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The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

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Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#21

Post by justsomehnguy »

fn-mote wrote: post #7
intelVISA wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oof. What a sly way to imply the person doesn't have any real value to the company, MS truly be ruthless.

The way I took it was that she was producing a lot of value at Microsoft and they estimated the “threat value” was very low. In this case they were wrong, but could anyone have known?

Funny, I just recently had a talk about this with a guy who is younger than Half-Life. ugh

Basically, at this point MS already had an understanding what games are a great driver for selling both the OS and apps, but the game market itself was too small to bother with more than being a publisher:

>> In the United States, Age of Empires debuted at #7 on PC Data's computer game sales rankings for October 1997.[36] It secured places eighth and 13th the following two months, respectively.[37][38] By the end of 1997, Age of Empires totaled sales in the country above 178,000 units, for revenues in excess of $8 million. This performance made it the United States' most successful real-time strategy game during late 1997: a writer for PC Gamer US noted that its sales surpassed the combined totals of rivals Total Annihilation and Dark Reign over the same period, and were over four times greater than those of Myth: The Fallen Lords.[39]

Sure, AoE was a great success eventually ($120M revenue, by 2000) but it was a hit which surpassed many, many other games and but it took a lot of time; while this was still a summer of '97.

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#22

Post by barrkel »

ryandrake wrote: post #17
fragmede wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know a lot of people who report to directors at many Fortune 100 corporations? I'm sure if you are high up enough, and have specialized enough skills, many companies would grant the same deal because there are only a handful of people in the world that have been proven able to do that job. How many Bob Eigers are there?

> 'm sure if you are high up enough, and have specialized enough skills, many companies would grant the same deal because there are only a handful of people in the world that are able to do that job. How many Bob Eigers are there? I think many people believe this, but how do they know? There are ~7 billion people on the planet. You mean to tell me that only a "handful" are capable of doing a particular job? And not e…

There's the raw talent, and then there's everything else: occupying powerful positions near the top of the hierarchy, the social network, the experience, the track record, the lessons learned from mistakes made, and so on.

There's only so much room at the top, and you need to spend time near the top to get everything else. Truth is, the everything else is a big part of the package.

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#23

Post by jay_kyburz »

endgame wrote: post #16

Fantastic article. I think the title does it a disservice — I expected a disappointing chronicle of sexism, but it's full of details and strategy during one of the most interesting and volatile periods of PC gaming history. The article mentions that John Cook and Robin Walker made a mod that attracted Valve's attention, and then they shipped TFC. That would surely mean the mod would've been Team Fortress for QuakeWor…

I used to play Quake multiplayer with Jon and Robin at the Camberwell Internet Cafe! Ahh, those were the days! (They were much better than me, I was a n00b)

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#24

Post by fragmede »

ryandrake wrote: post #17
fragmede wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know a lot of people who report to directors at many Fortune 100 corporations? I'm sure if you are high up enough, and have specialized enough skills, many companies would grant the same deal because there are only a handful of people in the world that have been proven able to do that job. How many Bob Eigers are there?

> 'm sure if you are high up enough, and have specialized enough skills, many companies would grant the same deal because there are only a handful of people in the world that are able to do that job. How many Bob Eigers are there? I think many people believe this, but how do they know? There are ~7 billion people on the planet. You mean to tell me that only a "handful" are capable of doing a particular job? And not e…

alright. I edited my comment to say "proven able to do the job" instead.

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#25

Post by smittywerben »

intelVISA wrote: post #6
ryandrake wrote: post #4

What really struck me was how OK Microsoft seemed to be with her moonlighting for Valve, basically working for a competitor (albeit a small one) directly in a role that was also her role in Microsoft. Pretty much unheard of in FAANGs today. You can't so much as breathe on an external project today without FAANG claiming IP ownership over anything and everything you breathe on. Imagine working for Apple and telling yo…

Oof. What a sly way to imply the person doesn't have any real value to the company, MS truly be ruthless.

I find your speculation about Microsoft's intent to be vapid and unnecessary. Those who are easy to work with and well-liked are allowed to do more. It's that simple. This dynamic is common in workplaces.

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#26

Post by ryandrake »

barrkel wrote: post #22
ryandrake wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 'm sure if you are high up enough, and have specialized enough skills, many companies would grant the same deal because there are only a handful of people in the world that are able to do that job. How many Bob Eigers are there? I think many people believe this, but how do they know? There are ~7 billion people on the planet. You mean to tell me that only a "handful" are capable of doing a particular job? And not e…

There's the raw talent, and then there's everything else: occupying powerful positions near the top of the hierarchy, the social network, the experience, the track record, the lessons learned from mistakes made, and so on. There's only so much room at the top, and you need to spend time near the top to get everything else. Truth is, the everything else is a big part of the package.

It's really all about the room at the top. Every company is pyramid shaped, and not all of us can physically fit at the top of the pyramid. It's not about whether you can do the job, it's just that there's only a few slots up there, and a lot of us.

I truly believe I could do the job of my grand-boss 4 levels above me on the totem pole, and so could most of my peers. The reason I'm (or someone else is) not there comes down to things like timing, luck, who got where first, and just the reality that one person already being in that SVP position simply blocks everyone else from being there. I really think that a large number of leaf-node employees are massively under-employed compared to what they are capable of. I guess it's kind of a reverse-impostor syndrome.

Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside

#30

Post by kevingadd »

ryandrake wrote: post #4

What really struck me was how OK Microsoft seemed to be with her moonlighting for Valve, basically working for a competitor (albeit a small one) directly in a role that was also her role in Microsoft. Pretty much unheard of in FAANGs today. You can't so much as breathe on an external project today without FAANG claiming IP ownership over anything and everything you breathe on. Imagine working for Apple and telling yo…

Anyone planning to moonlight while working at a big company should consult a lawyer first, but Microsoft has very employee-friendly policies in general.
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