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Game with Fame: Valve Developers Recap

The Game with Fame that took place on October 19 saw the developers from Valve take on Xbox LIVE® members in a few rousing games of Team Fortress 2. We got a few reports from the community on the night:

On Friday I was actually able to get some games in with a few guys from Valve. I met ValveProg3 Kerry and gamewithdev1 Matt. I didn't really get to talk with Matt much because he was on the other team. I did manage to speak quite a bit with Kerry, he was a really nice guy, and super friendly.

He answered generally everything he was asked, regardless if they were the answers we wanted to hear. Like when we asked him, "Can we look forward to seeing Half-Life 3 on the 360?" He replied, "Right now, the team is working on getting Episode 3 to be the best it can be."

Then we asked him about DLC for TF2.  He replied, "We do have quite a few stuff coming down the road that I can't quite talk about yet." I was wondering how Valve would bring Episode 3 to the 360 so I asked him and he said, "We probably won't be able to make it a download, because it's considered a full game." So I guess that means we're going to get Episode 3 on the 360!

—ATrOCiTy iP (Queens, New York)

The developers from Valve battled the Xbox LIVE community in Team Fortress 2.

Got to play with a few of The Orange Box devs last night. It was nice to see how they played, and hear some of the answers to the questions people were asking them. They did a great job of moving around so that everyone got a chance. Wouldn't mind seeing them on more often.

—Tirkon (Kendallville, Indiana)

This was by far the best gaming experience I have ever had on XBOX LIVE!!! Being able to share my opinions with the animators, designers, and the programmers was an experience I enjoyed very much. Also getting their thoughts about the game first hand was very cool. Thanks for letting this happen today! Thank you.

—mylicensetokill

It was actually good. Most gamers would praise them … a lot, perhaps hoping that the Valve guys would stay. Of course, The Orange Box content is awesome. But we actually got to talk about some things currently going on with TF2. They know this is their first real console effort, and they are working to fix some of the things. They were friendly and gave some tips. A couple of them played very well. They either joined someone else's room or, at one point, were hosting. I hope they can add the option to play with your teammates vs. others. For the moment though, they said it is only on the PC version. Thanks to every one that made this possible.
—SacDeCujon (Puerto Rico)

No silly, these aren't the developers, they're the characters in the game.

I had a chance to play with Vitaliy, Matt, and Matthew from Valve. Playing with them was an absolute blast.

They were very friendly and talkative, and willing to answer our various questions about the game. It was a ton of fun playing those 3-4 game sessions with them. Thanks Xbox, I look forward to playing more great sessions with people like them!

—TsM Dark (Utica, New York)

I just got done playing Team Fortress 2 with 5 of the valve developers they were ValveArtist2, ValveAnim, ValveProg5, ValveLevelDes3, and ValveProg6.They were all very cool! They taught us players a few tricks like rocket jumping, and if you hurt yourself while a medic is healing you, the medic will get the supercharge quicker. They never said their game was the best, or tried promoting it in any way. But the best thing about it all is that I am currently pursuing a career in the videogame industry, but I am not sure what I want to do (programmer, level designer, animator) so the main reason I went to play with them was to get information and advice from them. They were all very helpful, and offered different things I should do or check into for my career path. I greatly appreciate the time they took to tell me these things and was glad a feature like this is offered on Xbox LIVE. I am looking forward to more features like this being offered in the future.

—RedSlayer5 (New Port Richey, Florida)

I got to play with Matthew the animator in a few rounds of Capture the Flag. He was super friendly, and answered all our questions in game. People asked what is going on at Valve since Episode 2 is done, and he said that while they aren't crazy busy, they are working on some stuff that they can't say right now. In preferences of PC to Xbox 360, Matt said he was more comfortable on his PC, but that some of the Valve team are definitely "XBox Ninjas." And as for Episode 3, he could give no concrete date, but said possibly somewhere around 2015 (haha). So yeah, great experience, great guy. Can't wait to play some more with them.

—IPwNI sYn1c (Mancos, Colorado)