Indie Dev Threatens Gabe Newell, Has Game Removed From Steam

[killtothis]

Yes. Yes they should, if that business or customer is doing something wrong.....  

 

I've only quoted the first line of the post so others know which one I'm referring to without taking up too much space, but I'm completely with you on this. Actions do deserve consequences, I know in my post above I mentioned that resorting to name calling of the individual was essentially rubbing salt in a wound (I believe Valves actions enough) but I too do 100% agree with them, Like you say it was never going to be a global success but it was/is a fun indie game. Hopefully Mulbeck will have learnt a valuable lesson which he can apply to future business (if that's still a possibility). 

I think the way Valve handled it was perfectly fair, I think when Mulbeck looks back he'll realise that by his own admission to. I do however hope that he uses the experience positively and wish him all the best in any future endevours, yes he's made a huge mistake but everyone should be entitled to make a living and have a second chance. (of course I don't think Valve should be the one providing it)

 

EDIT:

 

Everyone who bought the game still has it, so they aren't harming any of their customers

 

 

You could argue that those who bought the game are losing out as they'll never see an updated version through the platform it was purchased through. Although I do understand the game is now technically "finished" that's not to say that there isn't some form of bug at a later level/or that can only be replicated on certain software, which now will never be patched. 

[dalekphalm]

You could argue that those who bought the game are losing out as they'll never see an updated version through the platform it was purchased through. Although I do understand the game is now technically "finished" that's not to say that there isn't some form of bug at a later level/or that can only be replicated on certain software, which now will never be patched. 

You make a good point here, but I wonder if it's possible to patch the game via an external patch provided directly by Mulbeck, despite being the "Steam" version.

 

I would hope that as a "I dun fucked up" move, he provides all Steam Users who bought the game with a standalone copy of the game that can be patched later if needed. Doubt it'll happen though.

[-TesseracT-]

He must have real anger issues, I mean who the fuck would threaten Gabe Newell?

[killtothis]

You make a good point here, but I wonder if it's possible to patch the game via an external patch provided directly by Mulbeck, despite being the "Steam" version.

 

I would hope that as a "I dun fucked up" move, he provides all Steam Users who bought the game with a standalone copy of the game that can be patched later if needed. Doubt it'll happen though.

 

I think it's possible, I recall a while ago he mentioned that the game could be launched outside of Steam. I'm going to check if that's possible and I'll edit this post. It's left me with a bitter taste in my mouth anyway I know a lot of people who have it in their library received it through one of the bundle sites (HB/IndieGala?) with other games for a discounted price, whilst I actually purchased it for full as soon as it was available on Early Access as I liked the premise of the game and wanted to support the devs. 

 

EDIT: The game can be launched from the .exe outside of Steam (I'm not currently logged into the client but can play) so maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but I'd assume if need be they made a patch available it could be used from elsewhere. 

[killtothis]

Latest update: Mike has now left Code Avarice:

http://codeavarice.com/post/100592709238/mike-is-leaving-code-avarice

 

Let's not forget though that more than one person created PA, and his comments shouldn't reflect onto the other members of the team (I say shouldn't but the exact opposite is happening on Twitter now) 

 

Mods: The reason I have created a new post rather than editing my previous was to hopefully bring more attention to this. 

[dalekphalm]

Latest update: Mike has now left Code Avarice:

http://codeavarice.com/post/100592709238/mike-is-leaving-code-avarice

 

Let's not forget though that more than one person created PA, and his comments shouldn't reflect onto the other members of the team (I say shouldn't but the exact opposite is happening on Twitter now) 

 

Mods: The reason I have created a new post rather than editing my previous was to hopefully bring more attention to this. 

How pissed do you think the other 4 members of Code Avarice were after those tweets? Oooooooh man. I bet there was pressure for him to step down.

 

But it looks like he took things to heart.

 

Honestly, with this new action in mind, barring him returning to the company, I hope that Valve eventually allows PA back onto Steam. I hope that the other members of the dev team can speak directly with Valve and work something out.

[killtothis]

How pissed do you think the other 4 members of Code Avarice were after those tweets? Oooooooh man. I bet there was pressure for him to step down.

 

But it looks like he took things to heart.

 

Honestly, with this new action in mind, barring him returning to the company, I hope that Valve eventually allows PA back onto Steam. I hope that the other members of the dev team can speak directly with Valve and work something out.

 

 

Fingers crossed they can, I was intrigued to see the thoughts on the whole thing from the other members of the team. I came across one tweet which kind of knocked me sick:

"watching my wife cry over this is killing me. For once in my life, i dont have a clue how to fix something. I have to figure this out."

^That was tweeted from the account of one of the other key devs (Travis I believe he's called) from reading his timeline on Twitter he's been getting a large amount of abuse, people referring to him as a "disgrace to the industry" etc, when he had nothing to do with Mike's Tweets towards Valve. Just goes to show how the consequences to your actions can go a lot further, I'm sure when Mike sent those he had no idea that it would affect his career, let alone the career of others. 

Being a husband and a father I can really relate to the situation, there's nothing harder to do in life than to have someone you love upset about something that's effectively out of your control. Someone has penned an "open letter" to Valve asking that the rest of the team can somehow still retain a working relationship with Valve in the absence of Mike. (If anyone's interested ask and I'll post it) 

I sincerely do hope Valve will try and work with them, like I stated previously the actions of one shouldn't blacklist those by association. 

 

I actually enjoyed the game too. 

[OBEYSQUIRREL]

Further proof that all communication devices should have a feature that disables them when the user is in an emotionally charged state so they can't go full on shit for brains mode and fuck themselves over by saying something colossally idiotic.

 

Some people know how to control themselves though, plus it would have to be a negative state anyway. If your team just won a championship then you'd be extremely excited and not necessarily say anything bad or offensive. 

[razor767]

I understand his frustration but he just took it too far. 

[NoctHorn]

Was it even a big deal for the game to have been listed as early access?  All Mike needed to do was contact valve and it would have been fixed.  

[MrStraightface]

He is obviously mentally disturbed and has no business sense.  If you're that odd and have some talent hire a manager to avoid fucking yourself.

[RH00D]

Further proof that all communication devices should have a feature that disables them when the user is in an emotionally charged state so they can't go full on shit for brains mode and fuck themselves over by saying something colossally idiotic.

Humans already have this, it's called self-control. Some people just have the feature disabled.

[StingBull]

Take note people, don't threaten the guy that is effectively your boss. Because that's a fucking stupid thing to do.

Early Access has not only lowered the bar for the quality of games on Steam but also the bar for the quality of the developers on Steam.

[kraxe_tk]

Seems to simple, too stupid.  There has to be a better explanation for this to happen.  I'm pretty sure he knew the consequences and did it on purpose.

[dalekphalm]

Seems to simple, too stupid.  There has to be a better explanation for this to happen.  I'm pretty sure he knew the consequences and did it on purpose.

So he could fuck over his 4 coworkers? I find it hard to believe he's that big of a complete asshole on purpose.