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The Valve Model -- Good for the Industry?

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Friday, August 12, 2011

 

Pretty much everyone loves Valve.

How could you not? Its brought us some of the greatest games ever made, created the standard platform for PC digital distribution and community and is one of the few large development houses exploring the intricacies of the video game medium and business.

Yet, something bothers me about Valve. When looking at its release history (and counting DOTA 2), we see that although Valve has developed close to eight franchises in the 13 years since the release of Half-Life, its debut. The number of properties that were fully conceived in-house is only...well one: the Half-Life series. Oh oh andRicochet. Don't forget Ricochet.

Let's break this down shall we:

(I put together a more detailed breakdown of Valve's release history. It's available at my personal blog: http://jforjanky.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/the-history-of-valve-release-a-timeline/)

Half-Life

The original was developed by Valve and released in 1998. It had a number of expansions and of course a series of sequels.

Team Fortress

Valve hired the studio behind the original mod released in 1996 for id's Quake. Valve's version, Team Fortress Classic, was released at retail in 1999.

Ricochet

An official Half-Life mod, Ricochet was developed by Valve and initially released for free. It now costs $4.99 on Steam.

Counter-Strike

CS was originally released as a Half-Life mod in 1999. Valve hired the developers and acquired the name, releasing the mod at retail in 2000. A number of sequels and spin-offs were produced.

Day of Defeat

The original DoD mod was released in 2000. Valve hired the team and released it at retail in 2003.

Portal

Narbacular Drop from Nuclear Monkey Software, a team of DigPen Institute students, was released for free in 2005. Valve hired the entire team and employs Drop's portal mechanics in...Portal, released in 2007. The sequel, released in 2011, features a number of mechanics from another Digipen game, Tag: The Power of Paint. The team behind Tag was hired by Valve to work on Portal 2.

Left 4 Dead

Turtle Rock Studios, a former Valve collaborator, began development of L4D in 2005. The studio and L4D were acquired by Valve in 2008. The game was released later that year. Valve later let go of Turtle Rock after absorbing most of its staff. The studio has since reformed and is now developing a game for THQ.(Eurogamer)

Alien Swarm

The original Alien Swarm, a mod for Epic's Unreal Tournament 2004 by Black Cat Games, was released in 2004. They announced a  sequel in 2005 this time based on Valve's Source Engine. The development appeared to stop in 2007. Valve hired the Black Cat team and they developed a new Alien Swarm in between larger projects. It was released in 2010 as freeware.(Gamasutra)

DoTA 2

The first version of the Defense of the Ancients scenario, something of a mod for Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft III, was released by modder "Eul" in 2003. Valve hired  "IceFrog," the longtime and current caretaker of the most popular DoTA variant, DOTA-Allstars in 2009. He is now lead designer for the sequel to the original mod set for release in 2011.

So what's your point?

Well, taking a look at this we see almost every game in Valve's arsenal of successful titles is based on a mod, or, in the case of L4D, an acquisition.  Strangely, this is one instance of an acquisition hungry company that has gone unquestioned (well...except for the case of DoTA 2, but that's a million kinds of complicated).

I posted a Facebook status about Electronic Arts' acquisition of PopCap and one friend commented, "As a PSA, you should write the short list of things that EA doesn't own. Shouldn't take 5 minutes."

This is the kind of vitriol companies get when the make mergers and acquisitions a priority. It comes off as creatively bankrupt. "Hey! Instead of making new, successful games of our own, why don't we just use the oodles of annualized franchise cash we have to pick up a few studios that can do that for us?!"

Or in Valve's case, "Hey! That's really cool. Now, you're fresh out of college and have no way to promote your game or make money off your mod, so I'll tell you what: if you come work for us, we'll take your little game and spruce it up for millions to see AND pay for. How does that sound?"

Pretty slimy, right? It seems like Valve sees a design it wants and just absorbs its creators so as to avoid any sort of conflict down the line.

In the case of DoTA 2? Yeah, it's definitely frickin' slimy. Valve is practically trying to trademark an entire subgenre of video games and one that began by using material created and owned by another company, Blizzard. Strangely the most conflict over this trademark Valve is encountering is from two of the most prominent original DoTA developers (who are currently working at Riot Games, creator of the DoTA clone League of Legends). They have created a company, DoTA-Allstars, LLC. to combat Valve's trademark efforts. (PC Gamer)

Valve currently owns the trademark for "DOTA2" and "DOTA3" while Allstars retains just plain "DOTA."

Concept art for DoTA 2

But it's not all bad...

DOTA 2 aside, what Valve has done is use its resources and above-average eye for great design to bring excellent games to the masses. While Counter-Strike and Team Fortress were popular mods, the boost in player numbers and technical support thanks to an official Valve release were invaluable.

Also, we wouldn't have Portal  and its sequel if it wasn't for this Valve model. In that case the mechanics from theNarbacular Drop team just served as a basis for something wholly unique and special thanks to the brilliance of the talent and production process at Valve.

In many ways Valve is serving a priceless function for the mod and student community. It's something of a curator for new and wonderful design. It gives hope to an entirely new generation of modders; make something noteworthy enough and you just might end up at Valve.

Now let's not give Valve all the credit. Developers, especially PC developers, have been hiring modders for years based on their work. Valve's case is just a little different -- and more suspect -- because those hires can be so easily linked to a later project.

So is it good or bad?

Yes, this Valve model of design and property absorption is kind of gross. Maybe it's the fact that the last game with truly in-house origins is HL2: Episode 2. We haven't seen anything original from them in four years and it's starting to seem like the folks at Valve are more content to sit back and poach concepts from little guys then come up with any big ideas of their own.

But then again, is that so bad? And can we honestly say Valve isn't doing important things with games? Sure, Portal 2's gels were lifted from a student project, but it's not really those mechanics (or even Narbacular Drop's titular portals) that make that game special.

So, what do you think? Is this Valve model a good thing for the industry? Is Valve just a bunch of lazy Scrooge McDucks, swimming in their massive piles of money? Are they hurting the indie game community by scooping up potential creators? Do any of these negatives even matter? Are they negatives at all?

 
Tags: Valve, Half-Life 2, Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2, DOTA, Portal, Team Fortress, Counter-Strike, Half-Life, Portal 2, Warcraft 3, Half-Life 2: Episode 1, DotA 2, Narbacular Drop, Half Life 2: Episode 2
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Comments (4)
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Comic061111
Dewan J. Haque
August 13, 2011

"Or in Valve's case, "Hey! That's really cool. Now, you're fresh out of college and have no way to promote your game or make money off your mod, so I'll tell you what: if you come work for us, we'll take your little game and spruce it up for millions to see AND pay for. How does that sound?""

That was supposed to be a BAD thing?  I know if I were coming into the games industry, fresh out of college, a job offer from Valve would be one of the best things possible.  AND I'd get to work on this game I made, make it better, and then possibly even sell it.

Put another way, Valve is employing all the best and brightest, by looking for and rewarding them.  They could've EASILY just taken the idea and ran.  THAT would be slimy.  They could have just bought the rights and ideas from the creators.  That'd be the EA route.  But no, they employed them.  

Also I think perhaps you should really compare the original Team Fortress with Team Fortress 2 and tell me that it isn't original and in-house.  In everything but name they're practically different games.  Team Fortress Classic and TF2 are leagues apart.  

Let's also not forget how they support the mod community with TF2 alone, letting people submit their own models and then profit from them if they get chosen to be added to the game.

Additionally, the way development works at Valve, from what I hear, is that you basically work on what you want, unless something has been pushed to top priority or something and needs done soon, then they start grabbing people from other teams to work on it no matter what- the TF2 team had a great deal of work in L4D/L4D2 for instance, in which they weren't doing much for TF2 as a result at the time.

"Are they hurting the indie game community by scooping up potential creators?"  No, because they're not scooping them up and putting them in a safe somewhere, they're putting them to work, doing what they love.

N1320596433_30241640_9680
Matt Gerardi
August 13, 2011

 

Thanks for commenting. The point of this was really to try and spark some discussion on the subject.

First off, I agree with you. In fact, I'm pretty sure I address a lot of those points in my writing. 

I just think this is an undeniable pattern of behavior that Valve has and its really interesting to me. The idea of taking the rights to, polishing up and selling a mod, something which was at one point free and belonged to a community is something that's a bit troubling to me. I think there are a ton of people in theDoTA community that agree and that's why there has been so much controversy over that game. That's not to mention the fact the Valve failed to hire up the entire DoTA dev staff and two of the creators, who may still hold some sort of claim to the brand, are trying to intervene. 

Yes, it's ultimately good for everyone involved, I agree, but really is there that big of a difference between acquiring a studio for its ideas and properties and acquiring a two-to-ten man team for the same things? To say Valve could have EASILY just copied say Narbacular Drop or Tag without hiring the original dev teams is a bit of a stretch. There would have been one hell of an Internet shit storm if they took that tact. By hiring the dev team, Valve avoids all of that while benefiting from the expertise the original devs bring along with them. 

Again, I agree that what Valve is doing is a good thing. I tried to spell that out in my writing. But I'm also trying to point out that this studio which just about everyone (including myself) adores is guilty of many of the actions a lot of people condemn other companies for.

 

Comic061111
Dewan J. Haque
August 13, 2011

I was mostly confused since you were presenting it as a bad thing, and yet the writing presented it as a good thing.  Good to know it was intentional?  Haha.

I think there are some main differences between acquiring a studio and hiring a mod team.  The main one is that typically in an acquisition the studio changes what they're working on- their design ideas and methodology and such are scrapped in favor of the new parent company.  You can typically point to a change in a studio's games when they're merged or bought out- but from what I can see, most of these mod teams are even given the option to continue working on their mod however they like- see Alien Swarm, which was released for free, exactly as it was initially intended.  Only it's a standalone and in a new engine.  Using the Source engine and experimenting with it definitely benefited Valve, but the team didn't have to compromise themselves in order to do it, as far as I can see.

I only brought up that they could copy the idea as an example of how one could achieve the same results and look bad for it- and for much less money. A goal most publicly traded companies strive for (but Valve is not a publicly traded company).

I think the DOTA thing is kind of strange, and I haven't been following it- mostly due to not being a huge fan of the genre. I honestly don't think of DOTA2 as any more controversial than making League of Legends.  DOTA was a custom map for WC3, already using assets from another game, using the interface and engine as well.  I don't think it's particularly good to claim that there is a 'brand' there that needs to be protected from a sequel which can actually offer it some identity with being made from the ground up.  I think if League of Legends had thought of calling itself DOTA2, it would've.

Comic061111
Dewan J. Haque
August 13, 2011

I guess the point I failed to actually make- I don't think Valve's goal in acquiring mod teams and students is to avoid conflict but rather to employ new and creative talent who have already shown initiative and proven themselves.  Thus making Valve a better company as a whole.

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