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.
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.
Still a ridiculously and insanely wasteful person who’s significantly greedy.
Another shit stain billionaire that the gamer dudes fantasize about being.
he’s not diddling kids or sexually harrassing his employees, as far as we know. It’s a low bar but I’ll take it.
He’s not diddling kids: he’s just giving them gambling addictions!
You set your bars too low.
Only way I stay sane in an age of insanity.
you’re not wrong.
Other billionaires setting up cults and trying to bring a new age to techno fascism.
Musk’s colleagues: " sometimes he makes us eat mustard and it’s a little annoying and distracting."
I’m sorry, are you willfully or accidentally profoundly ignorant of the reports of what working for Musk is like?
By contrast it’s showing how dumb of a comment the one I replied to was.
Ah, gotcha, misread it as defending Musk.
Ftfy
Can we please transfer wealth from Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to Linus Torwalds and Richard Stallman. Unless, of course, you all want to distribute it all back
I don’t think this guy needs a lot of money:
(Although there’s a second desk in another corner, littered with hardware and a 3D printer.)
I really don’t care
I’m not that sure about a guy who eats his own toe jam in public…
I’ll take it over a guy who throws nazi salutes. I mean, the real answer is that nobody should have so much money, it can’t do any good to anyone. But if the only controversy we can find about him is that he did that one gross thing to his foot that one time 20 years ago, I’ll take it, oh how much I’ll take it
Re-watched it. Still more appealing than Elon musk
I hope there is a good succession plan for Valve, because losing them would be tragic for PC gaming.
I hope it ends up like one of those nature reserves with a 1,000 year lease and a charter that specifies how content creators and gamers can be treated.