I purchased a new monitor and video card right before rockstar pull their stunt with gta v. They arrived the day after I was locked out of gta online. So I feel your pain.

This person is an idiot and can only think of one possibility. They are ignoring the fact that fucking around on the job can have implications like increasing skills. I made the mistake of replying to this person with an anecdote of mine which I am sure will be deconstructed by them like they were there. Point is, boss allowed us to goof off with pet programming projects and that resulted in me experimenting with code I wouldn’t have had the chance to otherwise and making a breakthrough, which I then realized how to implement for the benefit of said company. So I wasn’t fucking around to make money, but the fucking around gave me the knowledge and skills to them apply that indirectly. But hey this person is determined to infect the thread with their single minded theory that doesn’t make a shit to the actual conversation.

It’s not as strict as you are trying to make it out to be. My favorite job ever was a small company. The owner was fine with us programmers just working on pet projects on company time. I was goofing around at some point and ended up writing us some code that ended up being kind of a workshop for some code that us programmers would have to sit and work on. It allowed non-programmers to set up the same conditions and handled the ‘code’ part internally. It was all because I was just goofing around with program ideas and eventually got to that point where I had my eureka moment. I didn’t set out to waste company time and money, but the end result paid off in droves, which is exactly how it sounds like the deck came to be. Another programmers goofy side project turned into an accounting package that we ended up tying into our actual product. If our boss/owner had been looking at it the way you are describing, none of that would have come to fruition, but look at all the money he would have saved not letting us programmers do what we did. /s

That said, this has always been the case, they’ve just covered their legal bases by updating their TOS.

Can you be a little more specific with your definition of this and always? I am old enough to remember that when you purchased a physical copy of a game, you got the game in it’s entirety in perpetuity. Eg: I still have my Donkey Kong cartridge for my Atari 800. To be a little more current, I have a copy of Kerbal Space Program from the company that I can download the entire copy of the game and install it on my pc. So what do you mean by your comment, as I remember a time when it wasn’t the case that you were only purchasing a license? Or do you mean that it’s always been the case with these services?

I was just had by rockstar when they cut off certain people who paid to play GTA Online and are now blocked. I will be voting with my wallet and never purchasing another rockstar game in the future, and in case they ever happened to see this, I was considering picking up the rdr games not only on pc, but my xbox and maybe even the switch. It has soured me to the point where this steam issue more of a concern and something I will be keeping an eye on.

Also, one last comment about your last line. We don’t need congress to get involved if we as a collective of gamers just gathered together and stopped “licensing” their games. Just like if everyone, instead of complaining about the price of beer and hotdogs at stadiums, would just stop buying them for a while, the people raping our wallets would be forced to bring prices down. But alas, I think the chances of that happening are next to zero.

As to the suspects, at this time we are keeping our opinions unbiased.

Not going to hold my breath after getting a ‘fuck you very much’ reply from their tech support.

They have definitely convinced me to never buy anything they make. I have too many other games in my library, so they can just piss right off.

Yup. I put in a ticket with Rockstar and here is their official reply. TLDR: Fuck off.

M____. (Rockstar Support)

Sep 17, 2024, 12:51 EDT

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rockstar Support.

We certainly understand that you are unable to login to GTA online through Steam Deck after the update.

We would like to inform you that the primary goal of incorporating BattlEye into GTA Online is to enhance the overall gaming experience by actively scanning for cheats and exploits, and preventing players with cheats and mods from entering online. The Steam Deck players will not be able to join GTA Online but should be able to launch single-player without any issues. we appreciate your understanding in this matter.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know. We are here to assist you.

Best regards,

M______. Rockstar Support

So I guess those of us who would just go to a friend only server immediately upon starting the game, are fucked now if we are using linux. What a bunch of shit.