The game GODS at Valve Software were kind enough to answer some questions I had concerning the company and the upcoming masterpiece, Half Life 2. How do I know it's going to be a masterpiece? It's friggin' Half Life!
The following entries in Italics were added after the fact.
McDank: Please tell us a little about yourself.
Gabe: My name is Gabe Newell and I'm the managing director of Valve. I don't know what managing director means, so don't ask.
McDank: Do you play games in your spare time?
Gabe: There's not been a lot of spare time lately, but yes.
McDank: What are you currently playing?
Gabe: I've been playing the CS bots a lot lately. Whenever I try to play online, everybody on my Friend's list jumps in and tries to slaughter me, which is an unintended side-effect of Friends (at least it was unintended for me, although I'm sure it amuses John Cook). I've also been playing the Warcraft III expansion pack, and a little bit of the new Zelda game.
McDank: For Half Life 2, Valve built an entire next-gen engine from the ground up. Why the departure from licensing existing technology, and how could Valve possibly keep its development under wraps for so long?
Gabe: We looked at what we wanted to do in the game and there wasn't an engine being built that would be able to meet those requirements.
We kept it quiet by using those explosive collar thingies with some voice recognition software. We also sent all the marketing and [PR] people to Tuva to research the turkic-language market.
McDank: Half Life 2 is being touted as the killer app to boost sales of ATI's newest gear, and as a counterpart to DOOM3 and nVidia. How do high-profile games end up being associated with graphics technologies?
Gabe: I wasn't aware that either game was that closely tied to graphics technology. Doom3 will run just fine on ATIs hardware unless I'm really mistaken about how John has designed the engine. His original demo was on ATI hardware.
McDank: The following was taken from a news article posted on Megagames.com - "In May nVidia spokesman Brian Burke claimed about the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra, When we first designed this architecture, we designed it for 'Doom III.' With the card already available and rival ATI's counter-product, Half-Life 2 expected this fall, this delay may hit nVidia sales, at least until Doom 3 does become available."
Just so you know, I'm not crazy.
McDank: I love Worldcraft, it's like a 3D lego set with guns! Screens of the new version look pretty similar; would you give us an idea of what is different from the last incarnation?
Gabe: Chris Bokitch can better answer that. It is very different even [though] we've tried to keep the UI stable.
McDank: Can we look forward to the same type of in-game plot progression that made the first game so immersive, or have more traditional storytelling elements been mixed in as well?
Gabe: There won't be cut scenes or expository text, if that is what you are asking.
McDank: Yeah, that's what I was asking.
McDank: If someone were to ask you if the machinegun in the E3 video had been inspired by H&K's MP7 PDW, would you slap them?
Gabe: I'd probably ask Ted.
Ted: The weapon you see in the E3 videos is in fact based off of the HK MP7. It has elements from both the prototype PDW and the production version, the MP7. The game version has been further modified with the addition of an integral 20mm grenade launcher, much like the 40mm grenade launcher under the MP5 in the original Halflife.
McDank: That's awesome, guys - but I was just hoping I could get someone to slap me.
McDank: How is Valve dealing with the insane amount of publicity and speculation surrounding their project?
Gabe: We worry a lot about making sure we deliver the product that the community deserves.
McDank: Have you ever been to Netjak?
Gabe: Only when you post new pr0n.
McDank: Same here!
