As an update to the story, this was confirmed by Gabe himself: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/gabe-newell-responds-to-fan-asking-about-bizarre-valve-throat-singing-story-3412684/

A fan then went straight to the source, emailing Newell to ask whether the story was real. In a reply shared online, sent from Newell’s Valve address, he provided more detail.

“Yeah, I had chatted with Paul Pena about it after I tried learning on my own,” he wrote. “I am entirely self taught and it shows.”

He added that he worked on the sygyt and kargyraa styles “and got to the point where I was really… annoying.”

Newell says he still hasn’t given it up entirely. “Every once in a while, I’ll pick it back up,” he wrote, adding that it takes a couple of weeks to condition his throat.

Pena was an American blues musician who taught himself Tuvan throat singing, later becoming the subject of the Oscar-nominated documentary Genghis Blues.

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[–] 4 points 43 minutes ago*

Mongolian throat singing is amazing.

You know, where I live, they have these guys coming out with leaf blowers in late April, making a racket in my neighborhood, and they just move street by street like a roving gang of crazed leaf blowers, and getting rid of all the crap that was accumulated under the snow when it thaws.

Every year, if I'm home at that time, I bring my big speakers to the window, open it wide, and blast Mongolian throat singing for them.

It mixes with the sound of leaf blowers extremely well. Whenever one of them starts wondering what the hell is going on and removes their hearing protection, I instantly mute it, and as soon as they put them back on I start blasting again.

It's a spring ritual for me.

AUUUUUUuuuuUuUUUUUuUuUuuuuurrrrrRrRrRRRRRRrrrRrrRrrRrrrrrarrrrRrRR-iaaaaaaaAAAaaaAaaaaAawwawRrrRRrRrrrRrrrrrrrrreyooooOoOOooOooOOOoOo

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  • [–] 2 points 58 minutes ago (1 child)
  • [–] 128 points 19 hours ago* (4 children)

    Other billionaires setting up cults and trying to bring a new age to techno fascism.

    Gabe's colleagues: " sometimes he sings in his office and it's a little annoying and distracting."

    Other billionaires response: buy media companies and government lobby, manipulate the narratives. Make a mockery of the legal system while hiding behind corporate entity.

    Gabe: "yeah I asked a trusted colleague for honest feedback and feel a little bad about that.".

    It's really not hard to not piss everyone in the world off or high effort.

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  • [–] 80 points 22 hours ago (8 children)

    Honestly went to a concert for "the hu" Mongolian metal band... amazing

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    [–] 22 points 18 hours ago

    Huh throat goat

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  • [–] 132 points 1 day ago (30 children)

    Remember when valve made games?

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  • [–] 82 points 1 day ago (19 children)

    Who has made more games in the last decade: Rockstar or Valve?

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  • [–] 98 points 23 hours ago (17 children)

    Apparently the answer is Valve. Which says more about rockstar than anything about valve.

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  • [–] 37 points 23 hours ago (16 children)

    Valve have made games. It's just not the same type of games that people that love them for their most famous titles.

    Also, even though they made a blockbuster, single player, half life game recently, the majority of the HL fans were not able to play it, so we are still disappointed...

    Jesus fucking christ, the last game that valve made with me as the audience in mind was fucking 15 years ago (Portal 2). (Half life 1 was releaed 13 years before that. )

    Everything else is multiplayer or hardware bound.

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  • [–] 13 points 23 hours ago (15 children)

    Alyx ils amazing ans the Lab ils also great i really wish they added levels to those games. Especialy the archer and thé slingshot games.

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  • [–] 15 points 1 day ago* (5 children)

    They make way more money managing a game store. Why would they ever need to make another game? /s

    But in all seriousness, Steam makes them a ridiculous amount of money. If I was Gabe, I'd slow down game production as well.

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  • [–] 16 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

    I figure they don't want to make a game and it not be at least a 7/10. So they keep one or two working on something while everyone else keeps the servers up, builds compatibility with Linux, and whatever hardware they are working on.

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    [–] 15 points 18 hours ago

    Once you learn how to do it , it's very addictive

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  • [–] 40 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

    At least it wasn't doing unspeakable things to kids.

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  • [–] 23 points 20 hours ago

    Honestly, based.

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  • [–] 14 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

    Was it annoying because it was loud and out of place for an office, or did he sound like a cat being strangled? 🤔

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  • [–] 18 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

    gotta be both.

    as cool as throat singing is, it's gotta be a hell of a thing to witness the immense amount of practice that has to happen before good throat singing is achieved

    or really, any singing now that I think about it

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  • [–] 28 points 22 hours ago* (4 children)

    Sygyt is the style that sounds nasal-y but with a high pitched overtone.

    Kargyraa is the really growly sounding one.

    Source: im gabe newell

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    [–] 11 points 19 hours ago*

    Gabe-is Khan

    lol

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  • [–] 9 points 20 hours ago* (1 child)

    Never heard it until I watched a video just now. Sounds like a jaw harp. I can see why people trying to concentrate would be a little peeved, though if someone were paying me good money to do something cool like make games, I’d probably happily put on some headphones and ignore it.

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  • [–] 9 points 20 hours ago*
    [–] 9 points 23 hours ago

    Genghis Blues was a great documentary. Cool to see Paul Pena popping up again. Didn't expect GabeN to be obsessed with throat singing.

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  • [–] 5 points 20 hours ago

    I mean...

    You show me one man who doesn't wish they could. And I'll do you a liar.

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