G-man

Half-Life Series
#481

Okay, I’ve seen this argument before and I personally find it weak to be honest.

(Note: reading this over, it sounds a lot more hostile than I meant it to be, sorry, tone down the vitriol a tad when you actually read it)

The “make it up as we go” thing is an out for VALVE to get away with inconsistencies, it’s not a license to outright dismiss any inconsistency. Everything is pretty much canon until Valve says “sorry about that” in an interview or it’s directly contradicted in a game (i.e. in Ep 1 Gordon goes left but they decide for story reasons he really went right in Ep 3 to use a weak nonsensical example). Everything the G-man did is part of his personality, actions, and current motives. Even if it wasn’t originally meant to hint at a certain thing it has to be worked into the new story unless Valve handwaves it themselves, you can’t just say “well, Valve makes it up so THERE.” It’s a tool so they can say “he was lying because we wrote ourselves into a hole otherwise” not “well, we make it up so you can’t take anything as evidence of someone’s motives.”

#482

Or maybe it’s because so many fans were so cock-sure that he was administrator in Half-Life 1, and constantly calling him such cemented it into their heads despite never having officially been refereed to as such. So rather then admit to having no idea what his actual role was, you blame valve for inconsistent writing that’s only inconsistent in your own head.

#483

I imagine they have a plot bible somewhere under lock and key (and probably a few more layers of security). It helps them shape the plot details within the wider arcs that we haven’t seen complete yet. That said, it’s also likely to be somewhat fluid too as opposed to being completely set in stone.

#484

You have misunderstood what I have been saying. I am not talking about lying or tools or holes. All I am saying is that speculation is great and all, I know I love to do it but the reality is, valve writes the half life story as they go along, mostly because technology is constantly allowing them to do things that were not possible a couple of years earlier and they get a lot of feedback from fans. Alyx as a full time sidekick in ep1 is a good example. As for the g-mans mo, some out of left field bit like him having a plan for alyx was new for that game. He didn’t seem to have much of a plan for her when he left her to be atomized in the reactor explosion at the end of hl2. No plan to plan in just two episodes. Kinda seems like makin’ it up as you go along. And I am not saying that detracts from the awesomeness of the game in any way. Valve seems to do the utmost for awesome gameplay, even if it means rewriting most of the game at the last minute to incorporate some awesome new kind of gameplay, like the the npc follow quirk of half life. that is probably why ep3 is taking so long. Valve likes to deliver a little bit of magic. Just look at the defference in depth of game between hl1 and hl2.
@dias there is no blame here. You don’t need to sound sad

#485

I see what you’re saying JW, we’re on the same page. We’re speculating, that’s all we can do. But when we speculate it’s best to keep it in universe, not bring that into it. Yeah, Valve does sort of make stuff up. The intentions for characters change based on tech and popularity, fine. I fully accept that G-man could be a physical manifestation of GlaDOS due to an accidental explosion involving cake and a companion cube during a musical if Valve decided that’s what fans would like.

I’m just saying that “G-man has gone through character drift over time” really isn’t a rebuttal to “why is he so inconsistent?” I mean, yes, that is the perfect “real world” reason for it, Valve took some polls, got some good writers, came up with a better story, whatever. But they’ve also never said “oh yeah, forget HL1 happened.” As such everything he’s done is still something, well, he’s done, and we can only analyze the data we have that’s still valid. What we’re debating is the in universe reason he’s inconsistent, because without the writing team here refereeing us it is literally the only data we have.

Maybe to summarize it a bit:
I asked “well, if he’s a dealer why is he doing this random stuff?” You basically said “because Valve wills it.” Now, while I don’t disagree with that I think a more appropriate response probably would address a (however fanwanky you want it to be) explanation of why an intergalactic dealer has little consistency in his dealings, as if Half-life was real and there was no such thing as a “writer.”

#486

What?

#487

I bet you are smart enough to figure out what i meant but I edited it just in case.
All I was trying to say with the g-mans mo is that in the end it rests with valve. Valve has previously shifted character mo from game to game, or even whole characters during the development cycle for one game (eli-long as haired crazy white guy to black father of alyx or g-man letting alyx roast at the end HL2 to revealing that not only does he have a plan for her but he saved her brom black mesa in ep2). Forum denizens here seem to think there is some plot bible or detailed outline that valve has stashed away and but they do not. If they did they would have said so, like producers of tv shows such as bsg, or had much more consistent development of characters, like bsg. This does not say anything bad about valve or the game, it is just the way it is. So speculate away and in that speculation try to address a few blazing inconsistencies in the games, or don’t, and enjoy the games for what they are, which is the most awesome game series ever.:freeman:

#488

You could have fixed the ‘nad’ while you were there, but oh well :stuck_out_tongue:

#489

Touche’ :slight_smile:

#490

I think G-Man may be an archangel of some sorts because he seems to have extreme abilities over a wide area like freezing time and implanting suggestions into the minds of other people.

#491

Or he could just be an alien with super powers/technology in human form.
SCIENCE!

#492

applause

#493

The Gman is almost literally nonexistent to those who have employed him. He appears to be at the top of the food chain when he is really actually not very powerful at all.

He exists only to keep the various factions in line. He’s not human. He’s not Gordon Freeman. He’s not the administrator. To Valve, he’s nothing more than the fuel for the series’ plot. Valve most likely wonders who he is just as much as we do.

As much as I would like to see his mystery revealed, I don’t see it happening at all. Episode Three is the end of the current story arc and I don’t expect there to be a Half-Life 3 for at least 8 years after the release of ep3 if it’s going to be released at all.

I currently see Episode Three as the end of the main series and a great opportunity for Valve to show who the Gman really is, but it most likely won’t happen.

#494

i don’t think that half-life 3 will be 8 years later, valve has already (to some extent) shown that they understand the fans don’t want to wait a decade for a sequel with episodes. though i do agree that much of who the g-man is will be revealed through who he works for.

#495

I think that the Gman exists as a sort of metaphysical idea that does not even contain basic stuff like atoms. He manifests as a human in order for Gordon to understand him. Being something that really cannot interact with the universe, as he moves through it, it bend and warps, and he has some sort of control over it: moving people through space to non-existent locations, manipulation of time, precognition, and/or manipulation of events.(this one is IMPORTANT. In Ep2’s heart to heart, he says he must extract a payment. Who was one of Freeman’s scientist buddies? Who felt like Gordon’s father throughout the series? Who was important to Alyx, who accompanies Freeman practically everywhere? Eli.)

Also, I was screwing around in Garry’s Mod and I spawned a Vort. The first thing it said was, “We will put Black Mesa aside. For now.”
When I heard that I turned around and shot the fucker in the face with a Deagle.

#496

See this is the kind of stuff this thread needs.

#497

Thank you :slight_smile:

#498

Id like to know if the g-man is working for anyone else?

#499

Of course he is. Didn’t you hear him talking about his employers in Half-Life 1?

#500

The G-Man set up everything for the Combine invasion so their home planet would be unprotected and ready for a possible attack. I also think he uses Gordon as a pawn for his own good, and hates when someone else with the same power as him (such as the Vortigaunts at the start of Episode One) doesn’t let him do so. I’m still pretty confused about his “employers”.
Also, Breen mentioned Freeman was “open to the highest bidder” or something like that. Perhaps there were another interplanetarian organizations willing to take control of him before the G-Man did so.

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.