Half-Life was released by Valve in 1998 and its Black Mesa scientists became famous for their limited, repetitive NPC dialogue. Their greetings and panicked lines were heard constantly while guiding them through the facility, so players memorised them quickly. Clips of the scientists later circulated on forums, YouTube and soundboards as shorthand for awkward, overly polite AI characters. The greeting in particular survived because it captures that early FPS charm, where one short voice line had to do all the personality work for an entire character type.