Valve gives you access to a game and tells you not to spew your mouth off. A gentleman’s agreement if you will.
You spew your mouth off and valve takes access away.
shocked pikachu face
This is a non-issue of you ask me. A person, who happens to be a writer, got access to the game through a steam friend and was asked not to talk about it but thought they could just not agree to a warning and write about it anyway? I got access too and i didnt write about the game. I get to go back and play it today, they cant.
So what. They already have their article and it will be out anyways within like two years latest probably. The value of talking about deadlock is much higher and valve profits from this advertising as well.
The so what is that this writer for the verge will likely never be trusted with NDA type pre-release access for any other games going forward, and this may even impact all of the Verge.
This isn’t just a one and done kind of issue, this will be seen by the entire industry as a “can’t trust that guy with pre-release access”
Except this is a game industry reputation ruined. It isn’t just valve, why would any dev ever give the verge access again knowing that they will not only disrespect your requests but bitch and moan if you hold them to it.
It’s a full rep killer. They will never have early access again for any company.
That’s not how this works. The Verge didn’t break an NDA or embargo because they didn’t get either of those things. Valve allows random people to invite other random people to play, with just a “pretty please don’t talk about this game” warning. There was already people talking about it online and leaked footage.
I’m sort of confused about why Valve even care that much. Surely they know that “leaks” are the best way to build hype for a game.
Although Valve are making a game again, so I’m not sure how much hype they really need.
Closed playtests are usually with very in-development builds. People post the barely functioning game to social media and the game gets bad press. Release day rolls around and no one buys it because “that was that one game that looked bad a while ago”
This seems like a stupid train of thought but a lot of people think like this
Others have pointed out the concerns around negative reviews of things still subject to change, but the other aspect is just the relations with media.
I’m sure tons of journalists have been playing. And probably even working on content covering the game, but not publishing it yet. Once valve is ready for coverage they’ll have polished content ready. And valve can control the timing so that coverage happens right when they want the hype like maybe a few days before an open beta.
By covering it early you encourage other journalists to do the same, rushing out low quality content to get the views before others do. And for valve to not let any journalists see the game early to avoid this.
The biggest thing would be that a game under playtest is likely to undergo drastic balance changes and potentially even changes to core gameplay, a review of a game in that early of a state would likely not reflect the finished product, and is unlikely to be updated or taken down when the game is released, this possibly poisoning public opinion with content that doesn’t reflect the actual game.
I can’t believe their secret game they gave to 10 thousand people got leaked
I think the thing everyone is forgetting is that valve isn’t stupid, there’s no way they didn’t realize you could work around accepting the (legally unenforcable) NDA, and it’s open invite.
Valve 100% knows that keeping it “secret” is good for hype and was expecting this to happen at any time, and the nominal ban was expected, but nobody is gonna get sued either.
More people are talking about Valve’s “secret” new game because of this than would be if they openly announced it.
As someone whose played it I can say that it has some cool concepts but it’s sorta mid atm. It’s what to be expected for an alpha game though, I just hope they push the aethetic harder and not just use it as set dressing cause so far the aethetic is the most unique part about it. The rest is just overwatch meets leagueDota but slightly jankier (Again, to be expected since it’s alpha.)
Those are my thoughts as well, though I’ve only had the chance to play a couple of matches so far. When I heard about the concept it sounded cooler than it feels so far, but maybe I just need to get used to it. So far the gameplay loop hasn’t really clicked for me, and balancing the hero shooter aspects with MOBA stuff like farming and buying items hasn’t felt smooth, fluid or natural.
I do imagine - much like MOBAs - it’s more fun playing as a squad though. I’ve only done random matchmaking.
Dude glad it isn’t only me. The moba aspects slow it down but the shooter aspects speed it up and it hasn’t felt like a good mix so far. I know I’m the bad one so I can’t be too harsh but it felt like I was just getting one shot like in Call of duty but also I had to just grind resources like in mobas. My least favorite aspects of both games.
That’s sorta why I like overwatch, plenty of weps that aren’t guns and you don’t get one shot most of the time, especially if you aren’t playing a squish hero. No grinding either besides charging your ult, it’s more objective based which is fun.
What was so secret about it?
So apparently they had a bit asking players to not share info about the game, but you could technically back out of it without agreeing so legally they can post whatever they want. It feels like a case of “this is legal to do but maybe kinda shitty and valve might be upset”. Basically the agreement was informal and not enforceable and the verge just said fuck it. They did get banned afterwards, but I think that and not working with them in the future is all valve can do.
Edit: didn’t even require agreement, so honestly it’s kinda fair game. I was a bit hostile calling it shitty, I felt like it was a loophole or something but it’s more Valve just saying “hey pls don’t” and the verge replying “no thanks”, and eating the game ban since that’s all valve can really do.
There isn’t even an informal agreement. It simply says not to share anything. Not even “by playing this, you agree not to share anything”. It’s just “please don’t share anything” without any action required by your side.
Yeah, gaylord_fartmaster let me know. I thought the message was one of those “scroll down and click agree on this eula” things but its just a pop up box, so it’s def not enforceable.
If 10,000 people are doing something, it is NOT secret, and journalists must report on it for the general benefit of society.
Valve has their head in the clouds if they thought they could keep an informal secret among the population of a small town.
This isn’t some grand conspiracy it’s a closed beta for a video game. It’s pretty normal to have an NDA or embargo agreement to get access. It sounds like valve just goofed the implementation. So yeah it’s totally legal for them to post it, valve just might avoid giving them early copies in the future.
Don’t know why you’re getting crushed for this. It’s not even just about this particular game; one of the major players in the largest entertainment industry on the planet is doing something highly unusual. That’s in the public interest.
Lemmy users should know better, too, as The Verge was one of the leading reporting outlets on what happened on Reddit last year. Adversarial tech journalism is part of what they do.
Valve got burned many ages ago with Half-Life 2 and they only go to press about a game when it’s in the final phases of development, to release.
Clickbait title. I can’t find any justification for calling a player being banned as The Verge “under fire”.
