The making-of/behind the scenes interactive doc for Half Life: Alyx has some Valve veterans talking about how this organizational structure didn’t work out long term....
The making-of/behind the scenes interactive doc for Half Life: Alyx has some Valve veterans talking about how this organizational structure didn’t work out long term.
“We sort of had to collectively admit we were wrong on the premise that you will be happiest if you work on something you personally want to work on the most,” Walker said in the app’s fifth chapter, “Fixing Valve”.
Greg Coomer, who still works at Valve, said the company began “having a lot of cultural conversations about why we were unhappy”. “There were just too many things going on at the company to feel like we were healthy as an organisation.”
“We decided as a group that we would all be happier if we worked on a bigt thing, even if it’s not exactly what we wanted to work on,” Walker added.
Since HL:A, Valve has released more titles. CS:2 was a big hit for me and my friends, and more recently Deadlock has had around 20k peak players in its closed alpha. I think whatever changes they made to their organization were for the better.
My understanding was the outcomes were mixed. There's certainly motivation benefits for some of the self organising aspect, but also some that found it hard to deal with the system of informal...
My understanding was the outcomes were mixed. There's certainly motivation benefits for some of the self organising aspect, but also some that found it hard to deal with the system of informal authority that grew in the absences of formal authority. My understanding as well is they've also walked slightly back from the full on implementation as described here because of the period where they were just getting nothing finished (which is larger even than it looked from outside when you consider projects like that started outside Valve and were brought inside), and while they still don't have managers, there is more assigning of projects going on for stuff they really want done.
It's an experiment that was largely enabled by the steam money printer, but from what I heard it led to a lot of aimlessness internally which also bothered the people who liked to have a finished product to say "I did that" about.
God, it is going to suck so hard when Gabe Newell's heirs decide to go public. Valve being a private company means it can do unorthodox pro-employee (in spirit, if dysfunctional in practice) and...
God, it is going to suck so hard when Gabe Newell's heirs decide to go public. Valve being a private company means it can do unorthodox pro-employee (in spirit, if dysfunctional in practice) and pro-customer stuff that public companies are legally not allowed to do in the interest of maximizing shareholder benefit.
The concept you're referencing is called fiduciary duty to investors, and this is a common misunderstanding of it. There is no law requiring any company to maximize profits.
that public companies are legally not allowed to do in the interest of maximizing shareholder benefit.
The concept you're referencing is called fiduciary duty to investors, and this is a common misunderstanding of it. There is no law requiring any company to maximize profits.
Huh, you appear to be right: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/basr.12108 Honest thanks for clearing that up. I suppose it is less of a legal risk than a risk the leadership would be...
Furthermore, the concept of a CEO's main priority to be providing shareholder value was pushed by Milton Friedman in the 70s without any fundamental basis, and even Jack Welch has called it "the...
Furthermore, the concept of a CEO's main priority to be providing shareholder value was pushed by Milton Friedman in the 70s without any fundamental basis, and even Jack Welch has called it "the worlds dumbest idea" (bet you didn't expect Forbes to write that article!).
So in reality, the idea of maximizing shareholder value was all based off perception/vibes (as if the stock market wasn't already a graph of "rich people's feelings." This perception became ossified by structural incentives made during the 80s to reduce taxes for the wealthy and heavily weighting executive compensation towards stocks.
So when you see that a lot of the decision makers at companies are detached from actual business realities (i.e. their employees, customers, and product), it's no surprise why so many public companies these days march head-first towards enshittification.
People Make Games did a great video on Valve. They interviewed a bunch of former employees and investigated into how Valve operates. It's a very interesting watch. Definitely not your typical business
People Make Games did a great video on Valve. They interviewed a bunch of former employees and investigated into how Valve operates. It's a very interesting watch. Definitely not your typical business
The making-of/behind the scenes interactive doc for Half Life: Alyx has some Valve veterans talking about how this organizational structure didn’t work out long term.
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2020/07/half-life-alyx-helped-change-valves-approach-to-development/
Since HL:A, Valve has released more titles. CS:2 was a big hit for me and my friends, and more recently Deadlock has had around 20k peak players in its closed alpha. I think whatever changes they made to their organization were for the better.
Just so people don't miss it, this is from 2012. I'm curious if they still use it,
That sounds like a fascinating place to work.
My understanding was the outcomes were mixed. There's certainly motivation benefits for some of the self organising aspect, but also some that found it hard to deal with the system of informal authority that grew in the absences of formal authority. My understanding as well is they've also walked slightly back from the full on implementation as described here because of the period where they were just getting nothing finished (which is larger even than it looked from outside when you consider projects like that started outside Valve and were brought inside), and while they still don't have managers, there is more assigning of projects going on for stuff they really want done.
It's an experiment that was largely enabled by the steam money printer, but from what I heard it led to a lot of aimlessness internally which also bothered the people who liked to have a finished product to say "I did that" about.
God, it is going to suck so hard when Gabe Newell's heirs decide to go public. Valve being a private company means it can do unorthodox pro-employee (in spirit, if dysfunctional in practice) and pro-customer stuff that public companies are legally not allowed to do in the interest of maximizing shareholder benefit.
The concept you're referencing is called fiduciary duty to investors, and this is a common misunderstanding of it. There is no law requiring any company to maximize profits.
Huh, you appear to be right: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/basr.12108
Honest thanks for clearing that up. I suppose it is less of a legal risk than a risk the leadership would be ousted.
Furthermore, the concept of a CEO's main priority to be providing shareholder value was pushed by Milton Friedman in the 70s without any fundamental basis, and even Jack Welch has called it "the worlds dumbest idea" (bet you didn't expect Forbes to write that article!).
So in reality, the idea of maximizing shareholder value was all based off perception/vibes (as if the stock market wasn't already a graph of "rich people's feelings." This perception became ossified by structural incentives made during the 80s to reduce taxes for the wealthy and heavily weighting executive compensation towards stocks.
So when you see that a lot of the decision makers at companies are detached from actual business realities (i.e. their employees, customers, and product), it's no surprise why so many public companies these days march head-first towards enshittification.
People Make Games did a great video on Valve. They interviewed a bunch of former employees and investigated into how Valve operates. It's a very interesting watch. Definitely not your typical business