Indie Dev Threatens to Kill Gabe Newell, Valve Pulls His Game From Steam

[MerlinCross]

Twitter:

The "drunk/rage" dial of the Internet.

140 characters, no brakes.

Good portions of the net have known this for years but that's becoming really obvious over the last year or two.

 

[Gestapo Hunter]

Thank the video game gods! If its anything we need less of on steam its Indie Games.

 

[Anti Nudist Cupcake]

Man, what an overly dramatic, low-tempered loser. He needs anger management. Freaking out like that over stuff like this is very immature.

He was probably one of those kids who never got told "no" enough at supermarkets.

 

[shirkbot]

It was an error in the status update system. Valve were alerted to the error immediately after the game went on sale and resolved the problem within two hours.

This didn't stop Maulbeck from going ape-shit and throwing a Twit-Fit.

Valve's system messed up, sure, but the only one coming out of this with egg on their face is Maulbeck and his (unfortunate) partner. And somehow I'm having an extremely hard time buying into the notion that two hours of "false advertising" would hurt his overall sales.

Besides, from what I've been hearing, Maulbeck is kind of obnoxious all around. Routinely going on hateful rants on Twitter and banning negative community reviews. I've also heard there's been persistent complaints about promised features not being added or dropped entirely without provocation or an explanation.

I haven't looked into all of these claims, admittedly, but then again I don't really care. He acted incredibly unprofessional in his dealings with a business partner and faced the consequences of those actions. As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of the story.

For him, anyway. If the partner wasn't a party to these threats then I sincerely hope his career isn't affected by this. I wish him the best of luck.

I agree that what he said was idiotic, but isn't this the same game that has been going through all kinds of hell with Valve since day 1? And does anyone truly deserve to have their primary source of income taken away for saying something stupid on Twitter? I don't think this was just a reaction to a labeling error, and I think it's extreme to remove the game from Steam for one man's idiocy, even if he was the project lead. The only Twitter users anyone should take that seriously are in conflict zones, the rest is drivel.

Nobody wins on this one. The devs lose their money/jobs/reputations, Valve looses money and credibility (if this is the game I think it is which hit a stonewall with every one of their publishing methods), and we all lose a game that a lot of people thought was reasonably good. Bad news bears all around.

 

[RicoADF]

So email or call Valve and politely ask them to fix what was most likely just a database error and not something meant to be malicious. Problem solved.

Going to Twitter to throw a hissy fit was the absolute worst thing he could have done.

Apparently past experience with Valve was that any contact would take months for a reply (if any at all) and they were often stuffed around. Frankly from what I've read I can't blame them for getting pissed off. I don't agree with the threat, but getting the shits at yet another fuck up by steam which would likely cost them money they can't afford, yeah I'd be pissed too. Valve can afford these mistakes, the devs cannot.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

And does anyone truly deserve to have their primary source of income taken away for saying something stupid on Twitter?

Yes.

Real World 101: If your income is dependent on another person/business, ESPECIALLY if you think they're a monopoly, you keep your opinions to yourself. Even without the death threats, what he was saying was worthy of his game getting yanked.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

For what it's worth, this is also likely what's behind why Valve is so goshdarn unprofessional so much of the time. I don't know how things were done in the early days when Half-Life and Ricochet were in development, but nowadays a big chunk of the company's crew are former mod teams that got snatched up along with the games they created, and the way the company is run fosters the mentality that this is still their hobby rather than their job, so nobody has any incentive to actually buckle down and do stuff that needs doing.

Actually, they do. Their individual incomes are based on the assessments of the other employees of the company. If someone isn't pulling their weight their paychecks will take a hit.

That only kicks in if someone has been found to actually be doing nothing at all. As long as they're doing something with their time that's deemed to be useful, they're in the clear.

But what if there's something in particular that needs doing, but nobody is doing it? Nobody was assigned to do it, because nobody is ever assigned to anything; they just volunteer to do whatever interests them the most. Like, say, keeping up with recent changes to the Steam store. Or monitoring their public bug tracker [https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues/]. If nobody happens to be doing it anymore, not only can nobody be blamed for it, but chances are nobody even knows that it's not getting done.

 

[Vigormortis]

I agree that what he said was idiotic, but isn't this the same game that has been going through all kinds of hell with Valve since day 1? And does anyone truly deserve to have their primary source of income taken away for saying something stupid on Twitter? I don't think this was just a reaction to a labeling error, and I think it's extreme to remove the game from Steam for one man's idiocy, even if he was the project lead. The only Twitter users anyone should take that seriously are in conflict zones, the rest is drivel.

The legitimacy of the death threat is moot. The man acted unprofessionally and made a threat towards a business partner. Valve took the correct action as a result.

In any other industry, if someone's business partner made a death threat such as Mr. Maulbeck did, that person would (rightly) break off any dealings they had with that partner. Hell, I've seen bigger business deals broken for far less.

What Valve did was the logical move. Why people are acting as though Valve somehow "overreacted" is baffling.

Nobody wins on this one. The devs lose their money/jobs/reputations, Valve looses money and credibility (if this is the game I think it is which hit a stonewall with every one of their publishing methods), and we all lose a game that a lot of people thought was reasonably good. Bad news bears all around.

I've actually heard the opposite, thus far. I've heard the game's been plagued by bad reviews[footnote]Of which, I'm told, Maulbeck set out to censor by banning users from the games community forum.[/footnote], bugs, promised features missing or abandoned without provocation, and a bevy of other complaints.

Besides, even if all of the "woe" Maulbeck had to go through leading up to the game's release were true, his reaction was still unwarranted. I personally know a number of indie-devs who would give their left leg for a chance to have their game advertised on the front page and main marque of the Steam Storefront. That this guy had the fortune of having his game displayed there, yet couldn't wait less than two hours for the minor display error to be fixed, speaks more on his quality of character and professionalism than it does of Valve's.

 

[Vigormortis]

That only kicks in if someone has been found to actually be doing nothing at all. As long as they're doing something with their time that's deemed to be useful, they're in the clear.

But that's not true either. They actually have monthly and yearly employee/peer assessments, based on specific project teams. If members of a team deem the work or effectiveness of another team member to be less valuable than another's, that person's paycheck will reflect that.

It's value assessment. The people providing more value to the project make more money. The people providing less value to the project make less money. It's that simple. (but not really)

But what if there's something in particular that needs doing, but nobody is doing it? Nobody was assigned to do it, because nobody is ever assigned to anything; they just volunteer to do whatever interests them the most. Like, say, keeping up with recent changes to the Steam store. Or monitoring their public bug tracker [https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Source-1-Games/issues/]. If nobody happens to be doing it anymore, not only can nobody be blamed for it, but chances are nobody even knows that it's not getting done.

Which is true of every developer in the industry. Only, in the others' cases, it comes down to whether or not the managers and project leads decide responding to player feedback is worth their time.

You seem to be implying that Valve's designers, coders, and engineers are either lazy or unwilling to take responsibility for their project's and players' needs. As if they decide, "Egh, I don't want to do that so I'm not going to."

Many of them are well aware the damaging effect not addressing fan desires can have on not only their project but their reputation. The whole "Give Diretide" fiasco speaks to this.

And this plays back into their value assessments of each other. If anyone is unwilling to do what needs doing for any given project, their income will reflect that decision. There's a strong emphasis on self-guidance and responsibility within the company.

Another thing that was laid out in their, now public, handbook.

 

[Aurion]

I never said his conduct was justified. In fact in my post I even stated he should not have acted the way he did. The people at Valve should have done their jobs right the first time and not labeled his game as being in early access. I never said they were not justified either but they are partly at fault for it. You wouldn't be angry if you put a game on Steam and then lost sales because someone at Valve messed up and labeled your game as in Early Access?

Emphasis mine.

And that's the part I take issue with. They were not. If the dev has problems with Steam/Valve, there is a time, a place, and a manner in which to express those problems. This conduct is not acceptable, and it's not Valve's fault at all that this guy's an idiot.

I'd contact Valve and point out that the game is no longer in Early Access and I'd appreciate it if they fixed it. Would I be annoyed? Sure. Would that in any way justify me ranting on Twitter about Steam being awful or joking/seriously talking about killing Gaben? Fuck no.

I could harp on professionalism, but it's much more simple: I'm not that fucking stupid.

This is as far as it goes. I don't care about dealing with you or your inevitable reply so I will save us both some time and add you to my ignore list now.

Ooh, edgy.

 

[Bat Vader]

I never said his conduct was justified. In fact in my post I even stated he should not have acted the way he did. The people at Valve should have done their jobs right the first time and not labeled his game as being in early access. I never said they were not justified either but they are partly at fault for it. You wouldn't be angry if you put a game on Steam and then lost sales because someone at Valve messed up and labeled your game as in Early Access?

Emphasis mine.

And that's the part I take issue with. They were not. If the dev has problems with Steam/Valve, there is a time, a place, and a manner in which to express those problems. This conduct is not acceptable, and it's not Valve's fault at all that this guy's an idiot.

I'd contact Valve and point out that the game is no longer in Early Access and I'd appreciate it if they fixed it. Would I be annoyed? Sure. Would that in any way justify me ranting on Twitter about Steam being awful or joking/seriously talking about killing Gaben? Fuck no.

I could harp on professionalism, but it's much more simple: I'm not that fucking stupid.

This is as far as it goes. I don't care about dealing with you or your inevitable reply so I will save us both some time and add you to my ignore list now.

Ooh, edgy.

I realize that I am a hypocrite for this but as I clearly said before it isn't Valve's fault he acted like an idiot. It is however the fault of someone who works at Valve for mislabeling the game as being in early access. I don't understand why you refuse to accept someone at Valve did their job incorrectly.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

Pretty obvious this was a very immature reaction. But to put it on twitter, to people need to be reminded that this kind of shit is open for the whole world to see? And what the hell did he expect to achieve, any sort of resolution whatsoever? He just made himself look like the biggest loser in the world, and all to his own loss.

 

[Therumancer]

...

Yeah, this guy, if he doesn't get arrested, got off easy. Good on Valve to not tolerate this kind of behavior. Wish I knew just how remorseful this guy is, though it doesn't seem to be the case.

You don't make such threats, on Twitter of all places, without repercussions.

Guess it's true: there are over 6 billion people on this planet, and half of them don't know it.

I wouldn't go *THAT* far, I think the response as it is was perfect. Let's be honest, people get pissed off and threaten each other all the time, and the US in particular has gotten crazy with overreacting to stupid threats people made in the heat of the moment, either to high profile figures, or in schools, or whatever else. Given that this was pretty obviously general pissed off talk, I'd have lost a lot of respect for Gabe if he did involve the police and actually wasted the time and money of the system over someone's impotent venting. On the other hand, Gabe does have every right to deny the guy use of his platform and it seems like a a reasonable, and measured response, basically "hey, if you don't like how I do things, and hate me that bad for it, go find someone else who will do better...".

To be fair though I am hoping the guy who made the game does find a distributor, or Gabe is cool enough to eventually let him back on STEAM when he's learned his lesson. That might sound unusually forgiving coming from "The Evil Therumancer" but let's just say I've had a lifelong battle with emotional problems and it took me a long time to get the grip on myself I have now (which isn't always perfect). Brain damage can be a fun thing. Forgiveness, especially when you don't have to, and maybe even shouldn't be forgiving, is one of the greatest things a human being can do, though it is oftentimes not easy.

On a more comedic note I am wondering if Gabe actually has people keeping track of all the things people say about him on the internet... all the comments, threats, and anger over hats, half life delays, his monopoly, and jokes over his weight. One day I wonder if "Children Of Steam" will become a reality... but with no slo-bros to save us all....

The odd thing though is that for some reason for all of his business acumen and how relatively ruthless he has been in getting Steam where it is (though tempered enough where people don't hate him due to generosity with the sales and such, which still make him tons of money) I've always expected that at some point Gabe is going retire or go out with some grand, philanthropic gesture, I don't know why, but I do... that's also why I sort of suspect with time we might very well see Paranautical Activity on STEAM at some point, I don't know the man, but from what little I've seen he doesn't seem to hold a grudge, or at least not over petty things.

 

[Ragnar47183]

In other news, it would seem the general public forgot what the word "Monopoly" means.

 

[TravelerSF]

The thing is, even if Valve were sure there was no legit threat involved, they absolutely CAN NOT allow the kind of atmosphere where their business partners are able to threaten their CEO. That's what I feel was the most important thing they're trying to accomplish. They're sending a message: This is not okay, if you want to so business with us, you have to show some basic amounts of respect. Even if, and especially WHEN thing go wrong, you have to behave like a professional.

 

[Aurion]

I realize that I am a hypocrite for this and I am sorry you are too much of an idiot to understand my post but as I clearly said before it isn't Valve's fault he acted like an idiot. It is however the fault of someone who works at Valve for mislabeling the game as being in early access. I don't understand why you refuse to accept someone at Valve did their job incorrectly.

To The Mods: I am sorry for insulting this guy and I accept my future warning.

Or perhaps not so edgy.

As for the rest, fair enough. My point was an extremely fine-edge one: while someone at Valve indisputably fucked up, the reaction was so over the top ridiculous that it pretty much divorced itself from any calculation of fault or blame that didn't begin and end with the dev.

I have strong beliefs about this kind of thing, and may have overreacted to your post.

I certainly hope the mods don't warn you for calling someone an idiot. At the least, I've no intention of running to the hall monitor.

 

[Bat Vader]

I realize that I am a hypocrite for this and I am sorry you are too much of an idiot to understand my post but as I clearly said before it isn't Valve's fault he acted like an idiot. It is however the fault of someone who works at Valve for mislabeling the game as being in early access. I don't understand why you refuse to accept someone at Valve did their job incorrectly.

To The Mods: I am sorry for insulting this guy and I accept my future warning.

Or perhaps not so edgy.

As for the rest, fair enough. My point was an extremely fine-edge one: while someone at Valve indisputably fucked up, the reaction was so over the top ridiculous that it pretty much divorced itself from any calculation of fault or blame that didn't begin and end with the dev.

I have strong beliefs about this kind of thing, and may have overreacted to your post.

I certainly hope the mods don't warn you for calling someone an idiot. At the least, I've no intention of running to the hall monitor.

I just wanted to apologize for insulting you earlier. It was childish of me. I was having a really crappy day when I read your post and I unfairly took it on you. It's not an excuse I know but I wanted to explain why.