• Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      It does.

      Private companies are - often - not driven by pure greed. The people work hard for their company to be successful and they are much less likely to fuck it all over with a stupid move.

      Public companies, however, are controlled by a bunch of money motivated monkeys that couldn’t give a rats ass about a company’s future. They’ll bleed it all dry and go to the next company.

        • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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          4 months ago

          Ye every private business hates them gays and trans people and wants to see them dead.

          Go outside, touch some grass you lunatic.

        • zymagoras777@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Like most game platforms do, except Valve actually looks after their customers.

          • Kystael@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            The gambling problem and grey market they created with their marketplace and their Counter Strike crates is an issue.

            • Realitätsverlust@lemmy.zip
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              4 months ago

              I never understood how that is valves problem tbh. That’s like being mad at football players for sports gambling. The second you have a somewhat open market, some people will abuse it.

              Also, what’s valve supposed to do? They bab the trade bots if they can find them, they have sued the operators of those portals in the past - so what do you realistically expect from them now? Completely close the market just so some people can’t gamble anymore?

        • EstonianGuy@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          What, like ebay and amazon selling stuff they don’t own? They all get a commission for marketing, not all of the money.

  • Delta_V@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I sometimes feel an anxiety when pondering what will happen when daddy Gabe isn’t here to keep the wolves at bay.

    • Evono@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      That’s my fear too , whoever gets their hand on valve will decide the future of pc gaming kinda , I just hope it won’t get sold to ea , riot , tencent or whatever

    • commander@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      Honestly, I’ve been weaning myself off Steam for awhile now. It’s great what they did to make PC gaming more accessible, but I also feel like Steam itself is an unnecessary dependency for most video games.

      There should be protocols that games can implement to integrate with launchers and organize playing online.

  • Kualdir@feddit.nl
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    4 months ago

    Steam is still basically the only option AND they are actually helping Linux a lot with game compatibility. Altough, if I need games specifically on steam I’ll be buying the key from Greenmangaming (UK) or GamersGate (Sweden). If anybody has more alternatives feel free to let me know so I can add them to my list.

    GOG sadly misses a majority of games atm so I just can’t replace steam with it yet.

    • VeganCheesecake@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      Third party key market places are kinda iffy, and there have been numerous cases of the keys being offered on there having been bought with stolen credit cards, or otherwise generated in ways that aren’t quite above board.

      I remember one interview with an indy dev in which they said they prefer people pirating, because chargebacks from stolen cards are actively costing them money.

      For people who feel they need the entertainment games provide, but can’t afford current prices, I feel pirating games from conglomerates, and buying from smaller studios and indies is the most socially responsible way to do it, but I’m not your mum.

      Edit: Huh, looks like greenmangaming gets their keys directly from the publishers. Didn’t know that was a thing. Guess I was a bit quick on the trigger there, should have checked first. Sorry about that.

      • RisingSwell@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        G2A is probably the big example of Devs prefering you pirate instead of buying.

        Only use G2A if you actively wish harm on the company making the game.

        • KubeRoot@discuss.tchncs.de
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          4 months ago

          Don’t use G2A even if you wish harm on the company making the game, it’s still supporting scammers and thieves, just pirate the game.

      • Kualdir@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        See you already found the reason it is ok, but yeah what you are saying is completely right when talking about sites like G2A, Kinguin, etc where YOU can sell your keys as that opens the gates for illegal stuff

        Hence I mentioned legit resellers (from the EU) that do support the publishers.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      Huge plus that they aren’t publicly traded and forced to chase profits above all. Plus their employees are far and wide the best paid in the industry, and they never do mass lay offs.

      • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        This is a somewhat naive view when you consider Gabe’s multiple super-yachts. And ofc all the gambling.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          4 months ago

          The guy could be more charitable, but aside from that, what do you want him to do? If he lowers the cost of steams cut per purchase he’ll get in trouble for monopolizing the industry. Yeah, he’s too rich, but he got there without exploiting or hurting anyone. Even after he passes away, the company is already employee owned.

          • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            You’re missing the part where they make the vast majority of their money from the gambling, not from the cut they take from sales. They don’t have to run the gambling service. But they do because it’s a money faucet.

            • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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              4 months ago

              Two things: First, they very likely don’t make most of their money off of their loot box sales from the few games they own that have them. (CS, Dota 2, TF2).

              Secondly, you’re just full of shit and making up that “fact”. As a private company, none of their stuff is completely public record, but using various trackers and estimates and sales numbers from game studios, Steam sells north of 700,000,000 games a year and makes a $billion or so from cs and tf2 stuff.

              Since the average game sale amount is around $15; $15 X 700,000,000 = 10,500,000,000 ÷ valves cut of 30% = $3,150,000,000

              Now not all studios pay that 30%. Some have lower deals based on volume and notoriety, but it’s still safe to assume that their game sales make over two billion a year. AKA well over their loot box money.

            • ysjet@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I like how when valve does it, it’s ‘gambling,’ but every other company out there it’s just ‘microtransactions’ and ‘monetization.’

              Valve somehow gets 99% of the hate online for lootboxes, despite having one of the most transparent and fair implementations of them.

              Like, have you people never seen a gacha? Half of them don’t even fucking publish the rates for what you can get, and make far more money than Valve does.

              • Ramen 🍜(she/her)@lemmy.ml
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                4 months ago

                No, there are actual gambling sites for counter-strike items that are run by scammers who hire a youtuber, give them a huge (deliberate) win to entice kids to bet their parents wage on some stupid cosmetics’ slot machine.

        • Tenderizer@lemm.ee
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          15 days ago

          The important part is that Valve doesn’t need to sell it’s own kidneys (and enshitifies it’s service) just to appease shareholders. I like that Valve chooses to be evil, rather than being required to by law.

    • Ghost (he/any)@beehaw.org
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      4 months ago

      I don’t believe gog will ever have a full library. They require all their games to be DRM free. Until corporate gaming changes GOG won’t.

    • ddash@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      You are still fucked then if Steam decides to take out a game you purchased. Again the whole “you’re not buying a product but a license for the product” debacle. Other than not giving Steam any money, this doesn’t change much? Could just pirate games instead.

      • Kualdir@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        I never said I cared about that in the first place. But even after games are removed from Steam they still allow you to download it whenever. Its only really an issue should Gabe choose a replacement for him that isn’t as pro gamers as he is.

        This community is about buying european, not complaining about having DRM.

    • index@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Steam is still basically the only option

      When cornered people finally admit that steam is a small monopoly

      • Kualdir@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        Steam isn’t a monopoly, there are other choices but they just suck. Epic games in terms of game availability already replaces a good 80% of my active library, itch, ubisoft, ea, etc also exist but are just so bad as well.

        Steam is basically the only option… That cares about gamers and actually provides a good service.

    • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Wait what exactly is the purpose of buying a steam key from a third party? And how is that profitable and not tos breaking?

      • Kualdir@feddit.nl
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        4 months ago

        Good question! Real resellers (so NOT g2a, etc) get their keys from publishers directly (so they pay for them). The publishers get these keys from steam for free and by buying them from a reseller steam takes 0% of the money. So by using an EU reseller more money stays here.

  • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    How Newell’s latest yacht? They still allow gambling in CS? Cool cool, nothing to see here.

    • rumba@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      At least he had the underdog story having companies try to beat him down.

      Still unsure if he came from generational wealth, but at least there’s a story there.

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          Yeah i’m not looking for inspiring. Guy made a company, made some good games, came within an inch of getting trounced by big bro, turned into a publishing empire then made some bad decisions.

          Then we got steamdeck pushing Linux.

          If not for Steam, we’re just be sitting in Epic and Blizzard’s and Microsoft’s laps.

          It would be really cool if someone did a non-profit publisher, but capitalism just fucking sucks and everytime we get something nice it has to turn to shit.

      • Crikeste@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Doesn’t every budding company face competition when they grow? I don’t know what an underdog story has to do with his exploitative business practices and his billionaire lifestyle.

  • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    4 months ago

    me: steam is terrible; it’s just drm with a nice bow on top

    steam: steam visual novel fest starts now

    me: i love steam stuffs more items on my wishlist

    (for real tho itch.io and gog are much better use them - and download the actual offline installers from gog don’t use galaxy)

    • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      GOG Galaxy isn’t bad to use. It has cloud saves, and update checking - which is useful for some people. And games installed using the offline installers still show up in galaxy (and can be updated etc.) In fact, you can download the offline installers from the Galaxy app itself if you want to.

    • commander@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      Heck, I just cut out the middleman and go straight to torrenting.

      Wish I had thought to do this sooner. I would’ve saved a lot of money that really just ended up in the hands of landlords.

      • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        4 months ago

        yeah it wasn’t necessarily an alternative; i was just saying they’re better because they tend to support indie devs and/or are more drm free than steam. i didn’t know of a purely non american one that i use :(

  • Rusty@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    You are allowed to say Fuck on the Internet. Why are you following the self-censorship rules for Instagram and other social networks if you are making a joke about them?

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Man I love it when people glaze objectively bad companies just because it’s popular opinion to like them.

    Remember steam started the business model of not actually owning your games.

    Gabe has made billions by stealing profit from the workers that actually make games.

    They had to be sued just to offer refunds.

    They host tons of malware and shovelware and outright scam games and even protect them from “”““review bombing””"

    They pushed “early access” into the mainstream.

    And because of people like you that would literally suck Gabes dick for the meme, they get away with it.

    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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      4 months ago

      Remember steam started the business model of not actually owning your games.

      GOG exists, go use GOG. Steam is popular because they don’t fuck over buyers, and they run a good business model, people are ok not “owning” things if the service is reasonably well put together.

      Gabe has made billions by stealing profit from the workers that actually make games.

      steam takes a 30% cut, which isn’t all that high, especially when you consider that they develop things like proton at zero cost to anybody, including developers. You’re also getting the single largest and most widely used publishing platform, period. It’s really hard to beat something of that caliber, so it’s definitely a tradeoff. There are also cases of devs making games that become so popular they pull in millions of dollars worth of revenue.

      They host tons of malware and shovelware and outright scam games and even protect them from “”““review bombing””"

      in defense of steam, if they specifically curated high quality games people like you would accuse them of gate keeping the platform. Scams are definitely a thing, malware, technically is. I’ve not seen malware ever in my personal experience, and i doubt most people have, and whenever it does happen, steam responds accordingly so i’m not sure its a fair statement.

      They pushed “early access” into the mainstream.

      there’s nothing necessarily wrong with early access, i actually think it’s a really productive way to provide tons of play testing and development potential for smaller dev teams. Does it also incentivize shovelware? Sure, but it’s a platform you can make money on, that’s not abnormal. And again, it’s usually very well known when games are abandonware.

      And because of people like you that would literally suck Gabes dick for the meme, they get away with it.

      surprised you didn’t mention gambling, that’s probably the most significant argument against steam right now, they effectively run what can be considered an online casino.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        That’s a lot of effort to put in to trying to excuse blatantly predatory practices of a company with an almost defacto monopoly on PC games and uses said almost-monopoloy to steal 30% of the profits from people that actually make games.

        GOG existing does not excuse Steam.

        30% is massive. Imagine you sold something on, let’s say, Ebay and they took 30% of that money. And devs could have other options of markets to sell their games if more people realised how predatory Steam is and stopped glazing Gabe like he’s the video game messiah.

        There’s a difference between gatekeeping/allowing only AAA games, and just having 0 standards of what is allowed on the store.

        Yes early access could be a good thing. But it isn’t, they allow all the blatant shovelware and asset flips because, ya know, money. Again, if they just had some fairly basic standards of what they allow on their store to stop their users being ripped off, it wouldn’t be a problem, but that wouldn’t make them as much money, so they don’t do it.

        Gabe newel is a billionsire capitalist and Valve runs like any other company. Profits first and foremost.

        Why have standards to protect consumers when Gabe needs an 8th super yatch to add to his fleet.

        • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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          4 months ago

          i guess technically they have a monopoly on the market place? But it’s not like they’re ruthlessly destroying the competition like GOG, and itch.io, and epic games. They literally just offer, a better service. The alternative being that you have to buy games from like 12 different platforms that all work differently, which i think most people, would rather not deal with.

          to steal 30% of the profits from people that actually make games.

          for which they offer services in return, because it’s not stealing, because that’s how money works.

          30% is massive. Imagine you sold something on, let’s say, Ebay and they took 30% of that money. And devs could have other options of markets to sell their games if more people realised how predatory Steam is and stopped glazing Gabe like he’s the video game messiah.

          i mean sure, in the context of ebay that may make sense, but ebay doesn’t handle shipping for you, do advertising, doesnt provide you any services to do photography of your product, any information about the product you’re using. It’s literally just an online marketplace that lets you list a product, and then ship it to somebody who buys it, via a third party customer, steam does literally ALL of the middle man work. You list your game on steam, and steam does EVERYTHING else for you, except for traditional marketing, but that’s a different story. Usually if your game is good people will play it, sometimes you just need some luck, but time usually helps with that.

          And devs could have other options of markets to sell their games if more people realised how predatory Steam is and stopped glazing Gabe like he’s the video game messiah.

          you can quite literally just do this, it won’t have the same market reach, but it hasn’t stopped viral games before. Many a viral sensation has come from itch.

          There’s a difference between gatekeeping/allowing only AAA games, and just having 0 standards of what is allowed on the store.

          steam has pretty significant standards, especially now that you can’t greelight games anymore, you have to actually pay money for it to get listed, sure a lot of the games on the platform are bad, but there are also a lot of really good games, and just because a game is bad doesn’t mean it should be delisted either. Sure things like asset flips really should.

          Gabe newel is a billionsire capitalist and Valve runs like any other company. Profits first and foremost.

          profits first and foremost, except for the fact that a lot of people really just don’t have a problem with steam, and steam manages to develop products that obviously arent intended to make money, like proton.

          Why have standards to protect consumers when Gabe needs an 8th super yatch to add to his fleet.

          also im pretty sure these are just normal yachts.

    • Johannes@feddit.org
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      4 months ago

      While I think capitalism encourages unethical business practices, keep in mind that Valve actively supports the development and popularization of the kernel as well as other projects like Wine from their profits.

      • gmtom@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And Bill Gates is trying to eradicate malaria. So should we all be glazers for Microsoft and use Windows?

      • Echofox@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        That’s one of the greatest thing Valve is doing. They’re breathing life into Linux gaming.

    • GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world
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      G*mers have been too Stockholmed by Steam’s monopoly to recognise that everything they complain about with EA or Ubisoft all started with Valve.

    • Lfrith@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Most important of all they compensate their employees like they are actual humans.

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          4 months ago

          Honestly, that’s really smart. It shows which businesses are playing the long game and which ones aren’t.

          When democrats are back in office and businesses start re-instating DEI, Costco can always say they never got rid of them.

          • ghostrider2112@lemmy.world
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            Also, probably ones that are more global and less willing to be pushed around by a dumb ass and his followers. I bet such companies have better quarters for a while too after that.

    • VeryInterestingTable@lemm.ee
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      Costco can be cool all they want once the federal government of the USA tells them to fuck over Canadians they will. It’s a very dangerous game to rely heavily on American companies in Canada right now. No matter how ethical they might be. The trade war has already begun and the USA will use any lever available when the time comes to annex.

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    4 months ago

    I wouldn’t have started even dual booting Linux if it wasn’t for Steam after being pleasantly surprised with my Steam Deck played most of my Steam library. It’s the primary why I intend to get AMD gpu next time around for the better driver support, but that won’t be for a few years.

    • zhyl@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      Yep, if you want a reason why Valve are “less evil” than other companies, one big thing to point to is the huge investment they’ve made into the Linux ecosystem. Even though it’s in their own interests (Microsoft locking out steam would cripple their income), we can see with Epic suing Google/Apple that there are other, shittier ways that they could have attempted the same thing. The investment they’ve made into Linux, Proton, KDE etc benefit everyone and can’t be taken away on a whim.

  • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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    4 months ago

    steam is just so based.

    I dont think a single more based company has ever existed. It rivals the greats like linux, with a touch of gambling.

    • nomy@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      I dont think a single more based company has ever existed.

      Hyperbole much? I like Steam as much as the next guy but lets not pretend the guy that owns 6 yachts is a good person just because he’s better than the next worst. Steam DRMs the shit out of games sold on their platform and if you’re an indie dev that wants to sell your game Steam is THE place to do it.

      Steam made $10bn last year, they have about 100 employees (their parent company Valve has about 400). I used to be a bigger fan of GabeN but more recently really started considering him and looking into it and realized he’s just another unethical billionaire. This video by Coffeezilla is a good jumping off point. regarding the intentional targeting of youth with addictive gambling mechanics in loot crates and circumventing gambling laws. It’s all very purposeful and continues to this day.

      • Gawdl3y@pawb.social
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        4 months ago

        Steam’s DRM is completely optional and is among the least intrusive DRMs available for developers to use. Many games are sold 100% DRM-free on Steam.

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            4 months ago

            It is entirely up to the developer if they want to use it though. It is not mandatory for a developer to use Steam DRM even if publishing on Steam.

            Kerbal Space Program 1, at least used to not require steam running at all. I havent tried in a while, but it was supposed to stay that way.

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                4 months ago

                You can actually pick and choose which parts of the steamworks api to implement, so you can have trading cards, multiplayer etc without the drm side.

                from memory, i think you do need to use the drm to use family sharing, we had issue with that when we chose not to use the drm, but everything else we could implement fine without it.

                • markko@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Ah I didn’t realise that, thanks. The overview page made it seem like the DRM was required for any of that to work.

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                4 months ago

                yep yep, exactly this. For whatever reason suits them, be it drm or others, pretty much everyone who publishes on steam does choose to do so

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            4 months ago

            Stardew Valley, Terraria, and Starbound, to name a few I’m pretty sure are DRM free (Starbound I’m certain of). Probably plenty of others, but I haven’t tested. To see if a game requires steam, literally just install the game on Steam, copy the game folder out of the Steam install path, close steam, and launch the game.

      • enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I will always have some admiration for a person that sets up shop in Microsoft’s back yard and bases the system on Linux. I hate the DRM aspect and couldn’t care less about what promoting whatever with children because quite frankly that’s just not going to be solved by anything other than parents taking better care of their kids. The same can be said about exposure to any kind of media, including not letting children watch commercials on Saturday morning because gee whiz, that stuff is exploitative.

        To me complaints about exposing kids to gambling is just finding something to be pissed off about and reinforces my feeling that the Left has picked up the kinds of puritanism that used to be associated with the Right.

        But yeah. DRM software is a serious thing to worry about. Selling people vapor is kind of a shitty thing to do.

      • julianvogels@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Yeh plus they let neonazi groups usw their forums for recruiting and hate speech, because they don’t want to pay any mods.

        • enthusiasm_headquarters@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          While I wasn’t a mod for Steam proper, I was a mod for a popular game that routinely had its share of hate groups and 8ch mobs try to take over. The flagging system worked pretty well for keeping the worst of this stuff out. Plus, the publisher is permitted to make moderators for its own Steam forum. So if you are seeing shit get out of hand on a particular title, blame the publisher, not Steam.

        • mke@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          Paying someone to do that kind of work is the opposite of Valve’s ideal, if I understand them correctly.

          They prefer systems working well enough with as little human assistance as possible—see: review system with reactions and surge detection; user-defined game tags; front page recommendations completely based on trends; the market; and so on.

          That’s not to say these are bad, but they could often be improved, if only Valve was willing to pay the human cost. But part of the reason Valve remains small is they try to automate as much as they can (and if it can’t be automated, it might never get done, specially considering their corporate structure).

          N.B. I still prefer them over majority of companies in this space, but let’s not ignore their issues, e.g. gambling. As an aside, I also appreciate GOG’s “no DRM” stance, but I use Linux and sadly native support isn’t there. Kudos also to Itch.io.

      • ᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴏʀ 帝@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        I like Steam as much as the next guy but lets not pretend the guy that owns 6 yachts is a good person just because he’s better than the next worst.

        Blimey. Owning a fleet of superyachts, some of which have been converted into support vessels, is Bond villain territory.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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        4 months ago

        it might be hyperbole, a little bit, but it’s certainly better than being mad at everything.

        I like Steam as much as the next guy but lets not pretend the guy that owns 6 yachts is a good person just because he’s better than the next worst.

        i mean, what else are you supposed to do with that much money? I would probably do something much sillier with it.

        Steam DRMs the shit out of games sold on their platform and if you’re an indie dev that wants to sell your game Steam is THE place to do it.

        and yet, you can just, release a non DRM version of the game also, I.E. factorio, mindustry, etc. It’s really not that difficult, steam just has great reach.

      • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanned
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        4 months ago

        no but it is really based.

        You could also argue that very few companies operate as video game publishers, but that would be rather silly wouldnt it.

  • Mike D.@lemm.ee
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    4 months ago

    I’m just happy to see a meme template from Half Baked.

    Chappelle’s old stuff is fire

  • sleezer@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I wish more companies took the approach like steam where it seems to be they are content with the amount of money they make and limitless profits are not the end goal

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Gaben is a billionaire, Valve isn’t content with the amount of money they make, they just have good PR

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Given the fact that they basically make infinite money so long as they don’t fuck it up id say they are very much content. They have a golden goose why would they slaughter it.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            Compared to damned near every company they may as well be, seriously imagine if fucking EA owned Steam. Ill take the neutral evil which just wants my money and giving me a decent product over the one actively trying to kick me in the balls as well.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              They just have good PR, loot boxes, gambling, it’s stuff that Valve also makes profit off of.

              We’re getting ripped off and some of us, like you, are saying that’s ok.

              • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                Nobody is forcing you to pay for the loot boxes, hell nobody is forcing you to play the games with them. You could play literally nothing but Rimworld, Baldurs Gate 3, and Crusader Kings 3 without ever looking at their live service shit. Regardless even on that front Valve is still better than most.

                Also I don’t see profits off of gambling as immoral, I see it as stupid and weak willed by those who participate but not immoral.

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  4 months ago

                  I guess that’s one way to not feel bad about companies praying on kids and people with addiction issues 🤷

                  And now I’m sending you off to the blocklist because I don’t need people like you in my life, buhbye!