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Half-Life: Alyx

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Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#91

Post by faissaloo »

aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

>stereotype threatening situations have been linked to the inability to recruit and retain women into these fields

Come on, we know the inability to recruit and retain women in these fields is down to a culture that simply does not value the contributions of women in STEM as highly as their contributions in other 'industries'.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#92

Post by thanatos_dem »

aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

It’s not new tho, Chelle in portal was a female protagonist, and that game has been VR’d to hell and back.

I think Alyx makes sense as a protagonist given how prominent of a character she was in HL2, regardless of gender.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#93

Post by duncancarroll »

ralfd wrote: post #27

Question to VR gamers: Why are the arms not animated?

I don't know what all these posters are talking about, VR simulates your elbow + arm position 100% with normal IK.

If you don't believe me just load up Echo VR and look at your arms. Valve probably just doesn't want them blocking your view.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#94

Post by sparky_z »

aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

Eh, I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're suggesting. Alyx is pretty much the only choice if they wanted to use a pre-existing character as an action protagonist set between HL1 & 2. And from the trailer, it looks like the only "gendered" thing about the player's avatar is the voiceover. That's not a "body swap illusion" like the paper is talking about. In principal, I don't see it having any more deep psychological effect than, say, Perfect Dark.

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Dark

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#95

Post by kbenson »

whatshisface wrote: post #63
mmanfrin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you underestimate how popular Half-Life was. The #1 game played on steam right now is a former HL mod, Counter Strike. I don't think the market for HL is small at all. VR, though, is a different story. That absolutely limits the market. That being said, I'd wager that a majority of people who play VR games on PC will likely buy this game, as it's probably the first true AAA title developed specifically for VR…

I think we're all waiting with bated breath to see if Valve can push VR into the mainstream with this or anything else they do. I'm not going to buy a kit just to play glorified mobile games, but if this is really the future of entertainment then I can see myself buying a headset.

> I'm not going to buy a kit just to play glorified mobile games

I assume you're referring to the Quest? Is that a statement based on your experience playing games on it, or what you assume they'll be like?

I view it less like mobile games, and more like games put our for the Gameboy. Specifically tailored to achieve good and consistent gameplay based on the target platform. This is partially because Oculus is being very demanding in what they'll accept for their store, to the point that there's actually not a huge catalog, but each item seems to work very well.

Along the lines of the Gameboy comparison, there's been a few stories now of developers taking a game people thought couldn't make it to the Quest and optimizing enough for the platform that it performs well. There's something to be said for consistent hardware.

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#96

Post by danharaj »

sparky_z wrote: post #94
aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

Eh, I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're suggesting. Alyx is pretty much the only choice if they wanted to use a pre-existing character as an action protagonist set between HL1 & 2. And from the trailer, it looks like the only "gendered" thing about the player's avatar is the voiceover. That's not a "body swap illusion" like the paper is talking about. In principal, I don't see it having any more deep psycho…

Adrian Shephard's still lying around tho :^)

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#97

Post by kitsunesoba »

cmcd wrote: post #40
rocky1138 wrote: post #13

A criminally overlooked feature of this game is the release of the dev tools used to make maps and mods. Giving the tools away for such a powerful base game is what gave HL1 and HL2 it's incredible staying power.

I remember everyone saying Blizzard would release map making tools for Overwatch like they did for Starcraft and Valve did for TF2/CSGO. Seems like a great way to add longevity to the game and the community content can even help fund the game.

More ambitiously, I think the results would be amazing if Blizz made a public version of WoWEdit available and added an “arcade mode” to WoW to showcase said maps. People did downright incredible things with just a lowly 2001 RTS engine (WCIII) — what could they do with the most polished MMORPG engine on the market?

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#99

Post by jczhang »

aresant wrote: post #54

I think a fascinating part of Alyx is Valve choosing a female protagonist. 85%+ of VR users are male, compared to say 70/30 male/female balance of say Fornite. (1/2) Any way you carve it the audience for Alyx is going to weight heavily male. And research suggests that gender-swapping in VR is a profound psychological experience: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8260949 (1) https://www.rakutenintelligence.com/blog…

Not sure i understand the TLDR of the IEE study.. what does stereotype lift and induced stereotype threat even mean?

Re: Half-Life: Alyx

#100

Post by ninkendo »

strangecasts wrote: post #55
dugditches wrote: post #11

Appears to be fairly on rails, which I guess eliminates the whole movement thing. Good to see them releasing something, even if it is a narrow market. Seems to be a lot of doubt in them after lackluster Artifact and Epic Store entering their space.

The "compatible VR" page lists multiple options for movement: https://www.half-life.com/en/alyx/vr

I wonder how good an FPS game can really be with teleportation-based movement.

(Edit for clarity: “Because, for each of the non-teleportation motion schemes...”:) Any VR game I've played where the camera moves while I'm standing still, I want to vomit almost immediately. I'm usually sick for the rest of the day. (I think it was a roller coaster simulation I tried, I didn't even make it up the first hill, I had to throw the headset off right away.)

I want to play a new half-life game but I'm really skeptical they'll set it up in a way that won't make me puke my brains out.

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