Disclaimer: Nothing posted in this thread is breaking the rules of the subreddit or reddit itself and should not be removed on the grounds of spreading false information that I claim to be factual. I do not claim any of the info relayed in this post to be a fact and is open for interpretation and discussion for myself and other users. I can safely assume Valve employees and certain managing directors come to this subreddit, whether sparingly or frequently, and could come across this post. I apologize to the moderators of this subreddit for posting this but it is fair discussion and it shouldn't cause too much trouble seeing as this is a skeptical place as is regardless of this post being here. MODS PLEASE MESSAGE ME IF YOU'D LIKE ME TO EDIT THIS IN ANY WAY. I would appreciate if this wouldn't get removed for promoting unproven information. This is merely a discussion about how we are reacting to these coincidences and spreading of alleged information on the game series we love.

Take everything you're about to read and view with a grain of salt. This isn't a hype thread or anything of the sort. This is just relaying of public information that is from users claiming to know information about Valve's secret projects and the reasons why I personally believe them. Also some of the screen captures are from recently after the user's account was deleted so the inconsistencies of some messages showing from /u/getrealhh and [deleted] are simply because of that.

So here's a little backstory:

On January 11th, 2016, a user created an account on reddit and sent the mods of /r/halflife several messages stating that they have supposed information on Half-Life 3, Source 2, and other related inner projects of Valve and that he/she will create a post on the subreddit. A blurry image of an identification badge was given to the mods from this user who claimed to be a Valve employee. The image of the badge was not seen by the public. The leaker's post contained ~20 paragraphs of Source 2 features implemented within Half-Life 3. That same day, another user account was created by the alias of /u/getrealhh (an anagram, perhaps?). The user made a post on /r/halflife stating that "everything the leaker said was true." and gave a link to Bad Robot Production Co.'s twitter page in the form of a smiley face.

The user began making posts on the /r/halflife that quickly became overlooked and disregarded by users here that would state information not shared with the public. I began exchanging messages with this person and tentatively asked questions about his knowledge of non-public Valve information.

Here's the messages exchanged with him. Think of it what you will. I'm not here to convince you, it's just for public knowledge and speculation.

Upon asking him of his legitimacy, he responded:

    http://i.imgur.com/rqg3ph6.png

and then with

    http://i.imgur.com/4b3p4kd.png

Without any proof, I was unsatisfied. But we still engaged in conversation. I brought up the fact that his posts are ignored and downvoted by almost everyone here (except for myself), to which he responded:

    http://i.imgur.com/qPW4Nup.png

I asked him how long he has worked at Valve and described my relationship with the series. I talked about a piece of fan art I made as a kid when I was 9 years old before Half-Life 2 came out. Here's the drawing I made and referenced to him.

    http://i.imgur.com/UJIlpA8.jpg

Here is his response to the message referencing the drawing and asking how long he's worked at Valve:

    http://i.imgur.com/RXPe5VV.png

I scanned the picture that night and sent it to a few Valve e-mail addresses. The next day, getrealhh messaged me:

    http://i.imgur.com/n211m28.png

Think of it what you will, but I only sent that image to Valve e-mail addresses.

A few more questions were asked after the previous exchange, since he sold me on his affiliation with Valve. Hell, maybe he was the janitor?

    http://i.imgur.com/cAdKRLN.jpg

I asked him several questions, including if Marc Laidlaw retired from Valve after completing the primary writing for Half-Life 3, if the indie game ARG is related to a Valve product, if the hl3.txt file in the Dota 2 update was intentional, if Kelly Bailey came back to Valve to work on Half-Life 3, and if Prospero was inspiration for the concept of Half-Life 3, since the aforementioned bookkeeper system that was prevalent in the leak sounded like it derived from Prospero concepts.

Now an interesting part of this message he sent me was that he said Half-Life 3 started development before the second one was released. This is something mentioned by another user (whose comments have been removed as well on this subreddit).

    http://i.imgur.com/cAaR1ag.png

This user who made these comments is still active and has been for at least 2 years. I'm reluctant to share the username of this user since it would do no good and only promote spamming of messages filled with questions he is contractually not eligible to answer. Let it be known that he never posts within the Half-Life subreddit and primarily posts in the subreddit of /r/Seattle and other non-video game related subreddits.

Now back to /u/getrealhh,

My friend, who happens to live half an hour outside of Bellevue, WA, the city of the headquarters of Valve Corporation, was compelled just as I by this mysterious account. He gave him a few tests. http://imgur.com/a/hoybU Now here's my thoughts on this. The information on here is in fact public, albeit not easy information to access, but it's public nonetheless. Everything that was described in his reply was confirmed and accurate, from the bathroom, to touring days, to the parking, etc.. This user getrealhh has in fact been inside the building that Valve is located in.

After asking him if I could share the information he shared to me and my northern friend publicly, he responded:

    http://i.imgur.com/BCupFW1.png

After asking him which employees attempted to leak information, he responded:

    http://i.imgur.com/fdRp6nT.png

I gave him a list of known "leaks" in recent years, such as the Dog image on 4chan, the Jira leak, the "physics testbed game open -hl3" within the Source 2 Dota 2 files, Minh Le's comments on Half-life 3 and L4D3, and Ep3 concept art. I also questioned him on the fate of the L4D series, and a question about the snack bar (since, dammit, I'm curious.).

    http://i.imgur.com/8Amzhzk.png

And as a conclusive piece to this research (i say research in this case satirically, mind you), he left with a strange farewell message before deleting his account due to a variety of circumstances. . .

    http://i.imgur.com/QMHBEUv.png

wegelnbael is clearly an anagram of Gabe Newell. That piece of news put be back at square one in terms of trust. There's no way I was communicating with Gabe Newell, as was the likes of some others. This raises many questions, doubts, and feelings, as well as comments such as this http://i.imgur.com/HaeaRZr.png.

Who else communicated with /u/getrealhh, and what were those exchanges like?

Also as a side note in this sprawling cluster-fuck of text, there were a few idiosyncratic similarities I noticed between the leaker and /u/getrealhh, such as the "(?)" after a questionable and unsure statement.

    http://i.imgur.com/kwYkw50.png

I don't know of anyone else who uses that. I'm also fairly certain Gabe Newell knows how to spell "a lot" compared to the lots of "alots" /u/getrealhh typed out. Who knows. Maybe a small irregular inconsistency between the leaker and getrealhh, or getrealhh and Gabe Newell, or all three. Fuck. Maybe all three are trolls. I wouldn't be shocked.

Although /u/getrealhh has removed his/her account, I print screened all of the comments that was left on the account. http://imgur.com/Y1xxh22 The profile can still be viewed by googling getrealhh and viewing the cached webpage of his/her comments. There's lots of interesting 'stuff' there, most notable being plans of Source 2 ports for nearly all Source engine games including Half-Life 2. It's happened before with Half-Life: Source, so I guess history could repeat itself.

My personal thoughts?

I think we'll see Half-Life 3 soon. I don't care if you guys reach the same conclusion as I by the time you're reading this. By the end of the year, we'll all be in the same space occupying the same reality of a schrodinger's Half-Life 3. It exists and it does not. None of us truly know and we are victims to many trolls' attempts at raising our hopes. Maybe this was the greatest orchestration of trolling on the Half-Life community. At least, if that is the case, the user gave us a short time span to be excited. An announcement very soon, to be exact. The sudden burst of retirements indicated a near completion of the biggest project Valve has ever worked on. Hopefully. Perhaps some Valve employees stumble upon this. Perhaps not. Perhaps /u/getrealhh is reading this. If so, my friend is, in fact, not getting a Gordon Freeman tattoo on his ass.

Also, I am having a hard time grasping the concept of the bookkeeper system. Apparently it will integrate games and separate players' actions into one package? If made up, it's a hell of a concept. Maybe the bookkeeper system is an interface? Perhaps it's bogus.

TL;DR: Either /u/getrealhh is a legitimate Valve employee who gave us info on the future of HL3, or was the most credible troll in the world, yet also the worst given the short time span he says we have to wait until we will get an "official announcement."

Hmm.. getrealhh. HLthreeGA? After completing this essay, I've become a Half-Life 3 conspirator like many others. Heh.