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Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

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Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#41

Post by ThatPlayer »

nvarsj wrote: post #32
Hamuko wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably by 2012, Valve was already transitioning out of the game development business and into the services business. Team Fortress 2 was already out, Left 4 Dead 2 was already out, Portal 2 was already out, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive came out in the same year, and Dota 2 came out the next year. Really the only things that have been made since that period are Half-Life: Alyx (2020), Counter-Strike 2 (2023) and…

Everyone forgets about Artifact :).

Also Underlords.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#42

Post by mry2048 »

Ekaros wrote: post #28
natebc wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Counter-strike 2 was also just recently released. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Strike_2

Well, I would categorize that more to major version update than actually new release. Say like new Linux LTS release. Lot of things changed even very deep, but it is basically largely same work.

It’s a complete reimplementation on a new engine with big changes to the tick system, new versions of all the maps, animations, etc. Not too different to CS:GO release vs CS:S with big expectations comparing it with the previous version.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#43

Post by rendaw »

LauraMedia wrote: post #20

Chet Faliszek, writer for games like Half-Life and the lead writer for Portal/Portal 2 has since confirmed that this handbook was never given to employees. It was created and released as part of advertising them as an employer.

Is it meaningfully different if it's not given to employees but given to everyone before they become an employee?

I'd agree it's a meaningful distinction if the company wasn't actually as written... but it sounds like everything in there is accurate?

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#44

Post by rjzzleep »

LauraMedia wrote: post #20

Chet Faliszek, writer for games like Half-Life and the lead writer for Portal/Portal 2 has since confirmed that this handbook was never given to employees. It was created and released as part of advertising them as an employer.

Valve has hired a bunch of FAANG engineers that brought their own toxic hiring practices to Valve. It's only a matter of time before those people promote their culture in that organization if they haven't done so already.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#45

Post by monkeyelite »

supriyo-biswas wrote: post #25
LauraMedia wrote: post #20

Chet Faliszek, writer for games like Half-Life and the lead writer for Portal/Portal 2 has since confirmed that this handbook was never given to employees. It was created and released as part of advertising them as an employer.

It's hard to believe that the principles outlined here weren't at least briefly followed when it's featured on their website too: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/publications , but I'd be an open to a source which substantiates your claim. However, non-hierarchical structures are often open to manipulation and land-grabbing (see Tyranny of Structurelessness, etc.) so I am also skeptical that a company may have conti…

Also when you have a lot of money you can afford to be inefficient

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#46

Post by Panzer04 »

bob1029 wrote: post #27

Valve gets a lot of heat for slowing down on first party gaming content, but I think Steam has been a net positive for the gaming community. There are certainly some cases where the accessibility has created "noise" and other trouble, but overall I think this is a good thing. Their 30% cut is absolutely justified once you start looking into everything they do for you as a developer and the market that you have access…

The other things is steam doesn't constrain competition (afaik? Open to being wrong but this is how I'd understood it). Devs can sell their own games, games can be on other platforms, etc.

Despite that gamers think it's worth the convenience and utilities steam provides to keep shopping there.

Steam isn't dominant because it's strangling competition like the app store and similar. People can trivially download alternatives, but they choose steam anyway.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#47

Post by HighGoldstein »

keyringlight wrote: post #21
scheeseman486 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What management? Gabe doesn't have any direct involvement in the running of the company at this point, in spite of being the majority owner. It's an open question what happens if he leaves or dies but it doesn't seem likely that he'd do anything to intentionally sabotage the company, like sell it off. It's more likely that ownership will transfer to a trusted party or to the employees.

At this point I think Valve is more likely to be disrupted from an outside influence rather than within, I think a lot of their actions are about keeping the ship steady. If someone does come along as an upstart in a new market as valve did with digital distribution versus retail/physical, the old is unlikely to be instantly irrelevant and obsoleted, and even then you get new markets like mobile appearing over their…

To disrupt Valve's business you'd need an offering as good if not better than Steam, something several companies already tried and failed, and on top of that you need to convince everyone with buy-in to switch to your business, another monumental task. While people are happy with Steam it'll be impossible to challenge Valve as a digital distributor.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#48

Post by 99094 »

moomin wrote: post #31
supriyo-biswas wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to believe that the principles outlined here weren't at least briefly followed when it's featured on their website too: https://www.valvesoftware.com/en/publications , but I'd be an open to a source which substantiates your claim. However, non-hierarchical structures are often open to manipulation and land-grabbing (see Tyranny of Structurelessness, etc.) so I am also skeptical that a company may have conti…

At least one former employee has confirmed that exactly the problems you are describing were a problem at Valve. https://www.wired.com/2013/07/wireduk-valve-jeri-ellsworth/

https://archive.ph/Od674

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#49

Post by ekianjo »

andyferris wrote: post #33
bob1029 wrote: post #27

Valve gets a lot of heat for slowing down on first party gaming content, but I think Steam has been a net positive for the gaming community. There are certainly some cases where the accessibility has created "noise" and other trouble, but overall I think this is a good thing. Their 30% cut is absolutely justified once you start looking into everything they do for you as a developer and the market that you have access…

It interests me that it needs to be an "or". A HL3 team could essentially function as an independent studio using the Steam platform, with some funding thrown from Valve. Assuming the ROI is positive what exactly is holding them back?

> Assuming the ROI is positive what exactly is holding them back?

The Google problem where every project that is not Search has a much worse ROI.

Re: Valve Software handbook for new employees [pdf] (2012)

#50

Post by monkeyelite »

LauraMedia wrote: post #20

Chet Faliszek, writer for games like Half-Life and the lead writer for Portal/Portal 2 has since confirmed that this handbook was never given to employees. It was created and released as part of advertising them as an employer.

It was not as obvious when it first came out as we were less familiar with stealth marketing.

When smart people say ads don’t work on them - this is a counterexample. It’s just that different groups respond to different branding. And this was highly tuned to Reddit interests.

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