Valve Corporation

Dear incomprehensible people at Valve,

We always knew that you are strange. You wouldn't be able to release such awesome games if you were totally normal. But as your latest release is drawing nearer I must wonder if you aren't becoming a bit too strange.

When you made the original Half-Life, a large portion of the gaming world fell in love with you. When Half-Life 2 came, you made gaming history with a game that many described as close to perfect. Then you announced that you would release the sequel in the form of episodic content, allowing you to release smaller games more often.

As many have pointed out before me; you have, in fact, not released them very often. When Half-Life 2: Episode Two came out, were rather dismayed that it had taken over a year since Episode One. In a week from now it will be two years since Episode Two was released and we still have no information on if you ever plan on releasing Episode Three.

People have been clamoring for episode three for two years, complaining and whining about the long wait. So what do you decide to do? You pour your resources into creating a sequel for Left 4 Dead, trying to make it ready for release a mere year after the original.

So that's two full Left 4 Dead-games released during the time when we're waiting for one episode. Remind me again, were the episodes supposed to take longer or shorter time to develop than the full games?

I don't even know if you think that this tactic makes any sort of sense from a marketing perspective. Normally I'll forgive a game developer for acting a bit strangely to make some extra money, because if you don't have any money you can't release any games. But in this case I really don't know...

People are still having fun with the original Left 4 Dead. People are still playing it. Hell, some people are still buying it. You could have tried to finish Episode Three and released it while people still have some positive emotions about your company, and then release Left 4 Dead 2 when people start to long for that instead. Or you could have worked on some sort of sequel to the extremely popular Portal. The original was one of the most fantastic games I've ever played and I know that very many fans around the world agree, but it was too short. People want more.

But with at least two games that a lot of people are longing for, you decide instead to work to release a sequel to another game almost unprecedentedly fast.

I think that you'll have to watch out so that you don't suffer from Duke Nukem Forever syndrome. When the development time for Duke Nukem Forever got longer and longer, people started having bigger and bigger expectations of the game, making it harder and harder for 3D Realms to actually release something. It had been in development for so long that a game that was anything less than absolutely perfect would have been totally shot down by every gamer and critic in the world.

Episode Three is nearing the same point. Of course it hasn't been in development for quite as long as Duke Nukem Forever, but it's still been such a long time that our already high expectations have skyrocketed.I hope that you'll release before it is impossible for you to make a good impression with whatever you release.

Love and headcrab hugs,
Marcus