1. In and before 2007, I was a complete idiot who couldn't form coherent thoughts via text on a video games website. I cannot believe how bad I was back then. It's suprising, and extremely disappointing. I wish I could maybe delete this account and get rid of all my previous connections with this site.
2. I posted this on the SPUF, but I think it applies here as well.
Also, people earlier in the thread were talking about how Valve had communicated to its fans and this group was pointless. I disagree with this notion. I was a huge fan for about 4 years until my life got too busy for me to regularly check up on these things. I still try my best to keep up, but to be honest I didn't even know Gabe had spoken about the status of the franchise until today. I just think they should have been more upfront a long time ago, because now its come to the point where I don't check up on things like this very often. Perhaps I'm in the minority on this, though. In that way, I feel Valve is not succeeding.
On a sort of unrelated note, Half-Life and Portal are pretty much the vestigial series left over from my gaming life. I remember saying a long time ago that even though I was digruntled with how Valve was taking so long with this , that I for sure would still play the new addition to the series. I can't say that is true at this point. If and when the next installment is announced and subsequently released, it might be too little too late. Shutting down my Xbox Live account really opened my eyes to how my life has changed. Maybe I've grown out of video games, maybe I just don't feel like their worth my time anymore, maybe I just don't have the money to spend on games like I used to, I'm not sure. The gaming culture as a whole has really disillusioned me to the point where I don't even follow it as a whole. I did end up playing Black Mesa, but that was more just to close the book on it. Plus it was free, so that was cool.
This whole change in my life sort of saddens me. A year ago I would have been so excited to hear of all these new sequels to my favorite franchises coming out, but now I hear about them through my friends and just end up shrugging. Maybe I got burned out on waiting for Half-Life and it burned me out on all of games? I wonder how things might have changed is the next installment had come and gone. Whether I would still be in the same place I am now.
To end my long soapbox blog post, I just have a question to the longtime users of the forums and of the franchise as a whole. Has anyone else gone through this slump and did you ever end up returning to games? (likely you did if you are here today reading this)
3. Why do people on this site take games so seriously? I used to as well apparently, but even having used to care about games, I still have no idea why.
4. How about music? Do you like music? Music is my new (SINCE 2009) hobby in life and it's pretty much the only thing I care about in life. You should try new music. Don't let the labels or preconceived notions stop you from trying something. Check out my tastes at my last.fm account.Give new music a shot!
5. How does one throw off the shackles of societal norms and pressures?
STAY GOLDEN NOBODY WHO'S READING THIS.