Maintaining the "religion" isn't doing them (or us) any good without the game out, though. There's nothing to actually lose by releasing it.

As long as they pack a solid game, it'll be fine. Hype always lead to a deception. Hype is always user's fault.
Another thing would be them releasing a garbled, uncomplete mess of a game just for the sake of releasing it. Duke Nukem Forever style. But if Valve were going to do that, they'd have done it already.

Yeah Duke Nukem Forever was an epic fail!!!. and Aliens: Colonial Marines was a complete Abortion

It would be an even bigger mistake not to release it, which would leave the entire series ending on a cliffhanger. IMO, leaving a game series incomplete like that is poor form.

No matter how good of a game they make you will have people hating on it regardless and this is true of every game. So that shouldn't stop them. I only care about it being a great game and I trust them enough to know they won't let us down in that regard. They're known to take as long as it's needed to release a solid game.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

snip!

Hey man, congrats on being a mod!

Bring on Half-Life 3!!!!! The cliffhanger is killing me!

I'm convinced at this point that Valve are never going to release HL3 in my lifetime. They're just using the rumor of it to keep themselves in the news during off-days.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Hype is always user's fault.

Yes, let's not bother to blame the publishers, or the marketers, or the game coverage sites, or the third-party sellers, or the...

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Hype is always user's fault.

Yes, let's not bother to blame the publishers, or the marketers, or the game coverage sites, or the third-party sellers, or the...

Well, it's one thing to market your game and do advertisement, but another to blindly run into the shop and buy it and think "omg this is the best game evaaar!!!".
If the game then doesn't fit the expectations, because you hyped yourself so much, well...yes, then it is more the fault of the user itself.

Originally posted by Meatbug:

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Yes, let's not bother to blame the publishers, or the marketers, or the game coverage sites, or the third-party sellers, or the...

Well, it's one thing to market your game and do advertisement, but another to blindly run into the shop and buy it and think "omg this is the best game evaaar!!!".
If the game then doesn't fit the expectations, because you hyped yourself so much, well...yes, then it is more the fault of the user itself.

Hype needs to be established before the stupid people fall for it. If it weren't for media placement, there wouldn't be anything besides word of mouth to establish hype. So yes, the aforementioned parties are just as guilty of building the hype machine as the consumer.

Originally posted by Dirtman73:

Hype needs to be established before the stupid people fall for it. If it weren't for media placement, there wouldn't be anything besides word of mouth to establish hype. So yes, the aforementioned parties are just as guilty of building the hype machine as the consumer.

I disagree with that, as i see that as normal advertisement.
I'm also not running to McDonalds and am thinking "omg what great hamburger and it looks so delicious and big" and when i buy it i'm disappointed, because it looks like...well..like it looks.

Same goes for games.

Originally posted by Meatbug:

I'm also not running to McDonalds and am thinking "omg what great hamburger and it looks so delicious and big"...

I'm not either, but that doesn't preclude me from recognizing that humans are, by nature, gullible and especially susceptible to the effects of mass marketing.

Episode 2 was arguably the best game in the Half-Life 2 series. And the cliffhanger it left off on in addition to, at the time, Valve doing episodes with shorter development cycles in between games created all the hype. It appears the episodic cycle is done, though, and Half-Life 3 is next on the menu. That Valve has so far been unable to deliver a follow up is the fault of Valve. Not the fans.

It's not like they finished the story. Valve created the hype themselves by telling a story -- a really good one -- without ever finishing it. They told the story and ended it the way they did for the sole purpose of creating hype. Had they finished it, people wouldn't be clamoring quite so much for the conclusion. Blaming the gamers for expecting a worthy successor is typical of the blind faith of a typical Valve fan. It's that whole "Valve can do no wrong" mentality that comes with the territory of suggesting to rabid Valve fans that Valve has faults.

In my opinion, the next Half-Life story couldn't ever live up to the position Valve put themselves in. The gameplay might rock the house (and hopefully it does as the gameplay by Episode 2 was starting to get a bit bland), but if the next Half-Life only briefly involves the arc from Half-Life 2, much like how the transition from Half-Life 1 to Half-Life 2 went, then it'll not satisfy any of the fans (except the blind faith crew). Expectations aside, using the same formula over and over again is a losing formula when you're telling a story. It might work for a CoD or a CS where repetition is the draw, but telling the same story in the same way in a story-driven game is a recipe for disaster.

I'll buy the next Half-Life on day one. My expectations are quite high even though I'm prepared for it to not live up to the expectations that were set by Valve when Episode 2 ended.

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

As long as they pack a solid game, it'll be fine. Hype always lead to a deception. Hype is always user's fault.
Another thing would be them releasing a garbled, uncomplete mess of a game just for the sake of releasing it. Duke Nukem Forever style. But if Valve were going to do that, they'd have done it already.

Tito! You got mod! Awesome!

I almost replied to this talking about how Alyx was a success.. then i saw the year of the post

you do know valve didn't even try finish HL2
after the beta leak.. that was it.. and even so.. here we are doing just fine.

then they made episodic content and never finished that.

and now you want them to give you more incomplete content.
man i should totaly join the game dev industry.

and just make half done games.. profit.