Joe W-A was miffed when the L4D campaign mod he’d been working on wasn’t deemed awesome enough to warrant him being flown to Valve HQ to preview L4D2. Other modders were, mostly to get them onside as peer-leaders to counter the odd anti-L4D2 community uprising happening at the time.

Anyway, Joe managed to get Gabe Newell to agree to fly to Brisbane, Australia to check out the mod-in-progress — provided Joe paid the airfare. “I was just joking”, said Gabe today. With pure internet inventiveness, Joe got the community rallied and raised the fare in a couple of days.

Today in Sydney, the great meeting took place, and we were privileged to witness it.

Gabe spoke the value of a community before introducing Joe. Said Gabe, of Joe: “Joe understands more about the dynamic of the internet than 95% of the vice presidents.”

Joe then bravely spoke a bit about how it all came about and fielded a few questions. We are thrilled to report that Joe’s a top bloke. He launched this campaign not to draw attention to himself but to simply get Gabe in front of his mod. That’s all. The explosion of interest in his story has him overwhelmed, but not to the point where he lost focus of his mission.

Joe’s about to start a Game Design course at Melbourne RMIT, and we’d bet the farm that he’ll be snapped up quick smart by a smart dev. Probably Valve, for the fairytale to come full circle.

Would Joe do it again? “I’d like to get Peter Molyneaux down here. I’ve got a few things to say to him.”

Hats off, Joe. You’re a champ and an inspiration mate. Well done.

Here we present the historic moment Gabe Newell and Joe W-A meet face to face!