While I agree with much of your post, there are a couple of points that need to be made:
> Valve is a company, not someone's mother. There is no entitlement granted by > Valve Software to players, developers or Admins that would enable or allow > any of us to demand or expect any sort of guaranteed assistance, update, > enhancement, etc. If we do this, it's all in our own heads. We may think we > are entitled, but in reality we are not. Everyone needs to make absolutely clear that if Valve thought it was in their best interest, they could spam us all with gay pr0n or something. But that would make no logical sense. If there were no HL internet servers of any sort, Half-Life would be dead-n-gone game, tossed by the wayside a long, long time ago. We get enjoyment from playing the game, and Valve gets money for us running our servers for them for free. It's a symbiotic relationship, and I think a good number of us feel that inasmuch as Valve has chosen to continue with and support their sole moneymaker longer than most in this industry, it's not like they're being altruistic in their continued support. Continued substantial revenue dictates that they make HL everything they can, milking it for all it's worth. It's a solid concept. Why have CS and other HL-based mods continued to be the most popular game out there? Because of the quality of the game joined with the quantity of quality servers out there, run free of charge to Valve's customers. We like to play the game, and they need us for their game to continue being a profitable investment of time and money. Do they owe us money? No, of course not. Do we as a group deserve to at least be heard out? Yes, of course. > Most of all, I respect a company's right to make it's own decisions without > having to air them and defend them publicly. It's a competetive market, and > maintaining a cometetive business model is paramount if you want to keep > moving forward, plain and simple. That seems to be a pretty contradictory paragraph. If you're going to be making decisions that at least on the surface don't seem to make sense and that directly affect their customers and the marketability to new customers, it seems that if you're trying to remain competitive, you're going to need to explain yourself... Whether it's why Tony decided to move on from HL with PB or why certain bugs/issues aren't resolved or additional cvars/hooks added as per developers' requests. Being competitive in this industry, like many others, means keeping customers coming back for more and bringing their friends with them. All they're saying is that there should be more than a cursory glance made at requests by the people developing these 3rd party utilities and apps that take the basic HL and HLDS and make it something that people will continue to come back for... The new cvars for Admin_Mod are a good example of a job well done. Unfortunately, it seems a lot of developers feel the typical situation is too little way too late, if ever. Basically, we need to step back and stop trying to argue one side or the other. We've got to see that it's a pretty cyclical system we've got here with admins putting up their own time and money to have a place for themselves to play, which in turn directly benefits Valve (you think they'd want to have to set up clusters of servers all over the world themselves?), who then continues to polish and improve HL (fumbles aside), which in turn draws new customers to play on the servers admins are putting up with their own time and money, etc... Valve needs us to make their game a viable choice when deciding where to spend your money, and we need them to continue to iron out wrinkles and toss in some new functionality now and then. From some peoples' perspectives, Valve has gone above and beyond. From others', they haven't gone far enough. It's important to step away from your own personal bias toward either side for a bit and take a look at the big picture... Eric (the Deacon remix) http://www.firekite.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Greg [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Thursday, September 27, 2001 1:28 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: PB issue non-response from Valve. Shut all our > serversdowntoboycott? > > > > > This is pretty ridiculous to say that we don't do anything to help third > > party developers for our games. > > > > Erik > > In fact, it's *completely* ridiculous to say that. I've lost count of the > number of times Eric or Erik or a whole list of others at Valve have > responded in great technical detail and a helpful way to us as we have > worked on developing, updating and furthering Admin Mod. Our team has been > one benefactor of Valve's free gift of support and guidance. > > Valve is a company, not someone's mother. There is no entitlement granted by > Valve Software to players, developers or Admins that would enable or allow > any of us to demand or expect any sort of guaranteed assistance, update, > enhancement, etc. If we do this, it's all in our own heads. We may think we > are entitled, but in reality we are not. > > Companies make decisions. In the history of the Half-Life game, Valve has > done pretty darn well by it's users and developers, and has provided support > and information at no cost. That should (and in my book does) mean > something. You add to that the fact that the people who work there are > first-rate and high-class people... Well, when you look at it that way, the > rants and bitching are hard to swallow. These people deserves our thanks. > > Again, companies make decisions. Just like the people that buy and use their > products. As well they should. There are so many factors that go into a > software company's decision making process. And when you add the complexity > of a company that produces gaming software, where the development is largely > speculative in nature and as a result the risks are high, well the decision > process becomes much more important. > > I don't pretend to know anything about the decisions being made inside the > offices at Valve. But I do know, from plently of experience in the area > where I work, that those decisions are likely to be ones that are weighed > carefully before they are executed, given the environment the compay > operates in. > > Most of all, I respect a company's right to make it's own decisions without > having to air them and defend them publicly. It's a competetive market, and > maintaining a cometetive business model is paramount if you want to keep > moving forward, plain and simple. > > Anyhow, while there have certainly been things I may have done differently > over the past couple of years in the Half-Life arena, given my lack of > personal insight into Valve's inner workings, I don't pretend to know > better, I respect their product and what they have done, and I respect their > right to make their own decisions. > > For what it's worth. :) > > Greg > > >
