This is why people love Valve, you wouldn't see Kotick do this.

Meets with fans from /v/ on his birthday, talks about the new Source engine. Spends 45 minutes talking to them. Valve once again proving they handle shit right.

Source engine talk is about 6 minutes in. I know this borders on "youtube spam" but man it's great to see a game company like this. Dude's a billionaire and still doing stuff like this.

.... Yeah, how dare Bobby Kotick.

Well, let's just clear the air here: The reasons people adore Valve are

1) they're riding on goodwill from older games they've made and not yet screwed anything up (like people feel about Blizzard and Diablo 3)

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

@Brodehouse: The difference between a publicly traded company and a privately owned and operated company is sometimes very stark indeed.

Edit: Thanks, duder!

Well, let's just clear the air here: The reasons people adore Valve are

1) they're riding on goodwill from older games they've made and not yet screwed anything up (like people feel about Blizzard and Diablo 3)

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

I wouldn't say this makes Bobby Kotick worse or why I don't like him. I don't like him because of statements he's made. I don't like him because of how he handles some of the properties his company owns. I don't like him because he's an ass.

Kotick doesn't have time to meet a bunch of nerds! He's too busy eating babies and stepping on puppies and kittens.

I wouldn't say this makes Bobby Kotick worse or why I don't like him. I don't like him because of statements he's made. I don't like him because of how he handles some of the properties his company owns. I don't like him because he's an ass.

who the fuck would want to meet bobby kotick?

@Leptok said:

@Sless

Well, let's just clear the air here: The reasons people adore Valve are

1) they're riding on goodwill from older games they've made and not yet screwed anything up (like people feel about Blizzard and Diablo 3)

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Portal and Portal 2 are old?

To say nothing of TF2, Left 4 Dead or Dota 2.

@Leptok: It really depends on what you classify a 'valve game' as. L4D, Portal, TF2, DOTA2 were all based on works by 'Turtle Rock Studios', Narbacular Drop, a 'Quake' mod, and WC3 mod respectively.

If you're a glass half empty kind of person, then the last full game that valve has made was HL2 in 2004

If you're a glass half full kind of person, then these games only reached their full potential under valve's guidance

That's cause no one would want to do this for Kotick, and if they did, they wouldn't visit him to do any good, let alone show their thanks for anything he's done. So yeah, of course he wouldn't do this. Does that make him a worse person? No, it's just fucking logical.

I'm not trying to defend the guy, but he's been out of the news for so long that bringing him up in a story that has nothing to do with him seems real childish. What next? "Jack Thompson wouldn't do this!" "Hitler wouldn't do this!"

I wouldn't want to hang out with people from /v/ either.

@Sless said:

Well, let's just clear the air here: The reasons people adore Valve are

1) they're riding on goodwill from older games they've made and not yet screwed anything up (like people feel about Blizzard and Diablo 3)

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Speak for yourself, those certainly aren't my sole reasons for liking Valve.

@Sless said:

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Plus it's an easy to use program and everything.

@konig_kei said:

who the fuck would want to meet bobby kotick?

The correct answer has been found!

@Phatmac said:

I wouldn't want to hang out with people from /v/ either.

This one too!

@Phatmac said:

I wouldn't want to hang out with people from /v/ either.

Pretty much this, except all internet groups. Unless you're Stephen Colbert, Gabe Newell, or *insert other unanimously beloved person here,* it would never be this nice or good willed.

@Leptok: I bet you that probably 80% of the steam user base doesn't even know who Gabe Newell is.. specially international users, not every country out there is into personality cult a la USA.

Is it just me, or is this not exactly a big deal?

Gabe is a nerd who loves games and the community. Kotick is the head of a company.

Both are successful, but very different people.

Of course the above is overly simplified in the extreme, but they have different needs/expectations.

@Phatmac said:

I wouldn't want to hang out with people from /v/ either.

@SuperSambo: You realize that Gabe Newell is also the head of a company, yes?

@Kerned said:

@SuperSambo: You realize that Gabe Newell is also the head of a company, yes?

I edited it saying how simplified it was, but yes I do.

The expectations of a private vs a public company leader (possibly may be wrong about the state of the two businesses) are vastly different.

Well, they are privately owned so pressure from stockholders is not something they have to deal with. If they IPO'd though, well, things might actually be a lot different.

noooo they killed the space game

@Video_Game_King said:

@Sless said:

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Plus it's an easy to use program and everything.

Easy to use? Sure. Well made? Nope.

@Leptok: yes, things like this really help. I think much of it comes down to he's just a good guy who isn't a suit-and-tie business dude before all else. Also, Valve isn't publicly traded. That is a HUGE factor. They get to decide their own destiny. Not blow investment bankers every quarter.

I'm pretty sure valve is the coolest company and anyone who doesnt like them can suck it

I mean you got your half lifes, you got your portals, got your erik & chet, got your gabe, what's not to like?

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Sless said:

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Plus it's an easy to use program and everything.

Easy to use? Sure. Well made? Nope.

I think it's pretty impressive from a tech-side points of view. And it's even free. If you're talking design, well that's a matter of subjectivity.

Kotick's a businessman, not a gamer. He hires people to take care of the games part. He just keeps Activision successful.

Nate Silver next big thing is using 4chan to predict the success of games.

What does this have to do with Activision or Bobby Kotick? Oh, nothing. That's what.

@SathingtonWaltz said:

@Video_Game_King said:

@Sless said:

2) Steam has games dirt cheap twice a year and it sends gamers into a frenzy.

Plus it's an easy to use program and everything.

Easy to use? Sure. Well made? Nope.

A well reasoned and thought out retort.

@Sless:

I like Valve a lot, and for neither of the reasons you listed. Honestly Half-Life is a good shooter and Half-Life 2 is better but I don't understand the bricks that get shit over how Half-Life 3 has yet to come out (I prefer that every single game they have released since HL2:E2 has come out instead of HL3) and I think TF2, Portal and its successor, and Dota 2 are some of the best work Valve has done, even if I think TF2 went astray after many years. I couldn't give a shit about Counter-Strike, even though I agree it is a good game, and honestly I think Left 4 Dead is boring (again I think it is good but I don't like it).

When it comes to Steam the only reason I like it is because it is a way to deliver product to us gamers without trying to fuck us over at every turn. I think Steam has a lot of negative sides (mostly that it is almost always on DRM) and it fucks up a lot, but it is way better than all of the bullshit that we are fed in brick and mortar stores like Gamestop.

Valve is cool because of their corporate structure, their willingness to engage with the community and encourage the community to get involved with their products on multiple levels, and because they are about making cool games. You don't see a lot of companies with millions of dollars doing that because they are being controlled by businessmen, not people who make games.

Such an awesome talk. Thanks for sharing :)

But how many Gabe Newell's have you seen in a film with Brad Pitt?

Exactly.

I <3 /v/ sometimes.