Valve software boss Gabe Newell is pretty much a cult icon in the gaming industry and the /v/ sub-forum of the infamous 4chan website decided to mark his recent birthday, on November 3, with a special giant card that was delivered by its members to the studio’s headquarters in Bellevue, Washington.
Users of 4chan, particularly its more infamous sub-forums, like /b/, have a pretty bad reputation but, for all their trolling, the group dedicated to video games, /v/, has always tried to do what’s right for interactive entertainment.
As such, on November 3, when Valve boss Gabe Newell turned 50, various members from /v/ paid a visit to the studio’s headquarters and delivered a giant birthday card with different messages from the forum users.
Besides the giant card, which can be seen above and below, they also delivered, according to Reddit, a box that was locked and asked Newell to pay $2.5 (around €1.95) in order to open it. Inside, as you could guess, was a hat, a clear reference to the popular hat-based microtransactions from Valve’s Team Fortress 2.
Check out a bigger version of the birthday card and Gabe Newell with it and his new hat, below.