A somewhat unusual protest is currently taking place on Steam. Fans of the Half-life Shooter series from Valve "bomb" the Steam ratings of DOTA 2 (also Valve) with negative votes. With the arguments "Dota 2 killed Half-Life 3" or "Goodbye Mr. Freeman" (Mr. Freeman is the main character from the first parts) the fans protest against the lack of a conclusion to the series.
Negative Steam Reviews for DOTA 2
The background to the current excitement are the publications of ex-Valve employee Marc Laidlaw. Laidlaw was one of the writers who co-wrote the Half-Life series before becoming one of the main writers on DOTA 2. In the form of a fan fiction he gave an insight into how a possible 3rd part of the popular series could have looked and how the story should end.
Fans of the series have been waiting since the release of Half-Life 2 in 2004 on part 3 and with it the dissolution or the end of the story. In the meantime, Half-Life 3 (HL3) has become a running gag and meme in the internet community. "HL3 confirmed!" - "HL3 confirmed!" Is now almost synonymous with an event that will never occur.
Valve itself is also not aware of any plans to continue the Half-Life series or to treat it to an appropriate final episode. The conspiracy theories of course boil very high on social media platforms such as Reddit. Statements that the success of DOTA 2 led to HL3 being postponed and canceled are not uncommon.
Much more likely is the success of Valve's games platform Steam, is one of the main reasons for this. The costs for the development of a modern computer game are now in the range of up to 100 million US dollars and always represent a risk. If it is not a great hit and the costs are not recovered. Steam, on the other hand, provides Valve with relatively risk-free income by distributing thousands of games from all possible developers. The risk lies with the developer, while Valve is financed by the fees.
Half-Life 3 too overhyped?
Half-Life 1 and 2 revolutionized the first-person shooter scene when they were released and the expectations for a possible third part are now gigantic. If you look at things reasonably objectively, that's probably the main reason for the silence around the series. The expectations and hopes, the entire "hype" surrounding HL3 are so huge that it would be impossible to meet them. So even the release of a really good game would cause disappointment. Bioware had similar issues with the ending of Mass Effect 3, where the ending of the story couldn't possibly meet fan expectations.
So it is better for Valve to leave the Half-Life series as an unfinished masterpiece, instead of just having a "good" 3rd part to deliver an ending with a bad aftertaste.
