Pretend it's Aug 30th 2003 and YOU are Gabe Newell... what would YOU have done?

  • Thread starter Thread starter evil.jelly
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evil.jelly

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.. considering that myself, along with many others i would presume, have pre-ordered in the last month and worked at least one hl2 forum into my every day surfing habits...

the hype created by a simple lack of confirmation about a delay (whether it is or isn't i cant say) is practically unbeatable in terms of marketing value.. how much money they put in and how much return they get back - which is practically nil in and a huge amount of publicity out..

so what would you do?

would you break the news as early as possible, leading to a smaller minority of disappointed fans but missing out on a month of excitement or would you keep on going toward a released date until at the very last minute you decide to break the news keeping the hype momentum going as long as you could?

or am i off the ball with both choices?
 
i would kill myself in shame that im so stupid that i cant even announce a delay.
 
That's a very good question and it's rather difficult to answer. Breaking the news early would create less anger.. but perhaps they didn't really know if they could make it on time untill a week before release? Personally, I have no idea.
 
that wouldn't be plausible because you dont all of a sudden come to a conclusion 1 week before go time that its gonna take 2 or 3 months more. they would know that ahead of time.
 
This is true but how the hell does one decide to wait till there's only 1 week left to announce the delay? I mean, surely the one extra month of intensified suspense wouldn't be worth the cut in reputation for Valve. It's a serious cut, mind you - needless to say HL2 will still sell.
 
Seriously, the way they've handled it is awful and to be perfectly honest - unless, of course, there's a good reason for their silence - we as a community expected (and perhaps deserved) more integrity and honesty from Valve.
 
Originally posted by poseyjmac
that wouldn't be plausible because you dont all of a sudden come to a conclusion 1 week before go time that its gonna take 2 or 3 months more. they would know that ahead of time.

maybe Gabe is sitting in his office - sweating and wringing his hands in despair...

so he comes over to the hl2.net forums where everyone totally believed it would be out on the 30th.. he reads a few posts and then starts to feel better, soon he starts to believe that it WILL be out on the 30th..

it's only in the last few days before rls when his lead coder comes to him and says.. "um Gabe.. we haven't finished it yet.."
 
:hmph: Wow, I think he might be right. <Coughs>
Silly person.
 
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