SPECIAL COMMENT: The video game industry has passed Valve by?

To quote a famous Avis commercial: Ever get the feeling some people just stopped trying?

If the person who made that quote up looked at Valve, they would have answered their own question with not just the feeling, but the proof of such.

With the latest revelation just yesterday by Valve's Doug Lombardi in an interview with Computer and Video Games, we can say that they HAVE stopped trying.

In the softball interview, Mr. Lombardi had stated this:

"For a long time the GPU side has been leading the charge towards brighter, shinier games, and it usually ends up that whoever has the best looking game at shows like E3 usually gets game of the show. We've always looked at that shaking our heads thinking it's not always about the graphics. We've all seen games that looked really pretty and got all these awards but then it comes out and
there's not much of a game there.

"Before it came out, Portal failed to convince all those who like nice graphics..But when it came out it had really solid gameplay and a clever story, and so it won over 30 Game of the Year awards.

"It's more about what you can do in the game. Graphics have started to top-out now. We've got really great-looking games but what we want are more intelligent, more visceral games and the multi-core processors are going to be the way that we get there on PC."

We'll let the people in charge of E3 tell Lombardi that many of the games that have won such an award didn't just get that award because it looked pretty, as if he had or has any right to criticize any other developmental team's work. I'm sure they will tell him themselves that his claims would be better off being written in the margins of the nominee sheets in crayon.

But this notion that graphics have topped themselves out and that multi-core processors are the way to go. Graphics, topping themselves out, and that you don't need them to tell a good story or have a good game? We do agree that it's not just graphics that make a good game, any common sense developer will let you know that you can have dismal game play and gorgeous graphics and vice versa. However, it is also true that when you have an engine that went obsolete at the turn of the millennium, one has to wonder what the true intentions of such words are.

And that is this: We know now the reason for all of these quotes from both Lombardi and Gabe Newell, of the Playstation 3 being a waste of everyone's time, about why they continue to make episodes for a five year old game that grew old a year after its initial release, about why you refuse to hire any adequate developers that know the coding for systems that you slap in the face, about this quote now, and how that entire interview with 1up.com ended up (don't hold your breath for that site to play hardball with Valve, either). We know now why you guy are saying these things. It's not that you think these quotes have any real substance within them, which is a good answer, but it is because of this:

You know that the video game industry has passed you by, you do not want to accept that fact, and you are still trying to tell the entire world that your games are the only ones that matter and that you do not want to reinvent the wheel that got you to the dance.

Yes, we all mean that with all sincereity. The industry, or at least the console half although it's only a matter of time before the PC era does as well, has moved on from a time and a place in history in which your Source engine was needed and mattered in the industry. Consoles that are mostly dedicated to playing games, such as the Wii, PS3, and the XBox 360 are designed to handle much more than what the Source engine that you have used to make your games for the past decade has done. Before, both consoles and computers needed such an engine to push its limits. Now it's the other way around, as now console manufacturers of all shapes and sizes are being able to make processors and consoles that can handle a hundred Source engines running side by side, at the same time, and STILL be able to run a game such as Gears of War 2 or Metal Gear Solid 4 on the side without any sort of slowdown whatsoever, with processors that are neither multicore or solocore, but are made with a specific purpose in mind. Yes, the industry has passed you by.

And yet you sit on the sidelines, thinking you have any right to criticize anyone who dares to USE the newfound power to make games that are far superior in gameplay than yours will ever be as long as you refuse to reinvent your wheel. We cannot blame you for using what has gotten you to the dace, but sometimes that thing can also dump you AT the dance and leave you stranded while it moves on to bigger and better versions of its date. These new processors that can dish out these graphics are also making it possible for people to deliver more gameplay options. You do not think that anyone is allowed to USE that power just because God forbid it would make better graphics than you are used to seeing?

And what happens when PCs adopt something like the Cell, a processor in which you love to hate because it is also a sign that the industry has passed you by, as a standard? What if at this very moment tomorrow, Microsoft announces that all new models of the 360 and/or whatever the name of their new system will be will include the Cell or something like it, or something that will be much better? What will your reaction be? That the PCs are a waste of time, that Microsoft won't have any long term benefits from it? Will you suddenly embrace anything Nintendo throws at us, assuming THEY don't adopt similar standards on a new console? Yes, Valve, everything has been passing you by, and you are failing to see that or do anything about it.

One of the reasons why the Playstation 3 was expensive and why everyone was whipping on it was because Sony decided to try something different with it. The Cell processor, which was a dedicated type of processor, the Blu Ray disc format, the additional features that were put in place out of the box. They took a damn chance. Yes, in the beginning they struggled, but look at what the long term benefits of taking such a chance have become. The system has caught up by leaps and bounds both with the times and in the sales figures. They reinvented their wheel and you can, too. For once, Valve, be daring and do something unexpected.

That is, if your enablers don't praise you beforehand. Yes, even in your subtle graze in the public forums of broken records, we have the media and your fanboys to blame for why you refuse to reinvent, try, and to catch up with the industry. Every time a game of yours comes out, your faithful, which are by the way also starting to wake up to your means and find out that you are unwilling to even attempt to catch up, gobble it up. And then, when someone dares to criticiize you for your faults and for what you say, they immediately project this notion that the reason for such criticisms is because Mr. Newell has been heavily critical of Sony's decisions.

What these people fail to realize is that with all of these defenses they use, they in fact enable Valve to murder the game industry, because it won't be just Sony that Valve will criticize for very long. It will be Microsoft, Nintendo, and the PC manufacturers, then everyone else for adopting similar standards, and then their own employees for wanting to catch up because they will have to in order to stay relevant, assuming they haven't already lost their relevance years ago. They fail to realize that it isn't just Playstation 3 "fanboys" that are criticizing Valve, but the gaming public as a whole. The gaming media and the Valve fanboys have to cease playing softball with Valve and follow up questions with even harder questions for them to answer. Someone has to be our checks and balances, and it helps no one to give Valve a free pass just because they are slamming a system you want to hate on.

And to Valve, this is your wake up call. Nothing in gaming has "topped-out". Not graphics, not sound, not gameplay, not replayability, nothing. Your games have proven nothing other than they fact that you refuse to accept the future, and that you cannot handle anyone telling you otherwise. Reinvent the wheel, and start trying again. Hit the reset button, because the gaming industry has passed you by a half-decade ago, and we gamers who haven't already passed you by, will do so, very, very soon.

Good night, and good luck!