I mean I don't hate them, nor do I spin madly in love with them, I just co-exist in the same world with them and sometimes we meet for coffee, if that analogy makes any sense.
I think that people both overstate and understate Valve, usually in the same breath.The overstatement is usually a sweeping positive or a sweeping negative, while the understatement is almost always just trying to ignore pitfalls.
Understatement
On one side, Valve are incredibly capable game devs. They've pulled off some of the best games I've played, possibly of all time (HL2: Ep2, Portal, HL1). They really know their shit and it shows in what I've seen from L4D2. They're really hands on with the community, and do support their product literally a decade after people would have bought it full price at a brick and mortar store. They hire high-class talent and produce high class work. However, they're not infallible.
People do treat them as if they are infallible. This is a problem, because they are not, nor are they delivering upon high mighty stone tablets. They are, at the end of the day, some guys in Bellvue Washington, who happen to make polished games and still support the PC platform with a reasonable amount of consistency.
They suffer from what I'd like to call "Game Science Syndrome". This more or less comes down to a game being designed from an initial point to reach a single hypothesis, which is then put to testers, who rigorously hammer, then it's passed back and forth until it's so tight that the hammering has turned the 50 cubic meter marshmallow is now a cube the size of a pinhead and full of glucose. Hence- Game Science. Have a theory, make a test batch, apply to mice, note reactions, modify and reiterate as necessary until it works with minimal flaws, push on public for fifty bucks. This approach is fine, and indeed should be part of all games, but relying on tester feedback and deliberately trying to smooth out the game leads to streamlining, and streamlining isn;t always necessarily GOOD. It has lead to some of my biggest beefs with Valve games cropping up (HL2's boring environments, TF2/TFC's useless class- the HWG, L4D's monotonous gameplay). I should address all these in proper reviews, but they're never going to get reviews, so I'll give a quick cover right now.
HL2's environments, immediately post acquiring the Gravity gun go from interesting adventurous places to be, to dull , gimmick-lined pains in the ass. Okay, let's assume that you're me, not a huge fan of using the gravity gun because of it's sheer gimmick factor. Yes, you'll use it when you HAVE to , but because you're not hunting for props and objects to throw at things constantly, the game goes from a tense run to downright boring. Props are all obviously there for you to punt. Hell, Ravenholm made sure you did by blocking your path with them time and again. It's a real problem especially around the sandtraps, where you must use your gravity gun (again, it's fine because that's the puzzle of that entire level) on everything. There is no other way to solve this level but to play shuffleboard with a door and a rotted boat (yes there are other props, no, get out of my head charles). THere is literally nothing more than this to the level if you don;t want antlions to rape you. You can of course try your best to cross withoutusing the gun, but you will find yourself physically alienated from the solution half way, because there is a gulf of sand wide enough that even if you could glitch it, you'd still probably miss. It's impossible. Then of course completeing this you get gimmick weapon two- the Antlion pheromone pod. Another story altogether. It's clear that Valve want you to play with the gravity gun, but I'm jsut not down with gimmicky tools in games. They're all like "Here, use this." and I'm like "No, I'll stick to trying my skill with the shotgun, thanks.". It reeks of the bad kind of game science, and it really irritates me.
Valve gripe number two - The Useless Class: the Heavy/Heavy Weapons Guy. Seriously, he's goddamn useless. Turns slower thank a tank, has the accuracy of a shower of rain. Sure, he's got 200 health, but he's so slow and his weapon is so useless that he jsut becomes a sponge for someone else to lob over the top of... and Trust me, being the sponge is not fun. Okay a bit ofa backstory. Before TFC, there was Quakeworld Team Fortress, made by a Queenslander in his bedroom. It was massive. Team based class gameplay, 9 classes, a bajillion maps. Yes, the Heavy was one of them, but he was a late addition. By the time he was added, Valve and said queenslander were already in talks for TFC in Half-life 1, so he was needles to say, a bit unbalanced. Minigun? unbalanced? never. TFC came out, and while some classes had become a bit softer, not got the nerf as hard as the poor HW guy.Admittedly, he wasn't as bad as he was in TF2, but he got a noticable step down in power from Quakeworld. TF2 made it worse, with the nerfing continuing, the removal of traps and grenades, and ultimately, becoming on it's own a different experinece altogether separate of it's roots. The HW guy went from being a good base of fire to being compltely and utterly useless. Sure, you could argue that some of the achievement unlocks for the heavy make him a bit more powerful ,but I'll be honest, putting 20 plus hours into a heavy, I've yet to see any of that shit, so fuck it. Again another iterative nerfing project that valve embarked upon.
And finally Left4Dead's boring gameplay. Mechanics directly from CS, step one for a resipe for disaster right there. Left 4 Dead, for me was this *hold down fire* *reload* *hold down fire and run* *wait for everyone * *fire some more**end level* *rinse repeat until last level* *receive rape*. That's it. there is literally nothing more to that game. What's more, the variety of weapons is shocking. Remember what I said about pruning and stuff? Heres where it was cut. Admittedly, any more guns might just be dupes, but they've no issue with it in two. What's more, the entire outside areas of Left4dead feel uninspired and boring for the most part. Especially the starting chapter. That set of levels was so very dull to be a part of. So dull it hurt my view of the rest of the game. L4D2 seems to cope with all this stuff and I'm much more inclined to get that over the wide berth I gave the first one.
So yes, people tend to understate or overlook minor or major downfalls to appease the actually-not-listening Gabe Newell head on their mantle, just because it's Valve.
Then again....
Overstatment
This happens a lot to Valve, because unfortunately, because they do seem to be such a community-focussed team, it makes them open to broad-siders about all sorts.
L4D2 Boycotts, the Anti-Steam movement, PS3 owners, L4D players, Portal addicts, TF2 addicts, CS junkies, CSS junkies. All of them overstate Valve's abilities or importance.. or totally go off the deepend regardless of the reality of the situation.
L4D2 Boycotters are nothing but a bunch of L4D gamers who immediately threw their hands in the air at the announcement of the sequal, not believing that valve could turn over a game in 12 months (thinking that this somehow invalidates their purchase or something), and in a leap of logic think Valve are jsut going to leave them in the lurch.
Anti-Steam people are just idiots. While there are a few bugs with Steam, it's a hell of a lot better than it was in 2004, and it most certainly easier to use and more convenient that maybe 70% of all competive game distribution platforms. Offline Mode may still be buggy to hell, but while I'm online, I've yet to see a problem with steam yet. Their leap of logic is thinking that Steam is somehow the worst concept in game distribution, because it's still better than discs. There, I said it.
PS3 owners who bought the Orange box are the only ones who should feel slighted by valve.. because the port (not actually done by valve) was crap. All other PS3 owners who are now whinging about Valve annoucement that they have no intentions for developing for the PS3. I'm not planning on making games for the PS3. What, you gonna cry 'bout that too?
L4D junkies TF2 addicts and Portal players all share one thing in common- their love for derivative material and memes. They think that no bad can be made of their game, and then have a hissy fit when someone does poke fun or point at a glaring fault. Get over it, they aren't perfect by long shots.
CS and CSS junkies (especially the Pro gamer type) just need to shut up. Valve don't specifically cater games to your tiny niche MLG market, they make games to be PLAYED by as many people as they can. Neither shields, FAMASes or Galils broke the game, AWP and Deagles were already ingame ,so the game was pre-broke.
Finally, I'd jsut like to reiterate, Valve software still support, and are one of the major pillars of, PC gaming. Despite all the back and forth, they're still worth putting money into, because at least they do this much for PC gamers like me. Few developers or publishers even recognise the platform at all these days it seems.
