*WHAT IF* Valve never had existed.

Remember it's only a what if, but here we go.

What if valve never had existed and none had made something alike steam half life, counter strike, etc.

Discuss.

I'd never play PC games without Steam

There would still be id, 3D Realms, Epic, Monolith and lots of softhouses to move the FPS genre and PC Gaming forward.

I'd never play PC games without Steam

Lox_Cropek

Exactly lol, I probably have like $800 worth of games on Steam...

Seeing as Fate guided Valve to the path of creating Steam, Half-life, Team Fortress etc...

Fate wouldve found another gaming studio to take that path in Valve's place.

More people would have played better games like SHOGO, Deus Ex and System Shock 2 instead of playing Half Life.

oh god what a horrible thought

well, gaming would likely be more boring, atleast fps gaming, considering that ingame avtion scripts were invented (or if not invented then shown off) by Half Life.

Basicly every modern fps game borrows heavily from the HL legasy (1 not 2), with ingame sequences that is NOT cutscenes, and if I remember correctly HL was the first fps where AI was a main bullet point...

So, we would likely have Quakish enemies that had a preset course of action still aka. Bullet magnets.

GTA kicks Half life (and all it's family member)'s ass , i guess that people would just play other games, as for steam, it's the worst piece of **** i ever seen, it has over 15 error possibilities and most of them are common, fine it helps you arrange your games good, i will give it that, but now that ive said that, i hate steam.

GTA kicks Half life (and all it's family member)'s ass , i guess that people would just play other games, as for steam, it's the worst piece of **** i ever seen, it has over 15 error possibilities and most of them are common, fine it helps you arrange your games good, i will give it that, but now that ive said that, i hate steam.

lolpingu

What planet are you from? Steam doesn't have any problems for me, I think common problems with Steam is an oxymoron, I am pretty certain of that.

Obviously you had a bad experience, hopefully not for cheating.

By the way, without Valve IMO PC gaming would be in a much worse state.

As for GTA kicking HL's butt? Thats just laughable.

our world would be the next half life atm.. of this i can be assured

image url: http://blogs.sun.com/ahot/resource/photos/collaider.jpg

our world would be the next half life atm.. of this i can be assured

ionusX

GTA kicks Half life (and all it's family member)'s ass.

lolpingu

There would still be id, 3D Realms, Epic, Monolith and lots of softhouses to move the FPS genre and PC Gaming forward.

RyuRanVII

Valve time wouldn't exist?

Valve time wouldn't exist?

simardbrad

also

Gabe Newell may have actually had to work in his life so he wouldn't be the size of a beached whale?

lol wow, some very non-thought-out replies.

ok 1. there would some games that wouldn't be made

2. there would actually be a good bit of games that would of either not been made, or made differently (because the influence from previous games may not exist due to Valve not making their games) which influence certain other games to be made {that weren't made, or weren't made the same without Valve being in the picture} (in turn there would be games out that are not out now, ideas used that aren't overshadowed by ideas that no longer exist due to your "what if valve never existed scenario"

3. DD may have not taken off as fast as it did.. STEAM was a driving force in that.

4. there wouldn't be people making threads like these..

and those are just obvious differences.. (and still not even well thought out)

[QUOTE="Kolossi"]

Seeing as Fate guided Valve to the path of creating Steam, Half-life, Team Fortress etc...

Fate wouldve found another gaming studio to take that path in Valve's place.

Eneru112

you're a christian aren't you?

fate... a completely misused, and misunderstood word... that is often used to describe a number of events, consequences or decisions that have led up to a certian point.

its a word in mysticism... one of the most used in the "art" of mysticism (which is used heavily in religion) which often is a way to remove pretty much all responsibility.

Without value or steam the pc gaming world would be a much better place

There would not have been any super overrated but mediocre like Team Fortress 2 , Portal and even Half Life 2.

I wouldn't have my awesome avatar! "give me my sandvich"

A more fascinating what if scenario would be if Trespasser never existed. Since Trespasser was the inspiration for physics in HL2, HL2 might have

been a lot different.

GFW will dominate PC Gaming. :lol:

Without value or steam the pc gaming world would be a much better place IMO

Darksonic666

I would not be a PC gamer.

GFW will dominate PC Gaming. :lol:

redneckdouglas

Hmm. To be honest, I don't think Valve not existing would have had a huge impact on the PC gaming world. The only title they've ever released first-hand that really made a big enough dent was the first Half-Life. Half-Life 2 was well-received, but died out pretty quickly for whatever reason. You didn't really hear much about it come 2005-6. Left 4 Dead was not a bad game but nothing spectacular, L4D 2 was little more than a stand-alone expansion pack for it.

The games that people play in the longer term tend to be the CoD series, WoW, Battlefield, Warcraft 3, C&C and Bioware RPGs. With the exception of the first Half-Life and Counter-Strike, Valve's titles seem to come with loads of hype and just disappear these days. To their credit, CS and CS:S have been highly resilient titles.

As my esteemed predecessor rightly stated, however, we still have ID, Blizzard, LucasArts, BioWare and more. Valve's one major contribution to the PC gaming community has been to further the cause of DRM in the form of Steam - the less said about this, the better. Not that I hate Steam - as a digital distribution platform for small, cheap indie titles, I think it's great, in the same way that I find PSN great for the same thing on PS3 and PSP. For full AAA titles it's useless and only causes problems.

Other than CS, I seriously don't believe that Valve have brought much positive to the PC market.

If there was no Valve the new zombie trend would not exist and it would take way more time for digital downloads to become popular. Also I think the online shooter genre would look alot different since all id and Epic made were twitch shooters.

If there was no Valve the new zombie trend would not exist and it would take way more time for digital downloads to become popular. Also I think the online shooter genre would look alot different since all id and Epic made were twitch shooters.

rzepak

[QUOTE="rzepak"]

If there was no Valve the new zombie trend would not exist and it would take way more time for digital downloads to become popular. Also I think the online shooter genre would look alot different since all id and Epic made were twitch shooters.

jamyskis

When I mentioned twich shooters I was think more along the lines of Valve doing something different with Counter Strike. Also only a tiny portion of a games overall playerbase knows or cares about mods, That is why I hold L4D in such high esteem. The source engine is indeed a great achievement, then again whats great about once again appeals to a small portion of the community. I mean there are a ton of great mods out there but for the most part their servers are ghost towns.

also

Gabe Newell may have actually had to work in his life so he wouldn't be the size of a beached whale?

simardbrad

For the life of me, I have never understood the popularity of Steam. Its been more intrusive than any other DRM I have personally had to get through to play a game. It has its positives but its really not *that* great people, I can't help but think of the word fanboi when I see people praising it.

If valve never existed the guys who make up valve might actually still be making games.

Because of the the awesome deals? Because of the huge catalog of games including indies? Because of the great community features? The achievements? Auto-patching of games? Easy downloading and management of games? Backup features allowing people to create physical copies?

It's not rocket science, dude.

I think that the fps genre wouldn't be at level they are now..if it wasn't for half life... ill quote gamespot to prove my point

Half-Life is the closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken.

A major goal in any game is to create the illusion of reality, a fact that is especially true for first-person shooters. The whole point of the genre is to put you, literally, in the role of the protagonist. In light of this, it's surprising that so many games have stuck to a blueprint that breaks the illusion at every possible opportunity, with text-based mission briefings, jarring level transitions, and weapons and power-ups scattered around like decorative furniture. But Valve Software has obviously spent a lot of time studying the mistakes of the past. The result is Half-Life, the closest thing to a revolutionary step the genre has ever taken. Through a series of subtle and artistic design decisions, Half-Life creates a reality that is self-contained, believable, and thoroughly engaging. And while it may be surprising that no game has utilized any of these ideas in the past, it's clear that any future shooter will be remiss to overlook them.

[QUOTE="simardbrad"]

also

Gabe Newell may have actually had to work in his life so he wouldn't be the size of a beached whale?

dakan45

I guess we now have definite proof why HL2 : Episode 3 is never being made.

^Actually the real reason is this:

Online gaming would not be as fun without Valve games. I would not be a gamer or i would be a console only gamer.