You're being excessive. I know it sounds implausible, but there are tons of stupid people in the gaming community, and while a lot of them play Half Life, they don't really appreciate the immense depth put into it.
The original Half Life's game engine (GoldSource) was based on Quake II's architecture, and consequently has stylistic vestiges of 90s-era FPSs. It's all there. Hero vs. the aliens, obsession with machines, muscles, and guns, gratuitous guts and gibs, etc. The original soldier models had lit cigars in their mouths and swore a :palm:ton more.
This is a game where the protagonist kills a hulking soldier moments after a scene after he kicked a two-heads-shorter scientist into a door. Clearly Gabe Newell was psychologically vengeful against a certain group of people and didn't care to appeal too much to them.
There are also immature gems like this that evoke emotions drastically different from its sequel:
Since then, the focus has been more controlled, opting for a bleaker dystopian setting. No need to broaden its appeal since Valve knew their player base well enough by HL2's development, though Valve wisely continues to use comedy relief.
HL2 might have had a positive female character. But Alex was designed to have sex appeal to male gamers (tight butt jeans and an alluring voice, anyone?), and she still has a secondary role. Her spiritual counterpart, Jade (Beyond Good & Evil), was just as high quality and starred in her own game, but her game was not a commercial success. With Valve, it's still male chauvinism, they just do it better.
Now that you mention it, I remember that Goldeneye, another revolutionary game in the genre, has masculine appealing themes, such as boobage (Xenia Onatopp), and a load of male centered culture everywhere else (everything that was great about the Bond films).
Edited because damn image wouldn't load.
