Apr 21, 2012

Valve employee handbook leaks, read it here

PC Gamer

The Internet is often a place for things that don't belong on it. Things like a 56-page internal manual written for the people that work at the most private gaming company in the world.

Yep, you can read that now. What appears to be Valve's 2012 Employee Handbook has crept onto the web, and it's just as insightful to read as that incredible blog by Michael Abrash from last week.

It's a rare, detailed self-description of the company that includes mantras like "We are all stewards of our long-term relationship with our customers," policies like "Nobody has ever been fired at Valve for making a mistake. It wouldn't make sense for us to operate that way," and expressions of Valve's independence that include "Fortunately, we don’t have to make growth decisions based on any external pressures—only our own business goals."

Click inside to see the handbook.

The document is also filled with custom illustrations. And at least one Half-Life 3 logo. Sections of special interest include the entries:
"What is Valve not good at?" (p. 52)
"How does Valve decide what to work on?" (p. 13)
"But what if we ALL screw up?" (p. 23)

The handbook (PDF) was originally found here. A bottom-page watermark claims "handbook courtesy Valve." Well, duh. I've uploaded a copy to our server that you can read here.

Apr 20, 2012

Gabe Newell Updates Interviewer On The Status of (Wink, Wink) 'Ricochet 2'

Kotaku

Gabe Newell Updates Interviewer On The Status of (Wink, Wink) 'Ricochet 2' After asking Valve Software boss Gabe Newell a bunch of questions about the Half-Life games on the new Seven Day Cooldown podcast, an interviewer finally cut to the chase:

"My final question and the question in the back of all your fans' minds and everyone has been waiting to ask you for a long time: When can we expect the release of Ricochet 2?"

Valve fans know, that that is not the question all of Gabe Newell's fans are waiting to ask him.

No.

Replace "Ricochet 2" with "Half-Life 2: Episode 3" or "Half-Life 3," the either/or sequel that's been missing in action from Valve for a very long time.

Gabe Newell answered the question. It's up to you to decide if he was really talking about Ricochet 2.

"In terms of Ricochet 2, we always have this problem that when we talk about things too far in advance, we end up changing our minds as we're going through and developing stuff, so as we're thinking through the giant story arc which is Ricochet 2, you might get to a point where you're saying something is surprising us in a positive way and something is surprising us in a negative way, and, you know, we'd like to be super-transparent about the future of Ricochet 2. The problem is, we think that the twists and turns that we're going through would probably drive people more crazy than just being silent about it, until we can be very crisp about what's happening next."

Probed further by the hosts on current staffing levels for the project and whether there's been a slowdown on the project, Newell replies "No, everybody who has worked on Ricochet 2 continues to work on Ricochet 2 [laughs]."

For the record, Ricochet was an official multiplayer mod for the original Half-Life and was released by the company in 2000. Our own Luke Plunkett is a bit more up on the mod than I was and tells me: "If you haven't played Ricochet, or even heard of it, I'm going to pull you up now: it was shit. So shit, in fact, that on Valve's site the company likes to pretend it never existed."

You should listen to the whole podcast. It's great. Jump to the 21:05 mark if you want to hear the tones of voice from the part quoted above.

Episode 001 – The Tangy Zip of Gaben (April-16-2012) [Seven Day Cooldown, at the 21:05 mark]

Top pic is of a real T-shirt supposedly worn by a Valve employee last year for unknown reasons. We would have posted a Ricochet 2 t-shirt but none was available.

Apr 19, 2012

Guy Almost Makes A Glorious Knife Kill, Gets Denied By Trigger-Happy Victim

Kotaku

Scoring a knife kill in a first-person shooter is the ultimate insult to your victim. It's one of the most satisfying kills, too.

But it's not always easy to pull off, as this Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player finds out. He looks to be basically on the camera-focused player's shoulders, so close to getting that glorious knife kill.

Unfortunately for the knifer, YouTube user (and victim) Rustsandstuffs manages to turn around just in time to spray-and-pray the hell out of him before he can make the knife swipe. His terrified wails as a result to the close call are hilarious, and even more hilarious in the proceeding slow-motion version.

Knife surprise! [Reddit]

Apr 17, 2012

Here's What 6.5 Million Video Game Bullets Look Like

Kotaku

Here's What 6.5 Million Video Game Bullets Look Like Valve has been keeping track of the people currently playing the beta for Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Not just who's winning and who's losing, but really interesting stuff, like where everyone is standing when they pull the trigger.

The result of that kind of data-tracking is this glorious map (of de_train), showing exactly where players were when they decided to up and shoot somebody. As you can see, some spots are relatively tranquil. Others, well, they're battlegrounds. Or, to be more correct, since this is tracking where people were standing, campsites.

The Science of CS:GO [Valve, via PC Gamer]

Apr 5, 2012

Valve And Nexon Partner for Counter-Strike Online 2

Kotaku

Publishers Nexon and Valve will collaborate to bring the shooter Counter-Strike Online 2 to Asian territories, they said today.

In a press release explaining very little about how this will be different than older Counter-Strike games, the publishers write:

Counter-Strike Online 2 will offer enhanced graphics, more realistic gameplay and powerful impact sensations powered by an enhanced version of the Source engine. The game will also feature various game modes enhancing its original game experience with new and improved environments, weapons, equipment customization and more.

The game will be published in Japan, Korea, China and other areas in Southeast Asia, Nexon said. We've asked for clarification on how this will be different than the first Counter-Strike Online and whether it will be connected to Valve's upcoming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Mar 30, 2012

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gets Arms Race mode and Aztec

PC Gamer

The Counter-Strike: Global Offensive beta keeps getting bigger. The latest patch has added a new Arms Race mode playable on Shoots and Baggage. In Arms Race, every player starts with the same weapon, and gains a new one with every kill. The first player to get a kill with the final weapon, the knife, wins the round. Dead players respawn immediately and the round time is extended to give players time to murder their way through CS:GO's arsenal.

The patch adds a few new weapons, too, including the Scar 20, an auto-sniper for Counter-Terrorists, the G3SG1, an automatic sniper rifle for Terrorists, and the Zeus x27, a one shot insta-kill taser available to both teams in casual mode.

If you're looking for something less wild, the classic Aztec has been added to the map rotations. Here are the patch notes in full from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive site.

Maps:

Added Arms Race maps – Shoots and Baggage
Added Aztec to Classic maps

Gameplay:

Arsenal Arms Race game mode is a single extended round with instant respawn. All players start with the same weapon and get a new one each time they kill an enemy. The progression of unlocked weapons ends with the knife. The first player to get a kill with every weapon wins the match.
Added ‘Find A Game’ to the Play options menu screen. Find A Game allows you to join an online game of a specific type. This update offers Arsenal Arms Race and Classic Competitive game modes. The map cycle groups include:

Classic Maps
Arms Race Maps

Added new weapons:

Scar 20 – CT only auto-sniper.
G3SG1 – Terrorist only auto-sniper.
Zeus x27 – Casual Mode only weapon available to both teams.

Adjustments have been made to increase the base accuracy of all weapons.

Jump and land penalties have been decreased, and the rate of stamina gain has been increased.

Bot difficulty has been tuned.

HE grenade damage has been adjusted per pro feedback.

Models

Added two new player skins:

Phoenix Faction
GIGN

UI

Death notice order reversed.
Updated Italy mini map image.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug in the keyboard + mouse options screen where changes were resetting.
Fixed the consecutive loss bonus persisting through halftime. Solves the problem of teams receiving extra cash early in the second round of the match.
Fixed end match scoreboard saying it was a tie in Arsenal Mode.
Fixed a bug where penetrating shots were doing full damage after the penetration.
Fixed a bug where the desired distance required to defuse the bomb wasn’t being used.
Fix for the HUD alert panel coming up incorrectly.
Fixed for bots not being able to defuse bomb.
Fix for bug in Demolition mode where players would start the first round of the second half stuck in level geometry.
Fix for radio message font appearing quite large at higher resolutions.

Mar 21, 2012

Manila Counter-Strike Match Ends in Murder

Kotaku

A round of Counter-Strike at an internet cafe in the Philippines capital of Manila turned deadly on Monday, when a member of the losing team was murdered after an argument over the payment of approximately seven dollars in winnings.

According to authorities the friendly wager of 300 pesos took a decidedly unfriendly turn, with a full-blown argument breaking out at the cafe over payment of the relatively meager sum. The dispute was eventually resolved, but one member of the winning team wasn't happy with the outcome, following losing team member Eric Cristobal to his home and stabbing him to death.

Police investigator Noel Ibanez said that Cristobal was not responsible for starting the argument; merely an unfortunate victim. Police took the suspect into custody yesterday.

Man murdered in video game row [City Press]

Mar 16, 2012

The Week in eSports (3/16/12)

PC Gamer

As we head into the last weekend before the MLG Winter Championship in Columbus next weekend (and hot on the heels of the IEM tournament) a small group of players are gathered at Full Sail University in Orlando for the Red Bull LAN. It's one part mini-camp, with high-level StarCraft players working on ways to improve their game and get ready for upcoming competitions, and one part exhibition tournament. Quantic's Kim "SaSe" Hammar and Johan "NaNiwa" Lucchesi will be there, along with Evil Geniuses' Lee "Puma" Ho Joon and Park "JYP" Jin Young and a number of other strong competitors. Sean "Day" Plott and Marcus "DjWHEAT" Graham will be there as well. You can read more about the Red Bull Lan over at Team Liquid, where Day gets into a little more detail.

I've never seen one of these, and I'm really interested in the "training camp" aspect of the Red Bull LAN. As I've watched more competitive gaming, what I find most impressive is the mental endurance and resilience on display at the highest levels of play. Playing brilliantly in a match is one thing, but having to sustain that over the course of a weekend and dozens of matches is another. I'm hoping the coverage coming out of the Red Bull LAN gets into that a bit.

Oh, and if you have some time to kill, why not watch the SC2 final from IEM last week, between MC and Puma, posted at the top.

NaNiwa Leaves the Penalty Box

Speaking of NaNiwa, the GSL gave him a Code S seed for the start of Season 2. Code S is the highest level of GSL competition, and it represents a second chance for the Protoss player.

NaNiwa was effectively dropped from Code S after throwing a match against one of his rivals, NesTea, at the 2011 Blizzard Cup. With both players eliminated from championship contention, NaNiwa ended the match by rushing his probes into NesTea's base, basically refusing to play. The GSL saw his conduct as disrespectful and contrary to the spirit of the sport, and dropped him from consideration for a Code 2 spot for Season 1. Now NaNiwa appears once again to be back in the GSL's good graces for Season 2.

Tough Love for CS:GO

Earlier this week, Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen, the former captain of the Evil Geniuses Counter-Strike team, had some harsh words about the current state of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Evan interviewed him to find out more about what bothers him about CS:GO.

It's a good write-up, and the whole incident neatly captures the challenge Valve faces as it attempt to reinvent a competitive shooter with a long history.

Kovanen made one remark that explains the stakes for CS:GO and the pro community. “I believe in eSports. And if there are a lot of people who enjoy the game like I have enjoyed CS 1.6 over the years, good for them. I’m sure there were people who disliked 1.6, yet it has played a big part in how the last seven years of my life, so I’d hope other people get to experience something similar in their lives. I hope it will be successful, but with the way the game currently is and how I believe it will end up without listening to us, I don’t think it can be successful. I wouldn’t be surprised if it got picked up for one or two years at most, and then FPS games got dropped out as a whole because of lack of CS:GO popularity. The ironic thing is all the pros would wanna help to try to make it a decent game because they all know there would be more money, more tournaments, and so on if it was a good game and everyone switched.”

Speaking of Counter-Strike, this would be a good time to watch the Final between ESC and Na`Vi from the IEM tournament last week.

As always, this is by no means comprehensive, and be sure to call out highlights from the week in the comments below. Any other events happening in the next week that you're excited about?

Mar 16, 2012

Modding is amazing again

PC Gamer

Spore showed the way. The thinking behind its sharing and viral propogation of user created content was near spot on.

Now we look to Valve, and the Steam Workshop, and realise that mods and user-created content is again at the heart of PC gaming.

Back up. Mods have always been important to PC gaming, but the scale of those mods has changed. The theory is that gamers’ expectations have risen along with technology: as our PCs become able to handle prettier and prettier landscapes, the amount of work required from an individual modder to create something comparable to a commercial product increases. So total conversions are near impossible to create. It’s much harder to make a Counterstrike, Dota or Quake Fortress today.

But modding isn’t just about the banner projects. It’s about the smaller items. Tweaks to balance. Cool new dungeons. A reskin. A new level.

In the eyes of deep communities games that arrive ‘finished’, are anything but. Given the right tools, players love to build upon what game developers have already created. The problem is proliferation and discovery.

I remember when I first started playing Quake Fortress. The download over a 56k modem from a fileserver at Barry’s World. The horrendous download. The weird arcane installation. Things aren't much better today: to mod WoW’s interface we have to drag and drop files into strange folders, or trust Curse’s client to do the job. For Oblivion mods, we’re fiddling with data files and the Nexus client.

I believe PC gaming should be for everyone. I think modding contains some of the best of PC gaming; it’s a strand of what we play that is so very, very special. But it’s obtuse, hard to understand, and kind of a bitch to use.

Spore, and the Steam Workshop show what can be achieved. Modders now have the ability to have their creations downloaded directly into the game after just a single click. That’s just the start. Creations are rated, tagged and filtered via the community; ensuring that the best rises to the top. Comments threads help creators respond to their subscribers. Community creators get to help players by picking collections and themes. Games get better. Everyone wins.

In the next year or so, I have high hopes that modding will become more important to us than it ever was. I sincerely hope that Valve introduce the Workshop, not just to Portal, but to Left 4 Dead, HL2DM, and Counter-Strike (in all its forms). I hope, too, that the Total War team, the GTA team, the ArmA team, and many others are watching what happens to Skyrim and Portal, and how modding extends the lifespan of the game, and creates unbelievable loyalty in the audience. I shiver in excitement at the possibilities of how Maxis could apply the Spore model of sharing creatures to SimCity: with a vast database of new buildings that can be seamlessly imported into the Glassbox engine.

But there’s an issue that as a community, PC gamers need to consider. With the Steam Workshop and Team Fortress 2, Valve have the billing mechanics that now allow modders to charge for their work. In TF2’s case, Valve told us that the best TF2 modelers are making hundreds of thousands of dollars from their work. Personally, I think that’s a great thing for us. I love the idea of modders supporting themselves making games better. But at some point, you may well be asked to pay to download a mod.

How will you feel when that happens?