If $'s was my only consideration, I’d pirate the game.
If my valid options are paying $25 to Valve, installing the Epic malware or dealing with pirate sites, I’m sending money to Valve.Gabe Newell talked about this years ago.
“When you look at the fact that these people have $2000 PCs and they’re spending $50 a month or more on their Internet connections, clearly they’re willing to spend money.
So, from our point of view, what we saw more and more was that piracy is a result of bad service on the part of game companies…”
Gabe is one of the CEOs (if we can call him one?) of a gaming company, who truly understands gamers.
The greatest thing he’s done is kept Valve a private company. He’s not beholden to shareholders constantly demanding that the line go up at any cost.
Funny how he’s still fantastically wealthy. It’s almost like treating your employees well and providing a quality product to consumers is a viable path to success, and selling out isn’t actually necessary to become rich.
Fuck shareholders. They are make no money out the ass. Why tether themselves to silicon valley douches or whatever.
It’s never a good idea to fall in love with CEOs; a company may sometime “help” their customer, but when strategic partner asks for a slap in the face for the customer… there’s no “may”, only must.
Steam comes with Denuvo, third party launcher filled with ads and kernel level anticheat. None of these was required by Valve… yet… they still slap their customer in the face per strategic parteners requests.
Also, refund is not something in Gabe’s book: it was written in Australia’s laws (also EU and other countries) and only after lot of struggles he conceded it.
Denuvo is not by Steam. It’s a third party DRM that the publisher of the game decides to put it. Steam should not be in a position to decide what the publisher do. The anger about Denuvo should be focused on the publisher, not Valve / Steam. I don’t know why you think I fall in love with Gabe… I just admire that he understands the gamers and does stuff in Steam that reflects it. Compared to other out of touch CEOs. No need to interpret more that that what I said. And no need to mud something that is positive.
Most of the time when I get a game for free I don’t value it as much. There are some exceptions, I’ve gotten into a few giveaways like Dead Island 2 and Lord of the Rings Return to Moria.
But mostly I want gaming to be convenient. Steam is very convenient and has some really great sales. I recently found a space tower defense game I wanted to try and it was 0.79 on sale. Less than a dollar.
Which one? I love TD games
It’s called Space Run. You have to make space ship runs and configure your ship for the best combination of speed, defense, and offense.
Thanks! I wishlisted it, any idea if it runs on the Steamdeck? It says unknown in the store
Check protondb.com
I grab everything on Epic and use playnite to browse my collection.
I recently started playing Gravity Circuit and it is great!
I have never played any of the free games I got on Epic. It happens regularly that I discover a game I bought on Steam, I already owned on Epic for years.
I don’t care. The platform is bad, no one uses it, you can’t out-Steam Steam.
The only platform I prefer to Steam is GOG. Fuck DRM.
But Steam’s totally not a monopoly, you guys.
No, the word does not mean competitors don’t exist. It means they don’t matter.
No, the label does not mean we have to shatter Valve. Having market dominance and abusing it are different things, but we still need to recognize when a company fffuuucking obviously has it.
If Gaben suddenly announces he’s sold it all to Larry Ellison, that has ruinous implications for the entire PC gaming market, despite the fact Valve does not strictly own PC gaming. They don’t have to, to be an outsized influence, to the point most people will readily admit they only buy from one store. We have a word for that.
Yeah I don’t think anyone can form a good faith argument claiming Steam doesn’t have a monopoly.
The thing is, all a competitor has to do to take away Steam’s monopoly is to make a product as good or better than Steam
I’ve had dozens of people pile on to insist Steam is not a monopoly. They’re the ones I’m quoting about it being the only store they use. They’re the ones downvoting me, and only me, for pointing out it is a monopoly, while they upvote you for also saying it’s a monopoly, but in a yeah-but phrasing.
I’ll be honest, I downvoted you, but because of the incredibly condescending tone, and for arguing against a point that literally no one has brought up in this post. I’m sorry you’ve run into dumbasses elsewhere that have wrongly tried to claim Steam isn’t a monopoly, but complaining about them and arguing against them in a post that they haven’t shown up in isn’t productive.
I refuse to be shamed on tone when every approach sees the same response.
A coy eye-roll which you cannot imagine anyone disagrees with gets brusquely scoffed at. Pointing out that people absolutely disagree with it gets treated like heavy messing.
Direct responses get downvoted.
Detailed overviews get downvoted.
Oblique implications get downvoted.
Direct application with context gets downvoted.
If I can’t win I don’t play. Steam is a monopoly and people are fucking weird about it. You supposedly agree with me and you’re still treating me the same way these “dumbasses” do. If I pretend they don’t exist I get more predictable bullshit. If I acknowledge they exist it’s my fault somehow. How about no?
I’m not asking you to feel shame, just explaining why I thought your comment was deserving of a downvote. It wasn’t intended to be personal, just informational.
And which angle would not receive the same “information?”
What?
arguing against a point that literally no one has brought up in this post
You’re not being downvoted here because you’re wrong. You’re being downvoted here because you’re bringing up this argument you had with other people outside of this thread in a way that provides zero context and in an accusatory tone.
Even your “Dry statement” was just uncalled for. We get it. You learned what monopoly means and you wanna share it with the world. You even go so far as to say Alan Wake took so long to make a profit because Valve is a monopoly. OK sure Valve is a monopoly. Maybe, it’s one reason AW took forever to turn a profit. But you know what else could cause that? Epic absolutely sucking.
People fall over themselves to demonstrate what I’m saying.
I mention that it’s a monopoly - ‘shut up, no it isn’t.’ I mention the people who say it isn’t - ‘shut up, of course it is.’ I start from scratch - ‘shut up, what are you talking about.’ I provide two years of context - ‘shut up, that’s not in this thread.’
What sequence of words would avoid this abuse? What possible sentence would address the actual issue, without people acting like I’ve insulted their mother’s cooking?
Maybe not saying anything.
