GabeN is a CEO, rich, probably greedy and has a yacht, but by all accounts he isn't a douchebag.

I don't simp for him, but he is different from most other billionaires in that he got rich doing what he loves and just kept doing it, and has kept his company on course on a mission that is, all things considered, pretty good for everyone involved (insofar a for-profit company is capable of such a thing).

He doesn't abuse his power as much as most billionaires, but he certainly does abuse it.

He's not worthy of idolization, no billionaire is. No person is.

Gabe doesn’t do a lot of interviews and mostly keeps out of the public eye. Elon Musk also had a lot of fans until he started running his mouth too much and revealing who he really is.

He isn't perfect but he represents what could work about capitalism if there were proper safeguards. With him, he's governed by his own choices or morals, so the current system doesn't work because most rich people don't care. Gabe:

Provides a good base product

The product is based on being ran on open hardware that you own.

Uses his own money to advance support for a true open standard (Linux) because Windows is going down the toilet for UX.

Creates his own hardware that works with the product to give a walled garden experience if you want that. Or you can install your own operating system on the hardware, or install his operating system on other hardware, he doesn't care.

Doesn't have anticompetitive practices with people that make a similar product, focusing on being the best product.

Incorporates ease of use for other products into his product (PlayStation controllers, adding non steam games that are able to use most of the same features via Steam including Proton).

Treats employees well.

Is generous with the refund policy.

And guess what? Everyone is happy. He's happy and rich AF, his employees are happy, his customers are happy, his competition is happy because he's not purposefully throttling them (though they probably aren't happy he's eating their lunch because customers don't want them). The system can work for everyone if it is fair. We just need to demand these safeguards because even Gabe could change his mind at any time.

Sorry, Gabe isn't great either. He just knows not to constantly fuck over your consumers everyday to make loads of money. He's on the list, lower on it, but still.

I very clearly remember asking myself“what the hell is Steam and why are they suddenly the authority on game stores?” when I first discovered Steam. Now my wishlist alone has nearly 400 items on it and my library is massive.

The difference with Gabe is that he’s quiet and keeps to himself. He’s not putting on Met gala pageantry bullshit, or trying to sway elections. That doesn’t mean he magically gets a pass, but he’s not actively trying to ruin our lives and the planet like Bezos, Musk, the entire Trump admin, and Thiel are.

No, lol. Down with all CEOs 🏴🚩

I've literally never seen any of these so-called "simps"

Like, the internet is a big place and I'm sure some of them exist, but you could make that argument about any view at all. I see way more hatred for these alleged simps than the simps themselves.

Steam, and Valve, operate in a capitalist system. They've been successful. They are similar to a handful of other companies, like Costco, that seem to understand that in order for capitalism to be sustainable, corporations need tk govern themselves and show restraint. They need to focus not on merely achieving profit for ownership this quarter, but on establishing long-term and stable business relationships with all of their stakeholders. Customers, emplpyees, suppliers, governments, lenders, the planet itself.

The biggest failure of capitalism is that the system does not incentivize for any of this. Which is why such corporations are so rare.

Also, it's possible to not hold an extreme position for or against everything. Pretty easy to see he's better than others and also realize that doesn't make him "good."

The key difference is that Gabe doesn't make it a habit to dick over people. Aside from the MasterVisa problems and the gambling, Steam is pretty awesome.

It's amazing how many people drop the whole "nobody becomes a billionaire by being a good person" rhetoric as soon as you mention their pet wholesome chungus billionaire.

You guys are just as bad as the people that defend musk because "he's real life Tony Stark! He makes rockets and electric cars!!!!"

Valve certainly isn't perfect, and I used to buy more games on GOG. But then I noticed those games, which initially had Linux support, were no longer getting updated or working properly on distros. Their Linux support just kind of fizzled out.

On the flipside, even in it's early days, Steam/Proton made Linux gaming such a far nicer experience. If Proton were proprietary, I would stay away from Steam still. But what Valve is doing for Linux and free and open-source software is a net good right now, and that is worth supporting.

There are things that suck about Steam, like the drm. Just the other day I had a game running and also tried to run a second game through GameNative only to find Steam only allows me to run one game at a time, dumb. And there will probably be a day when Valve pulls some kind of enshittified bait and switch like Google is doing with Android right now.

And when that day comes it will be necessary to fork and forget them. But until then I'll enjoy the ride.

Even if he's slightly less terrible, that doesn't make him the good guy.

Gabe is living proof that the issue is not the money or drive to make it on its own that is a problem. Its the building ones entire life and reason for being around making as much money as possible no matter what you have to do that is the issue.

In my opinion if someones only qualification for being in charge of a business is having an MBA and having been in management at other places then that are grossly unqualified to be in charge of anything outside of their own finances.

Gabe worshipping is cringe. he's a dude. have some self respect.

It shows how low the bar is. We can eat him last.

Actually, Gabe owns a megayacht, and that wasn't big enough so he bought five other support yachts to complement it, with a total fleet value of roughly $1 billion.

He's just a regular gamer guy though, a man of the people that we should definitely spare from wealth inequality discussions, and simp for.

If im talking with a fellow PC gamer we can criticize Gabe. But if im talking to any console gamer you can bet your ass I've armored up and defending my king. I wont accept any Gabe slander from a console gamer.

"there's toxic, radioactive, sludge all over the front yard! What the fuck this is terrible! We need to get rid of that"

"There's a huge pile of old tires in the back yard, too."

"Yeah that's no good. At least my kids can play on it like a jungle gym. The sludge though, we need to fix asap"

"So you love tires and garbage??"

Tbf, compared to most modern CEOs, Gabe Newell is a saint. I suppose in a different world where we aren't in the second gilded age, he might be more hated

Why does this dude have to be a billionaire? Like he has some decent views, but being a billionaire generally not ethical unless you are a billionaire in Indonesian Rupiah, because then it would only be tens of thousands of Euros.