Half Life 2 Multiplayer
<div class="IPBDescription">Will we have to pay?</div> Check out this article <a href='http://www.halflife.nu/artiklar/?id=70' target='_blank'>here</a>.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->"I asked him about some rumours that we have heard that Half Life 2's multiplayer is going to be 'Pay to Play' only. Unfortunatly the only official response that I received was "No comment". I have to say I was a bit surprised as I was expecting a definite "No", so it looks like Valve may be toying with the idea at the very least."<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Although I am doubtful that Valve would take such a direction, the idea still worries me. It may be that Valve is just being very secretive and that they would rather let rumors spread than give too much solid info. What do you all think?
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->"I asked him about some rumours that we have heard that Half Life 2's multiplayer is going to be 'Pay to Play' only. Unfortunatly the only official response that I received was "No comment". I have to say I was a bit surprised as I was expecting a definite "No", so it looks like Valve may be toying with the idea at the very least."<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Although I am doubtful that Valve would take such a direction, the idea still worries me. It may be that Valve is just being very secretive and that they would rather let rumors spread than give too much solid info. What do you all think?
Comments
sad really, that they would do such a thing voluntarily. i thought pay2play was because planetside and evercrack have their own servers to host, and i was always assuming hl2 would be like hl1's individual server mode.
Either that or they're providing servers with LAN-esque pings for me. <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->First of all, there was no planned Q&A during or after the viewings of Half-Life 2 on ECTS. This should indicate that UKGamer.com's reporter, Mark Collin, was being a pushy wanker that annoyed the people from Valve, that simply where trying to do their jobs - and therefore not having time to answer silly questions. And just as important, these lads where not prepared for any questions and to answer "no comment" to an intrusive fellow like Collin should, in the name of logic, not be the host of all this hullabaloo. Which it has been... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And also<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In conclusion Halflife.nu would like to inform you that pay-to-play and/or monthly fees actually could be implemented in Half-Life 2, when Steam on a convenient way makes it possible, but not as a must or a demand! Over a year ago Shacknews interviewed Valve's "Big Mama", Gabe Newell, concerning this matter about pay-to-play, and Newell gave the no-spot-shiny answer "yes, there will be subscription choices that a gamer could go with, and no, that won't eliminate the option of buying games the way people are used to." The advantage of having it this way would be if you only want to try a game (Half-Life 2 for example) and not being willing to cough up, say, 30 quids for something you haven't even tried. Well, Valve will (perhaps) make these hesitant people lucky by making it possible to "rent access" to e.g. Half-Life 2 for a month or two through Steam. Did you like the game? Well, simply go out and purchase it. Just like old times.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Stop fretting over nothing. Sheesh people.... they couldn't make multiplayer pay-to-play without making mods impossible, and we all know how dedicated they are to mods. Use your head! THINK people THINK!
But the idea of having to pay for online HL2 play is scary enough, even if its extremely unlikely that they would initiate such an idea.
However, it would be cool if there were official VALVe servers that run Half-Life 2 and some MODs on a pay-to-play basis. But ONLY official VALVe servers. I would gladly fork over $5-10 a month to gain access to a heavily admined server. Just because most griefers wouldn't want to pay the money for it, so it would have a better environment. (The rest would be banned.)
a) It won't be neccessary for all modes of multiplayer
b) a flowing income from multiplayer gaming means that funding would go into the multiplayer scene, which coupled with the more intruiging aspects of Steam could lead to maps which change <i>weekly</i> to keep things fresh and interesting
c) whichever multiplayer aspect you would pay for would be freaking awesome and possibly moderated by paid staff
Back to point B, imagine playing Natural Selection, loading up your favourite map ns_hera (ahem), and finding that the power had been cut, the layouts changed, and suddenly you dont know where the best relocation spot is anymore. It would make commanding a hell of a lot more interesting for a start.
Not to mention tedious, overly difficult for both sides, and quite annoying. (Would you like the bombsite or the capture points to change everytime?)
But back to the original point, I do not believe they will have p2p. Mod developers would cringe. The entire society of HL would slay the devs to the Microsoft/Gamespy category of "bloodsuckers" (perhaps an unfair analogy but a contendable one). And it would not be good competition with other multiplayer shooters as well. As long as we do not use Valve servers, there is no logical reason to pay (as mentioned above).
And if people are desperate enough (and u darn well know some are), we'll be looking at underground alternatieves to play the multiplayer without playing, which may cause an uneeded stir.
although a cool system would be u connect to a ready room like NS, meet up with loads of ppl and stuff. maybe some fun things to do with the physics <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo--> . or get straight to playin the game, like a door u can walk through with like NS on it (assuming flayra and co move to HL2) a CS one and DoD. then u pick a server some how <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> .
also in that interview he says HL2 should be gold in a couple of weeks, oh and a nice joke at the start <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->
Hl2 security seems pretty tight, i believe even if u buy the game retail u have to activate it over the net or send in a card u get with the game by post. through Steam u just get it done then.
That would probably discourage people from buying the game even more because I'm sure there are people who have no internet connection who will be buying the game, and people usually buy a game to play it right away.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->First of all, there was no planned Q&A during or after the viewings of Half-Life 2 on ECTS. This should indicate that UKGamer.com's reporter, Mark Collin, was being a pushy wanker that annoyed the people from Valve, that simply where trying to do their jobs - and therefore not having time to answer silly questions. And just as important, these lads where not prepared for any questions and to answer "no comment" to an intrusive fellow like Collin should, in the name of logic, not be the host of all this hullabaloo. Which it has been... <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And also<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->In conclusion Halflife.nu would like to inform you that pay-to-play and/or monthly fees actually could be implemented in Half-Life 2, when Steam on a convenient way makes it possible, but not as a must or a demand! Over a year ago Shacknews interviewed Valve's "Big Mama", Gabe Newell, concerning this matter about pay-to-play, and Newell gave the no-spot-shiny answer "yes, there will be subscription choices that a gamer could go with, and no, that won't eliminate the option of buying games the way people are used to." The advantage of having it this way would be if you only want to try a game (Half-Life 2 for example) and not being willing to cough up, say, 30 quids for something you haven't even tried. Well, Valve will (perhaps) make these hesitant people lucky by making it possible to "rent access" to e.g. Half-Life 2 for a month or two through Steam. Did you like the game? Well, simply go out and purchase it. Just like old times.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Stop fretting over nothing. Sheesh people.... they couldn't make multiplayer pay-to-play without making mods impossible, and we all know how dedicated they are to mods. Use your head! THINK people THINK! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Read this post - or read it again.
Please ... stop responding to this thread without reading, assuming HL2 <b>is</b> pay to play.
FFS
Yeah.. What Silverfox said. Chill out nubs, Valve isn't going to alienate their core audience...
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->A fan by the name of Kamakiri mailed Valve's Gabe Newell about those "pay to play" rumors, and received the following response (which has been confirmed as being legit):
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->
<i>As I'm sure you are aware the HL2 community is going crazy with the rumour that HL2 is going to be like a MMORPG and you will have to pay a fee each month via Steam to play HL2 multiplayer.
I don't believe this to be true but can you please put it to rest once and for all. PLEEEEEEASE. </i>
<b>Gabe Newell</b>: Here's my current thinking: Some people want to buy Half-Life 2 in a store. Right now we have three SKUs planned at three price points. One will have single-player only and not play MODs and we think of that as the mass market SKU (sold mainly at the Costcos and Walmarts of the world). The second is our traditional single-player plus multiplayer SKU that runs MODs and is sold at places like EBX. The third is the collector's edition SKU with lots of cool bonus stuff for people who like cool bonus stuff.
In the Steam world, some people will want to buy it once, like the middle SKU above. Other people will want to buy the game on subscription (e.g. $9.95/month). The good news for the "buy it once" crowd is, well, they only have to pay once. The bad news is that when we come out with new content (expansion products, TF 2, and presumably other games) then they have to pay separately for those. We're pretty sure that the $9.95 guys are going to get the better value, as we've been pretty good over the years at generating a lot of content.
Now nobody has done this before, so we're scratching our heads and massaging the plans to make sure we've got the best set of options. We've had some feedback that we should sell the top SKU (single-player only no MODs) on Steam, and my reaction has been "yeah, right, for the three people in the world who have a broadband connection, are sophisticated enough to purchase software over the Internet, but DON'T want to play MODs and multiplayer". Some people have said "I want a subscription, but I think the box and the manual are cool, so what about sending me those" and I think that's pretty interesting and we're trying to figure out what to do for them (needless to say Sierra isn't exactly jumping for joy at the idea of selling us boxes so people don't buy Half-Life 2 in stores).
But nowhere has there been a suggestion that people pay in the store and then pay a monthly fee on top of that a la the MMORPG.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
And Gabe makes this follow-up response in this <a href='http://halflife2.homelan.com/forums/showthread.php?&threadid=5867' target='_blank'>forum thread</a>:
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The various SKUs will be available at the other stores. It's just how we think of them (we think of the lowest price one as the "Walmart" SKU even though Walmart will probably be the biggest single seller of all three SKUs given their volume).
TF2 isn't a MOD, correct. However the subscription will be for anything we make. So when TF2 ships, the subscribers get it as part of their subscription.
We've been talking with retailers about the retail SKUs for a long time. Steam pricing was what I was trying to explain. Steam options seemed to require an explanation of the retail SKUs.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This clears up a lot, and I think this is the first public mention of the collector's special super edition. Oh, if you don't know what an SKU is, "SKU stands for Stock Keeping Unit and is a number associated with a product for inventory purposes. Each product must have a SKU, and each SKU must be unique."<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That satisfies me <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->