Valve's Employee Handbook Appears Online

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

So the secret to Valve's success is that they are basically decent people far more evolved than your average capitalist scumbag. Valve is awesome. What else is new?

I want to work at Valve.

 

[Woodsey]

So am I to understand that the reason we DONT have half life 3 is because NO ONE at valve WANTS to work on it? Is that really the case?

Not really, no.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/

OT: I would like to work there, please.

 

[CatmanStu]

It does sound like a relaxing and enjoyable company to work for but their stress free, work at your pace approach is also the reason why in nearly eight years they have released three online multiplayer only titles, plus two HL2 DLC packs and two Portal titles with about 10-15 hours of content between them, all running on the same (admittedly upgraded) engine.

Don't get me wrong, all of their products are of excellent quality, but I wonder if any other developer could get away with such a drip feed of content.

It's amazing how much good will you can get from a highly reliable and cost effective online distribution service, they must be the only company whos PR has benefitted from the world wide recession.

Would you rather have Valve bring out games in a similar fashion to Activision? Generally a small amount of something good is better than a large quantity of bullshit.

God no! Portal and Portal 2 were wonderful games (Portal 2 would have been my game of the year last year if not for Witcher 2) but Valve aren't some poor little indie developer that need a Kickstarter to get a project going, they're a leviathon in both size and reputation with the funds of an amazingly successful online distribution company behind them, shouldn't we expect a little more from them?

 

[Syzygy23]

That place isn't a place of WORK, or a place where you would hold a JOB, what they describe is HEAVEN!

 

[AetherWolf]

Oh my god. And I thought there snack bar alone was amazing.


Valve truly is a game developer's heaven.

 

[Vigormortis]

Valve releases some pretty good games i guess, I just don't understand why they so revered in the gaming community. Left 4 dead was probably my favorite valve game. I think half life is incredibly "Meh" ,despite everyone telling me its story telling mechanisms are unparalleled, I just can't seem t get invested in any of their dry characters. Don't understand why they get zero flack for things other studios get crucified for like the non-existent fan communication, complete misunderstanding of what episodic games are meant to be, and mass effect 3 has a bad ending, have you played Half life 2( ok its not THAT bad, but I'v replayed ME3 a copule of times, but never bothered with portal once the gimmick wore off and never played HL2 since I finished it back in 05).

And this might seem strange but my number 1 pet peeve with valve games, every character has LOUD FUCKING FOOTSTEPS.

so yeah, can't understand why valve always seems to get a free pass when they... oh yeah right Steam.

I'm sorry, but....what? "non-existent fan communication"?

This is one thing the Valve detractors often say; and usually because they spend most of their time bitching about a company they know nothing about instead of actually looking into what they do.

Valve is one of the few developers out there that actually DOES listen to it's fans. They have entire infrastructures and protocols designed to collect, analyze, and interpret data and feedback from the fans. Many of the features, adjustments, and fixes we have with Steam and their back-catalog of games exist because of community feedback. So, I guess what I'm saying is, I just don't get how anyone can say Valve never listens to their community. The whole argument seems disingenuous at best.

As for the episodic thing, I actually think Valve understands it better than most. (save Telltale Games) They experimented with it, realized it didn't fit into their goals for game design, and thusly dropped it for their current model; that being "games as a service". The likes of which we've already seen in the form of Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2; and now Portal 2.

The ending to Half-Life 2, at least in my eyes, was rather brilliant. It was a cryptic, yet poignantly fitting ending to the mysteries and concepts brought up during the game. Mysteries that come to the player only if you think back on the experience with deeper thought. It also helped to emphasize just how little control Gordon had over his own actions; tying quite nicely into the concepts setup in the first game.

I'll grant you, someone who only takes it at face value; or someone who is used to a game's narrative "spoon-feeding" every detail to them; might hate the ending. In fact, under those circumstance it's down-right awful. But, different people like different methods of story-telling. I've always been a fan of subtlety. I find that some of the most affecting story "reveals" come from when I figure them out myself; usually by subtle hints dropped by the author(s). But I can appreciate someone not liking that method. Either method is equally valid. (subtle story telling or straight-forward exposition-ary reveals) To each their own.

I would argue, however, that the Mass Effect 3 ending is still worse as it's the literal end to the trilogy; whereas the ending to Half-Life 2 (and it's episodes) are not. In this sense, some open-ended-ness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Though time will tell how good or bad the actual ending will be.

One last thing. Valve most certainly doesn't get a "free pass". If anything, they are scrutinized, critiqued, lambasted, and whined over more so than most developers out there. Just look at this forum, for example. You'll find WAY more blind fan-love for developers like Bioware and Bethesda. So much so, in fact, I've seen some members complain about day-1 and on-disc DLC one day, to then defending it when it was revealed Bioware was including it in Mass Effect 3. Now THAT's blind fan-devotion.


[p.s]
Loud footsteps? Really? Isn't that a bit of stretch?

Either way, I'd rather have loud footsteps then a characters run animation looking like he's got a few bricks stuffed in his pants. *cough* ME3 *cough*

(I'm such a jerk)

They never called me back "sobs".

I have a slightly bias opinion as I'v had bad experiences with the company regarding damaged games and merch. Plus I find their customer service department is almost as unhelpful as the old republic's. Not saying their a bad company, just don't see what makes their games so special, never played team fortress, but I regard most their games, bar left 4 dead, as Meh. For a required taste I suppose.

Well, yeah. That's always the case with most devs. It's all about ones tastes. Some people like only a few types of games, while others like a different variety. I just think it's a good thing that we, as gamers, have such a wide variety to choose from now-a-days. Despite the bad things that have been occurring within the industry, most of it from pure corporate greed, we're still in a relative "golden age" of gaming.

Also, might I suggest giving TF2 a go? You may find it rather enjoyable as it's quite unlike any of their other games. (or any other game period, really)

 

[thiosk]

The organizational structure of this company is nearly identical to the one I have envisioned for my future research lab. I expect to borrow bits of this manual.

 

[Cat of Doom]

Loud footsteps? Really? Isn't that a bit of stretch?

Either way, I'd rather have loud footsteps then a characters run animation looking like he's got a few bricks stuffed in his pants. *cough* ME3 *cough*


Also, might I suggest giving TF2 a go? You may find it rather enjoyable as it's quite unlike any of their other games. (or any other game period, really)

I'm not going to be able to stop noticing that now, thank you for ruining Mass effect even further -_-


May give it a go sometime, seeing as its free. Not a big multi-player kind of guy, Since throwing my special edition Call of duty controller out of the window due to frustration, I only really play halo 3 and reach multi-player, even then I stick to custom games mostly. Plus i'm not a fan of the modern shooter (CoD, Battlefield) and cover based shooting (GoW, the rest) so what the hell i'l give TF2 a go.

 

[Vigormortis]

Loud footsteps? Really? Isn't that a bit of stretch?

Either way, I'd rather have loud footsteps then a characters run animation looking like he's got a few bricks stuffed in his pants. *cough* ME3 *cough*


Also, might I suggest giving TF2 a go? You may find it rather enjoyable as it's quite unlike any of their other games. (or any other game period, really)

I'm not going to be able to stop noticing that now, thank you for ruining Mass effect even further -_-


May give it a go sometime, seeing as its free. Not a big multi-player kind of guy, Since throwing my special edition Call of duty controller out of the window due to frustration, I only really play halo 3 and reach multi-player, even then I stick to custom games mostly. Plus i'm not a fan of the modern shooter (CoD, Battlefield) so what the hell i'l give TF2 a go.

If you do, my suggestion is to just play versus bots at first to get a handle on how the game operates. They actually have a somewhat decent tutorial in the game as well that teaches the basics.

Also, ignore the Mann Co Store until you understand better how the game and weapons work. Besides, you can usually get any weapon you want without dropping a penny, so...

[sorry for the animation comment. I guess my attempt at being a dick proved more effective than anticipated. hehe]

 

[Krion_Vark]

I would argue, however, that the Mass Effect 3 ending is still worse as it's the literal end to the trilogy; whereas the ending to Half-Life 2 (and it's episodes) are not. In this sense, some open-ended-ness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Though time will tell how good or bad the actual ending will be.

Currently Half-Life 2 has a worse ending because they say that its going to have another game to tie it up. Well they dun goofed there. A game shouldn't have a cliff hanger ending the way it does and then still 7 years out still be waiting to find out what happens.
But lets take where the game falls in the series and compare it to where the other game of the Mass Effect Series falls.
ME2 has a self contained story line that you don't really need the other games to really understand.
HL2 has a self contained story up until E2 where it leaves a big cliff hanger because they were supposed to have EPISODIC. Which means releasing part of a story in an episodic fashion IE at least 6 months-1 year apart. Right now HL2E2 is THE LITERAL ENDING to the series because of how long its been. There has been no news only rumors of HL3 or HL2E3.

 

[Tono Makt]

Where's my damned "Meet the Pyro" movie, Valve!?!?!?!

/rant off

Seriously funny handbook. I'm not sure how serious it is, or how accurate it is. If it's completely on the up and up, then this is a marvel of business. Can't work on a wide scale (human nature intrudes too often) but it's nice if it's working on the small scale.

 

[Tono Makt]

May give it a go sometime, seeing as its free. Not a big multi-player kind of guy, Since throwing my special edition Call of duty controller out of the window due to frustration, I only really play halo 3 and reach multi-player, even then I stick to custom games mostly. Plus i'm not a fan of the modern shooter (CoD, Battlefield) and cover based shooting (GoW, the rest) so what the hell i'l give TF2 a go.

If you can find a decent TF2 server (and there are some out there), then TF2 can be an absolutely awesome game. I'm a dude who is ambivalent towards First Person Shooters; I've never bought one. I bought the Orange Box from Valve to get Portal, loved Portal and decided to give TF2 a shot. Found a great server full of ADULTS (yes, adults.) and spent about 30 hours a week playing on the server while also working full time.

What got me hooked into TF2 was playing a Medic; I didn't need to be good at shooting people, or be good at thinking up strategies to kill people. I just had to follow people around and heal them, then when they were about to die, Ubercharge them to save their lives. Played that class for a good 3 full months, was one of the top medics on the server, before I branched out into other classes. Great way to learn the game, to get comfortable with the interface and to understand the nuances of each class.

So yeah, advice: play a Medic for the first while. (Then play a black Scottish cyclops. Black Scottish cyclops are tha bomb, man.)

 

[Vigormortis]

I would argue, however, that the Mass Effect 3 ending is still worse as it's the literal end to the trilogy; whereas the ending to Half-Life 2 (and it's episodes) are not. In this sense, some open-ended-ness isn't necessarily a bad thing. Though time will tell how good or bad the actual ending will be.

Currently Half-Life 2 has a worse ending because they say that its going to have another game to tie it up. Well they dun goofed there. A game shouldn't have a cliff hanger ending the way it does and then still 7 years out still be waiting to find out what happens.
But lets take where the game falls in the series and compare it to where the other game of the Mass Effect Series falls.
ME2 has a self contained story line that you don't really need the other games to really understand.
HL2 has a self contained story up until E2 where it leaves a big cliff hanger because they were supposed to have EPISODIC. Which means releasing part of a story in an episodic fashion IE at least 6 months-1 year apart. Right now HL2E2 is THE LITERAL ENDING to the series because of how long its been. There has been no news only rumors of HL3 or HL2E3.

Not true at all. The episodes were first announced as a trilogy. Three episodes to wrap up the final story.

However, as Valve experimented with the episodic model, they found it didn't fit well with their design philosophy. As such, as was stated by Gabe Newell on several occasions, they've since dropped the episodic model and have switched to a "games as a service" model. The efforts of which can be seen in Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead 2, and Portal 2.

I don't have a link on hand, but Gabe has said that Episode 3 is essentially no more and that the next Half-Life game will be a full-fledged sequel. Therefore, Episode 2 is not the "literal ending" to the series. It's not even a metaphoric ending to the series.

Regardless, for me personally, I'd rather have a cliff-hanger ending that goes unanswered then an ending that utterly destroys the integrity of the entire series. It's such a shame Bioware essentially phoned it in.

Also, at this point it's pretty hard to say that Half-Life 3 is only a rumor: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/
And, it's not been seven years. It's been just under four and a half.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

And, it's not been seven years. It's been just under four and a half.

I think he's counting from when Half-Life 2 itself was released.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

I'm surprised. 54 posts and no jokes about hats.

I have a love hate relationship with Valve, and despite what issues I take with them they are probably the most like-able gaming studio on the planet.

On the plus side: free updates, responsive to fans, and they make it easier for indie devs to get recognition.

On the down side: Valve time is already an issue, but I take more issue with the fact that the long wait most often does not have guaranteed pay-offs which I attribute to the fact that they work almost too hard to avoid alienating players. Portal 2 was a great game but it was also incredibly easy and made so that it was night impossible to ignore obvious solutions.

But if that's the style they want to choose, I won't raise arms.

 

[Robert Ewing]

Chapter 200431 - EA. When met with a client from EA corp. You must take the closest blunt object you have and smash him to a pulp.

Chapter 200432 - Half Life 2 Episode 3. ????

Chapter 200433 - Left for dead 3. It's totally a good idea guys.

 

[esperandote]

Valve's handbook for new employees

"WFH - (Work from home) What you do if a single snowflake fall out the sky"

xD

This company is awesome. I cant believe the can be succesful without classic structure.

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[RJ 17]

It's official: Valve is the Wonka Chocolate factory of video game developers.

only that willy got eaten and replaced by Augustus Gloop.

...
This is the most awesome thing ever.
I dare you too find something more awesome.
[HEADING=2]I dare you.[/HEADING]

Spoiler: how about some awesome pair of boobies

Baby seal approves of that awesome pair of boobies.

About the article: So THAT'S why HL3 hasn't come out yet, everyone's far too busy doing nothing at all! A gym, laundry service, massage parlor...and little to know managerial oversight? Yeah, they're fully equipped to take procrastination to a level I didn't think possible.