Monica Harrington was the hidden figure of Valve in its critical early years | The DeanBeat

It’s funny how people slip out of history. The story of Valve’s formation in its critical early years and how it made the original Half-Life is an inspiring one. I was one of the people who attempted to capture the story of the storytelling shooter game, but my relatively short story in 1998 for the Wall Street Journal left a key contact out. So did a 25th anniversary documentary about the making of Half-Life, where one early woman employee was quoted for feeling she was alone in that environment, with no acknowledgement of Monica’s role. (Harrington later discovered that she really was a hidden figure as she did much of her early work at nights and on weekends, so other employees didn’t witness what she did). And then-game journalist Geoff Keighley mentioned this “hidden figure” three times in a very long story about the making of Half-Life. But it’s never really been told in a full way, at least according to the hidden figure: Monica Harrington, one of the cofounders of Valve who ... Read full article.