I think it’s a little odd the article omits the fact that Yanis Varoufakis was also the Greek minister of finance for quite a while.
Capitalism is what is going to kill Capitalism.
Valve is the only good thing in the hellscape. Linux support, cheap games and free multiplayer.
Who else provides this?
Gog
GOG doesn’t have regional pricing.
I’m unclear as to whether you’re saying this is a positive or negative.
I see it as a positive - it means they have a price and that price is the same for everyone without favoritism.
Linux support
To be fair, they do a decent job providing Linux compat for games they support. They just don’t do anything on the launcher side.
Doing nothing is still more than some companies do. Some go out of their way to ensure their game won’t run on Linux.
Did you read the article? One of their really own says they are to blame for the hellscape!
Valve’s implementation of its in-game stores and the Steam marketplace, Varoufakis says, emerged from a need to balance monetization with a fear that if the company didn’t create its own systems for exchange between players, they would “take it outside”
They are a for profit company, they most likely support linux so that people don’t “take it outside” their useless proprietary launcher.
“…their useless proprietary launcher.” Steam is by far the least useless launcher out there. Steam has so many incredibly useful features such as remote play together, community controller layouts, the workshop, cloud saves, family library sharing, etc. Not to mention that they continue to keep adding new features that no other launcher is even close to having such as the new game recording feature that is currently in beta.
Sure, Valve charge a pretty decent amount to game developers for the sale of a game, but they provide a load of features in exchange.
you don’t need a third party launcher to run software
You’re right, I don’t, but it sure as hell makes it a lot easier to keep the hundreds of games that I have purchased organized. Not to mention I don’t have to manually keep each of the 95 games I currently have installed updated or have to worry about backing up game saves or having them available across multiple different devices with zero effort from myself.
Steam isn’t perfect, but it does add a massive amount of value for consumers like myself who take advantage of a lot of the different features that are mostly unique to Steam as a platform.
Also, I believe when a developer releases a game on Steam they are given the opportunity to use Steamworks, which provides a lot of potentially useful tools for a game deceloper.
You’re right, I don’t, but it sure as hell makes it a lot easier to keep the hundreds of games that I have purchased organized.
You are trading your privacy and freedom over your disorganization and lazyness
Steam isn’t perfect, but
Reddit has many of the fancy comsumer features you seem to love perhaps you should go back there
they most likely support linux so that people don’t “take it outside”
I’m amazed you’re attempting to make “company supports platform desired by customers” sound like a bad thing.
their useless proprietary launcher.
You should make it less obvious you have axe to grind, because this statement shows that your opinion isn’t really valid about PC gaming. I’d love to see you find a launcher that offers everything that Valve’s “useless” launcher.
I’ll wait.
Instead of waiting you could start to use software that doesn’t require you to go through a third party proprietary launcher
I’d love to see you find a launcher that offers everything that Valve’s “useless” launcher.
L. O. L. When asked for a launcher that is feature comparable, you give me that?
I’ve played a few of the libre games linked there. I’ll stick with steam, thanks but no thanks.
I’ve played a few of the libre games linked there. I’ll stick with steam, thanks but no thanks.
no problems, you can play these games anytime you want, you don’t need a proprietary launcher to run these
I definitely agree that Valve is responsible for the MTX hellscape in gaming because of TF2’s hats. People thought Oblivion’s Horse Armor for $5 was insane; but I would be shouted down bringing up the $25 for a single video game hat when TF2 started adding that shit. It was so much worse and that system was the one adopted by everyone and what evolved into the current “live service” systems damn near every new AAA game has now.
Unintentionally though? They were one of the loudest proponents of “games as a service” back in the day.
More problematically, TF2 popularized loot boxes in the form of Mann Co. supply crates, starting the trend of adding essentially gambling to online multiplayer games.
No, that’s steam, we don’t speak bad about steam here.
It’s 100% intentional
