Have I failed because I am unable to articulate my position, or have I failed because you are unable to listen?
I guess my earlier post was lost in the noise, but I feel very strongly about this, so I must repeat myself.
How can I prove I’m not a sockpuppet? I don’t want some guy to be banned just because I agree with him; I mean, how ridiculous is that >_<
The proof rests with the forum administrators. As I said before, it is very likely they have the ability to see the IP address of posters so it would be very obvious very quickly, to them at least, if two accounts were being used by the same person.
Granted, someone could use a proxy to fake an IP address, but if we follow that slippery slope then there is ultimately no proof what-so-ever beyond what we can infer from the posters intentions.
Regardless, “who” we are has no real bearing on the objectivity or relevancy of the points being made. Otherwise the anonymity afforded to all of us by the internet negates everything.
I have not done this until now.
J-Dude didn’t do this, either.
It is a disservice for being critical of a missed self-imposed deadline. Why? Well, just think about it for a moment:
The devs are doing this for fun and to provide a mod. They create a deadline to shoot for. They don’t quite make it. And they start getting criticized for not following their own deadlines?
How is that NOT a disservice to the devs that have worked many long hours to provide you with a free product? “You promised me the mod in 2009 and now it’s not going to be in 2009!”
It’s not a sound argument. It’s a temper tantrum. And it gets what it deserves.
When someone is excessively emotional and uses that as a driving force for their argument, then yes, it is very often irrational.
He’s not going to listen. :hmph:
C’mon people. We’ve gone over this before. All reasonable points have been brought against them before in this thread. He’s obviously read all about it. There’s nothing left to discuss. He’s simply trying to rile a negative response out of everyone. DON’T FEED HIM.
MUST FEED TROLL!!
Nah, I’m done. I’ve got too many other things to do than argue with someone who thinks the devs can’t be accountable for themselves.
You were very quick to attack me, so my inference is not unjustified. As well, I am not referring specifically to “you” but rather you all who make up the community that attacked him.
You make a good point about the effect our feedback has on the developers. And while I understand that negative feedback has the effect of frustrating them, you cannot simply argue that the absence of criticism effects a positive outcome. Inside opinions and untruthful feedback only serves to create an environment of stagnant ideas. Without intelligent criticism, you breed in weakness, and are doomed to fail.
You argue that J-Dude essentially threw a temper tantrum and so was treated accordingly. I would say that the quality of his writing demonstrates that his outburst deserves more attention than you believe it does, as there is a vast distance between what he has written and how children respond.
No one attempted to discuss his argument in a civil manner, and so his position quite naturally become uncivil. Once again, the actions of a person do not undermine the validity of the positions they hold. Belief to the contrary is effectively an Ad Hominem Tu Quoque.
Further, as I said before, the Developers have every right to set goals and schedules for themselves, but J-Dude’s criticism is not that they did so and failed, but that they did so knowing that it was not truly a tenable goal. He was upset because he believes they toyed with us.
I do not personally believe that is true, but that is what I took away from his posts.
Very often is not always.
I am listening very closely, actually. You, apparently are not. Accuse me of whatever you want, but for someone who is attempting to rally a community against me, you have the greatest claim on negativity so far.
I did. Never got a reply.
Not quite. Argumentum ad hominem tu quoque is saying that X is wrong because Person A acted just like Person B who was making X.
J-Dude didn’t have a valid position. He had a temper tantrum.
And you know this…how?
I wouldn’t say negative feedback frustrates us in the slightest; it allows us to make our work better and grow both individually as developers and as a team. I would venture to say that the absence of criticism would result in the final product being much worse!
We did not set a goal of 2009 knowing in advance that we couldn’t pull it off to play a joke on our community; it’s not like we derive pleasure from playing cruel jokes on you guys - just the opposite, I’m sure all of us on the team will be overjoyed when we release something that we’re proud of with the hopes that the community will enjoy it greatly as well. The ‘criticism’ that we’re playing with the community isn’t criticism of a constructive nature, it’s an unfounded argument that is based on personal opinion and I imagine that’s why he caught so much flack for it.
[color=red]EDIT: I merged your posts together, GreyRaven - in the future please edit your original post if you are the last poster in a thread and have something else to post.
Rabid, this mod will act as one large CV for you, and all the other developers. Remember Adam Foster…I believe history shall repeat itself.
What’s your point? It’s obvious that he was being emotionally irrational if he honestly thought the devs were intentionally leading us astray. If he actually took an active part in the community rather lurking around just to whine about his own expectations, he would’ve been able to see the amount of progression we’ve seen through bits and pieces revealed on this forum throughout the year.
Thank you, RabidMonkey. You said it better than I. And with that, I’m done with this tangent. 
Midnight Jan 1st 2010, I will shed a single tear for black mesa.
Then continue to party.
Black mesa 
<3
I played the video and my son, instead of asking
“when will it be out?” said
“… can I play Half-Life?”
He played for about an hour! I was impressed it wasn’t about graphics for him!
ETA: if it’s unclear, the video is the Black Mesa trailer.
Your son is awesome.
you’re telling me!
His first comment was “oh, so this is where all the things in HL2 came from. from them doing this”
His second was “what the… why are the vortigaunts attacking me!!”
Made me chuckle.