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Counter-Strike Co-Creator Says Gabe Newell Got So Obsessed With Mongolian Throat Singing at Valve HQ That Staff Started Closing Their Office Doors to Escape the Noise (nordic.ign.com)

submitted 4 days ago by QuentinCallaghan@sopuli.xyz to c/nottheonion@lemmy.world

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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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[-] baldingpudenda@lemmy.world 18 points 4 days ago

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.

[-] cobysev@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

That is the benefit to making ridiculous money. You can really take your time and produce a quality game instead of rushing and cutting corners to meet an arbitrary deadline.

[-] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 2 points 3 days ago

I wonder if Hideo Kojima ever asked Valve if they wanted to publish a game with him?

[-] ohulancutash@feddit.uk 10 points 4 days ago

They have a flat structure so employees self-assign work. If a game idea interests them they work on it. If not, no worries there’s plenty to do on Steam.

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Sounds like Bell labs... Neat.

[-] adjectivenoun@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

It's has produces some games that are obviously labors if love, but it has also left players of some games with no content bug fix updates for literal years.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2026

842 points (99.1% liked)

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