cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/15970074
Valve:
- popularized DRM on PC
- killed the used games market on PC
- bans people for selling their Steam account
- contributed to popularizing microtransactions, loot boxes and Battle Pass
- forces you to run a proprietary app to play your games
- forces updates on you
- pretends they invented Wine
- ships devices with a proprietary SteamOS
- forces devs to use proprietary libraries to use Steam’s features
Gamers:
Yes uncle Gaben more of that please!!!
DRM was already a thing on Pcs, and Valves was less intrusive as a player at the time.
I didn’t participate in the used games market, but the steam sales are like paying used game prices.
I must have missed how vavle contributed to lootboxes and microtransactions, was that in their games?
Updates are turned on by default, but honestly moat games need the regular updates and steam made those so much easier.
The devices with steamOS installed are sold to distribute steamOS…
f course they have to use proprietary libraries to use features. That is how it works…
Some of those are true while being a reasonable tradeoff for the convenience. The only one I see as an absolute negative is the banning for selling accounts.
DRM was not popular on PC before Steam became popular. It used to be possible to buy physical copies of games without DRM. On consoles that is still the case.
I didn’t participate in the used games market, but the steam sales are like paying used game prices.
I don’t know, but you can’t sell your game anymore if you get bored of it, so it’s still a loss. Games are overpriced most of the time only to have a -75% off sale a few times a year.
I must have missed how vavle contributed to lootboxes and microtransactions, was that in their games?
Yes, Team Fortress 2, Dota 2, CS:GO.
Updates are turned on by default, but honestly moat games need the regular updates and steam made those so much easier.
They have also removed content from people’s games.
The devices with steamOS installed are sold to distribute steamOS…
Which is proprietary software.
f course they have to use proprietary libraries to use features. That is how it works…
So I can’t release a libre game on Steam and use those features. I can’t compete on the same level with proprietary games.
DRM was not popular on PC before Steam became popular. It used to be possible to buy physical copies of games without DRM. On consoles that is still the case.
Apparently you don’t remember SafeDisc and all the bullshit for PC games in the 90s which required physical discs. All kids of games had DRM that was not the same as always online DRM, but was actually even more annoying than what we currently have.
I don’t know, but you can’t sell your game anymore if you get bored of it, so it’s still a loss. Games are overpriced most of the time only to have a -75% off sale a few times a year.
Games are still mostly $60 or less like they have been for decades, and 75% is cheaper than my friends bought used games a couple decades ago. The sales let me buy so many more games than I did before steam at an overall lower cost.
Hell, I can still games that are a couple decades old while games in the late 90s/early 2000s were hard to get working after a few years because of DRM.
Everything else is a tradeoff, but your memory is failing if you think PC gaming was a better and cheaper experience before steam.
imo, those are pretty weak reasons to criticise valve – they’ve definitely done worse
afaik, they took years to crack down on csgo gambling websites, and still massively benefit from it. the whole portal64 thing still feels wrong to me. i don’t like the fact that they walked back on their anti-ai content stance. the people make game documentary on working at valve highlights some pretty bad discrimination stuff happening behind the scene imo.
i don’t think it’s fair to criticise them on not providing an open-source client to download games, or open-source library to access their features - you wouldn’t gain much from those being open-source anyways, since the games you play on stem are pretty much always closed source. i don’t think it’s fair either to say that it’s bad that they ship devices with a “proprietary os” - they are the game console manufacturer selling them most open-source device on the market currently, they’re doing much better than the alternatives in that regard. i don’t know where they’ve said or suggested they’ve “invented wine”, but i’ve never heard of that - they could probably disclose more openly how proton works and its relationship to wine, but i don’t think they are maliciously behaving as if they created wine/vkd3d/…
i don’t think valve’s a perfect company, but they’re still probably the best one to get most games from. and i don’t think it’s fair to hate on them for exaggerated reasons, it’s much more productive to scold them for stuff they actually did wrong.
