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Gabe Newell was missed by a mere hour.

In my trip to Lakewood, Washington. I got a rare chance to go to VALVE in Bellevue, Washington.

Let me tell you I was fucking excited just to be in the studio. I mean the lobby. I was so excited I felt a lot of nerves running through me. I took pictures of the lobby. The next thing you see is my friend Steve-O staring in the glass like a sad puppy dog. I mean he was a determined puppy. The point is that we got to visit VALVe. The secretary or administrator dude flagged Steve O in and I said " Well if I get tossed out it will be by VALVE security guards."

So with that we walked in. Man, it was really calm. There was a large VALVE vine looking design smacking us in the face. Proverbially, and not litterally. That shit would really hurt being smacked by a large VALVE sign.

The man secretary said we had missed Newell by one hour. One hour separated us. Goddamn! Oh time! You harsh beast. Nontheless, we taked with the man at the front counter. He told use we were super fucking lucky that he was there. He said he would was going to leave before we got in. We talked for at least two hours or maybe less. I asked him all sorts a questions. What is your favorite VALVE game? What do you think of the gaming industry right now? What are you guys working on? Do you interact with the great Gabe Newell. How were we even allowed in lol. I mean when I got in there I was like a rabid dog with meat on the mind. The dog being my camera and the meat being all the beautiful VALVE everything. The coffee table book on this little table. This amazing pyro poster to the left of the main desk. The amazing Portal Gun prop and Half-Life 2 Gravity Gun on his desk. Other goodies that I tried to take pictures of. He told us how he got the job was mere luck. That he interviewed for it but didn't know if his interview was worthy. He doubted himself. Goddamn, was he knowledgeable. He told us of when Half-Life was released that Newell wanted to kill the project. The reason being was Sierra at the time was promised Half-Life in its full glory. At the time Newell sunk all assets into the game and the studio was going to tank if not for Newell's genius. He told Sierra that the game was going to miss the deadline. As you imagine fucking Sierra was furious and VALVE took an incrimental financial hit. I had no idea that Half-Life saved VALVE. Incredible as this guy was just blasting us with facts and knowledge bites. He kept talking about how VALVE's process was so unique. At VALVE they don't have job titles. You're just a person working on some great and polished game. You work by yourself and you have to be the one to motivate yourself. Collectively, there's a team but it is you environment. The creative process is incredible. He told us that his desk was the only bolted down one. Let's say Jim Bob is a programmer and doesn't like his office. He can just pick up and move. How fucking cool is that? You can just pick up and go into a different spot. Also, they do customer service in house. No talking to Pradyumn Baghanna from Bangalur, India. You're talking to a real person always. It was time for our conversation to end. He left us with a present.

I didn't expect shit. I was already just blown away that I was at VALVE. Easily, one of the greatest PC studios. He came bearing gifts. A VALVE gift bag.

Just a surreal experience. And to just make you even more jealous before we went to VALVE we went to Monolith. Though, at Monolith they don't allow public tours. The receptionist was a tad cold. Not evil just cold.

It was the most bad-ass thing I have ever experienced as a gamer. I just wanted to keep talking to the secretary dude. Oh and I said I was currently playing GO and loved Source. I also beat all the Half-Life games. Not Opposing Force. Just  Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2:episode 1,Half-Life 2:episode 2.

Will we see a Half-Life 3 at some point or an episode 3? Who the fuck knows. I really want a Half Life 3 as does everyone else. I just want to know what VALVE is working on aside from Dota 2, and collabing with Occulus Rift. Of course, they're working on VR.

But what are the new games? Are there any? They are very tight lipped in VALVE. We shall see.