Valve gives you access to a game and tells you not to spew your mouth off. A gentleman’s agreement if you will.
You spew your mouth off and valve takes access away.
shocked pikachu face
This is a non-issue of you ask me. A person, who happens to be a writer, got access to the game through a steam friend and was asked not to talk about it but thought they could just not agree to a warning and write about it anyway? I got access too and i didnt write about the game. I get to go back and play it today, they cant.
So what. They already have their article and it will be out anyways within like two years latest probably. The value of talking about deadlock is much higher and valve profits from this advertising as well.
The so what is that this writer for the verge will likely never be trusted with NDA type pre-release access for any other games going forward, and this may even impact all of the Verge.
This isn’t just a one and done kind of issue, this will be seen by the entire industry as a “can’t trust that guy with pre-release access”
They didn’t get an NDA.
Sure they don’t have any trust from the industry anymore.
It doesn’t have to be a legal document for there to be consequences.
What was so secret about it?
So apparently they had a bit asking players to not share info about the game, but you could technically back out of it without agreeing so legally they can post whatever they want. It feels like a case of “this is legal to do but maybe kinda shitty and valve might be upset”. Basically the agreement was informal and not enforceable and the verge just said fuck it. They did get banned afterwards, but I think that and not working with them in the future is all valve can do.
Edit: didn’t even require agreement, so honestly it’s kinda fair game. I was a bit hostile calling it shitty, I felt like it was a loophole or something but it’s more Valve just saying “hey pls don’t” and the verge replying “no thanks”, and eating the game ban since that’s all valve can really do.
There isn’t even an informal agreement. It simply says not to share anything. Not even “by playing this, you agree not to share anything”. It’s just “please don’t share anything” without any action required by your side.
Yeah, gaylord_fartmaster let me know. I thought the message was one of those “scroll down and click agree on this eula” things but its just a pop up box, so it’s def not enforceable.
Nobody is saying it’s enforceable. It’s just a shitty thing to do when someone shows you something in confidence, asks not to share it, and you publish an entire news article about it. It’s just a dick move. Obviously nothing illegal about it.
If 10,000 people are doing something, it is NOT secret, and journalists must report on it for the general benefit of society.
Valve has their head in the clouds if they thought they could keep an informal secret among the population of a small town.
This isn’t some grand conspiracy it’s a closed beta for a video game. It’s pretty normal to have an NDA or embargo agreement to get access. It sounds like valve just goofed the implementation. So yeah it’s totally legal for them to post it, valve just might avoid giving them early copies in the future.
Totally. Verge just lost their access to breaking gaming news. They’ll be blacklisted from now on.
That said, I don’t know anyone who goes to The Verge for breaking news on gaming.
It’s just bad faith reporting. It reminds me of Kotaku sneaking into conventions before they opened to report what games were there.
It lowers my opinion of The Verge, I used to think they were at least reputable with standards, but that’s a real tabloid move.
They literally included a screenshot of valve asking to not share information about the game with a little quip about how they pressed escape instead of ok. Blantant disrespect to valves wishes even if it’s not a legally binding agreement.
They chose getting clicks over doing right by valve. Shame on them.
20,000 people are playing it at a time. Not exactly a secret. The way they’re testing this game is radical and newsworthy in itself. I’m glad Verge reported on it, and they don’t seem mad they they were banned
I think the thing everyone is forgetting is that valve isn’t stupid, there’s no way they didn’t realize you could work around accepting the (legally unenforcable) NDA, and it’s open invite.
Valve 100% knows that keeping it “secret” is good for hype and was expecting this to happen at any time, and the nominal ban was expected, but nobody is gonna get sued either.
More people are talking about Valve’s “secret” new game because of this than would be if they openly announced it.
As someone whose played it I can say that it has some cool concepts but it’s sorta mid atm. It’s what to be expected for an alpha game though, I just hope they push the aethetic harder and not just use it as set dressing cause so far the aethetic is the most unique part about it. The rest is just overwatch meets leagueDota but slightly jankier (Again, to be expected since it’s alpha.)
Those are my thoughts as well, though I’ve only had the chance to play a couple of matches so far. When I heard about the concept it sounded cooler than it feels so far, but maybe I just need to get used to it. So far the gameplay loop hasn’t really clicked for me, and balancing the hero shooter aspects with MOBA stuff like farming and buying items hasn’t felt smooth, fluid or natural.
I do imagine - much like MOBAs - it’s more fun playing as a squad though. I’ve only done random matchmaking.
Dude glad it isn’t only me. The moba aspects slow it down but the shooter aspects speed it up and it hasn’t felt like a good mix so far. I know I’m the bad one so I can’t be too harsh but it felt like I was just getting one shot like in Call of duty but also I had to just grind resources like in mobas. My least favorite aspects of both games.
That’s sorta why I like overwatch, plenty of weps that aren’t guns and you don’t get one shot most of the time, especially if you aren’t playing a squish hero. No grinding either besides charging your ult, it’s more objective based which is fun.
I can see potential in the concept - needing to push and farm and take down neutrals or world bosses creates micro objectives and incentives for player movements and varied gameplay circumstances emerging from it. The shooter framing makes for a faster-paced style compared to Dota/League, and the ability and item system adds complexity and customization which increases the skill ceiling.
I think a big issue right now is balancing. The game is very snowbally and if there are catch-up mechanics in place I haven’t found them. So not losing the lanes is super important and whichever team builds a lead over the first couple of minutes tends to extend that into running the enemy team over. It also makes matchmaking and team skill gap a big problem (just like all MOBAs) since if you have a bad player they have a double negative effect: not contributing and feeding the enemies.
Apart from the aesthetic I do think the hero designs are pretty good (both in looks and gameplay) and the map has been pretty great - lots of traversal options and verticality.
I’ve had some decently fun matches today, but it’s a very uneven experience.
Agreed, heroes of the storm imo is a good example of a fun moba. League is my main game but hots is my love. In hots you don’t have to worry about last hitting things since there’s no gold to be earned just XP which you get by being in the vicinity of a minion or enemy death and each player doesn’t have individual XP it’s team XP. So even ‘bad’ players can contribute to the team by just being present, champs are also generally tankier than other mobas so unless you’re really caught in a bad position it’s usually possible to run and survive unless it’s a complete stomp and the enemy is way ahead but even then few heroes can truly one combo you.
I never played HotS but I played Dota 1&2 for many years. Recalibrating for Deadlock hasn’t been easy, despite being familiar with stuff like last hitting.
The farm thing is what stands out to me most, as you can’t really play passively if you feel like you’re outmatched skill-wise in Deadlock. In something like TF2 or Overwatch you can play more defensively if you feel disadvantaged, but here what will happen is you’ll fall so far behind on farm you’ll never be able to contribute.
The map feels too small and the pace too high, somehow, and 4 lanes seem too many. It’s been hard to feel like you can leave your lane and gank without opening too much of a vulnerability on your “home” lane. This exacerbates the problem of one lane getting stomped and that snowballing into an unstoppable victory.
It’s very possible all these problems diminish with good team play, though. This might be one of those games you can’t enjoy properly without organised team play and active voice comms.
