Valve didn't bring me to Washington just to give me a tour of their super cool offices, they also happened to finally blow the lid off of Artifact, the card game they teased last year. While it's no Half-Life 3, I really doubt many people will be disappointed once they give the game a try. Artifact is a digital collectable card game that is designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic: The Gathering, with a hefty amount of Valve's own special sauce slathered on top. If you're unfamiliar with Valve stuff, the most succinct way to describe their approach to things is half-assing nothing. It might take forever for them to do something, but when they do it, it's executed on a level that's borderline flawless- This certainly seems to be the case with Artifact.
To kick things off, Valve's Gabe Newell (who honestly is just on a first name basis with the entirety of the internet, it seems like) gave us a brief presentation on the history of Valve and how it informs the direction of Artifact. First off, Gabe stressed that at Valve, games aren't about making money, they're about solving a problem. Half-Life was created to prove that they could make games, its sequel identified several key innovations to move the first person shooter genre forward. Following the massive expanse between the launch of the two games, Valve shifted to releasing episodic content for HL2 to try to feel closer to customers.
When they wanted to tackle co-op, Left 4 Dead was the perfect way to do it. Th...