Ex-Valve Developer Says Gabe Newell Called Steam An MMO
Steam's profile and trading systems read as community building because, by a former Valve developer's account, that is what Valve has been building toward, and Epic's new launcher is being judged on whether it does the same.
Reporting from 1 source: Automaton.
Chet Faliszek, a developer at Valve from 2004 to 2017, posted a video on October 15 in which he says Valve founder Gabe Newell repeatedly described Steam as an MMO. Faliszek points to profile decoration, trading cards, badges, gifting, and review awards as the systems that make Steam a place for self-expression, and criticizes Epic's revamped launcher for speed without community.
Faliszek's video responds to the Epic Games Launcher preview released on October 14. He grants that Steam had the advantage of being the pioneer, but says he cannot work out what Epic is ultimately aiming for. His answer for Steam is that Newell framed it as an MMO: account levels, badges, profile backgrounds, trading cards, game gifts, and awards on reviews all let users show who they are, and Faliszek notes most of it happens passively, simply by playing games.
He also cites Adrian Chmielarz, developer of Witchfire, who told FRVR that players buy on Steam because the Epic Games Store is a shop and Steam is a community.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.