Gabe answers [translation]

That was a teleconference with Gabe Newell, which all Valve admirers were looking forward to. He answered the questions of users of reddit and I suggest to get acquainted with them. Anyone interested in please under the cat.

What improvements are waiting for us in the Source 2 engine?

The most significant improvements will be related to the productivity of creating new content. We realized the importance of this when we saw how rapidly the user-generated content was developing. Professional developers face many problems associated with this.
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Recently, a virtual reality helmet Valve VR stunned developers and showed what awaits us in the coming years. When did Valve start practicing VR technology and why?

Abrash had been thinking about this for some time, and began to study seriously two years ago. He decided that we had reached the point where the problems associated with VR were finally solved.

Steam OS could potentially become the first commercial operating system of virtual reality. What are your plans for the future of this platform? How are you going to solve serious problems, such as user input?

User input is a real challenge. So far we have no solution to this problem, and we will deal with it later. Now we need to start small, work with experienced fragments in order to arrive at the necessary solution.

A huge number of demos for Oculus Rift are made on the Unity engine. Do Valve plan to turn Source or Source 2 into a more player-friendly development environment with support for C ++ API and simple tools, and release it in advance to give VR developers a start?

Alex Vlachos is currently working on this (debugging the successful Source 2 and VR interaction). However, Unity is still useful for many things.

Finally - and I think this question has already been asked to you repeatedly - I would like to ask what everyone is eagerly waiting for, which is ideal for adapting to VR, because of its way of presenting the plot, the open world and the puzzle elements: Ricochet 2. Is the development time related to the development of technologies like VR? Are you going to give your products such as Ricochet 2 full support for VR in the future?

We do not delay our games due to the development of VR. Such parallels should not be made.

How do you feel about your Internet person's obsession with the Internet?

It amuses my friends.

First of all, thanks for making Steam for Linux. Do you use Linux in your daily life? If so, what's your favorite distribution?

Debian.

Do you think that in the long run, will Linux not only be the future of the igro industry, but also the future of desktop computers?

Maybe.

Do Valve plan to release exclusives for Steam OS?

Not.

What is your favorite non-Valve game?

Mario 64.

During the leakage of the Half-Life 2 source code at the end of 2003, a group of vigilant gamers teamed up with the hope of catching hackers. This happened because Valve told us (especially you personally) in their forums that there would be serious delays in game development due to this incident. We were FURY. The original Half-Life was my favorite game, and I was very much waiting for the release of Half-Life 2. Two of us headed the “investigation”, TheAmazingXemo and I, Gtwy. I was still in high school and had no experience of this kind of work, but I knew basic HTML, so we tried to do what we could. We started with a website known as the “Half Life 2 Source Code Resource Page.” At that time, Usenet was a very popular file sharing service, we tracked the source code files to the user who posted them there. We were able to google his Usenet username and find out that he was a member of a clan in some MMORPG, so we got the full name and contact details from the clan site. He passed his source when we contacted him, pretending to be someone from IRC. At the peak of its activity, our site received from half a million to a million clicks every day. It was great to see all those anonymous tips and messages that rained on us from people from different parts of the world. And we felt that we were doing something to help. I know that your company knew about our site, because the FBI contacted us and even accused us of the hacking. I do not blame you for such actions, perhaps it was very suspicious from your point of view. However, we still successfully identified the hacker, Ago, in our final post, dated October 13, 2003. I don’t know if this happened before or after the FBI itself figured out his identity, but I would like to hope that we somehow helped the investigation . I know that even if they had already found it, it would not be made public. (The evidence we collected). It has now been ten years since that investigation. I hoped you would shed some light on what was happening backstage. I always wanted to ask you this, but did not know how. I would like you to know that our motivations were exceptionally good, and that we are still loyal Valve fans. I really hope that you will answer this, but even if you can not - thanks for this opportunity!

Thank you, presidentjim / Gtwy for all your help. We remembered your site about leakage as an invaluable resource. Did we not then contact directly? Obviously, we then worked with the FBI, but they could not share with us which sources led to the arrest, and which did not. But you guys did a lot more to uncover the Ago than the feds could ever do. We think this is one of the first cases where motivated users are ahead of the authorities.

It's not a question, it's just my birthday. If you wish me a happy birthday, I will have nothing more to desire in this life.

Happy birthday, Bajeezus.

Could you say when we see Counter-Strike Global Offensive for Linux?

Development is in progress, but there is no exact release date yet.

When did you start collecting knives, and which ones are your favorites?

Since childhood. Today, many good masters of knives. Two of the most unknown of those that are worth paying attention to are Kevin Cashen at cashenblades.com and Elizabeth Loerchner at ecloerchner.com.

How many hours a week do you spend playing video games, and which of them do you prefer?

Dota 2 and about 20 hours.

Do you play a lot of Dota 2? What is your favorite character? Have you ever shouted at a teammate?

Aha Sand King / Random; Yes.

First of all, thank you so much for all the work you've done with Valve and Steam! In connection with the success of Dota 2, and then CS: GO in the cyber arena, what do you think, what kind of future does cybersport have for PC?

We believe that we are still only on the way to the moment when all those numerous people who contribute to cyber competitions can get all that is due to them. However, we are making good progress in this area. We are thinking about introducing a direct link between content consumers and its creators so that the community can be much more attracted to those tournaments that matter to it.

Was the growth of Dota 2 a surprise? And where will TI4 take place?

We knew that there were a lot of people playing Dota 1, and many of them worked at Valve, so we hoped to work hard enough to attract these people to play Dota 2. We have not yet determined where International will take place this year. We are almost certain that it will be at Key Arena in Seattle, but there is always the risk that something will not go according to plan. As soon as everything is finally established, we will inform everyone who is interested. This year should be fun.

A year ago at the DICE summit, you and JJ Abrams mentioned that you were going to cooperate to work on certain projects. I am your big fan and I am very excited. Bad Robot is going to make films based on Valve games. Will your games in the future be based on Bad Robot material? (I would be very happy to see a new game on the TV series “Lost”, especially made by Valve). What do you like about JJ Abrams as a director?

When I talk to him, I get the impression that I'm talking to someone from Valve. This is a very rare case, especially for people from the film industry.

Thank you for your responses! My questions: What was the strangest / most ridiculous thing you received via e-mail? What is your favorite TF2 item?

4Chan sent us a box and offered to buy a key to open it. We sold it on Craiglist.

Hatimaki peacemaker.

Hi, Geiben (if I can call you that), how are you? Here is my question: Before the Steam Greenlight was introduced, how did the process of adding new games to the Steam store go?

We quickly exhausted all the ideas about this, which led us to Greenlight, and now leads to the fact that Steam has become a self-publishing system.

Thanks for answers! I have had the pleasure of being part of the Steam community for more than ten years. I joined when everything started in 2003. Going back to the time you had (and Valve) views on the future of Steam, and were they able to materialize afterwards? Also, what is your vision for the future of the Steam platform and PC gaming over the next ten years?

I’m not trying to dodge the question, but we find it more acceptable to rely on feedback, rather than on deadlines and goals. Interacting with the community always entails a permanent change in these terms. The main thing to reduce the length of such cycles. In the long term, we see the main work at the level of individuality of the players, when we consider each of them as a creator and publisher. “How could we make games more productive?” Sounds strange, but this is about what we just want.

How hard was it to promote Steam in 2004?

Whenever you create something new, you have to face various difficulties. In general, it was the usual portion of suffering, and, with such a reservation, it was not so scary.

Why did you choose “Valve” as a company name?

Because it sounded better than Rhino Scar.

How do you feel about all these government difficulties in America and Europe about property and Internet rights?

A couple of years ago, I donated a million dollars to the American Civil Liberties Union.

In your life, was there a moment when you were going to sell / leave Valve and generally retire from the cyber industry and do something else?

Actually, no. I like the people I work with and enjoy being part of the community.

In the future, are you going to release all games for Linux / Steam OS? Was it a problem to find developers to make it compatible with Linux?

Yes. Not particularly. There are many popular opinions in the developer community about Linux and the igro industry.

Geyben, what are your distinctive qualities?

Well, I'm handsome and charming person.

What are your hobbies besides your work?

Creating things from metal. Motor sport.

Have you ever noticed that your interest in computer games is declining with age? Or do you continue to enjoy them, as you always did?

In my case, it does not depend on age.

I have a question about Steam Music. Sorry if this is not your area, or something. Is integration with services like Pandora and Spotify possible in the future? In fact, I do not have my own music library, I mostly use Internet radio, so it would be great if I didn’t have to constantly fold to change stations or skip songs. How about this?

Yes, we have something in development that I think you will like.



Now I want to ask you whether he habrovchane answered your questions?