Garzerlake

I was studying at the time but yep, no reason to stay home and do nothing. And that's my point. I can sympathize with Ross for this problem, but I can't believe he's unable to do ANY work at all on videos, even if things are so bad that they had to relocate to some temporary accommodation. Or at the very least post an update on his situation every few days. Thanks to fan donations, Ross is able to work on videos full time. In a sense, this is his job. I don't think there's an employer anywhere in the world that would let you take a paid leave of absence of a month and a half (and counting) from your work, for ANY reason. Even in very worker-friendly countries like France, you get at most a week bereavement leave if a close relative dies. Ross has mold in his flat. I don't think us fans have a right to expect anything, but IMO there should be some degree of accountability when you're taking money from people. Actually, there are employers who give people several months of leave of absence. I've personally seen it happen. It might be rare, but it happens, so I'm pretty sure two months isn't unreasonable. Besides, any reasonable employer wouldn't expect their employees to work in the same conditions that Ross is living in. It would make sense for the employer to give their employees time off until the working conditions have been improved to where it's no longer condemnable. I completely understand Ross being gone for this long, and I actually expect to not hear from him for a while. I'd be shocked if I saw Ross working on videos if his situation hasn't improved. I'd be like, "Ross, what are you doing? Breathing is more important right now!" I can understand if he is making videos in the middle of a mold attack if he is financially desperate, and needs to make enough money to get by another month, though. To ask for a quick tweet or short post about his situation once in a while is reasonable, but it's not unreasonable to not do it, either. He might think there isn't much point to giving updates if it's the same situation, and I think the lack of news says enough. If the situation has become radically different, I'm sure he would actually go out of his way to let us know, unless that situation has made him unable to for some reason. I sincerely doubt he has run off with donations, if that's what you're suggesting.

Yeah. It could be that they just decided to call him by his title, but in Half-Life and its expansions, they mention him by his title ominously with a bit of emphasis. That's what makes me think it's more than just a day-to-day mention of him. It just seemed a bit odd that they would call him that in such a fashion, especially in a professional setting. This wasn't just one person saying it in such a fashion, either. I think there have been 3 different people mentioning his name in Black Mesa, and they all said it in such an ominous and stressed tone. I'm not saying there's an actual rule against calling him by name, but it's just something that seems 'discouraged'. Alyx first called him "Breen" before calling him "your old administrator". I do agree that Alyx got a lot of the history from Eli, who also called him "Dr. Breen". But that was after the Black Mesa incident, where they didn't nearly respect him as much. The scientists at Black Mesa, however, never bothered to just call him "Dr. Breen". It's like in the Harry Potter movies where they say "He Who Shall Not Be Named" instead of "Voldemort", except it is less dramatic in this case. It's also like how in the second and third episodes, Gordon says, "You're on the list." He mentions "the list" in an ominous manner, as if it's a bad thing. It's just something I've noticed.

They are friends in the half life world,not so sure about Freeman's mind world. I am pretty fucking sure Ross does know what hes doing Okay, that's a good point. It seems then that Ross chose an alternate path. But please, there is no need to be hostile. Okay, yeah. I got the Administrator confused with the Administrative Sponsor. Probably G-Man doing his thing right there. Then why did they keep referring to Breen as "The Administrator"? It's as if you're not supposed to mention him by name.

I think Gordon doesn't recognize Breen, simply because he has never known about him. In beginning of Half-Life, where you are on the tram ride, text is displayed to show information about your character. One piece of text says "Administrative Sponsor: Classified". I'm assuming that it's talking about Breen. If so, then the fact that Breen is the administrator of Black Mesa would have been classified. Plus, in Half-Life and one or two of its expansions, people referred to Breen as "The Administrator" with a bit of an ominous tone. They have never referred to The Administrator by name. As for Barney, I'm not sure why Gordon would or would not remember him. Him owing Gordon beer is probably not to be taken seriously, and could simply be a joking reference to all the security guards in Half-Life that say, "Catch me later! I'll buy you a beer!" When I played Half-Life 2 for the first time, I had no idea who Barney was, except his was one of the guards in Half-Life. However, in Half-Life, Barney was in the game once, when he was banging on the door, and that's it. However, much of the game is only put in the perspective of Gordon, and even then, only in specific times. The chances are, Gordon was probably getting drunk with Barney a week before the Black Mesa incident. They were good friends, and there was no reason for Barney to introduce himself to Gordon as if they never met.

Did they create the system for the purpose of making sure letters don't reach the executives, or is that just an inadvertent but convenient side-effect? How did you learn of this?