A player waited a week for feedback from Steam support. In desperation, he wrote to Valve boss Gabe Newell personally. To his complete surprise, Newell sent him a quick reply.
If there are technical problems, everyone hopes for quick help. Unfortunately, the reality is often different. You wait in vain for a quick response from support teams or even get an answer you didn’t want to hear.
A Steam player reported such a case because of his account. He could no longer log in. His report to Steam support was already a week old. Without getting his hopes up too much, he decided to write to the head of Steam directly.
At the end of the day, everyone at Valve is part of the player support team
Why did the player write directly to Gabe Newell? Steam user that_earlyguy was having problems with his Steam account. To resolve the login error, he contacted the gaming platform’s support team. He hoped for a timely response. But after a whole week had passed, he still hadn’t received an answer.
Gabe Newell, head of Valve, also likes to promote his Steam Deck:
Happy Birthday Steam Deck
More videos
However, the player that_earlyguy didn’t think about giving up and found out the email address of Gabe Newell, the Valve boss himself. He explained his problem to Newell and that he had been waiting a whole week for a response from the support team.
What happened after that? Within a few hours, the player actually received a response from the Steam boss. He asked that_earlyguy for his ticket number and ended his email by saying At the end of the day, everyone at Valve is part of the player support team. Maybe Newell was taking a break from playing DOTA 2 and had some time.
The player is surprised. In his second message to Newell, he gave him the required ticket number. The player also emphasized how grateful he was for the Steam boss’s reaction.
After two more hours, Steam support finally got back to that_earlyguy. They apologized to him for the delay and informed him that his Steam account access password had been reset. The new password was sent via email.
Is the story already over? No not really. In his excitement, the player wrote another message to Gabe Newell. He thanked the Valve boss again, but at the same time had a request. Since he was so enthusiastic about Newell’s reaction, he wanted to spread the word about the case through some social media channels (via imgur.com).
He feared that other players might follow his example and instead of writing to support, would then flood the head of Valve with similar requests. On the other hand, he believed that fans and customers should know how interested and serious Newell is in everyone’s concerns.
In a final short reply, the Steam boss gave him permission to publish their conversation. And once again that_earlyguy couldn’t believe his eyes at what he was reading. Newell reinforced his first statement by saying that everyone at Valve is part of support and therefore any employee should be contacted if there are any problems.
Gabe Newell’s reaction is not an isolated incident
Are there other such cases? Yes, Gabe Newell’s support mission is said not to have been the only one. Another player reported that his account had been blocked. His little brother is said to have fallen victim to a fraudster and redeemed a stolen credit card on his Steam account.
The attempt to have the account reactivated via Steam support was unsuccessful. As a final attempt, this player also wrote to Gabe Newell. With his help, the misunderstanding was cleared up and the fraud victim got his account back. As real as this story may be, Newell doesn’t rely on realism in games.
Another Steam user reported a weapon skin that he had purchased via an external website. The skin was allegedly stolen. The result was that the account was blocked. After many months of unsuccessful attempts to get his access and the skins it contained back, the user was ultimately helped by Gabe Newell.
These stories show that even people in high places, like Gabe Newell as CEO of Valve, are paying attention to things we thought they didn’t care about. It also proves once again that the Steam boss is a personality you can touch and maintains this image with such actions.
Gabe Newell even appeared in a commercial for a kitchen appliance