previously i had never heard of the cabal process but in the article it sounds very effective. ditto nietzsche, i think you might be right.
 
i meant no ill will towards this site. i love these forums, but you have to admit that the flood of e-mails that gabe and co. are getting must be intensely heavy.
 
After reading that, I was dissapointed to learn that they abandoned the process for HL2:

We tried a few variations on the Cabal process over the last few years -
larger groups, different combinations of people, etc. - but they weren't
overly successful so about the middle of last year we reverted to our
original process.
Click to expand...
 
no, no, they didn't...read what you quoted... "about the middle of last year we reverted to our original process" he's talking about the original cabal process.
 
i meant no ill will towards this site. i love these forums, but you have to admit that the flood of e-mails that gabe and co. are getting must be intensely heavy.
Click to expand...

There's no evidence at all that they've been getting more emails, or that they are coming because of this site. For goodness sakes: this site only has a a few thousand registered members. The HL2 fan community is in the MILLIONS.
 
That's one of my all time favorite gaming articles too. I have the actual paper magazine it was originally in too.
 
Originally posted by Spiffae
no, no, they didn't...read what you quoted... "about the middle of last year we reverted to our original process" he's talking about the original cabal process.
Click to expand...

Didn't realise that, it could be read either way, but yours makes more sense!
 
there's plenty of other HL1 screenshots and models that were pretty laughable

good job they re-did them all for the final release
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

MFL
Fascinating look at the ongoing psychological evolution of flat hieirarchies.
Replies
2
Views
2K
Tollbooth Willie
Tollbooth Willie
B
Gabe Newell's AMA summary (January 17, 2017)
Replies
1
Views
24K
Gerzowktz
Gerzowktz
B
Community Interviews: Final Exchange development team
Replies
0
Views
5K
Barnz
B
Omnomnick
Steam Big Picture Mode Updated Ahead Steam Machines Launch
Replies
2
Views
3K
Omnomnick
Omnomnick
CombineAdvisor3
Combine Advisors - Leader or Slave?
Replies
0
Views
3K
CombineAdvisor3
CombineAdvisor3
Back
Top