The BBC posted a news item about how Blizzard took a fan’s server offline that was running the original WOW game.

Now, you might be thinking that this poll is about what would happen if Steam went offline permanently, but it’s not.

What really got me curious was this quote from Blizzard: “The developers however prefer to see the game continuously evolve and progress, and as such we have no plans to open classic realms or limited expansion content realms.”.

I think it raises some interesting questions.

Should the developers force changes of the game onto players? It happens all the time and as players we don’t really have any say in that process. Maybe it’s technically too difficult for developers to allow multiple versions of each game.

Could each change be made an option? Unless it is security related, why not?

Well, perhaps for MP games that would be a HUGE issue. Playing against players with different settings could ruining the game for many and you obviously can’t have different servers for every combination of options.

But for SP games like the ones we know and love, perhaps it is possible.

In fact, what if it were a paid option? Would that interest you? If you apid, for example, 5 Dollars per game, you could ahve all the changes as options and if you didn’t you just got the changes and had to play the latest version.

What are your thoughts?

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Just a sill question this time, but after reading a BBC article called Whatever floats your boat – the unstoppable growth of themed cruises and how the band KISS hires a whole cruise ship once a year, I thought Heck, why not Half-Life?

The topic itself isn’t exactly new, in fact I suggested something similar an article called Ten-Year Anniversary Half-Life Convention (2007) and even Poll Question 244 asked If there was a ValveCon within 6 hours travel of you, would you go? (2011).

So besides the basic question, I want you all to suggest fun activities the passengers could all get up to. Keep it clean and family friendly. I’ll post some ideas as comments too.

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Back in October 2006, I asked the very first PP (in case you are new here, this site used to be called PlanetPhillip.com and we always abbreviated it to “pp”) Poll Question was Have you Crowbarred Barney for his ammo?

This poll question is interested in asking whether you ever kill NPCs unnecessarily? Not for ammo or weapons but just because they are annoying you.

I don’t think I do, at least I don’t remember doing it.

Maybe you are more heartless than I am, or just plain crazy, who knows.

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Only a fool would think that Half-Life 3 will be a VR exclusive, but that doesn’t mean that some sort of tie-in with VR is impossible.

I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t followed much about Valve’s involvement with the HTC Vive but that’s mostly due to the fact I know I won’t be able to afford to buy it. If, like me, you don’t know much but want to learn more check out the Steam page.

The question is whether Valve will promote both Vive and HL3 at the same time.

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Oh My Headcrab. I can’t tell you how much I wanted this to be an amazing release. I had spoken to Richard a day or two after I head about the “mod” and he told me it was actually going to be released as a full fledged game. I was so excited. Yes, the screenshots didn’t have me drooling and the voice acting whilst it was very good, was terrible as a replacement for a vortigaunt.

The thought of somebody making a game and releasing it could ignite the community to new heights.

Sure, there would be challenges ahead, especially financial, but if they have been overcome once, then they could be again.

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Some mods do a great job of keeping potential players interested and curious, others start off well promoting themselves but soon realize that it takes time and effort to do properly and others just work hard behind the scenes and then suddenly release.

Each way has its merits and drawbacks and the key to the first two is doing them properly.

Personally, I think people get more frustrated when mods don’t update for months, even if they ARE working hard behind the scenes.

I have heard modders say that they need the attention to keep working hard and to be honest, if that’s what you need to work hard you have the wrong hobby.

Sure, it’s nice to get encouragement but you should still work hard if you love what you are doing.

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

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If you missed my tweet and Facebook post, Prospket has announced it is going retail. Last week, this was the BIG news I said would be announced very soon.

I think it is HUGE news because it is the first time a mod set in the Half-Life universe has gone retail. Now, that might not be quite right, because it was never really made as a mod, but many people thought, myself included, it would be.

I’ll be playing it soon and posting my thoughts, and I will also be having an audio interview with Richard Seabrook, the author of the mod.

I believe and hope that most people will be positive about the whole retail idea, but there may be some who are against it.

What is really interesting for me is how we will judge the release. Will be judge it against other Half-Life games or against other mods? Does it matter that only one person has made it? SHould it matter?

With the sudden release of Wilson’s Chronicles, will we compare it to that?

I’m looking forward to hearing your views and seeing the poll results.

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As a lover of Half-Life, graphics don’t “nab my headcrab” (float my boat) and I also play Source games and mods too, but I’ve never been really interested in updating the visual aspect of them.

Sure, I love great graphics and am sure that Source 2 games and mods will look fantastic. This comes at a cost of the time taken to create new content, but as player those things don’t affect me in the same way as they do a modder.

It seems that many modders want to update their work and one of the most common ways to do that is to make it look better.

The question is, do players actually want these updates and do they re-play the mods?

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With recent hiccup regarding online security, it has brought to mind the problems with digital distribution. There was any actual security issue but due to a cache issue some users were being shown other users details – although nothing serious is my understanding.

I love Steam and being able to just install and uninstall at any time is so nice. I trust Valve but there is always a chance something bad could happen. In the old days, I could buy a game, install it on my system and that was that. IF my disc was stolen or broken, it was my fault. Now, getting your account hacked is possible.

Just before the hiccup mentioend above, LambdaGeneration reported that Valve is moving into the retail space. Good for them but I fear that eventually games and movies will only be available via digital distribution.

I hope for a time when boxes return and even more collector’s editions are released.

Anyway, I haven’t bought a game in a physical shop for over ten years.

What about you?

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I was recently looking at a Steam page for a game, can’t remember which,sorry, and I noticed that the soundtrack was available.

In general, I love soundtracks, both from movies and games.

The problem is that they can be expensive, at least when I used to buy them (no, that doesn’t mean I download them now, it means I don’t listen to music much any more).

This game was around 10 Euros and the sound track was 5 Euros.

To me, that’s quite expensive – 50% the cost of the game. I’m pretty sure people would buy more if they were cheaper, although that argument is used for almost everything.

So I began to wonder how many of you actually buy the soundtracks from games.

Which reminds, some mods have even released soundtracks and if I am not mistaken, some have even sold them.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this whole issue.

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