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I know you are trying to be snarky but Valve has accomplished a hell of a lot more than most startups ever will. They are far from perfect (hell, they’re known

by jchw 7y ago

I know you are trying to be snarky but Valve has accomplished a hell of a lot more than most startups ever will. They are far from perfect (hell, they’re known for bugs and their famously poor timelines, and I heard their game Artifact was not good,) but it’s pretty bizarre to suggest they do nothing. Maintaining Steam alone is huge. It’s hard to find a platform with more vigorous fanboys for good reason. But that all aside... I mean they have a new Half Life game on the near term horizon (later this month apparently) and they have done a ton of work on VR and Linux support.

Smaug123 7y ago
Fascinating article by Zvi (a very accomplished Magic: the Gathering player) about Artifact. https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/artifact-what-went-wrong/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/artifact-what-went-w... Summary: the game was brilliant ("uniquely amazing") if you were really good at it but was essentially impossible to get into, and its economy was badly constructed.
- dang 7y ago
  Discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199134 a few months ago.
optimiz3 7y ago
Steam has a run rate in the billions! Maintaining something that strong that was built before the last decade is a significant innovation? Most Startups are at least trying to change the status quo.
- jchw 7y ago
  Yes, it is. Keeping Steam growing and well-liked is an achievement in itself. They never really stood still with it. Steam certainly challenged the status quo when it was released, and several times in its life. Hell, who else is working on Linux gaming right now? They were relatively early on game streaming, VR. Steam Workshop? How cool is it that a large amount of one of their flagship games, Team Fortress 2, not only integrated a lot of third party content, but also paid creators back? How cool is it that many games like Counter Strike began as Half Life mods? I don’t really use Steam much anymore, so it’s not that I’m personally attached much, but I will admit to being pretty impressed.

by jchw 7y ago

Smaug123 7y ago

Fascinating article by Zvi (a very accomplished Magic: the Gathering player) about Artifact. https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/artifact-what-went-wrong/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2019/10/08/artifact-what-went-w... Summary: the game was brilliant ("uniquely amazing") if you were really good at it but was essentially impossible to get into, and its economy was badly constructed.

dang 7y ago
Discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21199134 a few months ago.

optimiz3 7y ago

Steam has a run rate in the billions! Maintaining something that strong that was built before the last decade is a significant innovation? Most Startups are at least trying to change the status quo.

jchw 7y ago
Yes, it is. Keeping Steam growing and well-liked is an achievement in itself. They never really stood still with it. Steam certainly challenged the status quo when it was released, and several times in its life. Hell, who else is working on Linux gaming right now? They were relatively early on game streaming, VR. Steam Workshop? How cool is it that a large amount of one of their flagship games, Team Fortress 2, not only integrated a lot of third party content, but also paid creators back? How cool is it that many games like Counter Strike began as Half Life mods? I don’t really use Steam much anymore, so it’s not that I’m personally attached much, but I will admit to being pretty impressed.