Gabe and friends are doing an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Reddit, here's the highlights!
Even though Gabe is hilarious, we decided to leave out the witty answers. Some lengthy questions have also been condensed.
You can see the AMA in it's fully glory over at Reddit.
indexcardartist asks: When is Ricochet 2?
When we announced our products years in advance in the past and then were really late delivering them, it was pretty painful for both us and the community. We'd rather not repeat that.
motoxalex asks: What improvements will we see out of the Source 2 engine?
The biggest improvements will be in increasing productivity of content creation. That focus is driven by the importance we see UGC having going forward. A professional developer at Valve will put up with a lot of pain that won't work if users themselves have to create content.
platonicplate asks: If there was enough interest, would Valve accept crypto-currency such as dogecoin or bitcoin on Steam?
There are two related issues: one is treating a crypto-currency as another currency type that we support and the broader issue is monetary behaviors of game economies. The first issue is more about crypto-currencies stabilizing as mediums of account.
liamdawe asks: Can we please get an update on when we are likely to see Counter Strike Global Offensive for Linux?
It's being worked on but we don't have an ETA.
voksul asks: Is it possible for Steam Music to have integration with services like Pandora and Spotify in the future?
Yes, we've got some things in the works that we think you'll like.Editor's note: We already know for a fact Spotify support is being worked on.
cuntking asks: Has Dota 2's growth been unexpected? And where will TI4 be held?
We knew there were a lot of people playing Dota 1, and quite a few of those people worked at Valve, so our hope was that we'd do a good enough job on it that those people would play Dota 2. We haven't finalized where this year's International will be. We are pretty sure it will be at Key Arena in Seattle, but we haven't gotten everything finalized, and there is always a risk that our schedules and theirs won't align in some way. As soon as we get everything finalized one way or another, we'll get the dates out there for everyone who would like to attend. Should be fun this year.
psay asks: Will Kaci return (to the The International 4)?
Yes.
failsrus asks: Before Steam Greenlight was introduced, what was the process of adding a game to the Steam store?
We got bottle-necked pretty fast on tools and decision making which lead us to Greenlight, and is now leading us to make Steam a self-publishing system.
davidpanik asks: We haven't heard any more about lower cost Steamboxes for streaming from existing hardware. Is that still on the agenda?
Yes. We're making some progress.
frazehaze asks: Looking back to 2003, what were your (and Valves) goals and visions for Steam back then, and did it turn out as planned? What is your vision for the Steam platform and PC gaming over the next ten years?
I'm not trying to dodge the question, but we find it more useful to think in terms of feedback loops than in terms of visions/goals. Iterating with the community means that your near-term objectives change all the time. The key benefit to Steam is to shorten the length of the loop. Longer term, we see that working at the level of individual gamers, where we think of everyone as creating and publishing experience. "How can we make gamers more productive" sounds weird, but is an accurate way to characterize where we're going. It may make more sense if you think of it as "How can we make Dendi more entertaining to more people".
McMqsmith asks: If Valve could borrow an IP from another company to make a game for it, what would you guys choose?
Gabe: The Warriors
Coomer: Groundhog Day, Heathers
Wolpaw: God Hand, Saints Row Ido: Casablanca
rbino asks:
- 1) Do you use Linux in your everyday life? If so, what is your distro of choice?
- 2) Do you think that in the long run Linux will not only be the future of gaming, but also the future of desktop?
- 3) Is Valve planning to release any exclusive for SteamOS?
1) Debian. 2) Probably. 3) No.