After years of criticism for their lack of response to community feedback, a new era of Valve may be forming. Tomorrow morning, Valve will release a major update to the Counter-Strike money system (the update had been planned for tonight, but was held back until the morning). This change would likely have never occurred if it weren't for eloquent points being raised at the community esports site, gotFrag. extremely large way. Save rounds will be worthless, and there will be a strong focus on rushing. Clans may see games that are more fun and action packed, while spectators will no longer have to sit through three minute save rounds.
Steam's ability to deliver gameplay updates will be meaningless if Valve doesn't listen to its community, or is unable to balance the multiple needs of different types of players. Thus far, and specifically since the new year began, Valve has done an excellent job of putting its ear to the door. I had become used to a silent Valve. I didn't think there was a problem with it. Now, Valve's Jess Cliffe, the original co-creator of Counter-Strike, has recently begun responding to some criticisms and general feedback on a gotFrag comments page. Below is some of what cliffe has said in this comments thread:
The Opaque radar and zoomed sig/aug xhairs are next on my list. I agree that these are things that we should have been fixed long ago... should be in the Steam update next week.
Believe me, the shield is something we debate about internally almost on a daily basis. In fact, I was just talking about it with Erik Johnson, Dave Riller, and John Cook. I'd love to hear what you guys think of the shield, how it should be addressed, etc etc. Feel free to email me at cliffe at valvesoftware dot com about it.
Also, in regards to the offline version of Steam... we are working on it. It's not a quick fix, sadly, and given the architecture of Steam it's taking a lot longer than anticipated. It's very high on our list of priorities though. We dropped the ball on this one.
Jess has also said, here on CS-Nation, that the Dual Berettas and the M249 PARA would be balanced shortly, in the same way that the auto sniper rifles were last November.
Steam is allowing Valve to move CS development at a more rapid pace. Only time will tell if such liquid and free-flowing development will actually improve gameplay, but judging from initial reactions it looks as if many of the more recent changes have been improvements. By tomorrow, the CS clan scene will be morphed in an I realize that I was wrong. For when Valve is silent, there isn't communication. There is a community that doesn't know if it's being heard, whether or not it actually is. Hopefully Valve and other game companies realize that the ability to effectively deliver sweeping gameplay changes in a quick manner can only be checked and balanced by a loud, two-way conversation.
News source: CS-Nation Good Or Bad?
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