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There's a lot of discussion around this interview, and unfortunately much of it tries to paint her as a trouble-making whiner. A lot of her complaints match wh

by srdev 13y ago

There's a lot of discussion around this interview, and unfortunately much of it tries to paint her as a trouble-making whiner. A lot of her complaints match what I would expect from an attempt of a non-hierarchal organization: cliques, lack of ability to get man-power for essential but non-popular work, and inability to consider points of views that don't match with the larger group. The potential downsides of open allocation systems are swept under the rug as bitterness, and nothing of value is gained. What I wonder is, are the issues she encountered fixable? She recommends a small layer of management, but that seems like it would erode away at the system they are trying to harbor. Since the issue seemed to be specific to the challenges of the hardware division, maybe they could have just split and applied the fixes only to the hardware portion.

ownagefool 13y ago
I have no idea what goes on internally in valve but the lady wasn't working on essential but non-popular work, she was working on an idea, based around her desire to engineer hardware, retroactively attempting to add gameplay to it after what sounds like numerous attempts were made to nudge her onto course and remind her she was working at a gaming company. She pretty much says all that in the video interview, it's just a shame that people have bought into valve having a problem, rather than valve just being the wrong place for her to work and follow her desire to produce new and interesting hardware, which doesn't sound like it entirly fits the pc gaming landscape.
- talmand 13y ago
  Do you work at Valve? Because you are laying claim to a great deal of information that you say you don't know. You say you have no idea what goes on internally at Valve but you then make a judgement call on someone's work at Valve? You seem to believe the parts of her story that are negative towards her but choose to ignore the parts of her story that are negative towards Valve? What's wrong with thinking there might be a problem at Valve? Hardware doesn't fit the PC gaming landscape? Why don't we go with the idea that we don't have enough information to know anything of what's going on inside of Valve other than the people inside Valve?
  - ownagefool 13y ago
    Did you watch the video, because you've seemed to misunderstood my comment that I'm drawing conclusions based on what she said and what she summarized the platform was at this current moment. That doesn't have a lot of do with valve, just the fact I'm saying as a PC gamer it doesn't sound like anything I'd be interested in and while she bitterly suggested there were ulterior motives, it is possible that people just weren't actually interested. This doesn't mean that there aren't problems at valve, but I suspect the problems are fairly typical as nothing is perfect for everyone.
    - talmand 13y ago
      No, I didn't watch the video but read an article where she was interviewed. From what I gather she was consistent between the two. I didn't misunderstand your comment in that you made specific claims despite saying you know little of the internals of Valve. I just didn't understand how you could do that. I found it interesting that you were willing to believe her story during the parts with her describing her own shortcomings, which she has been honest about, but apparently completely disagree with her negative opinions on Valve. Even though she would be a source of information of the internals of Valve since she worked there. If someone else steps forward to disagree with her then that would be one thing, but no one has (that I know of) so her story is all we have. Not that I automatically believe her but I give her story some consideration because what she describes is not that unreasonable for the type of company culture that Valve has publicly admitted that they have. Maybe it's possible that her problem lay within the structure of how Valve works and not her personally nor her project, which you only seem willing to focus on?
      - ownagefool 13y ago
        You haven't quite understood me. Of course her problem was with the structure of how valve worked, it was different from what she desired. My point was that that doesn't make valves flat structure terrible, but also doesn't make her terrible either, it just means they were ill-matched. However, her desire to bend the company to her will doesn't seem like the most likely outcome in my opinion. Also please keep in mind, she was slating valve, as far as I know they haven't criticised her. If they did, I'd no doubt look for reasons to find their opinion invalid. :p

by srdev 13y ago

ownagefool 13y ago

I have no idea what goes on internally in valve but the lady wasn't working on essential but non-popular work, she was working on an idea, based around her desire to engineer hardware, retroactively attempting to add gameplay to it after what sounds like numerous attempts were made to nudge her onto course and remind her she was working at a gaming company. She pretty much says all that in the video interview, it's just a shame that people have bought into valve having a problem, rather than valve just being the wrong place for her to work and follow her desire to produce new and interesting hardware, which doesn't sound like it entirly fits the pc gaming landscape.

talmand 13y ago
Do you work at Valve? Because you are laying claim to a great deal of information that you say you don't know. You say you have no idea what goes on internally at Valve but you then make a judgement call on someone's work at Valve? You seem to believe the parts of her story that are negative towards her but choose to ignore the parts of her story that are negative towards Valve? What's wrong with thinking there might be a problem at Valve? Hardware doesn't fit the PC gaming landscape? Why don't we go with the idea that we don't have enough information to know anything of what's going on inside of Valve other than the people inside Valve?
- ownagefool 13y ago
  Did you watch the video, because you've seemed to misunderstood my comment that I'm drawing conclusions based on what she said and what she summarized the platform was at this current moment. That doesn't have a lot of do with valve, just the fact I'm saying as a PC gamer it doesn't sound like anything I'd be interested in and while she bitterly suggested there were ulterior motives, it is possible that people just weren't actually interested. This doesn't mean that there aren't problems at valve, but I suspect the problems are fairly typical as nothing is perfect for everyone.
  - talmand 13y ago
    No, I didn't watch the video but read an article where she was interviewed. From what I gather she was consistent between the two. I didn't misunderstand your comment in that you made specific claims despite saying you know little of the internals of Valve. I just didn't understand how you could do that. I found it interesting that you were willing to believe her story during the parts with her describing her own shortcomings, which she has been honest about, but apparently completely disagree with her negative opinions on Valve. Even though she would be a source of information of the internals of Valve since she worked there. If someone else steps forward to disagree with her then that would be one thing, but no one has (that I know of) so her story is all we have. Not that I automatically believe her but I give her story some consideration because what she describes is not that unreasonable for the type of company culture that Valve has publicly admitted that they have. Maybe it's possible that her problem lay within the structure of how Valve works and not her personally nor her project, which you only seem willing to focus on?
    - ownagefool 13y ago
      You haven't quite understood me. Of course her problem was with the structure of how valve worked, it was different from what she desired. My point was that that doesn't make valves flat structure terrible, but also doesn't make her terrible either, it just means they were ill-matched. However, her desire to bend the company to her will doesn't seem like the most likely outcome in my opinion. Also please keep in mind, she was slating valve, as far as I know they haven't criticised her. If they did, I'd no doubt look for reasons to find their opinion invalid. :p