Here's another way you can look at Valve. They are a case study of how a privately held company, a company that does not have a boardroom of investors, demanding maximum possible short term profit, all the time... Can actually allocate capital more efficiently, and generally more fairly, and innovate better than a ravenous hoard of interest/rent seekers. You can look at them as essentially a counter argument to the modern American concept of a publically (stock market) traded company. While what they do, the tech, the platform, the games... while that's rather cutting edge... the way they do, that's actually old school, at the level of how a business fundamentally works, is legally defined. They are not 'beholden to capital' so much as they are ... 'beholden to Gabe.' You would think business majors and economists could look at this and go... oh, turns out capital markets aren't efficient, at all! We are at the point now where a privately held, effective monopoly is... actually less evil than basically every other major tech firm that is entirely investor-returns / capital-rent driven... where probably roughly 20%-40% of the people/orgs on all those other boards ... are just the same people, forming basically a de facto conspiracy. Basically, being beholden to a single, publically visible capitalist, who doesn't have to show you his internal books... appears to be objectively better than being beholden to many, obfuscated, invisible capitalists, despite them actually having to show your their books.

I mean yachts seem to be his hobby, he has several. Idk, they can be kinda cool, but only in retirement and on vacations. Day to day, completely useless and cost a lot of money to maintain even when not used. And I don't think megayachts are as cool as smaller ones because part of the appeal to me is to get away from everyone. I wouldn't want 100 people on my yacht. Maybe 4-5 of my closest friends, but you can do that with a yacht costing two orders of magnitude less (and even that is if you want a passagemaker. Something that doesn't have to be able to cross the ocean can be had for well under a million I think) Supercars are fun IF you track them. Wouldn't want to drive one in traffic. Much prefer a luxury car for that if I was rich. Of course I think any rich person who owns supercars and hypercars, also has luxury cruisers to waft around in (or to be wafted around in). HOAs I'll never get. Fuck anyone who thinks they can impose rules on what I do with my own yard.

I hate Elon, Trump and Bezos for reasons other than their expensive hobbies tbf. The company Gabe runs may have what is essentially a monopoly, but it doesn't engage in monopolistic practices and it gives a lot back to the community, especially if you're a Linux gamer. EGS just sucks and Sweeney himself said he's not interested in improving it, except by paying for exclusives. Which is funny, because Epic Games used to be pretty great for the gaming industry - with their grants and stuff. GOG is cool, but often publishers don't want to sell their newer games without DRM. Steam is just the de facto best experience for buying games.

Well I'm sure that they can charge it when docked. Would be idiotic if they didn't factor that in, given how much time yachts spend docked. And marine diesel engines also usually run at a fairly steady speed, they don't really get revved up. The big ones anyway, I mean. In diesel-electric systems you can run the diesel engine at its most efficient speed to power the electrical system which is what actually moves the ship. So I think it's a net good... compared to a straight diesel yacht. But obviously the better option would be no yacht.

How DO you force the competition to be better? Because EGS plain sucks. The price fixing part is an issue, but they don't technically do any illegal price fixing. They just say they don't want to see your game cheaper elsewhere - you can drop prices elsewhere AND on Steam though.

"The yacht has a strong focus on team building and onboard scientific work; in 2023, the yard suggested the yacht's engagement in scientific research and discovery meant there would be "innovative technologies" as well as a convention-defying layout that focuses on bringing groups together."

> The price fixing part is an issue, but they don’t technically do any illegal price fixing. They just say they don’t want to see your game cheaper elsewhere - you can drop prices elsewhere AND on Steam though. I mean, if Amazon or Walmart tell a supplier "we're doubling our cut, but you can't price any lower in cheaper stores. Don't like it? We will drop you," people scream bloody murder. ...Because that's *exactly* what Amazon and Walmart do! It's *awful*, and it's not okay if Valve does it either. EGS is a victim of Sweeney's absolutely *massive* ego, but still, I think they'd have gotten a lot more busiess of every game on there was 20% cheaper.

I wonder what the sales tax on that yacht was

what does he need the 15 gaming pcs for??

> you get it by stealing wages and time from the workers below you That and turning kids into gambling addicts.

Rich asshole who throws money that could alter the lives of thousands on yet another yacht.

LAN parties

Same. I'd probably build a giant dog park, giant playground for kids, lots of natural trails, etc. make it all free. Build shelters for anyone to use, garages where people could work on their cars safely and out of the elements, bike repair stations, things like that. Fuck a super yacht. Tells you how selfish people are, completely unaware how they got where they are. They could spend 10k/day and never spend all their money, not even a dent. Just selfish pricks. Bring the guillotine.

Small lmao

If you are rich enough, you get away with anything.

> It’s easy to secure so that nobody can kidnap you. *Pirates have entered the chat* Yar, hold me grog me matey. *Somali pirates have entered the chat* Look at me. I am the captain now.

This one is just the latest in [his collection,] looks like this is #7.(https://luxurylaunches.com/transport/gabe-newell-luxury-yachts.php)

Solitary confinement or have Ol' Musky live like the underclass.

> We can only really evaluate him on what he does. Which is what I am doing: evaluating him on what he does and does not do. Not what "he may or may not be planning to do at some undisclosed time in the future."

On his 7th yacht.