Gabe Newell – billionaire yacht enthusiast, daily Dota 2 player, Valve co-founder. Now, you can also add bladed weapon maestro to his resume, according to Counter Strike co-creator Minh ‘Gooseman’ Le.
The co-developer of the Half-Life mod that spawned the ultra popular Counter-Strike series, Le recently talked to Indie Game Joe about his experience working at Valve and with its president Gabe Newell, a figure who leads quite a colorful, side-quest-filled life when he’s not arguing in court about whether or not Steam is a monopoly, say.
“I remember one time he got into knives,” Le says of his former boss. “He started collecting knives and axes. He had this whole room full of knives and blades and swords and sh**. Just some crazy sh**. He would just have this room and order all these biga** medieval swords and axes, and he would just put them in the room. He became this collector of bladed weapons.”
Not only did Newell become an avid blade collector, he apparently became somewhat of a blade smithy. If you’re gonna do something, do it right, I guess was the mindset here.
“After that, he got into knife making,” Le adds. “He would start to make these knives. He would go and take lessons on how to make knives, and he got really into it. So basically, he would find these little interesting things and get super into it. He’d get super drawn into these. I guess he just had a lot of time on his hands, and he was very curious. He wanted to explore things, he was a learner, and he never stopped learning. You kind of see that in what he’s doing now.”
Gaben’s not very front and centre in Valve and Steam’s operations anymore. While some thought his yacht and blade fixations might have something to do with it, a former Portal 2 developer recently said Newell “stepped back” from game development because people kept agreeing with him.