[STEAM] Half-Life 3’s rumors point to a much bigger problem in gaming

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In the attention economy we currently live in, it's absolutely ludicrous to hope that everyone will know better than to spy on a company in the silliest ways possible to retrieve whatever sort of evidence that they're working on something. Still, how can fans defend looking so ill-advisedly into a company that has been so significantly harmed by similar behavior in the past?

Steam's policies towards what is ostensibly gambling are very damaging to the entire community, and I'm totally fine with people looking into that. Trying to spoil the existence of games, however, just greatly dampens the fun for everyone. Such behavior poisons the hype with the inevitable ****** that comes every time we realize we'd fallen prey to false hope. Either that or, well, we become the gaming equivalent of QAnon believers who'll keep seeing definite clues everywhere in the hopes of avoiding coming to terms with a harsher truth.

Game reveals can be just the best thing

I'll never forget opening Gamespot to find out Valve had done a mega gameplay presentation of Half-Life 2 at E3 2003.

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It remains my favorite presentation in gaming history. We could even hear the live "aaaw"s and "oooh"s of those in attendance. Valve released a high-res version of the demo for the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2, if you want to

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That unmistakable awe forever imprinted on that video was made possible because, even though Half-Life 2 was expected, nobody knew exactly what shape it would take, and its reality was way beyond anyone's dreams. Sadly, this fantastic presentation would get overshadowed as Half-Life 2's source code would end up leaked, causing the game's development and promotional efforts to retreat temporarily and rethink the strategy for a year.

A more recent case was that of GTA 6, which also suffered a huge code leakage that got so many people to witness the game in a severely unfinished state, prompting many to claim the game would *****. That was a bizarre claim, but something you can understand from consumers who aren't well-versed in what the process of game development looks like.

GTA 6 certainly won't *****, but the gross leak certainly had killed part of the surprise by the time its fantastic first trailer hit:

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One of the best parts of gaming might be over forever, and few have noticed

The press conferences from E3 2015 are known as some of the best in the event's history. That's because they revealed, among many others, Final Fantasy VII Remake and Shenmue 3. FFVII's case was similar to that of Half-Life 3, a game whose reveal had been heavily speculated about every year prior to 2007. People still cared for it because it was Final Fantasy VII, but by 2015, the greatest catalyst for joy in everyone's minds was knowing that they hadn't just been bamboozled once again. Shenmue 3, however, a game that many wanted, but that only a few really believed would be making a comeback, elicited this reaction:

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Shenmue 3 ended up falling short of expectations, so that reveal was the best we ever got out of it; a moment when you could believe Shenmue 3 was the game to outdo everything that had come before.

E3's death fragmentation into many smaller events might prevent a reveal from ever reaching the same heights. Still, even worse is learning about the continuation of your favorite franchise via low-res—and sometimes straight-up fake—screenshots and dubious quotes from nameless devs. It sucks even harder when people who should know better also feed the problem on purpose. On the 21st, Geoff Keighley posted this on

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While a layman might just see the random image of a game-y generator, that's clearly a nod to an iconic contraption from the original Half-Life, right when fans are at their weakest. So, one last time, we must ask: Does that mean Half-Life 3 will be confirmed at this year's Game Awards? No, because that’s actually a still from f*cking Fortnite.

Bloodborne 2, however, who knows?

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