Spitcodfry's trip to valve

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D33

D33

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Originally posted by spitcodfry
Before I get into the meat and potatoes of things I'd like to first thank Kamakiri. If it hadn't been for his e-mail to Gabe, I probably wouldn't have had the nerve to call Valve to arrange the tour. So this thread is dedicated to you, man, you're a pretty cool dude.

Now, let's get things started, shall we? I'm going to be making a post for each picture, so don't expect me to answer anything till I'm done with pasting them all.

First I'll give as short a narration as possible of today's events. I got up, then my mom told me I'd got an e-mail about the tour---I was confused at this, because I hadn't e-mailed Gabe about the tour, but just if he could give me some release info.

I checked out the e-mail which was from Kamakiri, and he told me to check out the forums...so I headed over here and saw that he'd gotten ahold of Gabe via e-mail. Gabe said for me just to phone the receptionist and tell her a time to drop by.

So now, I'm like totally freakin excited. I call up directory assistance and get the number for Valve. I phone, get the lovely receptionist on the line, tell her all the pertinent info, and she puts me on hold to go confirm all this with Gabe. The music that played at the beginning of Half-Life during the tram ride filled my ears as I was on hold.

She came back on about half a minute later, and told me it would be fine to stop by, and asked me what would be a good time to come over, as if their schedule could actually work around mine. I tell her noon and hurry my ass to get dressed and hustle on down to Bellevue.

At about 11:00 am PST I get there, and start taking some photos of the exterior of the building. This is the part where I post a pic and make another reply to this thread to continue the virtual tour of Valve.

This is the exterior of their building, of which they occupy one floor of.
Click to expand...
 
Spitcodfry is now waiting for the resized pictures to be sent back to him, once he recieves the images I'll open this thread.

I know this sounds harsh but until he's finished posting I don't want to see another user post here. I'm sure you can understand that this is being done to make your lives a bit easier - not having to scan through 60 pages of random comments.

Cheers.

:)

EDIT: spitcodfry is now a supermod and can post in here so the thread shall remain closed until he finishes.
 
I finally got the pics folks, here's hoping it works this time. The first pic is of the outside of the building in which Valve Software is located. They're on the tenth floor.

Click here for the photo!
 
Just to let you know D33, when I'm done I will say so, then you can re-open the thread and strip me of my godly powers.
 
Alright, let's get started. After I took pics of the outside of the building, it was around 11:30 pm when I decided to go on up. As I walked towards the entrance, my heart beat with trepidation.

Click here for the photo!
 
Sorry for the delay folks...I forgot to send one of the most integral pics to Tek...check your e-mail dude, I sent you the last one. Could you please re-size that one for me?

Again, I apologize for the delay...I'll get this story goin as fast as possible after I get that last pic
 
I headed into an elevator and pressed the tenth level button. I was surprised at the speed at which the elevator travelled. Probably reached the floor in less than ten seconds from the building's lobby.

Nervous as hell, I stepped out and looked about in both directions. On the right I could see through two glass doors that looked like a cafeteria/lounge area. I looked left and saw two large, steel-like doors with this next to it...

Click here for the photo!
 
Going to change the pictures from attachments and upload them to the server. It'll take a lot of strain off the forums and speed them up. ( spitcodfry : keep posting them as attachments m8, i'll edit afterwards :) )
 
I went around some nondescript hallways for a while searching aimlessly for a receptionist's desk...I then headed back to the door with Valve next to it. I turned the knob and and it wouldn't budge. I paced about near the elevators for a while, and then someone arrived out of one of them...no, not Gabe, sorry. I didn't recognize him, but he was obviously a Valve employee.

I explained to him that I was here for a tour...and he asked who I was meeting...which I didn't really know...so I stammered in my speech for a bit. He told me to follow him. So I did. He unlocked the two doors and took me inside the main foyer with the receptionist's desk. He told me to wait there while he asked someone if anyone was expecting me.

Let me tell you folks, this was an amazing foyer for a game company...heck, any company. I'm stupid not to have taken broader pictures of this room, especially what was situated in the center, a big valve! Curse me for not taking a pic of that, can't believe I forgot to.

Anywho...while the gentleman that escorted me in went off to see who the hell I was, the lovely receptionist entered from the opposite side from where the gatekeeper went. I introduced myself and explained my appointment. At this point she told me to have a seat, since I was 20 minutes early...then the gatekeeper came in and said Gabe, that's right, Gabe, was in a meeting, but would be with me shortly.

So now I'm like, totally ecstatic. I'm going to get a personal tour of Valve Software by Gabe Newell!! I thought I'd take some pictures of some of the things in the foyer before he arrived. Obviously I asked the receptionist if I could beforehand. I could!!

Click here for the photo!
Enjoy...
 
After I snapped those suckers...guess who came walking through the door on the right to introduce himself? The man of all men, Gabe Newell! He shook my hand, and started me off on my trip to wonderland.

The first thing I asked him was about the 30th. And people, I gotta tell ya I didn't expect him to spill the beans for me if he didn't spill them for the press. I asked: "Will you make it for release by the 30th?"

He chuckled and said "We'll see." He told me things were as hectic as ever there. I got the impression though that it'll be real close if they make the 30th. People weren't setting off fires in the hallways and ripping each other's hair out or anything, which is what I would have expected before a game is completed.

He took me into an office and let me snap some shots of some of the concept art we've seen, and some we haven't (well maybe we have, but some of these I don't recognize).

Salivate...

Click here for the photo!
 
I skipped this part in the chronology, just came to me...but like the first thing Gabe showed me was this cool wooden carving of a monster that never made it into the original Half-Life...the platter it is on had a large glass dome enclosure to make it all, you know, showy...

Click here for the photo!
 
As Gabe kept showing me the different offices, I began to realize that we were going in a circle. Their floor was designed so that the offices were all on the outer regions and were connected by just one big, circular hallway.

We eventually ended up in Marc Laidlaw's office, but no Marc sadly...guess he wasn't there today. I did get some pics of it, though...

Click here for the photo!
 
Then at the next point in the tour, Gabe showed me their Day of Defeat/ Counter-Strike section of development. He introduced me to two people in this department, one of which had a Scottish accent. I'm really bad with names...sorry Valve guys!

After chatting with those pleasant folks for a while about Steam (Gabe mentioned they're prepping for another release), he took me to meet Erik Johnson. Erik was real nice and talked about how his roof was leaking, and that didn't make things very pleasant on top of the new baby. Oh yeah, here's a pic of him with me, in front of a DOD poster...

Click here for the photo!
 
Unfortunately I didn't get to see any Half-Life 2, and was surprised at how it appeared as if they weren't working on it at all. There were a couple individuals who were working in developer modes...one such individual said he was tackling a problem with water effects.

The only other 'on-screen' indication of Half-Life 2 I saw there was an employee fiddling with what looked to be a Combine soldier behind a gray backdrop. I expected to see some playtesting of in-game stuff going on, but maybe that's done off-site.

Who knows, when Gabe knew I was coming maybe he intiated some sort of lockdown procedure and told all the employees "Stop playing! Look like you're working on something!"

So sadly, no knew info was gained from my visit...but it did appear that no one was stressed out...everyone was working calmly. The two fellows, one of which that had the Scottish accent, seemed to be having a good laugh between each other. It really does seem like a positive work environment there, I must say.

One bit of info that might interest all of you is when I mentioned to Gabe that someone from Vivendi stated they wouldn't be making any announcements on the game going gold, he laughed. He said communication apparently wasn't what it should be with VU in that regard.

He did say though that they will be making a gold announcement, and that they won't just send it to retailers on the 30th without prior notice to the public.

Well, that concluded my tour...nothing earth shattering in terms of info gained, but impressive for me nontheless. I'll definetely be e-mailing Gabe to thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to please one of his fans.

And thanks to D33 that gave me Super Moderator so I could post this long winded story without a flurry of posts surrounding its bits and pieces. Thanks also to Tek who re-sized these images so you could all see them.

So D33, you can un-sticky this now and return me to Hydra...or maybe Combine? Please? No jk.

Oh, and one more pic. It's me with Gabe, and I'm holding a crowbar statue...enjoy

Click here for the photo!
 
Ever seen an online stampede?

Thread opened.

You have now...
 
GREAT JOB

EDIT:BTW: how tall are u? and how long were u there?
 
Thanks for the pics and info, spitcodfry!

Nice to see behind the scenes of valve! :)
 
WOW SO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! congradulations and glad you could experience it, thanks for allt he info and pics
 
The guy working on the combine was probably an artist tweaking it in XSI.
 
YAY, so its pretty confident now that it WILL be in stores on 9/30?? GOOD JOB MAN!! Your up in high ranks in my books.
 
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