I'm willing to bet that you have some questions for Gabe Newell. Questions like 'How did you cultivate such a magnificent beard?', 'Who's your favourite Thundercat?', and 'Why was Tom Hanks snubbed in this year's Oscar nominations?' Also something about Half-Life 3. Soon, all your questions will be answered. Maybe. Depending on a few things. The biggest being the little matter of the $500,000. Valve's resident overlord took to Reddit earlier to promote the Heart of Racing charity event , and after answering a few questions and proving that he's the real deal , Newell said he'll participate in an AMA (Ask Me Anything) if the event raises $500K in donations.

Newell's backing a car in the Heart of Racing charity driving event , which is raising money for the Seattle Children's Hospital. To promote the event, Newell took to Reddit. Then he took to Reddit again. Then he took to Reddit a third time , at which point people finally twigged that he might be THAT Gabe Newell. His most upvoted comment was this: "When they asked me what number I wanted for the car I asked for '3' and they said 'nope.' Irony." HALF-LIFE 3 CONF-on second thoughts, that joke never goes down too well.

In response to a request for an AMA, Newell posted the following comment. "I'll do an AMA once we hit $500K in donations to the hospital. How's that?". There's no way to tell how much money has been raised so far, that I can tell, but if you've been inspired to give money to a worthy cause, you can donate here .