Showing posts with label Valve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Valve. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Stanley Cup Finals Tonight!

Watch the game first, then download the podcast: June 15th, 2011

Some thoughts on digital distribution with EA Origin coming soon and also Spiral Knights!


Monday, May 16, 2011

The Value of Popularity

Podcast: May 16th, 2011

I spend a bit talking about the value of popular players vs. players that are douches and makes for a poor gaming experience. This stems from a comment Gabe Newell made and I think it's great food for thought. Anyways, enjoy!

Ghibli Minecraft:

Monday, May 9, 2011

DUXCOM vs. Phonetic Owls tonight!

Podcast is up: May 9th, 2011

I'm playing tonight in the Ducksoup Gaming League (Team Fortress 2). If you want to check it out, it's in 2.5 hours! Information here: http://www.ducksoupgaming.com/threads/tv-faq-match-stats-demo-downloads.1142/

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Valve opens up strange feelings within me, makes me want to gush

I switched over to my formal email about half a year ago, forwarding all mail that goes to my old address to my new one and even taking the hourssss required to switch my subscriptions over to my formal account on Google Reader. Somehow I neglected to pass on writership to this account as well, but now that's that and I'm here.

I'm tempted to start using Google Docs to allow easier access to my writing, but I'm starting to get a bit worried about Google's presence in my life. True, most people could care less about my secret muffin recipe, but sometimes it's a good thing to spread yourself out on this cloud networking schema.

At the same time, I love Google. It's hard not to like a company that explicitly states "Don't be evil" as their mission statement. Google has simultaneously pushed for change while keeping their shareholders happy. Of course, they are not exempt from cutthroat competitiveness, but you love the scoundrels nonetheless.

While not everyone is unanimous in their love for all things with 100 zeroes, I strongly believe that people would be hardpressed to love Valve. (Well, aside from disregarded girlfriends and stupid redneck boycotters)

As a video game software development company, Valve has really really made a name for itself. And I do mean really. Their business sense and dedication to quality and to their fans is exemplary. The two really go hand in hand for them too, as their free (and constant) updates and Steam powered store work to prevent and discourage piracy of their software.

You can also tell that Valve is a great place to work as well. People there seem to have a great sense of humor and for no good reason, as only a few of their games (Half Life and Portal) really need stories.

Proof of point: recently a fan mocked up a pseudo update introducing a brand new class for Team Fortress 2, which I have been getting back into.

As with the fake Spy update, Valve caught wind of it. Impressed with the workmanship and the amount of thought put into the fake update, they made an official response to it in the form of a letter from Saxton Hale (funnily enough, the name of the Australian CEO is an anagram for Hot Anal Sex).

If you're wondering why I'm so subliminal today with all these parentheses, this letter is partially to blame.

Seriously, I love these guys