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That or the flat organizational structure is dysfunctional and leads to constant restarts / vision changes. I don't know if they are too capitalist or too commu

That or the flat organizational structure is dysfunctional and leads to constant restarts / vision changes. I don't know if they are too capitalist or too communist. Or both.

wahnfrieden 2y ago
They may have a flat org structure but their payments are not similarly "flat" across the org. The economic structure is still pure capitalist.
diggan 2y ago
> I don't know if they are too capitalist or too communist. Or both. Or neither, Valve seems to do just fine as-is. Maybe they should just continue doing exactly what they're doing so far.
- SahAssar 2y ago
  They are doing very well if you measure them by income, revenue, running successful platforms or trying new innovations. They are not doing well as a non-live-service game company. Which is a very limited metric, but the one many people think of since that is where they got started.
  - ehnto 2y ago
    Definitely is where they got started, but Steam is where they made the money to be the industry magnate they are today. They almost ran out of money making HL2. Without steam they would probably have been bought up and eaten years ago. It's interesting to think of an alternative outcome, where they needed to keep making games to make money. I think there is something special about the small team and structure at Valve that would have let them stay nimble and release great games, but as above the industry loves to consolidate good studios and turn them inside out.
    - rstat1 2y ago
      >>They almost ran out of money making HL2. To hear them talk about that, it seemed like that was due to their legal issues with Vivendi Universal. I wonder if the same would've been true if those events didn't happen
  - diggan 2y ago
    > They are doing very well if you measure them by income I was more measuring it based on "Producing enjoyable games" which at least is subjectively true for how I see Valve. I enjoyed Half-Life: Alyx a lot, and it was a jump in quality compared to other VR titles, and the new Counter-Strike 2 is pretty OK too, at least compared to CSGO.

That or the flat organizational structure is dysfunctional and leads to constant restarts / vision changes. I don't know if they are too capitalist or too communist. Or both.

wahnfrieden 2y ago

They may have a flat org structure but their payments are not similarly "flat" across the org. The economic structure is still pure capitalist.

diggan 2y ago

> I don't know if they are too capitalist or too communist. Or both. Or neither, Valve seems to do just fine as-is. Maybe they should just continue doing exactly what they're doing so far.

SahAssar 2y ago
They are doing very well if you measure them by income, revenue, running successful platforms or trying new innovations. They are not doing well as a non-live-service game company. Which is a very limited metric, but the one many people think of since that is where they got started.
- ehnto 2y ago
  Definitely is where they got started, but Steam is where they made the money to be the industry magnate they are today. They almost ran out of money making HL2. Without steam they would probably have been bought up and eaten years ago. It's interesting to think of an alternative outcome, where they needed to keep making games to make money. I think there is something special about the small team and structure at Valve that would have let them stay nimble and release great games, but as above the industry loves to consolidate good studios and turn them inside out.
  - rstat1 2y ago
    >>They almost ran out of money making HL2. To hear them talk about that, it seemed like that was due to their legal issues with Vivendi Universal. I wonder if the same would've been true if those events didn't happen
- diggan 2y ago
  > They are doing very well if you measure them by income I was more measuring it based on "Producing enjoyable games" which at least is subjectively true for how I see Valve. I enjoyed Half-Life: Alyx a lot, and it was a jump in quality compared to other VR titles, and the new Counter-Strike 2 is pretty OK too, at least compared to CSGO.