So... how come no one talks about Half Life: Alyx anymore?

[Man]

Alyx was released just a little over a year ago and it seems like the hype has completely died down already. No idea about Twitch etc. (too old for that) but on YouTube; about 25 Alyx's gameplay videos have been posted in the past 24 hours and... well, most of them have next to no views quite literally: 

 

Half life alyx - YouTube

 

Also, no big budget AAA VR titles are expected to be announced at the upcoming E3 and it seems like Alyx is still pretty much the "only" game worth playing on the $999 Valve Index, as far as most people are concerned at least.

 

I recall making a post on Reddit about how VR is unlikely to catch-up, just before Alyx's release, and the response was simply... overwhelming, in a negative way! Some VR enthusiasts, elitists perhaps, went as far as to throw personal insults at me and expressed how I was too poor/cheap for the 'true' gaming experience of the future that is the VR. Needless to say; the post got removed by one of the mods soon afterwards!

 

I'm not here to say "I told you so", BTW! Just trying to understand why people think VR is the future and why do they get super defensive when someone raises a question against it. It has its niche, no doubt, but I don't think it's the potential to hit mainstream... not anytime soon, at least. Frankly, I just want to sit in front of my PC after a long day, not prance around in my room with a plastic doohickey on my skull!

 

Oh well...

[Chris Pratt]

VR, at least *good* VR, is still an enthusiast market. The barrier to entry is pretty steep for the average consumer, so they've mostly experienced watered down VR.

 

I think the backlash against criticism comes from those that have invested heavily in it, and to their credit, it can be great when you go all in.

 

However, for the average Joe, it's a novelty that wears off quick. Things like the Oculus Quest 2 are pretty good now, as far as a value oriented device, but it's still not there yet. You just don't see widespread adoption of any technology until it reaches critical mass, and can actually deliver truly compelling experiences to people not necessarily willing to drop $1000+ to try it out.

[BetteBalterZen]

To be honest, I think it's because Half Life is more of a meme today than anything else. Mainly because Valve killed Half Life with Episode 2. Just my opinion of course. 

[Kilrah]

Probably because so much has been said about it already that the new content doesn't add anything more? There was a LOT of coverage about it since release, I'd expect we're in the phase where all was said and there's no point repeating it, and it'll take a few years until new takes on it based on comparisons with what came out next become interesting again. 

Lots of good content about the other HL series episodes has come out recently from that retrospective point of view, but it's too early for Alyx. 

[mr cheese]

It still has a devoted player-base but like any game it kind of has to find its niche. HL2 was crazy for the source engine and the mechanics and modifications that ensued. VR is still up-and-coming, Source 2 and the things that make Alyx tick are more complicated. Anyone with a half-decent computer can and could (at release) start up Half Life 2 with no problem, Alyx needs enthusiast hardware with additional costly peripherals.

 

Don't let Alyx be the indicator of VR adoption. Let the Quest 2. Let Beat Saber. Beat saber has frequent streams, mods, community involvement, incredible consistent sales, and literally infinite replay-ability. The Quest 2 has ended up in the hands of countless homes and on the heads of small children, which if you've played VR Chat or Rec Room recently is plain to see. The SteamVR numbers, which doesn't even account for people not using the Quest 2 for PC VR or sticking to the Oculus launcher, have the Quest 2 surpassing even the goddamn Index and Rift S, taking 30% of the SteamVR hardware survey's HMD ownership and skyrocketing the overall Steam VR ownership 0.09%, which if you consider how many Steam users there are, is fucking huge. As the Quest 2 grows in ownership and more little kids get their hands on them, thus taking VR mainstream, we're going to see huge increases in general VR interest and therein games, modding, and content.

 

The Quest 2 is the big break VR has been waiting for. $300 is cheap enough to stomach as a family fun purchase, and with a $25 USB-C cable, or even just Virtual Desktop or AirLink (which is integrated and works... well enough lol) anyone can ass cheap VR onto their half-decent gaming rig and start enjoying Alyx, VR Chat, Beatsaber, you name it. Everyone I've ever let play my Quest, including my mother, loved it. I've even caught my family sneaking in Beatsaber play sessions when I'm not at home! We've reached mainstream capability and it's only going upwards from here, truly.

 

41 minutes ago, Man said:

It has its niche, no doubt, but I don't think it's the potential to hit mainstream... not anytime soon, at least.

You haven't been in touch with the mainstream then, quite frankly. The gold has been struck, almost everyone I know has picked up or wants to pick up a Quest 2. VR is on its way up and it's apparent everywhere. It's found love for exercise, socialites, gaming experience, education, you name it, and with the wireless and cheap Quest 2 it's more accessible for kids and adults and families alike.

 

It's not all about Alyx, Alyx was the gateway drug for Valve to push into the future of games. It's what they did with the storytelling of Half Life, the incredible Source engine of Half Life 2, and now the incredible engine and VR experience of Alyx. It's a little on the bleeding edge just due to the cost of entry but as VR adapts to be cheaper, refined, convenient, and things like the Quest 2 show us that VR interest is thriving and more and more people are investing, Alyx and all other games are going to start showing their stripes

[Giganthrax]

The barrier to entry is just way too steep, so very few people can get to play it or talk about it.

 

Also, the idea of having to set up all the VR gear and swing your arms around to shoot at things and whatnot is just not very attractive to most people. I don't want to stand in the middle of my room surrounded by cables and expensive equipment when I play a videogame. I want to relax on my comfy couch with a controller, or lie back in my office chair with my mouse, keyboard, and coffee within easy reach. 

[Murasaki]

1 hour ago, Chris Pratt said:

 novelty that wears off quick

This is exactly why I haven't bought a VR set. I know I'm going to have fun but it's going to qucikly turn into an expensive toy thats going to sit on my shelf unused.

[mr cheese]

1 hour ago, Chris Pratt said:

However, for the average Joe, it's a novelty that wears off quick

We need to stop thinking of VR as a game and more as what it really is, a console. The people who enjoy VR enjoy it because they have reasons to keep coming back to it. 90% of the average Steam library goes completely unused but VR users still come back to VR games and why? For some its the social aspect you find in VR Chat, for some it's the competition and skill you find in Beat Saber, Pavlov, and Onward. For others its to enjoy a fun gaming experience like Alyx and Boneworks. You could say it has its niche but it's a console. It's priced like a console, it functions like a console, it has the experiences of a console. It's a barebones landscape right now but just like anything it's really making it there. Old games are getting ports, new games rolling out, and you can enjoy the experience standing, sitting, hell even laying down if you want to. I feel like most of the talk around VR is stigmatized around what it used to be: expensive, mostly useless, edge-case technology when it's starting to become anything but, and I think the "don't knock it 'til you try it" is starting to become more and more relevant. It's finding the niche more than a novelty and I think that needs to be recognized.

 

[Kilrah]

That's why I like the Quest 2, you can use it just as much to watch youtube in bed, a 3D movie with better rendition than a 3D TV (remember those?), play Beat Saber standalone, play Alyx from a PC, fly a plane in FS2020 in VR all without hassle or needing to change anything to the physical setup or connecting any cables. And it's cheap considering the ability to do all of that.

[XWAUForceflow]

1 hour ago, DaJakerBoss said:

You haven't been in touch with the mainstream then, quite frankly. The gold has been struck, almost everyone I know has picked up or wants to pick up a Quest 2. VR is on its way up and it's apparent everywhere. It's found love for exercise, socialites, gaming experience, education, you name it, and with the wireless and cheap Quest 2 it's more accessible for kids and adults and families alike.

 

It's not all about Alyx, Alyx was the gateway drug for Valve to push into the future of games. It's what they did with the storytelling of Half Life, the incredible Source engine of Half Life 2, and now the incredible engine and VR experience of Alyx. It's a little on the bleeding edge just due to the cost of entry but as VR adapts to be cheaper, refined, convenient, and things like the Quest 2 show us that VR interest is thriving and more and more people are investing, Alyx and all other games are going to start showing their stripes

Do you have some hard data to back that up? It's not that I doubt your experience, but in my 'bubble' it's the complete opposite. There's one guy who got a VR headset and that's it. No one I know is truly interested in getting one, and that one guy is barely using his. It's easy to mistake ones own bubble with the larger mass, so I am truly wondering if there is some hard data out there about sales numbers that indicate that VR is really about to take off...

[mr cheese]

16 minutes ago, XWAUForceflow said:

Do you have some hard data to back that up? It's not that I doubt your experience, but in my 'bubble' it's the complete opposite. There's one guy who got a VR headset and that's it. No one I know is truly interested in getting one, and that one guy is barely using his. It's easy to mistake ones own bubble with the larger mass, so I am truly wondering if there is some hard data out there about sales numbers that indicate that VR is really about to take off...

VR Chat's average concurrent steam user count got 4k extra players in the months post-Quest 2 release and post-Christmas 2020, with peaks skyrocketing to the 25k mark, and that's just on Steam, not other platforms

 

Steam VR Adoption more than doubled immediately following that same time period, and continues near-exponential growth

 Overall Steam VR user count is now at 2.31%

which if you account for the roughly 25 million concurrent Steam users, that's roughly 500,000 concurrent SteamVR users at any given moment.

And these numbers are just Steam. I don't believe Oculus publishes their numbers, nor VR Chat, unfortunately, but that alone says pretty much all I have to note

 

I will also point out that the release of the Quest 2 saw it taking almost a whole fucking third of the existing SteamVR user space since its release, outpacing literally every other headset before it in the span of a few months.

[Avocado Diaboli]

37 minutes ago, DaJakerBoss said:

 Overall Steam VR user count is now at 2.31%

Overall Steam users who use it from MacOS are 2.98%. I get that you're trying to communicate that VR is a rising market and it absolutely is and will become bigger as requirements and prices get lower, but it hasn't even reached the same numbers conventional desktop gaming has reached on a platform almost nobody wants to game on. Remember, I'm not faulting you for your optimism, but you really sound like one of those overzealous fanboys when you try to pretend like VR is this mainstream smash hit and not still a niche.

 

Remember, growth during early stages always looks dramatic. A 100% increase in user numbers always sounds like a massive growth, but if the real world numbers just mean that it went from 10 to 20 people, that still isn't much in the grand scheme of things. When you look at the real world numbers of VR and not just relative percentage values, you'll notice how overall small those numbers actually are. 

 

And I get it, I too feel that VR will eventually be the future of gaming at some point. I fully intend to get a VR headset at some point, once the tech is more mature, standards have been established across platforms and the challenges of actually designing gameplay for VR have been met. Because VR Chat isn't what I'll be buying a VR headset for, I can tell you that. 

[Donut417]

I think VR is still very limited in terms of who has a headset. Headsets are kinda expensive. My friend has the Facebook model and says good things. My problem is Im not buying a headset linked to Facebook and the others I have seen are largely expensive. No way in hell Im forking over $1K for Valve's headset. Id love to play Elite Dangerous, No Man's Sky or even Alyx in VR. 

[XWAUForceflow]

1 hour ago, DaJakerBoss said:

 Overall Steam VR user count is now at 2.31%

which if you account for the roughly 25 million concurrent Steam users, that's roughly 500,000 concurrent SteamVR users at any given moment.

And these numbers are just Steam. I don't believe Oculus publishes their numbers, nor VR Chat, unfortunately, but that alone says pretty much all I have to note

Okay, that aligns a lot more with my perception. 2.31% of gamers is very little and pretty inconsequential. Doesn't mean it's dead or wont become mainstream sometime, but the claim that it already is, is obviously not even close to be true. As stated before that roughly aligns with MacOS users, which even had a stronger increase percentage wise. But I doubt anyone could claim that MacOS is mainstream for gaming...

 

Is Steam the perfect data or even remotely complete data source? No, certainly not. But they have one of the biggest gaming community out there, anything that is truly mainstream would need to show up with a lot bigger numbers.

[Kilrah]

The point is that the Q2 has caused such a big increase on Steam when it's not even what it's made for, so its impact is likely to be way bigger than that overall. And at no other time has VR growth been so high AFAIK.

[Heliian]

3 hours ago, Giganthrax said:

The barrier to entry is just way too steep

What?  Compared to buying a ps5 or a good graphics card, it's like shooting fish in a barrel.  

 

Quest2 64gb and a Chromecast dongle for the tv was less than $500.  

You can actually go and buy one today at msrp from a retailer.  There is no barrier. 

[Eigenvektor]

5 minutes ago, Heliian said:

You can actually go and buy one today at msrp from a retailer.  There is no barrier. 

Spending $500 on an accessory that you can maybe use for a single game is a barrier to entry to a lot of people. Sure, you could use it for other games, but are you interested in those?

 

For me personally, I'd absolutely love to experience HL:A in VR, but I don't see myself spending money on a headset for a single game. I've essentially zero interest in any other VR games so far. And yeah, first I need to get myself a new gaming PC, but those plans are on hold until prices become more reasonable in the first place.

[AndreiArgeanu]

People don't talk about Half Life Alyx anymore because it isn't an accessible game, very few people actually have a VR headset and people aren't very interested in game they cannot play.

[Middcore]

Nobody really still talks about other short single-player games that came out over a year ago now, either. Doesn't mean anything about VR one way or the other.

[tikker]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

Spending $500 on an accessory that you can maybe use for a single game is a barrier to entry to a lot of people. Sure, you could use it for other games, but are you interested in those?

 

For me personally, I'd absolutely love to experience HL:A in VR, but I don't see myself spending money on a headset for a single game. I've essentially zero interest in any other VR games so far. And yeah, first I need to get myself a new gaming PC, but those plans are on hold until prices become more reasonable in the first place.

This is an important point. I bought the Vive when it first released simply because I like buying new tech. I think VR is awesome, but even the requirement for a high(er) end PC aside, it has been slow and can often feel like a desert. The first wave of games were mostly what I'd label as "experiences". They are either on rails or provide an interactive sandbox-esque world (e.g. theBlu, Waltz of the Wizard) and serve more to gently introduce you to VR. Then came wave after wave of wave shooters. They are fun, but if you've seen one you've seen them all and you play them for artistic variation. Finally it's also plagued by (tech)demo's and early access (not exclusive to VR though). Boneworks and such are fun, but often I feel they're just proof of concepts that don't take it far enough and just feel incomplete. Just like how games with empty, lifeless open worlds highlight how important environment is, VR has highlighted me how important even a little bit of a story can be.

 

There are quite some gems in the VR space, but even owning the Vive this long "value" is still not exactly the flair I would give it. It's not lacking games, it's lacking good games. Beat Saber, Superhot are excellent games and in my opinion Half Life Alyx set the bar for story driven action games. I believe we are in a bit of a vicious circle. It's not seeing great rapid adoption, because supply is small and studios are probably hesitant to go big, because adoption low.

 

Also, games just fade. Nobody's really talking about DOOM Eternal anymore either, which released around the same time.

[LAwLz]

2 hours ago, Kilrah said:

And at no other time has VR growth been so high AFAIK.

For those interested, this is what the VR headset growth has looked like during the last 12 months:

 

 

[RejZoR]

Because hardly anyone cares about VR ? It's the same overhyped buzzword of a failed tech that was tried like 4 times by now and never really took off. How many people even played HL:Alyx? I'm a big Half-Life fan and I can't be bothered with it coz I'm not gonna buy a VR set just to sit in corner and collect dust because there are 2 maybe good games in existence for it. I'll rather put that into PC upgrade and better enjoy ALL games.

[JZStudios]

7 hours ago, Man said:

$999 Valve Index

This is why. You spend $1000 on something, you better damn believe it's worth the money. Alyx and Boneworks aren't forever games, they're single player campaign games. Everyone interested has already played them.

 

6 hours ago, Giganthrax said:

The barrier to entry is just way too steep, so very few people can get to play it or talk about it.

 

Also, the idea of having to set up all the VR gear and swing your arms around to shoot at things and whatnot is just not very attractive to most people. I don't want to stand in the middle of my room surrounded by cables and expensive equipment when I play a videogame. I want to relax on my comfy couch with a controller, or lie back in my office chair with my mouse, keyboard, and coffee within easy reach. 

It does stink of Wii syndrome, where they market it with all the motion controls, then people quickly realize... that takes like, effort and energy, and fuck that. Just me personally, I find it interesting that the biggest VR titles are games I'd have zero interest in, and they either require you to stand in one spot or teleport.

 

4 hours ago, XWAUForceflow said:

Do you have some hard data to back that up? It's not that I doubt your experience, but in my 'bubble' it's the complete opposite. There's one guy who got a VR headset and that's it. No one I know is truly interested in getting one, and that one guy is barely using his. It's easy to mistake ones own bubble with the larger mass, so I am truly wondering if there is some hard data out there about sales numbers that indicate that VR is really about to take off...

I'm also curious, the people that bought the early headsets. They're starting to pump these things out, and they aren't cheap. Are people continually buying a new $400 headset every year, or are they sticking with their old ones which aren't very good?

 

1 hour ago, tikker said:

Boneworks and such are fun, but often I feel they're just proof of concepts that don't take it far enough and just feel incomplete.

I've tried looking at Boneworks videos since people also claimed it was the future, and I'm astounded at how janky it is. It's like it's in a beta stage, but every video I see people are excited by the fact that physics exist, like we've never had physics in games before now. It didn't seem like there was any reason to do anything. I also find it interesting that every VR video I see contains people randomly throwing shit, smacking shit, or picking shit up like they're a toddler. I don't get it. What kind of gameplay is that?

[tikker]

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

I'm also curious, the people that bought the early headsets. They're starting to pump these things out, and they aren't cheap. Are people continually buying a new $400 headset every year, or are they sticking with their old ones which aren't very good?

I'm still enjoying my Vive. After that it quickly derailed with the Pro, Cosmos, version 2 and what not versions of it. As you say I'm also not shelling out that much money every year for a relatively small upgrade.

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

I've tried looking at Boneworks videos since people also claimed it was the future, and I'm astounded at how janky it is. It's like it's in a beta stage, but every video I see people are excited by the fact that physics exist, like we've never had physics in games before now. It didn't seem like there was any reason to do anything. I also find it interesting that every VR video I see contains people randomly throwing shit, smacking shit, or picking shit up like they're a toddler. I don't get it. What kind of gameplay is that?

I must say physics does add a surprising amount to the experience (or detracts when it isn't there) and throwing around stuff is quite fun, but I felt the same in general. At some point you need something more besides physics. Regarding HL:A there is quite some nostalgia from the series of course, but I still think that was Valve flexing a bit to show what VR can do.

[TetraSky]

Everyone who wanted to play it, have played it and moved on. The rest on us are either waiting on being able to get a god damn graphic card to play it or don't care enough about VR.

Single player games rarely stay relevant this long after release.