gabe
Proof that Valve CEO Gabe Newell was actually behind the keyboard during his Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session today.

People on the Internet seem to be obsessed with Valve CEO Gabe Newell and that much was obvious during Newell’s Reddit Ask-Me-Anything session this afternoon.

For example: One person said he hadn’t showered since meeting Newell in 2011 and taking a picture with him.

“That’s a long time not to shower,” Newell responded.

Another person said it would make his/her life compete if Newell wished a happy birthday.

“Happy birthday, Bajeezus,” Newell said, to which user Bajeezus responded with, “Holy. F******. S***.”

Tuesday’s AMA, which Newell participated in after promising to do so once a charity he’s involved with raised $500,000, didn’t reveal any big news, likely leaving thousands of gamers disappointed about Valve keeping information about a Half Life sequel at bay.

Nonetheless, Newell answered some informative and equally hilarious questions, from Valve’s stance on accepting on Bitcoin to Newell’s video game playing habits. Someone appropriately asked Newell, who co-founded the Bellevue-based games company 11 years ago, what he thinks about the Internet’s obsession with him.

“It’s entertaining for my friends,” he said.

Here’s a round-up of some of the other interesting responses from Tuesday’s AMA:

GabeN, what are your specs? Well, I’m a handsome man with a charming personality.

Why did you choose “Valve” as the company name? Because it was better than “Rhino Scar.”

Photo via Flickr user btckeychain.
Photo via Flickr user btckeychain.

If there was enough community interest, would Valve accept crypto-currency such as dogecoin or bitcoin on Steam? There are two related issues: one is treating a crypto-currency as another currency type that we support and the broader issue is monetary behaviors of game economies. The first issue is more about crypto-currencies stabilizing as mediums of account.

Do you think that in the long run Linux will not only be the future of gaming, but also the future of desktop? Probably.

When is Ricochet 2? When we announced our products years in advance in the past and then were really late delivering them, it was pretty painful for both us and the community. We’d rather not repeat that.

Are you planning to bring full VR (virtual reality) support to future titles, such as Ricochet 2? We aren’t holding any game until VR is shipping. You don’t want to create that kind of dependency.

How many hours a week would you say that you spend actually playing video games and whats your current favorite? Dota 2 and about 20 hours.

steamOSIs Valve planning to release any exclusive for SteamOS? No.

Are you able to go into any details as to why Valve’s VR headset is “lightyears ahead of the original Oculus Dev Kit”? I’m not sure I’d agree with that. We are collaborating with them, and want their hardware to be great.

Seeing as you (valve) are now rolling out the steam OS and steam machines will be coming to market soon, what do you think your core target market is, the desktop, pc gamer, or the living room console player? We see Steam Machines (along with SteamOS and the Steam Controller) as a service update to Steam, porting the experience to a new room in the house. As we’ve been working on it, we’ve focused first on the customers who already love Steam and its games. They’ve told us they’re tired of giving up all the stuff they love when they sit in the living room, so it seemed valuable to fix that.

We haven’t heard any more about lower cost Steam Boxes for streaming from existing hardware. Is that something that’s still on the agenda? Yes. We’re making some progress.

valveHas there been any trouble getting developers to add Linux compatibility? Surprisingly little. There is a lot of popular sentiment in the developer community about Linux and gaming.

Looking back to 2003, what were your (and Valves) goals and visions for Steam back then, and did it turn out as planned? Also, What is your vision for the Steam platform and PC gaming over the next ten years? I’m not trying to dodge the question, but we find it more useful to think in terms of feedback loops than in terms of visions/goals. Iterating with the community means that your near-term objectives change all the time. The key benefit to Steam is to shorten the length of the loop. Longer term, we see that working at the level of individual gamers, where we think of everyone as creating and publishing experience. “How can we make gamers more productive” sounds weird, but is an accurate way to characterize where we’re going. It may make more sense if you think of it as “How can we make Dendi more entertaining to more people”.

Is it possible for some sort of integration with services like Pandora and Spotify, in the future? I don’t have a music library, per se, and mostly just use internet radio, so it’d be great if I didn’t have to alt tab to change stations or skip songs. Could this happen? Yes, we’ve got some things in the works that we think you’ll like.

How old were you when you start programing, and what was your first language? 13, ALGOL

Gabe Newell offers advice to a young gamer at MOHAI in Seattle last September.
Gabe Newell offers advice to a young gamer at MOHAI in Seattle last September.

What is it that appeals to you in J.J. Abrams as a filmmakerThe main thing is that when we talk with him it’s like talking with someone who works at Valve. That’s not usually the case with people from the film industry.

Hey Gabe. What is your stance on the current government issues both in America and Europe around privacy and internet rights? A couple of years ago I donated a million dollars to the ACLU.

Was there a point in your life when you considered selling/leaving Valve and get away from gaming industry to do something else? Not really. I really like the people I work with and being part of the community.

I am planning on majoring in Computer Science, and I want to someday work in game development. What do AAA companies look at, other than a degree? Past experiences, etc? We look for a history of shipping things. There is no substitute for shipping things that make your customers happy.

What hobbies do you have outside of your job? Machining. Motorsports.

Have you ever found your interest in videogames waning as you’ve grown older, or do you continue to enjoy playing games as a hobby as much as you’ve ever done? It doesn’t seem to be age dependent in my case.

Favorite non-Valve video game: Mario 64.

Recommended Seattle restaurant: Nishino.

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