The reasons I like Valve is pretty simple.
They are quite different then Most other Devs/pubs (well devs would likely want to but bound by contract) as in they listen to the community feedback, they change the game if the critiques are warrented (usually hardwarewise). And update thier games something like 10 years after it is released to make sure the game runs smooth, have no problems and so on)
They have great Mod support, and are willing to hire modders for full fledged games (some people here seem to think that is a bad thing, when it is one of the reasons alot of people do make mods... to get into the industry).
They have a whole other level of customer support and a very different buisness model then someone like (well take your pick), They go for the "keep your customers happy, and they will be back" approach as opposed to most other companies thet does not bother with thier customers and offers support for a year, if you are LUCKY). Heck Valve has given me 2 games and 2 exp packs free over the time, it is not due to blind love for the fanbase, but if you keep the playerbase happy, they buy more, and they are loyal.
They allow Indie devs to get thier games sold over steam at a very good intry fee (I think they take something around the 20-30% but I do not think ther is an entry fee, unlike consoles where you have to pay a huge sum up front, just to be allowed to sell the game, and then they take 30% after that aswell).
They are not governed by the glight on the industry that is shareholding, they are not obligated to making money for thier investors, which locks down Publishers to the point where they can not do a whole lot of what they want to, and it is also one of the reasons forall therehashes we see)
They give Free content to thier games, most of the time the size of the DLC most people buy, and dont even get me started on map packs.
Valve are not saints no, but they are one of the few Pubs left who see thier customers as living breathing human beings, most others simply look at you like a walking bag of bucks, needing to be bled out.
They are part of a dying breed, I think there are two or three like Valve left (most obvious one being Blizzard), the rest has long since crumbled to coorperate greed or burried in paperwork and shareholders wishes.
As for the console part, you must really not be able to see the bigger picture here, first off valve themself never made a console game before (EA licenced the rights for thier games on consoles) and the ports were made by EAs internal teams.
Valve got really pissed over the closed platforms of the consoles, and how it robs the Devs the ability to update and maintain thier games (as they want the devs to pay for patches for thier own games, now that is backwards greedy thinking).
The interresting part is that I really do think Valve dislike the PS3 archetecture, however Sony has allowed valve something that has not really been done before, namely steamplay: Unrestricted access to the game youve made, meaning that the game could be made, updaged and maintained like pc games does, with no restrictions. It is a space where Valve can dictate thier own games, allow cross platform play, and they can even add said updates and extra content as they wish, giving a good service. MS does not allow that, a snowball has a bigger chance in hell then that.
So I think Valve (and gabe in particular) dislikes the archetecture, but has gotten alot of respect for Sony for giving them the oppotunity, and running the risk. The way I see that is that it is a huge win for Valve, a huge win for Sony, and a massive win for the consumer.
It is interresting because it might signal a new era in Sonys way to look at thier own platform, and maybe making it semi open. (one must wonder, since the two versions are completely similar, if mods made on the PC will be able to be carried over to the PS3 like we saw with UT3).
I am cautious tho, about the "buy the PS3 version, get the PC version for free" marketing, because if it is what we allready know from Steam as of now, it is the same copy, of teh game, but migratable over steamworks, nothing new, but no "2nd copy" I hope this is not that case, since customers might be slightly pissed :P
Oh and apart from HL1 (and css) I dont really like Valves games :S
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