Deadlock - An FPS MOBA by Valve.

  • 🐕 I am attempting to get the site runnning as fast as possible. If you are experiencing slow page load times, please report it.
Alright, I'm gonna give my hot valve take as follows:

Blizzard is a godawful game developer that was clearly running low on gas past the first couple WoW expansions. They hung on to their reputation for an exceedingly long time due to their classic PC tittles. Blizzard fans are sort of in the same bucket as Disney fans where the modern stuff has that polish but lacks the soul of the classics.

I think valve is very much in that same spot. If you sit down and think about it most of their really cool ground breaking IP is pilfered from others. Dota, cs, team fortress, portal, l4d2 and underlords were not original (artifact was also designed by Richard g.) . Half life, and some of the cs adjacent stuff like day of defeat I will give them a pass for. However, I think they're kinda in that same bucket where their games have this wonderful veneer thanks to great artists and they've been able to dress up great base games (tf2, cs, l4d2, portal).

They've been chasing trends and seem out of touch. Hiring Garfield for artifact when he's had far more misses than hits, but is totally the best game designer because of mtG is a very business boomer way to go about things. Now I respect icefrog, but dota was a lucky coincidence/hodgepodge of ideas from many people. It looks like theyre out of touch and chasing trends again.
 
  • Like
  • Winner
  • Agree
Reactions: PetiteFeet, Ukraine is Big Gay, Jalkasienisalaatti and 5 others
jershs compensation beard said:
Did Gabe get raped by the number 3 as a child? What's with their aversion to it?
Click to expand...
In return for Steam's success Gabe promised the devil his soul, but then bargained that he will never make a third game in order to keep it. If he breaks this bargain he will not only lose his soul, but his life at present.

Do not agree to Faustian bargains, friends.
 
  • Like
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: PetiteFeet, Mooger Meng, woowie queen and 4 others
I haven't followed Valve since HL:A, so somebody fill me in: are they still doing the whole "roll your desk over to whatever area and just work on projects you want to work on" philosophy of game development? I want to know what compelled staff to look at shit like Valorant and OW2 and go, "Yeah, let's jump into the party years late." I could understand it from a publicly-traded company with shareholders chasing the Next Big Thing, but if you had the opportunity to work on anything in Valve's endless list of unfinished prototypes, why the fuck would you go for the most generic idea possible?
 
  • Like
  • Thunk-Provoking
Reactions: niggerstomper58, babadook, Battlefield42 and 2 others
Mr.Miyagi said:
I want to know what compelled staff to look at shit like Valorant and OW2 and go
Click to expand...
Overwatch killed itself. No idea about Valorant - maybe it no longer working on linux made them think now was the perfect time to go for a hero shooter / moba hybrid of their own?
 
WrenchWring said:
Valve's business strategy has been to do nothing and let all of their rivals shoot themselves in the foot to death. This has been so successful and for so long that Valve has forgotten how to make anything.
Click to expand...
Is it really stupid if it works, though?

As for this uninspired garbage, well, if Volvo wants to light their money on fire that's their prerogative.
 
  • Like
Reactions: niggerstomper58, Scarface1 and Moths
SangeAndYasha said:
Alright, I'm gonna give my hot valve take as follows:

Blizzard is a godawful game developer that was clearly running low on gas past the first couple WoW expansions. They hung on to their reputation for an exceedingly long time due to their classic PC tittles. Blizzard fans are sort of in the same bucket as Disney fans where the modern stuff has that polish but lacks the soul of the classics.

I think valve is very much in that same spot. If you sit down and think about it most of their really cool ground breaking IP is pilfered from others. Dota, cs, team fortress, portal, l4d2 and underlords were not original (artifact was also designed by Richard g.) . Half life, and some of the cs adjacent stuff like day of defeat I will give them a pass for. However, I think they're kinda in that same bucket where their games have this wonderful veneer thanks to great artists and they've been able to dress up great base games (tf2, cs, l4d2, portal).

They've been chasing trends and seem out of touch. Hiring Garfield for artifact when he's had far more misses than hits, but is totally the best game designer because of mtG is a very business boomer way to go about things. Now I respect icefrog, but dota was a lucky coincidence/hodgepodge of ideas from many people. It looks like theyre out of touch and chasing trends again.
Click to expand...

I think the dirty little secret of game developers is that the talent runs out of ideas quickly, then studio runs out of talent quickly, and this all happens faster than we realize. Turnover happens, and even if some publicly known big names remain, the team that made them big is long gone. This is a function of size and gets lost in sequel sprees, so you rarely recognize the death spiral until it's in the rearview mirror.

It's a ship of Theseus problem: at one point, a group of developers called Blizzard/Valve/whoever made The Great Thing. But individual devs left the group, replaced by other devs, and a bunch of people were hired who had nothing to do with the original group but serve some corporate function. Yet this larger group retains the name of B/V/WE. So, at what point is B/V/WE no longer B/V/WE, no matter what group is sitting in their former offices claiming the name?

(This is not an original thought, but my claim is it happens within 5 years of The Big Hit. Game dev is notorious for burnout, turnover, and end-of-project layoffs.)

If we went down the credits list of developers who made the original TF2 decades ago, how many of them were still around to make a Deadlock pitch?
 
  • Like
  • Agree
  • Winner
Reactions: PetiteFeet, quaawaa, babadook and 14 others
Car Won't Crank said:
I will be Nostradamus and say this uninspired, generic looking game that offers nothing new we haven't all seen before marks the beginning of the end of Valve/Steam.
Click to expand...
Valve as a game dev? I can see that.

Valve as the Steam company that also manufactures Steam consoles and dabbles in becoming the de facto middlemen to sell games digitally? Lol no. They're set for another twenty years even if they did nothing but shit up Steam.
 
  • Agree
  • Like
Reactions: Shlomo XL, Guy who lurks, niggerstomper58 and 6 others
I have a feeling Valve will cancel this before it sees the light of day. I wouldn't be surprised if it was leaked on purpose to gauge peoples reaction.
The reaction was not good.
 
  • Like
Reactions: I_Lurk_Here and Moths
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back