I spent a few minutes this morning cleaning up my drafts box. It was mostly full of cruft: e-mails I had sent but had hit ‘save’ on, that yahoo somehow decided I must’ve meant I wanted a draft copy too. More than a few, though, were messages I had meant to send, but never did. Most of these are far too late to send, but I don’t like to destroy anything, so they’ll get posted here. Unfinished, the represent the aborted fetuses of my writing; but even unsent, they are dear to me.

From: Thahn@tcbtech.com

To: gaben@valvesoftware.com

Subject: Infestation

Date: Tue, 7/20/10

Much like the terrifying facehugger-homage parasites in the game, I’ve been infested by Alien Swarm. I remember liking the UT mod quite a bit; This is more love than I’ve felt since I lost my weighted companion cube. And it’s free, which is incredible icing on the many-layered cake. I know how you guys do it (Free stuff leads people to the siren call of the Steam homepage, with the irresistible allure of your specials page to assure purchases); Still, in this gaming world where other companies are increasingly charging more and more for less and less, it’s great to see that you guys are able to provide excellent entertainment at a low price and make it up in volume.

You’ve put out incredible work since forever; I remember being hooked just playing the training course of Half-Life. I

played the early days of Counter-Strike, and I’m so glad you snatched that up, and I spent many wonderful evenings on TFC. HL2 was a defining experience for me; Half Life had made story a part of FPS’s, but HL2 made it integral. Portal blew me away; The simplicity and majesty of it were wonderful. Left 4 Dead 2 defines co-op play.

– Ted All information contained within this letter is strictly for anyone who reads it. If you have not read the contents of this letter, do not disclose its contents. Failure to do so will be prosecuted to the full extent of elbonian law.

— End Of File —