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What constitutes a "Half-Life" game?
Deathmatch Classic, I can somewhat justify, since it is effectively 
Quake I multiplayer with 
Half-Life 1 characters, but 
Ricochet is less of a Half-Life game than L4D is a Counter-Strike game.
Additionally, what qualifies a game/mod for being included as a "third-party" entry in this Seriesbox? Should 
Sven Co-op be included, since 
Synergy is? Is 
Black Mesa included because it is commercially available, or just because it's notable? Should Hunt Down the Freeman be included, then, since it's commercially available, and notable (due to infamy)? Just a can of worms to think about.
— SirYodaJedi (talk) 08:45, 14 October 2022 (PDT)
- Good point. As far as I remember, I created this template for all HL games to simplify and to complement their See Also sections (which apparently is what I wrote when I created it). So: This template is - if you asked me - initially supposed to be a useful navbar for Half-Life games such that if you are on a game's page, you can easily navigate to the page of similar games. In my opinion, this template should include at least all of Valve's Half-Life games and also other games that would belong to the Half-Life Universe or Half-Life storyline (but I hope you would agree that e.g. Portal 2 does not belong here, that game's concept is completely different). That said, currently I actually don't know yet if Ricochet, Sven Co-op and Hunt Down the Freeman are "close" enough to Half-Life, because I don't know any of them. Add them if you think they should be added; If they are commercially available and/or notable then that could also be good reason to do so. --Popcorn (talk) 18:44, 14 October 2022 (PDT)
I've excluded several mods from the category.
Yes, I can read the text above the template explaining that "Mods and fangames taking place in the Half-Life franchise are also listed if they are notable enough (generally only remakes/remasters and similar, due to prevalence)"
I don't have anything against these mods, but I don't think they are notable enough compared to other items in the category. Mods like Sven Coop and Synergy are historically important and notable. HL2 Update has been widely covered when it came out.
The fact these mods (the ones I removed) are in Steam, by itself, doesn't mean they're notable. And not all of them even are in Steam. Not all of them are remakes or remasters. The Remastered project is bordering on vaporware as well.
If they manage to become notable (get coverage, or turn into full fledged games at least) then it would be more warranted.
Don't want to cause or participate in edit wars. But the category was growing to be disorderly, in my eyes.