I will rue the day this inevitably happens.

I would rather hope that he legalizes and codifies the "flat" management structure, disallowing any one figure head from taking over and fucking things up.

Valve annoys people because it can be slow to choose to do something, because everyone works on what they want to work on, but it means average workers have a lot more agency in how they're involved in the company.

I'm sure there's till unofficial cliques and leaders, but having it in legalese for the employees post-Gabe would be nice.

Tbf as long as it doesn't go public it will probably be fine regardless of who takes the job. It doesn't take a genius to keep up the good work in a company that can afford to plan long time.

From my understanding his son is set to take over when the time comes.

Apparently you like to read. Open the EULA for basically any commercial software (not FOSS or open source, costs money, isn't made by some small company, basically the same criteria as >90% of the games on Steam) and you are going to learn 2 things very quickly. First, all of them are just a license to use, and second, if there are patches or an online component you will have at least as many caveats and restrictions as what is included in the Steam TOS.

Now, I'm not saying you're wrong or that I'm okay with this situation (I look for open source, free, then paid for all the software that lets me do whatever it is I'm trying to do), but the situation with Steam is very typical.

Doesn't matter, Steam offers DRM free games. Steam DRM is opt-in and can be broken by anyone in seconds, and games with other DRM have a big glowing warning on their store page. You give money to Steam for their servers that support multiplayer, their workshop, seamless patching, user forums, image hosting, controller support, Proton for Linux, SteamDB, easy multiplayer via the friends interface, achievement tracking, and a large majority cut to the developers. Your complaints apply to basically every storefront, the only way you'll own data is by having it on your own disk which Steam lets you do.

Very good point. Just because Valve hasn't screwed us over yet is no excuse for assuming they never will.

Not saying that I disagree, but it has basically always been written like that...

Welcome to the modern world. Pretty much lines up with 99% of services people use daily.

I won't ever move from steam to GoG, valve makes everything too convenient.

There's anothee way to keep having access to software no matter what companies do.

I have the generic steam crack well saved in my computer in case the decide to pull the plug.

It goes to great lengths to make it very clear that you don't own anything. You aren't buying anything, you have no essentially rights. You are simply paying for a license subscription to use software with various conditions. Valve is able to end your subscription with no refund if you break the agreement.

True, but:

but in recent years I've been getting games from gog

GOG shills always claim their platform is better because muh DRM-free games and actual ownership but GOG's User Agreement states:

We give you and other GOG users the personal right (known legally as a 'licence') to use GOG services and to download, access and/or stream (depending on the content) and use GOG content. This licence is for your personal use. We can stop or suspend this licence in some situations, which are explained later on.

It's to keep people from doing stuff like requiring refunds or court cases for being banned, VAC or otherwise. To make some things not technically gambling, etc.

Valve is the paragon of gamers. They offer a great portal, free no bs family shares, pressure companies into sales on legacy software. Push VR from meme status (the oculus is even originally stolen valve tech look it up). Steam stream, steam controller, steam deck emulation of Nintendo switch, Jesus it's endless.

And still there are people like you out here who have to lead with complaints about a bunch of text which everyone knows is exclusively for legal piss matches against companies and troublemakers.

I don't know how you can be pleased by anything. Isn't your life tiring living the life of a zealot? Or do you have just an unsatisfiable need to complain?

NoOoOoO. You're not allowed to bad mouth Steam here. Everything steam does is amazing. Steam is nothing like those filthy console companies. Steam good guys. Steam forever friend

It involves golden tickets and the unsolved disappearances of a handful of children.

Brutal, I know, but it's the only way.

If you're reading this GabeN, make Valve a non-profit.

To implement NFT Microtransaction RNG lootboxes into their games while letting them rott?

I'm very anti-DRM as well, but I'm willing to give Valve my money even if there's a chance I lose my game down the line. Some of that money's going towards Proton and making Linux more popular

The same reason countless studios have destroyed successful IPs (like EA). Sure it’s profitable but it could be MORE profitable. Sales were up last year? Cool story, have sales improved over that this year though??

Why? Because the enshittification is based on short sighted greed over long sighted sustainable income.

This is what going public means. Now it is time to grind it to dust and snort it so the elite can have their fifth christmas bonus

So he's going to stay in his position way past when he reasonably should because of pride and not take advice from his friends and family to step down so he could transfer power to a worthy successor?

Well his name didn't show up in Epstein's public records (unlike a certain CEO from a company Microsoft bought/CEO that founded/ran Microsoft) so we're fine there.

And I did look. Extensively.

It's a good sign because 1) He's smart enough to not have a paper trail and/or 2) His hobbies are innocuous, like, I think he really only cares about submersibles and knives and he wasn't stabbing people on some carbon fiber tube near the titanic so he's not a dumbass either.

But this far they haven't abused that like other organizations.

You know, when I worked in retail, the store would obviously buy up stock from suppliers for a price and then sell it for profit. I don't know all the technical terms in English, but in order for the stores to actually make money at the end of the day we had a goal of reaching that exact amount of profit, 30% of the retail price. So how exactly is this different from retail stores? Sure, they don't have to actually buy up stock, but the game companies don't have to make physical copies either. It's not like the game companies would make 100% of the money if they sold them elsewhere.

I have listened to a ton of game developer talks over the years. Some of the old indie devs that have given talks basically all welcomed steam because it meant that they didn't have to deal with all of the stuff that steam does themselves. Before people started buying games through steam, doing an acceptable level of DRM, distribution, payments, refunds, etc. was all hand-rolled, for each company.

You can still do that yourself. Why do people stick with steam with the supposedly onerous 30% cut? It's because steam provides a valuable service. Now the people that build games don't have to deal as much with the things that aren't building games.

In my opinion, a platform like Steam was bound to emerge at some point. Let's thank our fucking stars that the company that "won" is not beholden to any shareholder and is run by a gamer that understands what people who love video games needed.

If you think that the 30% cut is too high, there's nothing stopping you from building all the infrastructure yourself. And there are plenty of companies that have done so, like Epic and, until recently, Sony.

But I would say unless you are a team building AAA games and making millions and millions a year, where the savings you can realize outweigh the cost of rolling your own infrastructure, steam is kind of a good deal.

Look, despite Musk's PR, I never read a story about Musk like this:

In 2004, Wolpaw was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. Expecting his condition to require a departure from the company, he spoke with managing director Gabe Newell, who surprised him by offering an extended leave with pay. "Your job is to get better," Newell said. "That is your job description at Valve. So go home to your wife and come back when you are better."

Gabe Newell isn't some kind of saint, but he does at least treat his employees like human beings, unlike Musk who famously berates his employees and treats them incredibly badly, especially if they have to (gasp!) miss work for any reason.

So while people shouldn't be praising Valve as some kind of panacea in the world, because they're still just a company, the reality is things like this have endeared Newell to the gaming community and made them believe he did care about a quality work environment.

A reminder, 2004 was before Wolpaw had written for multiple hit games from Valve. Portal came out in 2007 with Wolpaw as one half of the writing team. A few years later he would be head writer on Portal 2.

Those games would not have been the same if he had been let go from Valve when he was sick with ulcerative colitis.

Just a different perspective, I think it's unfair to compare Newell to a fucking slave drive apartheid fuckhead like Musk.

Comment straight out of 2004.