Near Perfection

I've gone on and on about how much I love Valve and everything they do, own, and are, but I must admit that even I don't think they're perfect. Nothing ever really is perfect after all, and that's just a hard truth.

Still, for everything that Valve does, from appealing to all of their fans to holding massive discounts on PC games through Steam (there's a Summer Sale going on right now, by the way), they somehow manage to infuriate the masses one way or another. That's not to say everyone else has done it too in some way, but let me introduce to you the concept of "Valve Time".

Valve Time is a term coined by fans that refers to their seemingly always-inconsistent release windows. In other words, if they announce a Fall release date, it will probably come out at the end of next Spring.

Now, I'm not here to kick Valve in the balls for being inconsistent, because delays always happen (especially in the gaming industry) usually due to unforeseen circumstances, and we as loyal customers should give them the benefit of the doubt in theory. However, the great minds working for Valve somehow can't relay any messages other than vague reassurances ("We are working on it" or "It will be here soon") whenever fans query them for answers, which we rightfully deserve in my opinion seeing as how loyal we remain to the wonderful games they produce year after year, especially considering the unfortunate delays we patiently wait through.

However, we never really get any until it's either too late or at the last second. It's always an announcement, an apology, and nothing else. No reasons or explanations.

I understand that a company such as Valve must remain private in several ways, considering they are pioneering what could possibly be the future of cross-platform gaming with Steam, and their secrets in marketing and their figures are very important to them. However, I still believe that they could be a little more upfront with their customers, especially when it comes to game releases or customer complaints and issues, public relations aside. They do so much to show that they really appreciate us and that they really understand what being a gamer is supposed to be about, and yet this one imperfection rears its ugly head whenever one of their game releases rolls around or rumors swirl about what they're working on. Being honest and transparent with us would make them not only one of the most professional companies I know about, but probably the best game developing company I know (unlike some others).

Somehow, I made it through this entire post without mentioning Half Life (Episode) 3.

...Wait, shit!