Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box

Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman.

One of this year's GDC highlights was a talk by Monica Harrington, a founding member of Valve and the company's first chief marketing officer, who went over her history with the company that brought us Half-Life and Steam.

There's a whole bunch in Harrington's recollections to pick out: like when she gave her nephew some money for school supplies, found out he'd spent it on a CD-ROM copier thanks to "a lovely thank you note", and realised DRM was going to be very important.