The Making of a Fiasco

[rec]

Gaming news website, The Gaming Asylum, have written up an opinionative editorial entitled exactly that.

It is hard to say how this will affect Valve Software. They may have lost the ability to successfully market their engine to other developers and organizations, and the multiplayer modes of Half-Life2 may be compromised because hackers and cheaters have access to the source code...

Covering leak, the exposure gained by it, and potential problems Valve will need to face, it's a relatively good read. If there is still any "beta blood" pumping through your bodies, be sure to check it out.

 

[SoSorry]

Strange enough, I tend to agree with this article. There seem to be a lot of very cool games coming out next year, and a lot of them promoting the exact same features as Half-Life2. Half-Life2 seems to be promoting its tech like the A.I and unscripted events, plus graphics but so are other games. I think Half-Life2 will be my favorite but there is always a chance a sleeper game will come along before it now, and steel its fire. Everybody was closely watching Half-Life2 when it was announced and I think this is such a big title that the competition will look at it and try and use some of the cool ideas found in the Half-Life2 leak.

There was a reason Valve have been tight lipped about Half-Life2, and it was because they did not want to reveal too many secrets too early. If Half-Life2 is really done and they want to make the biggest impact possible they should release now. If " Condition Zero" can use STEAM then so can Half-Life2. However, 4 or more months of delay is a pretty long time and they could make enough changes to surprise everybody. I've already read spoilers posted on this forum and many surprises have been spoiled. There better not be more leaked content coming....:flame:

 

[The Dark Elf]

I like to look at things this way. The features of the source engine could only have taken it so far, physics, ragdolls, using models for props instead of making them out of brushes. All sounds great and probably is. But those things don't and can't carry a game more than a few days before the gamers want something more.

Everyone else appears to have been doing that right now anyway. What will sell HL2 is the better storyline, the way its set out, the way it wont treat the gamer like a fool who needs to be hand held through the maps, its customisability (is that even a word?) And basically that it'll be fun to play.

What I mean is. There was no fancy lighting, physics, ragdolls, thousands of polygons or great sound in games like Pong, Space invaders, Pacman, Manic Miner and Tetris, yet they became classics and in one form or another did exceptionally well, not because of how advanced they were, cause they weren't even back then. It's the thought that goes into it that'll make the difference, not the technical stuff.

Look at movies, anyone can pick up a camera and make a movie, but what sets apart a good movie with a bad one isn't the technical side of things atall, its always been the creative side of things. Consider Ring and the Dreamworks remake. The original film is a classic, far far superior than the American version, yet they didn't have fancy technology to do it, they didn't have millions to spend on it like Dreamworks did. Pyscho is another, the first was and always will be the best, there's been tons of clones of it, even a shot for shot remake. But it just doesn't cut it, not even years on, no remake, no film similar can hold a candle to the original. Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead. Talking no budget really (for a film) some pretty bad fx. But the remake of Night, even the special edition of it with new scenes couldn't begin to compare to the proper one. the remake of Dawn, while it'll probably be an ok film, its not going to be as fondly remembered as the one from years back. There's all this fancy technology available and yet its still impossible to touch these classics that were done on a shoestring. So all these games coming along with ragdolls and physics and neat looking DX9 effects. Well anyone can do that. But looking at all the mods made for HL1. Same technology but how many of those mods will be remembered as great games. CS, They Hunger, maybe a couple more but thats about it. They just go to show you can have all the technology in the world and it means nothing if you can't have a good story, good atmosphere etc. etc. boring myself now lol

So yeah, the source code being stolen is going to hit them hard business wise. But when it comes to sales HL2 isn't going to be harmed from it. True that right now HL2 isn't as technically advanced as it might have seemed, but I don't think that matters, its how they used that technology to make a fun game thats important, not what it is capable of. Gamers in the middle of a game aren't going to be worrying so much about if a dead body falls correctly or if a scene is partially scripted or not. But they'll notice straight away if its boring or if there's times the story doesn't make sense or if its just not enjoyable.

Well in theory the above all makes sense haha, but at 7:45am without having a coffee yet I'm no will shakespear sorry

 

[Element Alpha]

Yes, all of the above, very true.
But, did you know that disasters do happen?
And not because they are ment to, but just because they do.
If you're in a plane flying at 800 km/h and you shoot a bullet in front of you, the bullet will fly about 200 km/h faster than you, wich brings its speed to about 1000 km/h.
Now, let's say you shoot that same bullet towards the back of the plane. You're flying at 800 km/h, minus 200 km/h for the bullet speed, equals that bullet is still flying in the direction of the plane at a speed of 600 km/h! Yes, even tho you shot it in the opposite direction you were flying, if you slow down after shooting, the bullet will catch you in the back!

Makes you think, doesn't it?

 

[killahsin-[CE]]

excellent post fenric you bring up alot of valid points.

 

[SoSorry]

A lot of the story in Half-Life2, at least the way the user experiences it is supposed to be unscripted A.I. So if what they say is true then the tech involved in the A.I will be as important as storyline. If Half-Life came out today nobody would consider it revolutionary because other games would have already done the same things story wise etc... We all believe Half-Life2 will probably be the best game in 2004 but whose to say a game like STALKER or Duke Nukem Forever will not be better and what if they come out before Half-Life2 . As for the multiplayer, the Beta Leak seems to give away some good ideas there :dozey:


By the way when Half-Life came out it had great graphics for that time, and that helped it quite a bit in the reviews as well. :bounce:

 

[fido]

STEAM is being used for Condition Zero so it will be interesting to see what happens. They must have changed it enough for it to be secure in order to launch a retail game, or the hacker got some outdated code :afro:

 

[Kadayi]

Fiasco is the wrong word to use. A fiasco is an event that occurs where all parties willingly contribute to a situation through their incompetence. With regard to the Situation as it stands I don't honestly feel that to be the case with regards to HL2. Just seems like another ill informed and lazy spilt milk article and is no more worthy of attention on this site than anything written elsewhere (yet another person taken in with the notion that what the hacker got was the final game.......jez). Unless they contain any hard facts (info from valve, Vivendi) there is little point, sending us to articles that tell us less than we know already from these forums.

Even the talk of other games was old news.

 

[fido]

Originally posted by Kadayi Polokov
Fiasco is the wrong word to use. A fiasco is an event that occurs where all parties willingly contribute to a situation through their incompetence. With regard to the Situation as it stands I don't honestly feel that to be the case with regards to HL2. Just seems like another ill informed and lazy spilt milk article and is no more worthy of attention on this site than anything written elsewhere (yet another person taken in with the notion that what the hacker got was the final game.......jez). Unless they contain any hard facts (info from valve, Vivendi) there is little point, sending us to articles that tell us less than we know already from these forums.

Even the talk of other games was old news.

Actually this is one of best readings I have read in regards to what has happened to Half-life2 and I've seen just about everything. The article never said the hacker got the full game, he said no one knows the full extent and that this whole thing might be blown out of proportion. In fact it's very accurate with regard to what is known about this whole event. It also talks about things almost no one has touched upon. It's amazing how many people like you can misread an article because its well written and cleverly inserts some dark humour :cheers:

You better look up the definition of Fiasco because you don't know what it means at all. Next time grab a dictionary instead of trying to look smart.

Fiasco - "A complete failure"
Fiasco - "a sudden and violent collapse"

Fiasco synonym: "debacle" : A total, often ludicrous failure.

Now the title of the reading is funny but cleverly worded. It never says Half-Life2 is a fiasco it says "The making of a fiasco" which implies that there is a possibility for things to spin out of control. It is also an attention grabber, I would imagine :bounce:

 

[Dhoco X]

Que fiasco hein ?

 

[Kadayi]

fido

You liked it, personally I saw no new insights, but I guess thats probably because I don't feel the need to reach for a dictonary everytime I want to write a response to a forum.

 

[Kadayi]

Also a fiasco is a theatrical, exaggerated term, overblown like the actions of a mime performing a routine. What a dictionary doesn't tell you is the cultural context of a word, or its poetry. Perhaps your culture is different from mine, but where I am a fiasco is something that is tragic but from an outsider’s perspective can also be seen as comedic, akin to a farce. I feel the word fiasco is improper to describe what occurred to Valve, because I don’t find it a thing of humour or morbid glee. Perhaps that is because like Valve I have also had my work stolen previously by hackers and so therefore possess a greater sense of empathy for their situation.

 

[SoSorry]

Originally posted by Kadayi Polokov
Also a fiasco is a theatrical, exaggerated term, overblown like the actions of a mime performing a routine. What a dictionary doesn't tell you is the cultural context of a word, or its poetry. Perhaps your culture is different from mine, but where I am a fiasco is something that is tragic but from an outsider’s perspective can also be seen as comedic, akin to a farce. I feel the word fiasco is improper to describe what occurred to Valve, because I don’t find it a thing of humour or morbid glee. Perhaps that is because like Valve I have also had my work stolen previously by hackers and so therefore possess a greater sense of empathy for their situation.

It is called the "making of a fiasco" which means there is a chance that the disaster can be avoided. The article takes the hacking incident very seriously which is why it outlines how very serious the situation is. Most people tend to believe that the stolen code is no big deal and that it will not really affect Valve because Half-Life2 will sell many copies. The article points out that it could be far more serious than what most others have reported.

Just because there are some clever statements in it does not mean the situation is not taken seriously. Read what is there.

 

[rec]

Everyone leave Kadayi alone, poor bloke. ;P

 

[The Dark Elf]

Originally posted by rec
Everyone leave Kadayi alone, poor bloke. ;P

*unties Kadayi, removes the clown costume and stands him up the correct way*

but sirrrrrr, we were only playing a game

 

[Kadayi]

Originally posted by SoSorry
It is called the "making of a fiasco" which means there is a chance that the disaster can be avoided. The article takes the hacking incident very seriously which is why it outlines how very serious the situation is. Most people tend to believe that the stolen code is no big deal and that it will not really affect Valve because Half-Life2 will sell many copies. The article points out that it could be far more serious than what most others have reported.

Just because there are some clever statements in it does not mean the situation is not taken seriously. Read what is there.

SoSorry

I read it, and I'm sorry to burst your bubble there, but frankly I couldn't see anything new in what the guy was writing about. I've seen the same issues, ideas, anxieties and speculations brought up on this and other forums in between the trolls and fanboi posts, and therefore I don't classify this as news, or news worthy, my original point.

Also I wouldn't delude yourself about the cleverness of the author. The fact that he lacks the wit to run his article through a spell checker capped it for me with regard to any sense of professionalism. If he can't get the most basic of things right when writing for public consumption, how then should I gauge the accuracy of his judgements? Or the thoroughness and balance of his research? A ‘leek’ is a welsh vegetable, where as a ‘leak’ is a disclosure.

Rec

A bit of frisson is never a bad thing, occasionally.

Fenric1138

LOL in dreams possibly, but not the sort of dreams I would encourage.

 

[SoSorry]

Originally posted by Kadayi Polokov
SoSorry

I read it, and I'm sorry to burst your bubble there, but frankly I couldn't see anything new in what the guy was writing about. I've seen the same issues, ideas, anxieties and speculations brought up on this and other forums in between the trolls and fanboi posts, and therefore I don't classify this as news, or news worthy, my original point.

Also I wouldn't delude yourself about the cleverness of the author. The fact that he lacks the wit to run his article through a spell checker capped it for me with regard to any sense of professionalism. If he can't get the most basic of things right when writing for public consumption, how then should I gauge the accuracy of his judgements? Or the thoroughness and balance of his research? A ‘leek’ is a welsh vegetable, where as a ‘leak’ is a disclosure.

Rec

A bit of frisson is never a bad thing, occasionally.

Fenric1138

LOL in dreams possibly, but not the sort of dreams I would encourage.

LOL!, you find one spelling error, but you of all people should not be making judgements. Plus spelling errors can be found easily in the most professional of documents and is seen every day in articles on Gamespy for example. :bounce:

You thought you were smart by trying to educate us on what a Fiasco meant as the crux of your argument for why the article was wrong and you ended up looking rather silly when it was pointed out that you had no idea whatsoever what you were talking about. I happen to agree with just about everything in that article, and yes it is very clever. There is even a funny pun relating to Doom3 which I bet you never picked up on .

I'd much rather trust the author of a well written article than that of a person trying to educate us on a "word" he never knew what it meant, and then proceeded to write a paragraph on it.

 

[Kadayi]

Yeah sure, whatever (yawns). You’re as deluded in your interpretation as to what I write and why as Fido. You singularly failed to pick up on the irony of the 'spelling' reference also

I'm not entirely sure what your particular issue is, or in fact what you are out to prove? You talk about me trying to educate about a word? Hardly, all I said was I felt it was inappropriate, which to my mind it is. Unless I missed something whilst I was sleeping I’m not aware that professing an opinion was deemed a crime.

As regards ‘Fiasco’, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the term is theatrical; if your table lamp blows you don't say it 'suffered a fiasco' do you? Yet by the rationale of what the dictionary says you could according to our mutual friend? Words are never singular; they are always subject to context/culture they also possess an emotional weight in their usage. Consider pout and moue, both terms are technically interchangeable, but emotionally they are mutually exclusive. Failure and Fiasco might come from the same trunk of meaning, but they branch off in distinctly different ways when you consider their emotive weights.

 

[rec]

Enough of this nonsense.

Locked.