A player waited a week for feedback from the Steam support. In his desperation, he personally wrote to Valve boss Gabe Newell. Completely unexpectedly, Newell sent him a quick response.
When facing technical problems, everyone hopes for quick help. Unfortunately, the reality is often different. One waits in vain for a quick response from support teams or receives an answer that they did not want to hear.
A Steam player reported such a case regarding his account. He could no longer log in. His message to Steam support was already a week old. Without getting his hopes up too much, he decided to write directly to the head of Steam.
In the end, everyone at Valve is part of the player support team
Why did the player write directly to Gabe Newell? The Steam user that_earlyguy had problems with his Steam account. To fix the login error, he contacted the support team of the gaming platform. He hoped for a prompt response. But after a whole week had passed, he still had not received an answer.
Gabe Newell, head of Valve, also likes to advertise for his Steam Deck:
However, the player that_earlyguy did not think about giving up and found out the email address of Gabe Newell, the head of Valve himself. He explained his problem to Newell and that he had already been waiting for a whole week for a response from the support team.
What happened next? 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 with the statement In the end, everyone at Valve is part of the player support team.
Maybe Newell was just taking a break from playing DOTA 2 and had some time.
The player was astonished. In his second message to Newell, he told him the required ticket number. In addition, the player emphasized how grateful he was for the reaction of the Steam boss.
After two more hours, Steam support finally got back to that_earlyguy. They apologized to him for the delay and informed him that his access password for his Steam account had been reset. The new password had been sent to him via email.
Is the story already over? No, not quite. In his enthusiasm, the player wrote another message to Gabe Newell. He thanked the Valve boss once again but also had a request. Since he was so thrilled with Newell’s response, he wanted to spread the case via some social media channels (via imgur.com).
He feared that other players might follow his example and instead of writing to support, they could flood the head of Valve with similar requests. On the other hand, he believed that fans and customers should know how much Newell cares for the concerns of each individual and takes them seriously.
In a final brief response, the Steam head granted him permission to publish their conversation. And once again, that_earlyguy could not believe what he read. Newell reaffirmed his first statement by saying that everyone at Valve belongs to support and therefore any employee should be contacted in case of problems.
Gabe Newell’s response is not an isolated case
Are there more such cases? Yes, this support action by Gabe Newell was not supposed to be the only one. Another player reported about the blocking of his account on steamgifts.com. His little brother was said to have fallen victim to a scammer and redeemed a stolen credit card on his Steam account.
The attempt to unlock the account via Steam support was unsuccessful. As a last resort, this player also wrote to Gabe Newell. With his help, the misunderstanding could be clarified, and the fraud victim received his account back. As real as this story may be, Newell does not place much emphasis on realism in games.
Another Steam user reported on Reddit about a weapon skin he had purchased through an external website. The skin was supposedly stolen. The result was also here a blocking of the account. After many months of unsuccessful attempts to regain his access and the skins contained therein, the user was also ultimately helped by Gabe Newell.
These stories show that even people in high positions like Gabe Newell as CEO of Valve focus on things we thought they didn’t care about. It also proves once again that the Steam boss is a “down-to-earth” personality and nurtures this image with such actions.
Gabe Newell even once starred in a commercial for a kitchen appliance
