Half Life 3

It isn't Half-Life 3, but it IS Half-Life 2 Episode 3 in the form of a short story!

https://pastebin.com/q9DMFa7c

http://www.marclaidlaw.com/epistle-3/

Here's a TL;DR version too. https://twitter.com/dogrunes/status/900947083120721920/photo/1

EDIT: here's a corrected version. https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md

edited 24th Aug '17 11:50:02 PM by lalalei2001

Can we make a trope page for this summary?

Everyone! The story of Half-Life 3, written by Marc Laidlow, has been leaked to the internet. This is absolutely legit, people on Reddit believe it.

https://github.com/Jackathan/MarcLaidlaw-Epistle3/blob/master/Epistle3_Corrected.md

Edit: Well, shit. It's old new.

edited 25th Aug '17 5:40:26 AM by SergeshD123

bit late

Should we make a recap page? Who do I need to talk to for permission?

So, I guess that is what we would've had in a hypothetical Half-Life 2: Episode 3?

Woof.

I'd like to think this would be what finally gets us Half-Life 3, but that ship has sailed ages ago, hasn't it?

That wouldn't have been leaked if it were accurate to the current idea. Remember what happened when HL 2 was leaked? They went back to the drawing board and redid the game. So either they are making one, and it's nothing like that, or more likely, they are never going to continue the Half Life series in game form. This MIGHT get a book series finishing it off greenlit, but probably not games.

I'm wondering if the leak was prompted by Game Theory getting involved in the Half Life craze. (TL;DR: G-Man is a Nihilanth) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgYzOLQ8sU8&t=1s

I'd be hesitant to attribute anything this big to them, except Laidlaw opened fire on the theory by claiming there was only one Nihilanth, but then he had to pull off a Shrug of God or Death of the Author reply because the video relied on things he said years ago in an email, and he told us not to rely on him for canon anymore because he doesn't have the notes in front of him. https://twitter.com/marc_laidlaw/status/897634561848467460

I don't know if the two are truly related, I'm just saying there's been third party interaction between them, and this leak comes out after that. It could be coincidental.

At least, if Valve isn't going to make it, us players will. We have a good script and a good engine in the form of Source, now we just need a good team. The folks behind Black Mesa are prime candidates, as long as they are finished with Xen. Hopefully if such a thing is to happen, Valve will give their blessing instead of copyright claim.

Most of the writers at Valve left in the past 2 years. You have to wonder how frustrated Laidlaw was with Valve becoming e-commerce and not a developer.

Valve grew so filthy rich that they could do whatever they want. They could experiment with all sorts of concepts and release any game without fear of financial loss due to being set for life, but they didn't. Instead they largely abandoned their roots in favor of being merchants dedicated to the religion of profit.

For a developer like Laidlaw, I imagine the answer is "extremely frustrated." That's why he leaked the story that will never see the light of day.

Article from June.

Not really sure how many people were still expecting any sort of follow up to Episode 2 but I gave up on that five years ago. Just let the series die.

At this point half life 3 is a meme that won't ever die

Fans in the community love the "genderswapped fanfic" and are accepting it as canon.

Speaking of fans... yeah, death threats, doxxing, S.W.A.T.ing... this is Why We Cant Have Nice Things.

edited 25th Aug '17 2:14:28 PM by AnotherGuy

I wish Valve never picked up DOTA...

What confuses me is that if Valve did make the decision to become a publishing house instead of a developer, why don't they just license the franchise out? In fact I'd be surprised if they didn't already have a whole stack of inquiries from various development studios interested in the rights.

They didn't care. Why bother licensing any of their IP out if whatever royalties they'd get from the sales will be at least two figures behind Steam's collective sales revenue in the same period?

It's still a non-zero amount of money that they would essentially be leaving on the table since Valve would be putting forth no risk and dedicating no meaningful resources.

I'm literally talking about Valve just telling a studio "here's the rights to make Half Life 3, here's whatever assets we put together back when we thought we might actually make it, do whatever the hell you want with them. We get to publish it when you are done and get x% of revenue."

edited 25th Aug '17 3:46:29 PM by Falrinn

But but but, that would take effort. They'd have to go out of their way to ask someone.

In the age of easy money from Steam sales, they just can't be bothered.

Also, that's quite an interesting concept Laidlaw had. I knew whatever Ep3 was going to have would contradict what I asspulled for my fanfic, but it's nowhere near as bad as I expected. I'm pleasantly surprised how that pushed all the right buttons for me.

"There are lots of unproduced Alien scripts. The fact they weren't developed did not spell the end of the Alien franchise."

And this thread can go back to being dead. Again.

Why would it go back to being dead after that? Seriously, Laidlaw is the master of almost closing the door but leaving it open anyway. He's saying that just because his script isn't being used, doesn't mean the franchise is actually dead. Somebody in that thread mentioned Gabe mentioning another game? Probably an unsubstantiated rumor based on bad memory, but it's food for thought.

Valve insiders said that they saw what happened with Mass Effect 3, saw how developers are abused by fans who want everything their way, and decided not to feed the hype machine. Doxxing, death threats, SWATing, etc is real. I don't know of any other entertainment industry that gets the shit developers do.

All the same, the dev saying that the project is scrapped doesn't mean it'll die.

Eh, I think Valve doesn't want to license Half Life 3 because "Its valve's thing" that they might or might not ever return to if they bother, but I don't think anybody in valve wants someone else to do it

Either way, I'm glad that this short story was released since it does give some closure to the story .-.

edited 25th Aug '17 10:48:37 PM by SpookyMask