In a revealing student documentary, Valve talks more about snacks than videogames.
The best part of working at Valve isn't getting to deal with franchises like Half-Life, Left 4 Dead, and Portal on a daily basis. According to this documentary, it's all about the snack bar (and a pink cookie).
The documentary was created by students from the Ballard High School Video Production Program for the 2009 Northwest High School Film Festival. It's a little old, but if you haven't seen it, you're in for a treat. It goes deep into the heart of Valve, wherein lies a snack bar of epic proportions.
For example, Valve's snack bar has a giant bowl full of Snickers. With accoutrements such as this, Marc Laidlaw says that Valve has the best snack bar in the industry "by far." Erik Wolpaw was ready to exit the videogame industry for good before he visited Valve and saw its display of snacks. Gabe Newell says it "reflects the personal preferences and desires" of everyone that works at Valve. However, the room is not without its flaws.
Wolpaw seems to have the most issues with the room, what with people trying to use his stick of butter, the disease resulting from communal snacks, and the snack bar lady that probably hates him. Thankfully, he can survive for a week off of one 7,000 calorie cookie.
The documentary won in its category at the festival, and rightfully so. It's a look into the kinder side of videogame development, where a rough day at work can be washed away with the promise of free beef jerky.
Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
I don't really care how much his company falls over itself to undo his bad choice of words. I still use Steam and give the non-loudmouths at Valve due credit. Until they convince him to apologize himself, I give him zero credit for the customer experience.
The documentary won in its category at the festival, and rightfully so. It's a look into the kinder side of videogame development, where a rough day at work can be washed away with the promise of free beef jerky.
Ah, I wouldn't joke about it. Most people have rough jobs, but not a lot of companies have built in snack bars and restaurants that serve eatable food.
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
What's with all the fat jokes all the time too? Swear some people are still in grade school. What's funny is that he was probably picked on for his weight and now has enough money to buy your ass and sell you into slave labour.
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
Not even when he went on Sony's E3 presentation and proclaimed Portal 2 would be the best console version?
Avatar Roku: Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
Not even when he went on Sony's E3 presentation and proclaimed Portal 2 would be the best console version?
Show me a quote of him saying, "sorry for being a dick to half of you," or words to that effect, and I'll come down off the horse. Fair enough?
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
...so? He's not allowed to have an opinion on that? Given that, iirc, he said that around the time that Sony announced that they'd intentionally made the PS3 hard to program for, that seems completely reasonably to me. Besides, you're talking about a very small segment of Valve's userbase, the vast majority is on the PC. Hardly "not treating his customers right", when most of them are not using the PS3.
[sighs] We had a free cafeteria at both of the casinos that employed me. One meal a shift, and all the chips, fruit, salad, and cookies you could eat 24/7. The quality went down hill for both of them the longer they were in operation when I was there, but I thought they were fairly impressive at the time.... Valve has however humbled them.
Perhaps someday I will become an infamous enough game industry critic where I shall be paid for my silence. Should that day ever arise, unlimited access to the Valve snack bar shall be one of my demands. :)
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Gaben: "If you look at the customers that I feel we've done the worst job at taking care of is the people who bought our product on the PS3 - Orange Box on PS3. Those are the people who I have trouble saying anything to other than 'Yeah, I'm sorry. You have legitimate beef with us.'"
"When the PlayStation 3 was introduced, I was the one of the platform's biggest critics," said Newell.
"However, Sony has proved that the PlayStation 3 is the most open platform of all the current generation consoles and has worked extremely hard to make the platform the most desirable for consumers and developers.
Avatar Roku: ...so? He's not allowed to have an opinion on that? Given that, iirc, he said that around the time that Sony announced that they'd intentionally made the PS3 hard to program for, that seems completely reasonably to me. Besides, you're talking about a very small segment of Valve's userbase, the vast majority is on the PC. Hardly "not treating his customers right", when most of them are not using the PS3.
A small percentage of people are unhappy and suddenly an entire company has poor customer service. It's impossible to cater to everyone.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
Not even when he went on Sony's E3 presentation and proclaimed Portal 2 would be the best console version?
Show me a quote of him saying, "sorry for being a dick to half of you," or words to that effect, and I'll come down off the horse. Fair enough?
Avatar Roku: Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
...so? He's not allowed to have an opinion on that? Given that, iirc, he said that around the time that Sony announced that they'd intentionally made the PS3 hard to program for, that seems completely reasonably to me. Besides, you're talking about a very small segment of Valve's userbase, the vast majority is on the PC. Hardly "not treating his customers right", when most of them are not using the PS3.
Note that I'm only really talking about Newell. He said that while his own company was making products for the platform that "was a waste of time". That's insulting to the company AND the people he wanted to give him money for a product he couldn't be bothered to avoid undermining.
Also, he's certainly entitled to his opinion, and I am as well. I'm just pointing out that if he wants my money or my respect he will have to own up to his past words and actually say, "I apologize for insulting customers."
SaintWaldo: Because if there's one thing Gabe Newell knows, it's snacks. Treating your customers right, not so much. But when it comes to snacking, MAN, that Newell is fucking PRO!
This film gives me great hope for the emerging semiotic skills of today's youth. They really hit it with this one. IMO.
Man, if you think Newell knows nothing about treating customers right, you've obviously never listened to Valve's in game commentary. The lengths that they go to to make sure the player has a good experience is insane.
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find.
That wasn't about their customers, that was about the awkwardness of the Ps3's architecture. And, as far as apologies go, what about the steamworks included in the ps3 version of portal 2, that gives you a free version of portal 2 on steam, as well as cross platform play?
That certainly didn't make me want to give him anything, ever. And he's never ever tried to apologize, as far as I've been able to find. So, he earned that insult.
Thanks for playing.
...so? He's not allowed to have an opinion on that? Given that, iirc, he said that around the time that Sony announced that they'd intentionally made the PS3 hard to program for, that seems completely reasonably to me. Besides, you're talking about a very small segment of Valve's userbase, the vast majority is on the PC. Hardly "not treating his customers right", when most of them are not using the PS3.
Note that I'm only really talking about Newell. He said that while his own company was making products for the platform that "was a waste of time". That's insulting to the company AND the people he wanted to give him money for a product he couldn't be bothered to avoid undermining.
Also, he's certainly entitled to his opinion, and I am as well. I'm just pointing out that if he wants my money or my respect he will have to own up to his past words and actually say, "I apologize for insulting customers."
Of course, if I made it seem like you were not entitled to your opinion, that was unintentional. You certainly are. You are also entitled, as you pointed out, to not buy Valve games. That is your right. At the same time, however, the way that you worded that really rubbed me the wrong way. Let's be real here; the vast majority of Valve players are on the PC. There are very few on the PS3. So, while his comment did alienate those few players, and that is a bad thing, your comment painted it as if he routinely had horrible customer service for everyone. In other words, what this guy said:
Avatar Roku: ...so? He's not allowed to have an opinion on that? Given that, iirc, he said that around the time that Sony announced that they'd intentionally made the PS3 hard to program for, that seems completely reasonably to me. Besides, you're talking about a very small segment of Valve's userbase, the vast majority is on the PC. Hardly "not treating his customers right", when most of them are not using the PS3.
A small percentage of people are unhappy and suddenly an entire company has poor customer service. It's impossible to cater to everyone.
I said, "his customers". Singular, directed at Newell, not the others at Valve. The ones who convinced him to apologize, by the way, if you read the rest of the thread. So, count on your team, that seems to be the lesson for the day.
Fair enough. He's said he's sorry, so I'll let him be. It seems that others at Valve did explain it to him at some point.
(I will point out that he says I had legit beef until I saw his apology, BTW.) ;)
Not to mention that he stayed true to his word; PS3 users can play Portal 2's co-op with PC users. How awesome is that?
I think it's great. I thought that Valve really cleaned up after Newell well with that offer. Having never heard the man himself apologize made it seem like slightly moot action. Now that I know different, thanks to my forum mates, it makes way more sense. And, yeah, pretty awesome.
I think it's great. I thought that Valve really cleaned up after Newell well with that offer. Having never heard the man himself apologize made it seem like slightly moot action. Now that I know different, thanks to my forum mates, it makes way more sense. And, yeah, pretty awesome.
TBF, I don't think the Escapist caught the apology, but Gabe recognised the hatred at E3 2010.
