A few days ago on the HalfLife SubReddit quimralho asked Why is the game called Half-Life? What is the relation of the title and the game?
It’s a question that is often asked, by new and seasoned players alike. Most often people talk about the decay of radioactivity etc but it doesn’t really address the question.
However, this time scriminamp got right to the heart of the issue with a very funny, and quite sad really, answer.
The game is called half-life because it takes half your f*%king life for a squeal to come out.
It was then suggested by Don that this would make a good poll question, so here it is.
Time to Vote
Just a quick note to apologize for not having properly prepared the question before it became visible.
Not for me, but I’m a geezer…ish. It does, however, predate my ‘real gaming’ life by a couple years. I played a few games before 1999 (Might and Magic 3-6, Ultima Underworld and such) but didn’t start really ‘getting into’ fps games until around 2004.
*Maths in head*
Oh Jesus… uhm, yeah… it has been.
I was 12 when Half-Life came out… and I’m gonna be 29 in October…
Your not a GEEZER yet!! I think I’m older ,if not the oldest here (haha) I still have my original HL disks, bought in ’98 !! But I started back in ’84 on my Apple 2c , my kids had a good time. I really think that Valve should “crap or get off the pot” Maybe they will come up with something before I end up in a nursing home! It hasn’t been Half my life YET!! ;-(
lol I’m 48, how about you 🙂
I’ll be 70 in FEB! The bod might be falling apart, but the brain still works good for gamming!!!!
The funny thing is in the UK geezer means a man, not an old person.
lol well, I’ve been known as the WeyrGeezer for being the eldest among my dragon-adopting friends for years and years – and my main personas online are generally male even though I’m female, 😉 In the US, it’s definitely just ‘old’.
It’s basically at half my life. I would have been 17 in 1998 and that was almost 17 years ago. 🙂
Just 8 years counting now…
Not really, I was 20 yo at 1998, I played games since 1983 on an Atari, C+4, C64 and Amiga 500.
My youngest son, 7 yo loves to play games on the C64 today, that makes me a little bit proud!
In the early 90s I got my first PC and played Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake from Floppy Disk, so I was up to date in playing FPS and I loved it from the first hours.
When HL1 came around the Corner, I had that sparkle in the eyes, that you can see in children’s eyes when they open their X-mas presents.
It is today just an awesome game like its sequel HL2.
I really hope for a good HL3 in the near future.
Just a quick note to apologize for not having properly prepared the question post before it became visible.
I’m 61 now, so not quite half of my life, seems like it sometimes though. As for the squeal (sequel I take it), yeah, know that one…
I was 3 in 1998 when HL1 came out. Didn’t play it until a few years ago though.
Not half my life yet, but it’ll even out about 2023.
What’s the post picture from? Surely that’s not vanilla Episode 1, right? I certainly don’t remember the strategic tear in the jeans. Is that the cinematic mod or something?
Gotta be the CM, because any kind of over-sexualization is done there.
<– not a fan of it.
Yeah, it’s well over half my life. I’m a young’un.
I was born in 1996, so Half Life is almost older than I am o_o
half life means the time it takes for half the amount of something to disappear, and in this case its your undying hope for HL3
so whats YOUR half life
hihi 25% of the people here is OLD! (like me 8)
Well to be fair: the people who MADE the games we all love and either grew up with or discovered as adults, are ALSO ‘old’ now. It’s not like 12 year olds were making video games like this, which seems to be a feeling that some folks who disdain games think. ‘that’s for kids’ well, no, obviously it’s for whoever likes to enjoy them, but it still takes adults to create, market, and distribute (and upkeep) a game or cartoon or show.
Like Urby.
I was 13 when HL1 was released, will be 30 in November…
Now I’m an M.D., have a wife, a 2 year old daughter…
And yet I can just complain that this goddamn saga isn’t finished…
I mean, how can you mourn this when you still don’t know if it’s dead or alive? Like a missing child…
Damn.
Old at 69, but HL helps to keep me feeling younger.
Have played HL ever since Duke Nukem and its mods wore thin….
It´s exactly half my life lol. I initially voted NO then read Maki´s post and realized i didn´t do my maths right.
Now time to be depressed about it 😛
“…for a squeal to come out”? Shouldn’t that read “…for a sequel to come out”?
Squeal is the original comment 😉 I think it’s hilarious.
And in a way, aren’t we all waiting to squeal?