The author has the conclusion that she was wiped from the history books because she's a woman. But her husband worked almost the exact same amount (if not more - because he was always a full time employee.) and he got equally erased from the history books. Competitive environments can be cutthroat and she and her husband let Gabe become the face of the company because they left.
The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
31–40 of 56 posts
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#32Fantastic 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…
Yes it was QuakeWorld Team Fortess. Funny story of my own. I had just started at Microsoft and met Robin Walker at a lan party with a bunch of other QuakeWorld TeamFortress fans.
As soon as they hired Robin and John i knew they (valve) were going to be a giant hit. As a former windows PM, it seems that Gabe knew how valuable mod authors as first time game designers were. Valve may not have been the first to make their game engine a platform, but they were the most dedicated to it in that era.
I didn't know their contract with Sierra was so much like a music industry contract and that they didn't own their Half life IP. It makes so much more sense why they recruited the founder of counterstrike, which is an even bigger hit than TF2.
If they had been public i would have bought into valve before 2005. I missed the boat on apple, amazon, and so many others, but that one had a competitive advantage of understanding the industry that I understood.
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#33What 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…
Gabe Newell was on the Windows 1.0 team.
An Easter egg of his was recently found in an old Windows 1.0 file.
https://www.techradar.com/news/almost-37-years-after-its-lau...
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#34The author has the conclusion that she was wiped from the history books because she's a woman. But her husband worked almost the exact same amount (if not more - because he was always a full time employee.) and he got equally erased from the history books. Competitive environments can be cutthroat and she and her husband let Gabe become the face of the company because they left.
Additionally, she had to be less visible because her primary contribution was marketing. She describes in detail how much time and effort was necessary to create advance buzz around the game (seeding stories to the press, the "game of the year" posturing before they actually had a game).
Her contributions were major to be sure, and I don't mean to downplay her efforts towards Valve's success. But by necessity, the machinery of marketing needs to be mostly invisible, because the manipulation doesn't work when people are conscious that they're being manipulated.
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#35The author has the conclusion that she was wiped from the history books because she's a woman. But her husband worked almost the exact same amount (if not more - because he was always a full time employee.) and he got equally erased from the history books. Competitive environments can be cutthroat and she and her husband let Gabe become the face of the company because they left.
Additionally, she had to be less visible because her primary contribution was marketing. She describes in detail how much time and effort was necessary to create advance buzz around the game (seeding stories to the press, the "game of the year" posturing before they actually had a game). Her contributions were major to be sure, and I don't mean to downplay her efforts towards Valve's success. But by necessity, the ma…
Agreed, how many marketing people can you name from Hollywood? Me, zero. But you can probably name some of the people who created the movie (actors, directors, producers, musicians, etc....)
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Additionally, she had to be less visible because her primary contribution was marketing. She describes in detail how much time and effort was necessary to create advance buzz around the game (seeding stories to the press, the "game of the year" posturing before they actually had a game). Her contributions were major to be sure, and I don't mean to downplay her efforts towards Valve's success. But by necessity, the ma…
Agreed, how many marketing people can you name from Hollywood? Me, zero. But you can probably name some of the people who created the movie (actors, directors, producers, musicians, etc....)
I don't know many producers, maybe with the exception of the Broccoli family who are producing James Bond :) I know some directors of photography, though, because their work is defines an aesthetic characteristic of movies. However I was/am a film buzz for a long time and don't think the layman will know any directors of photography.
Related it's also interesting that in German the directory of photography is only called a "Kameramann" (camera guy) while the English term emphasizes their "directing". And it's true. They are typically not the ones operating the camera but have operators for that like "focus pullers".
Sorry, I got carried a away with the topic a little bit :)
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
85% no?
Yes, it was 85%. 30% by Steam is a steal comparatively.
Just tells you how horrible logistics of physical products are. Digital world removed many of the hands that touched the box previously from manufacturing, to warehouse, shipping and then the retail shop especially. Everyone in the chain needing to be paid or taking their own cut. Digital is so much simpler.
Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
#38The author has the conclusion that she was wiped from the history books because she's a woman. But her husband worked almost the exact same amount (if not more - because he was always a full time employee.) and he got equally erased from the history books. Competitive environments can be cutthroat and she and her husband let Gabe become the face of the company because they left.
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Re: The Early Days of Valve from a Woman Inside
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