{"id":40122,"date":"2017-08-09T06:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T10:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=40122"},"modified":"2017-08-09T05:46:38","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T09:46:38","slug":"the-new-valve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=40122","title":{"rendered":"The New Game From Valve"},"content":{"rendered":"

My reaction to the recent news<\/a> went something like this…<\/p>\n

Valve is releasing a new…<\/b><\/p>\n

Oh boy! Something new from Valve!<\/i><\/p>\n

…DOTA…<\/b><\/p>\n

Shit. Nevermind.<\/i><\/p>\n

…collectible…<\/b><\/p>\n

Yeah. Whatever.<\/i><\/p>\n

…card game.<\/b><\/p>\n

Forget it. I literally stopped caring three words ago.<\/i><\/div>\n

Valve always leaves me in a tough position. I know I spend a lot of time complaining about publishers<\/a>. But while I accuse outfits like Ubisoft and EA of being mis-managed due to ignorance of their audience<\/a>, I grudgingly admit that Valve is really good at figuring out what the public wants. Sure, they make mistakes<\/a>. Like any company run by human beings they’re prone to occasional bouts of carelessness, myopia, and bad timing, but their failings are usually understandable as the result of human frailty and not systemic management cluelessness. <\/p>\n

When EA does something I don’t like, it’s usually because they have no idea what the public wants. When Valve does something I don’t like, it’s usually because they have a really good idea<\/em> what the public wants and it just happens to displease me. <\/p>\n

Which is to say, I’m sure this new game from Valve will be a quality title with lots of fans. It will make money. In fact, I’m willing to bet it will offer a far better return on investment than Half-Life 3 would. I might really want<\/strong> them to make HL3, but I can’t make a business case for it. I can only ask that they do it out of the goodness of their hearts. That usually makes for a lousy pitch.<\/p>\n

Here is the announcement trailer for their new DOTA (ugh) collectible (yuck) card game (eye roll) titled “Artifact”…<\/p>\n