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Jay Pinkerton (Portal 2 and Team Fortress 2 writer) has left Valve.

Bastos

Member
I can't imagine being a writer at current-day Valve was a very fulfilling job.
To work at Valve today you have to deliver as slow as possible, be good at making stupid changes to already working systems and design microtransactions for the games that were stupidly changed.
 

plushyp

Member
How are they corrupt when they just want to do different things? People should stop being angry at Valve because they don't churn out single-player games anymore.
Churn would imply Valve was quick at developing games when we all know that only the opposite is true.
 
Wow at PCG's coverage: http://www.pcgamer.com/jay-pinkerton-leaves-valve-as-it-continues-shedding-writers/

With Valve continuing down its path of never making another game ever again, it’s shed another one of its writers—an increasingly common occurrence. This time it’s Jay Pinkerton, who has been writing for Valve since 2008 and co-wrote Portal 2.

So that’s almost all of Valve’s writers gone in a space of less than two years. The real surprise is that it’s taken this long, frankly. There hasn’t been a game for them to write for in a very long time, only the additional stuff that supports older games.

It’s still a shame, of course. Valve used to be famed for its writing. But on the plus side, there are now considerably more top-notch writers out there actually doing things instead of getting covered in cobwebs inside a broom closet in Valve HQ.

Never thought I'd read things like these on one of the big gaming sites, but here we are.

It's an unsettling look on the surface, however the majority of Valve's high-profile departures have been OGs or otherwise older folks either retiring or making the transition to retirement. The company has been around for more than two decades now, after all.

While true, people are going to react to things they see. Fact is, in over just a year 6 writers have left Valve. Out of the known 2 who stayed one is a junior writer working on the ongoing services while the other (a creative director and writer of a known franchise) is working on who knows what. Maybe the 2 will suffice or Valve managed to get proper replacements without announcing them, but people craving for new Valve narratives will obviously take this bad.

Waiting for the likes of Church and Morasky to leave as well.
 

Naythan

Member
What the hell could you even be writing at Valve nowadays? Little notes on the office fridge and maybe the occasional invitation to the company christmas party?
 

Vamphuntr

Member
Not surprising considering there isn't much to write for.

What happened to L4D3? It was supposedly on development for a long time with numerous leaks and we have yet to see it.
 

Toxi

Banned
The worst part about this is that Valve used to release some of the funniest games I've ever played. The comedy writing was unmatched in the industry. I laughed so much playing Portal and Team Fortress 2 and Portal 2.

Hopefully Pinkerton will be showing that talent again in the future games he works on.
 
Not surprising considering there isn't much to write for.

What happened to L4D3? It was supposedly on development for a long time with numerous leaks and we have yet to see it.

As I said in previous threads, my guess is it took a backseat. Likely to VR among other things. Also, Source 2 was announced 2 years ago and outside of Dota and some VR stuff it didn't really go anywhere.
 

Vamphuntr

Member
As I said in previous threads, my guess is it took a backseat. Likely to VR among other things. Also, Source 2 was announced 2 years ago and outside of Dota and some VR stuff it didn't really go anywhere.

That's pretty sad. I've read Gabe's AMAs and all that and I have a good feeling I understand how they choose which project to work on but at some point they could definitely do something for their fans. Considering their current product and economy based on loot crates and cosmetics, it would seems L4D is the best fit in all of their current IP for that.
 

Zia

Member
Wow at PCG's coverage: http://www.pcgamer.com/jay-pinkerton-leaves-valve-as-it-continues-shedding-writers/





Never thought I'd read things like these on one of the big gaming sites, but here we are.



While true, people are going to react to things they see. Fact is, in over just a year 6 writers have left Valve. Out of the known 2 who stayed one is a junior writer working on the ongoing services while the other (a creative director and writer of a known franchise) is working on who knows what. Maybe the 2 will suffice or Valve managed to get proper replacements without announcing them, but people craving for new Valve narratives will obviously take this bad.

Waiting for the likes of Church and Morasky to leave as well.

Really unfair, as Valve is working on a million announced things for no one and they no obligations to their fans or customers, apparently.
 

eot

Banned
Something's amiss. I don't believe the whole "people work on whatever they're interested in" spiel. Are all those creative people only interested in perfecting the profitability of micro transactions? No one there cares about making new games? Maybe they get a cut, but I still don't buy it.
 

Lotto

Member
I barely recognize anyone from Valve anymore at this point, pretty disappointing to hear. They're still one of my favorite companies but recently they've felt even more disconnected to the community than anything, but maybe it's because I don't have as much free time as I used to. Portal ARG, TF2 updates and comics, Dota 2's inception, all of it were amazing to me when I was able to keep up. They've been very quiet aside from the little mention Gabe made about the VR games they're working on, but it worries me.
 

Bluth54

Member
Jay just posted on Twitter that he's still contracting with Valve (the issue 7 he's talking about is the final issue of the 7 part TF2 comic):

c6ZrJm7.png
 

mishakoz

Member
It's times like this when I appreciate The Last Guardians of the world, the games that come out against all odds despite it probably not being good business to continue. Seeing VALVe be consumed by monetary gain only is one of the saddest things I've had to confront. Maybe I'm naive but I don't know how all those writers and creative types at valve could function not being able to produce anything very meaningful for years (and I don't thing the TF2 or DotA stuff counts)

Bizarre world.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Seeing VALVe be consumed by monetary gain only is one of the saddest things I've had to confront.

Playing devil's advocate if you're referring to HL3 (who isn't?)

Is it so much monetary gain, as much as a it is a sobering realization that any product they ever came up with would never, ever be able to live up to expectations, especially in a massively different FPS landscape nowadays?

(Yeah yeah yeah, Doom, Wolfenstein, to BF1 being great, all the way to new IPs like Titanfall 2)
 

AJ_Wings

Member
Something's amiss. I don't believe the whole "people work on whatever they're interested in" spiel. Are all those creative people only interested in perfecting the profitability of micro transactions? No one there cares about making new games? Maybe they get a cut, but I still don't buy it.

It was all bullshit in their fancy handbook of theirs. Sure, you technically can work on whatever you want, but good luck getting support from the senior employees & Valve veterans (Gabe & Co.). Former employees have come & said the company is ran like an exclusive highschool boy's club.
 

Ionic

Member
Seeing VALVe be consumed by monetary gain only is one of the saddest things I've had to confront..

Much of modern Valve's focus has been on controllers, middleware, and developing technology for a nascent VR market. They're presumably spending more on research and development, most of which they just give out to anybody who asks, than any single gaming company outside of the big three. They really seem like a R&D company with an inexhaustible revenue stream.
 

patapuf

Member
Something's amiss. I don't believe the whole "people work on whatever they're interested in" spiel. Are all those creative people only interested in perfecting the profitability of micro transactions? No one there cares about making new games? Maybe they get a cut, but I still don't buy it.

I think people percieve Valve to be much bigger than they are. They are what, 350-400 employees?

That's for steam + VR and the other API and Hardware stuff they do + supporting 2 of the biggest online games around.

With the numbers they have even if they genuinley wanted to do an AAA production (and given their interviews after Portal 2 that's not a production cycle they seem to like) it will always take years to put something out that is up to todays standart.
 
Playing devil's advocate if you're referring to HL3 (who isn't?)

Is it so much monetary gain, as much as a it is a sobering realization that any product they ever came up with would never, ever be able to live up to expectations, especially in a massively different FPS landscape nowadays?

(Yeah yeah yeah, Doom, Wolfenstein, to BF1 being great, all the way to new IPs like Titanfall 2)

Even outside of Half-Life 3, the direction they took the existing games they support is pretty awful.
 

RoadHazard

Gold Member
And another one bites the dust.

Valve is dead as a SP developer. HL is dead, Portal is dead. Only Dota and Steam now. And lots of money.
 
Much of modern Valve's focus has been on controllers, middleware, and developing technology for a nascent VR market. They're presumably spending more on research and development, most of which they just give out to anybody who asks, than any single gaming company outside of the big three. They really seem like a R&D company with an inexhaustible revenue stream.

Doesn't count. The only way you can contribute to gaming is via AAA, narrative-driven, single-player games. Preferably that can be played on my PS4, but I'll be generous and count those VR games they've said they're making as 0.1 game each.

Nothing else counts!
 
Doesn't count. The only way you can contribute to gaming is via AAA, narrative-driven, single-player games.

Nothing else counts!
I mean I just want to see how Half Life ends but you can keep being a dick to people who want a conclusion to one of the most infamous cliffhangers ever or simply just want more amazing single player games from Valve rather than CSGO glove skins and VR that seems increasingly like it's going nowhere
 

patapuf

Member
It's times like this when I appreciate The Last Guardians of the world, the games that come out against all odds despite it probably not being good business to continue. Seeing VALVe be consumed by monetary gain only is one of the saddest things I've had to confront. Maybe I'm naive but I don't know how all those writers and creative types at valve could function not being able to produce anything very meaningful for years (and I don't thing the TF2 or DotA stuff counts)

Bizarre world.

Valve has been pretty generous with a lot of their API and Software output.

Not releasing single player games does not make you any more (or less) "greedy".
 

Bluth54

Member
Valve has been pretty generous with a lot of their API and Software output.

Not releasing single player games does not make you any more (or less) "greedy".

Yeah it's funny when people call Valve greedy when they do stuff like allow developers and publishers to give out what's probably hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Steam keys without paying Valve a dime and gives out tons of free content for the games they work on.

They also spend a ton of money on their employees, with a ton of amenities like free food and a yearly week long company paid vacation to Hawaii. I've also read they pay a lot better (and have better bonuses) than most of the rest of the game industry.
 

cyba89

Member
Doesn't count. The only way you can contribute to gaming is via AAA, narrative-driven, single-player games. Preferably that can be played on my PS4, but I'll be generous and count those VR games they've said they're making as 0.1 game each.

Nothing else counts!

That sick PS4 player burn! Now you showed them!

And I wouldn't count these 3 mysterious games for anything yet. We don't know at all what they are.
Could be The Orange Box 2 with Half Life 3 with full VR support or it could be The Lab 2.
Maybe Valve decides to cancel two of them or postpone them indefinitely.
 

AgeEighty

Member
Valve...

...give the Portal franchise to an external studio and let former employees who worked on the first two games work their magic.

Fuck.
 
Doesn't count. The only way you can contribute to gaming is via AAA, narrative-driven, single-player games. Preferably that can be played on my PS4, but I'll be generous and count those VR games they've said they're making as 0.1 game each.

Nothing else counts!
their last release is 2013.

4 years ago.

you putting the lab into the mix? ok have it, for 3 years of work we get the lab? i say we, but who has a vive? i dont - i think there might be a few of us.
 

Parsnip

Member
Jay just posted on Twitter that he's still contracting with Valve (the issue 7 he's talking about is the final issue of the 7 part TF2 comic):

c6ZrJm7.png
Not surprising.
Like I said earlier too, probably makes a lot more sense especially for a writer to be a contractor rather than a full time employee when it comes to Valve of today.
I think people percieve Valve to be much bigger than they are. They are what, 350-400 employees?

That's for steam + VR and the other API and Hardware stuff they do + supporting 2 of the biggest online games around.

With the numbers they have even if they genuinley wanted to do an AAA production (and given their interviews after Portal 2 that's not a production cycle they seem to like) it will always take years to put something out that is up to todays standart.
Yeah. Valve does a lot for their size. It just isn't what most people seem to want from them. And I totally understand that of course.
 
their last release is 2013.

4 years ago.

you putting the lab into the mix? ok have it, for 3 years of work we get the lab? i say we, but who has a vive? i dont - i think there might be a few of us.

the vive is the definition of prohibitively expensive, you literally need a new room in your house unless you already have a dedicated gaming space in which case props to you, now you can enjoy your shooting gallery game #10291

Valve just doesn't care about single player games anymore. A shame, really.

its not even that i don't like multiplayer games, 90% of my gametime is taken up by overwatch and PUBG (dropped CSGO around the R8 update where it was shown that valve devs do not play their games), its just that valve used to stand for amazing singleplayer only games that do need a place in the market
 

Bluth54

Member
Valve...

...give the Portal franchise to an external studio and let former employees who worked on the first two games work their magic.

Fuck.

Honestly if their VR games aren't Half Life or Portal related they should probably just spend some of the massive amount of money they have on hiring third parties developers to work on a new Half Life and Portal, if only to make fans happy.
 
Honestly, I didn't think we were ever going to get Portal 3, specially after 2's ending. Totally fine with just the 2 games. Wish I could say the same thing about the "other" Valve game.
I'd be content if they remake/remaster Portal 1 and 2 for VR.
It would be VR's killer app.

its just that valve used to stand for amazing singleplayer only games that do need a place in the market
Agreed. Those are my favorite types of games, and I have no interest in multiplayer. Hopefully Valve comes to their senses one of these days and throws us a bone.
 
Valve...

...give the Portal franchise to an external studio and let former employees who worked on the first two games work their magic.

Fuck.

But is a Portal 3 just for the sake of it what we want, or do we want something similiar of the same quality?

Portal feels quite finished as it is, and there's several high quality mods out there that gives us more levels and campaigns.

What I want is a single player game that feels just as fresh and as good as Portal 1 and 2 did, and it's a shame that Valve can't do that now.

That said, I don't want them to be Naughty Dog or something similiar, but at least try and make something like Portal 1 more often.
 
That sick PS4 player burn! Now you showed them!

People complaining about Modern Valve have a tendency to be console-only players, hence why they don't care about (or are unaware of) anything Valve does beyond their game output.

And I wouldn't count these 3 mysterious games for anything yet. We don't know at all what they are.
Could be The Orange Box 2 with Half Life 3 with full VR support or it could be The Lab 2.
Maybe Valve decides to cancel two of them or postpone them indefinitely.

They've explicitly stated that they're full-size games and not "experiments" like The Lab.

their last release is 2013.

4 years ago.

you putting the lab into the mix? ok have it, for 3 years of work we get the lab? i say we, but who has a vive? i dont - i think there might be a few of us.

Implying that they haven't done anything in the last three years besides make The Lab.

Just gonna paste in the standard reply:

The jokes about Valve's productivity couldn't be aimed at a less appropriate target, it's why it's so funny.

Oldish comment but:

1. Develop and run three of the biggest (PC) games (hundreds of updates since launch per game, one game currently going through a significant engine transition). Two of those games having gigantic player bases. Running major tournaments for two of those games too.
2. Develop and run the biggest PC distribution and gaming platform
3. Developing a new game engine (Source 2)
4. Developing a Linux distribution for bringing Steam to the living room.
5. Developing two new hardware devices (Steam controller, Steam Link)
6. Developing SteamVR and HTC Vive
7. General Steam feature development (Big Picture, community features, market, workshop, etc, etc)

When you consider Valve is a studio of around 400 people, they're one of the most productive in the industry.

I mean, if you look at other big studios and they really only focus on games, like Bungie who are said to have around 750 employees now, or even smaller ones like Naughty Dog (around 300), pound for pound Valve are punching above their weight.

But yeah... get back to some '''''''actual work'''''''' Valve, you know, stop working on those things other people like and go back to working on things that *I* like!
 

Ionic

Member
the vive is the definition of prohibitively expensive, you literally need a new room in your house

Oh come on...

valve used to stand for amazing singleplayer only games

Since when? Literally their only singleplayer only games are expansions of the mainline Half-Life games, Portal 1, and The Lab. Valve has always had multiplayer in its blood. Half-Life had an incredibly robust multiplayer community, Team Fortress and more so Counter-Strike defined a generation of online gaming, Half-Life 2 even had a multiplayer game, and Left 4 Dead is one of their most popular franchises. And of course Day of Defeat, TF2, and uh, Ricochet, further their pre-2010 multiplayer profile. It's disingenuous to say Valve was ever big on singleplayer only games, it's closer to the opposite.
 
People complaining about Modern Valve have a tendency to be console-only players, hence why they don't care about (or are unaware of) anything Valve does beyond their game output.

I'm a primarily PC gamer with an 11 year old Steam account and I'm not a fan of modern valve. CSGO is riddled with cheaters and smurfs, and Dota is just not my cup of tea (I think it's a fine game actually).
 
Oh come on...


Since when? Literally their only singleplayer only games are expansions of the mainline Half-Life games, Portal 1, and The Lab. Valve has always had multiplayer in its blood. Half-Life had an incredibly robust multiplayer community, Team Fortress and more so Counter-Strike defined a generation of online gaming, Half-Life 2 even had a multiplayer game, and Left 4 Dead is one of their most popular franchises. And of course Day of Defeat, TF2, and uh, Ricochet, further their pre-2010 multiplayer profile. It's disingenuous to say Valve was ever big on singleplayer only games, it's closer to the opposite.
Tell me how I'm wrong on the Vive and room scale VR being expensive as hell

And you've also got to remember that Half Life 1 and 2 and portal stand as amazing singleplayer experiences that characterised and made valve regardless of the multiplayer parts of those games
 
Tell me how I'm wrong on the Vive and room scale VR being expensive as hell

And you've also got to remember that Half Life 1 and 2 and portal stand as amazing singleplayer experiences that characterised and made valve regardless of the multiplayer parts of those games

Vive is expensive, but I live in a 1 bedroom apartment and I can make the roomscale work just fine with some rearranging.
 
I'm a primarily PC gamer with an 11 year old Steam account and I'm not a fan of modern valve. CSGO is riddled with cheaters and smurfs, and Dota is just not my cup of tea (I think it's a fine game actually).
Of the "three huge multiplayer games" that valve watches over, it's clear they only care about one which is Dota while CSGO gets jack shit for pretty much a full year (only recently getting a pretty good update) and TF2 is actually gathering dust in a basement (wanna know how I know Valve devs for tf2 at least don't play the game? They released that matchmaking system)
 

Yukinari

Member
Ever since i watched people attempt to use the Vive ive concluded that i would need to clear out all the space behind where i sit in order to get the most out of VR experiences.

I dont know if the percentage of VR users on steam has increased at all but space and price ARE major factors whether you like it or not.
 
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