An Interview With Gabe Newell (PCFormat)

[A.I.]

Ok, Here I go... It took about two hours, from Slovene into English (but the original interview was probably in English...) Please, notify me about any inconsistencies which you find in the text.

PCF On E3 we were most surprised at the attention for details, like dust spreading around the feet while walking. Things like this can really add up to the atmosphere in the game. How much time did take you to add the details like this and how important are for you?
Gabe Newell Attention for details is an important feature of everything what we were trying to achieve with Half-Life 2 whether this be the details in the environment itself or the rendering of the game. It’s about the management of the game of this scale. You can include things which automatically enable those little things like dust, lifting up when walking around, or the final product will be big, slow, buggy, unconnected and possibly never really finished. So, you can correctly include all the details or the whole project simply falls apart.

PCF Does, after all the trouble which you had last year, the development of HL2 go as planned again?
Gabe Newell Of course. The last few months were the most productive and fun in development of Half-Life 2. Now I’m trying to keep this energy until the release of the game.

PCF What would you advise other developers about security when developing a game?
Gabe Newell We got ourselves in an unusual situation. Those who broke into our system were very dedicated to it. Actually they did quite an impressive job, they were writing hacking tools themselves and constantly tried to find any hole in the security system. In a case like this you really can’t do much – you can only depend on police an other related institutions before things get way out of hand.
For a normal level of security can any solid professional set up proper firewalls, maintain operation system and so on. Continuous informing of the whole company about the dangers of social engineering is also recommended. Having a special network for development only is not such a bad idea, but it costs quite a lot of money and you have to ponder if that kind of expenditure is reasonable.
Nevertheless, you have to ask yourself what you can do for your fans that there wouldn’t be any negative consequences, if someone actually steals the source code.

PCF Are you afraid that you enabled other developers to catch you up in terms of technology because of the delay?
Gabe No.

PCF It is obvious that the point of your games is an extraordinary gaming experience for one player. Do you think this would be also in the future? Do you think that game development is leaning to a player who can somehow through the multiplayer create his own story? Will single player eventually become extinct?
Gabe There is a great difference between playing HL2, Counter Strike or Condition Zero with bots. I believe that in the gaming industry we can always find out new options and don’t hang on only on a single player experience. Cooperative way of playing is an area where I see interesting possibilities in the near future.

PCF Will with all advanced features in Source modifying of HL2 still so simple as it was in HL1?
Gabe Because of success and widespread mod community for HL1 we put in a lot of options for modifying HL2. The interface is easier to handle, it offers a lot more options and more things can be adjusted (Gabe gives an example of control over the pipelines for rendering). There will be improved tools, the documentation will be more broad and thorough. Here would also be a lot of other tools, like texture libraries, for example, world geometry, prefabs, and cubes [or bricks, maybe?] so you can only put them together. We hope that the modders with these tools will be able to focus on innovating and the gameplay, rather than focusing only on the mechanics of creating mod itself.

PCF How important are graphics in the evolution of games?
Gabe The point is in the choice of the player. If your shaders are meant only to present them in a game (“Hey, take a look at this fantastic effect!”) they certainly don’t add up anything to the quality of your game. If these shaders can be controlled with the game’s logic itself (e.g.: ”This surface can warm up and if I can heat it up enough the barrels on the other side will explode.”), you’ll enter into a exciting gaming experience.

PCF And for how long do you think will this last?
Gabe I think this will always be so. It’s about an attribute of a game which other media doesn’t have. The goal of graphics is not photorealism, although is considered to be a critical milestone in development of many games. Also as in art photorealism still isn’t always the best choice (take a look at movies, recreated after comic books, despite all the special FX, they are an excellent example why dressing up people in costumes of superheroes isn’t always such a good idea as it looks in a comic book). We know that the world, which can be changed and reacts on the gamer’s actions is incomparably more interesting than the world which looks like a photograph.

PCF How do you experience the popularity of Half-Life? Does affection, which you receive, make you feel good or scares you sometimes?
Gabe Most of folks here at VALVe accepts this as a part of the business. Doug Wood lead one of the presentations at this year’s E3. He was really focused on information we would like to present and he made sure that the visitors could hear him, that the booth could be visited by as many people as possible and so on. When somebody asked him for a signature, his reaction was natural, like: “Sure, I used to be one of them, these are the people who help us to pay our bills so, I must be polite, hospitable and ready to help.”
Of course, we’re not surprised, that there is always some negative or even hostile response. Some time ago, a some people on forums of HL2 fansites laughed at me because I’m fat. I even got e-mails like: “Lose weight or you’ll drop dead, bastard.” I tried to answer them the same way as Doug responded to those who asked him for autographs. In most cases I then received an apology like: “Sorry, I didn’t believe that you would even read my message…”
As I said before, it’s all a part of business.

 

[Bicka]

You might want to space them out more and include :'s for when PCFormat and Gabe start a convo.

Well done though A.I on the translation, yeah I've got the original English version lol

 

[Murray_H]

Nice one

I forgot about that library of prefabs for mod makers, i hope it's good!

 

[evil^milk]

Thanks AI

 

[A.I.]

You might want to space them out more and include :'s for when PCFormat and Gabe start a convo.

Well done though A.I on the translation, yeah I've got the original English version lol

I fixed it a bit, I think it's OK now. How close is it to the original version?

 

[FISKER_Q]

Still pisses me off that people would even flame him for being fat.

It just disgusts me. That someone actually does this kinda thing. Although it's way far from being some dude like Hitler, it's big discrimination.

Anyways good interview opened up quite a bit about operation within valve.

 

[^Thomas^]

So people are sending e-mails to Gabe just to call him fat? Why?

Game doesn`t look anything different from most people. Almost every 30-40% I see out door today is fat, and Gabe doesn`t look anything different from them. I think he`s FAAAR from dropping dead. I have seen people that are 5 times fatter in this town. Get used to it. It`s called reality.

Christ, isn`t this Half-Life 2, and not "Americas next super model"?

If you think Gabe is fat i`ll tell you:

The game will STILL be awsome! So who cares?

And you won`t make the game development faster by taking away peoples confidence.

Thats what I have to say. Hope you guys support me!

 

[Tlaloc]

thnx for heads up

 

[A.I.]

And the philosophy of the company. Well, it's in my sig anyway :afro: And their philosophy is for me even more convincing than the trailers. They for surely won't let us down with this game.

And about insulting Gabe... wonders of the internet, as I read once somewhere? Still I'm concerned about his general health, it must be a very stressful job and it's actually a little wonder he had managed to go through all this hell. Many would probably just crack down (just remember of the outraged community after the 9/30). I admire him for that.

 

[Bicka]

The only difference is the way its worded, but you've gotten across exactly what they've meant, bravo A.I :thumbs:

:cheers:

 

[^Thomas^]

The way its worded?

 

[Bicka]

He had to translate it from Slovene into English whereas I have the English copy of the magazine.

 

[^Thomas^]

Dude, English is hard

 

[Bicka]

Tell me about it...

 

[blindvomit]

Man I can wait for HL2 (like it hasn't been said already)

 

[Bicka]

tell me about it...


Btw Blindvomit you could have just put your sig in a [spoiler ][/spoiler ] tag

 

[A.I.]

Cool, I'm really glad I made it right. Thanks Bicka, I need that kind of response to see how I'm doing it. Of course, the exact words are a bit hard to figure out (to think what the first translator meant with the native expressions, what the original words and phrases would probably be like...) but it was quite fun!

Well, it 2.15 AM here, got to catch up some sleep Good night (or should it be good morning? :rolling: )

 

[Duracell]

Nice interview, cheers A.I :thumbs:

 

[^Thomas^]

Man I can wait for HL2 (like it hasn't been said already)

Ok, but I can`t wait

 

[Qwertywasd]

Cheers for the interview.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

GABE DONT CHANGE WE WUB YOU!!!!

Nice read

 

[dassbaba]

So people are sending e-mails to Gabe just to call him fat? Why?

Game doesn`t look anything different from most people. Almost every 30-40% I see out door today is fat, and Gabe doesn`t look anything different from them. I think he`s FAAAR from dropping dead. I have seen people that are 5 times fatter in this town. Get used to it. It`s called reality.

seriously, hes not even fat


good read

 

[noluck]

good going with the translation :X

its ok to make jokes about a guy being overweight.. i do it with my friends.. but there is a limit, plus it tends to loose its funny after the 500 millionth time (more or less)

 

[blindvomit]

good going with the translation :X

its ok to make jokes about a guy being overweight.. i do it with my friends.. but there is a limit, plus it tends to loose its funny after the 500 millionth time (more or less)

Are you obese? Because if your not I bet you dont know what your obese friends are feeling, just though I'd say that, even as a joke it still hurts big people.

 

[Dougy]

Still pisses me off that people would even flame him for being fat.

It just disgusts me. That someone actually does this kinda thing. Although it's way far from being some dude like Hitler, it's big discrimination.

Anyways good interview opened up quite a bit about operation within valve.

Well i got told today that being 16 stone (im very well built) when i should be 12 is a severe health risk and im 18 years old.

so christ knows what gabes body is doing considering hes a lot more than 16 stone.

but yeah its cruel, but if it makes him get fit then its a sorta "good"/bad thing to do.

meh.

 

[craig]

It's cruel to be so mallicious, but saying he isn't fat when clearly he is is just plain silly.

My only concern with him being the boss at Valve (and considering his input on the HL series) is that he could die of some weight related ailment before HL3 and like Gene Roddenbery (of Star Trek fame) the HL series would be strong for a while and suddenly get really shitty (ala DS9, Voyager).

 

[A True Canadian]

Cute little interview. Thanks for the translation. I really liked the example of heating up a room to make barrels explode.

And I still cannot believe people are still teasing Gabe Newell about his weight. The man is highly respected amongst the gaming crowd. You shouldn't judge someone by their appearence, but by their actions. Hasn't Shrek taught us nothing?

 

[kaf11]

good read. we all love you gabe, keep up the good work. i think there are enough people who like valve/gabe and appreciate the work they do that it overshadows the couple of jackasses out there who would mock them.

 

[merc]

thats terrible that gabe got emails about his weight... what kinds of idiots would be so rude to such a nice man?! THEY MUST DIE!!!!

-merc

 

[Dead-Inside]

Man I can wait for HL2 (like it hasn't been said already)

You can? Oh, good, then I can finally say it, HL2's been delayed until February next year, 2005.

 

[blindvomit]

You can? Oh, good, then I can finally say it, HL2's been delayed until February next year, 2005.

Hah whoops, you were the first one to notice it, heh I guess everyone is on that ''I CAN'T wait for Half-Life 2'' thing, anyway really they delayed it?

 

[SubKamran]

Still pisses me off that people would even flame him for being fat.

It just disgusts me. That someone actually does this kinda thing. Although it's way far from being some dude like Hitler, it's big discrimination.

Anyways good interview opened up quite a bit about operation within valve.

Yah, I feel sorry for Gabe and him recieving those emails. But flaming them back won't help either, which I'm glad they don't do. The one thing I loved about the emails to Valve was that they were ALWAYS polite, they never acted stuck up or anything.

 

[Shuzer]

Hah whoops, you were the first one to notice it, heh I guess everyone is on that ''I CAN'T wait for Half-Life 2'' thing, anyway really they delayed it?

Check your sarcasm detection unit, sir. It seems to be most out of whack

 

[klown]

Man, thats horrible that they sent Gabe e-mails like that..... Are they getting something out of it... And how he responded just proves hes a good guy. :O
P.S. thx for translation!

 

[blindvomit]

Check your sarcasm detection unit, sir. It seems to be most out of whack

Ah yes, batteries ran out, should've gotten Duracell, they keep going and going and going...

 

[ailevation]

:frown: The last part was so touching. I bet you Gabe is really hurting inside, you mean bastards you... I hope they find a way to not let you play Half Life 2!

 

[blindvomit]

:frown: The last part was so touching. I bet you Gabe is really hurting inside, you mean bastards you... I hope they find a way to not let you play Half Life 2!

I just can't believe he had the balls to put that out in public in the millions, hats off Gabe.

 

[Shuzer]

Ah yes, batteries ran out, should've gotten Duracell, they keep going and going and going...

I believe that's the Eneregizer motto.. unless you were being oxymoronical

And yeah, the last part of the interview was a little sad to hear. The e-mail where someone wrote in telling Gabe that he didn't want him develop any medical problems due to his weight came to mind..

 

[blindvomit]

I believe that's the Eneregizer motto.. unless you were being oxymoronical
QUOTE]

Hah yes, I don't even know what that means :E

 

[OnboardError]

Of course, we’re not surprised, that there is always some negative or even hostile response. Some time ago, a some people on forums of HL2 fansites laughed at me because I’m fat.

That would be us at HL2 World :cheers: