On VALVe

Valve is a really interesting company to me. They have made some of the best games ever (in my opinion), and run the biggest gaming store. Players love them (for good reason). Their company is flat and people choose what they want to work on. They can’t count to 3*.

Additionally, Valve could not exist from that one lawsuit from Sierra/Vivendi. It seems like a lot of great events have lined up for them. And, as the saying goes, Valve does nothing and wins.

Valve is very lucky and very talented. The other companies are as well, but I think the main difference is that Valve is a private company, and is flat. If you’re not flat, you can’t really dispute a stupid idea that someone three or four levels up made, right? But if you’re in a flat company, then there’s not really anyone any levels up, so you can go ahead and dispute it. And, quite commonly, calm discussion can lead to some nice outcomes. Plus, I really think Valve understands gamers and that the people working there are gamers. Sure, people that work at Epic might be gamers, but combined with everything else…

I just wanted to get this down on writing. Yes, I’m glazing Valve. They’re a cool company. It would be cool to work there. But, I am British. So. This is all!

* Or maybe they can. See: Steam Hardware