Valve unintentionally set the stage for today's digital economic hellscape, according to its former economist in residence
Valve unintentionally set the stage for today's digital economic hellscape, according to its former economist in residence
Yanis Varoufakis says we're in the age of "technofeudalism," and TF2 hats brought us there.
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Valve is the only good thing in the hellscape. Linux support, cheap games and free multiplayer.
Who else provides this?
Gog
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.
Fortunately, it's mostly MP games, and I very rarely play MP games.
Then there's me that pretty much only plays multiplayer games... 😥
Blessed are those that still find joy playing single player games
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.
Negative. As someone who lives in a 3rd-world country where minimum wage is $0.75/hr, even a senior accountant position would be lucky to earn $750/mo working 10-12hours a day. So pardon me for not favoring the idea of "equals price for everyone".
For us down here, it's either Steam Regional Pricing or the high sea.
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.
And it's been said by many developers that they literally 100x their sales when they go to Steam. PCs are an open ecosystem.
Not directed at OP.
PCs are, steam is not
What do I run Steam on 🤔🤔🤔🤔. Can't remember on such short notice. Any ideas?
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
It's primary purpose is DRM which is a net burden to society. Everything else you list is to help you forget that.
30% is mad decent. For all the haters on California's insane tax, steam takes a 3x larger cut on all income, and California build roads with it. Steam maybe develops half-baked features.
The steam drm is basically non-existent, in fact pirated games use steam specifically to participate in multiplayer with cracked versions
It's a developers choice to release on Steam with DRM, Valve does not enforce it, there are games with no DRM on Steam.
Half baked features? I don't remember the last time I tried using one of Steam's features that I listed (and others I didn't list) and it didn't work incredibly well.
Don't get me wrong, I believe DRM generally only causes problems for paying customers and I'd be much happier without it, but I think Steam's DRM is one of the least invasive solutions that currently exist.
Exactly. Steam DRM is totally up to the developers to use or not. So don't be mad at Valve for devs using it, be mad at the devs. But remember, if they aren't using Steam's DRM, they're probably going to use something much worse.
Steam is an incredibly user-friendly launcher. They have useful features, and I've honestly never had any problems with anything on their platform. It just works, and that's about all I can ask for as a user.
You can manage the file destinations and launch .exe's without loading the Steam client.
Are you sure you know enough about this to be loudly proclaiming your hot take without looking like a jackass?
One of their former own, who is now trying to drum up publicity to sell his book.
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
Sure, but I can watch paint dry without needing a proprietary launcher too.
Free != Good, but I won't yuck someone else's yum just because I'm not a fan. I'm just not going to pretend it's a good alternative.
Oh no, they listened to their demographic and gave people what they wanted so they didn't go elsewhere?! How fucking terrible.