Well this thread sure turned... Marxist.
It's impossible for artists to live on the workshop alone anymore, something which Valve used to repeatedly brag about, explained one prominent Workshop artist to me in an interview for this piece. Valve has just recently slashed royalties for Dota 2 creators to almost nothing, right on the eve of the next massive International tournament. According to this artists estimate, their share has gone down from 25 percent to more like to five percent or seven percent, and communication from Valve has been unclear or flat-out non-existent.
Maybe this happened for some people, I don't know.I think the main point is that Valve has established an emotional connection because they were the only game in town for the longest time
Now you're making things up. I haven't ever seen anyone treat GoG with hostility around here.Any sort of competition seems to be treated with hostility, good or not.
Maybe this happened for some people, I don't know.
What I do know is that a very central and crucial point is continuously ignored in this thread: that Steam is easily the most feature-rich gaming platform in existence, and that it offers all these features for free to consumers.
Now you're making things up. I haven't ever seen anyone treat GoG with hostility around here.
The truth of the matter is, the other alternatives offered up as competition suck.
The real problem isnt that the alternatives sucks. The problem is they're clamored as good competition with shitty lame moves. When someone claims "Yay ! Exclusive game to a store ! Great for competition" I just read "Yay ! It's offered in only one place with no mean to get better prices".
I dont have a particular attachement for Steam itself save for my library. But I have an attachement for all these features that benefits me as a user. When I'm pissed off to lose my steam controller configuration for my 360 pad, this isnt a not sane, fanboy reaction. It's a sane, consumer reaction. When I cant use BPM, Workshop, Family Sharing or adding games that arent sold on the service, it's a logical reaction to be pissed off.
I wouldnt care about these exclusivity if other publishers made their service up to the game, which wouldnt make me feel going back to 2010 when I want to launch their game.
Yet for Origin, Blizzard, and Windows Store their method of competing with Steam is not improving their services, but to just make their games exclusive to their store. It's console-izing the PC software market.
Well what's your response to this, from the other thread. This seems perfectly legitimate. There's more to it than "steam is great, everybody else sucks."Maybe this happened for some people, I don't know.
What I do know is that a very central and crucial point is continuously ignored in this thread: that Steam is easily the most feature-rich gaming platform in existence, and that it offers all these features for free to consumers.
Now you're making things up. I haven't ever seen anyone treat GoG with hostility around here.
The truth of the matter is, the other alternatives offered up as competition suck.
EA was the first to offer refunds though. Valve just had to be dragged along, until they just decided automated refunds was better than having two guys at Valve manually approve every request.This I agree with. The only one I feel is really trying to compete with Steam is GOG Galaxy with their client adding community features.
It's nice to see when one of these ticks to "in progress"
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/galaxy
The other alternatives are not trying to compete as a storefront. Origin, Uplay, and Blizzard launcher are there for their games with Blizzard launcher now seeming to start incorporating Activision games. Yet for Origin, Blizzard, and Windows Store their method of competing with Steam is not improving their services, but to just make their games exclusive to their store. It's console-izing the PC software market. It's nice to have alternatives but it isn't an incentive for Steam to improve its services because if they improve their services those games wouldn't show up on their store regardless. While I use those other clients, they to me come off not as a way for them to be an alternative store that's easily accessible to other game developers, but as a way to sidestep any store vendor fees and to promote their own game titles without having other titles competing for store advertisement space. I don't knock them for doing so, but I don't consider them to be putting much effort in trying to compete in the general game store space.
Well what's your response to this, from the other thread. This seems perfectly legitimate. There's more to it than "steam is great, everybody else sucks."
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAI1nknXkAAfX3p.jpg:large
Erm, nothing there (not that I agree with most of it, but even if we were to take it as fact) tells me why as a consumer I should prefer some other, inferior, system over Steam.Well what's your response to this, from the other thread. This seems perfectly legitimate. There's more to it than "steam is great, everybody else sucks."
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAI1nknXkAAfX3p.jpg:large
Well what's your response to this, from the other thread. This seems perfectly legitimate. There's more to it than "steam is great, everybody else sucks."
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DAI1nknXkAAfX3p.jpg:large
The amount of upfront Valve/Steam defense going on without even reading the piece is making the point clear already, Christ.
lol
If Valve was a public company, they will hire people and then sack them off later to give the illusions of growth. Public companies cheats all the fucking time and the investors can act like a cartel that holds the company at gunpoint to prioritize their own money at the cost of everything.
Valve has offered nothing to the PC community except maybe?
Steam controller
Vr integration
Big picture mode
Broadcasting/streaming
Friend and family libary sharing
Uncensored customer reviews
Heavy discounts
Japanese games
Customisable controller (ps4,Xbox,switch pro)
Cards that can be redeemed for money
Game gifting
Automatic patching
Huge libary of amazing games
All they do is take take and take.
They don't have shareholders to please which makes it way worse. Valve are just awful for no reason.
The beauty of Steam is that they give game publishers and developers the ability to generate keys, so you don't need to buy expensive games from the Steam Store itself. There are cheaper ways.
I love that I always have a digital download copy of a game no matter where I buy it from, even if it's retail. I wish it was like that on consoles as well.
Steam is easily the most feature-rich gaming platform in existence, and that it offers all these features for free to consumers.
EA was the first to offer refunds though. Valve just had to be dragged along, until they just decided automated refunds was better than having two guys at Valve manually approve every request.
That's bullshit, frankly. It's a controller which makes it viable to comfortably play games like Civilization or Baldur's Gate. It's very unique.1) Okay, but that's just a controller. It's not unique.
The configurability Valve implemented for the Steam controller and subsequently extended to arbitrary controllers is completely unprecedented, doubly so for an official platform feature. But even comparing to third-party solutions it goes an extra mile.10) I don't see how that's unique.
Good thing I did neither of those then!You can certainly create a free account on Steam but let's not pretend that it's all a nonprofit charitable organization.
Or that they are beyond criticism.
Popeye's Chicken is my friendNone company is your friend.
It's more on eating the cake you bought. If you plan on boycotting a company for x actions which other companies do anyway, you should boycott them all. Basically proving your moral high ground being an actual high ground.
I think the sensible posters here know the nuances and grey area.
Boycotting Valve because they didn't want to offer refunds (for example), but still investing in platforms that don't offer refunds such as the PS4 is indeed hypocritical.
Honestly, I'm definitely fine with Steam because I give them money and they give me games that I want to buy (I love Ys:Origin), no need to get in detail about it.
However, what I despise is the corporate fanboyism that promotes Steam is God and will save the future of gaming and how every games should come to Steam (way too many port begging for PC).
So I guess my problem is not Steam but rather the hardcore fans?
Hardcore fanboys of every platform are annoying, sure. That said Steam offers so many more features than their competition that it makes sense for people to want their games on that service. For all the "Valve needs competition in order to get better," that's said around here there's sure no one else doing what they do to offer me more features for my games.
The advantages Steam has over say battle.net or Origin (respective libraries aside) are grossly overstated imo.
Honestly, I'm definitely fine with Steam because I give them money and they give me games that I want to buy (I love Ys:Origin), no need to get in detail about it.
However, what I despise is the corporate fanboyism that promotes Steam is God and will save the future of gaming and how every games should come to Steam (way too many port begging for PC).
So I guess my problem is not Steam but rather the hardcore fans?
Honestly, I'm definitely fine with Steam because I give them money and they give me games that I want to buy (I love Ys:Origin), no need to get in detail about it.
However, what I despise is the corporate fanboyism that promotes Steam is God and will save the future of gaming and how every games should come to Steam (way too many port begging for PC).
So I guess my problem is not Steam but rather the hardcore fans?
EA was the first to offer refunds though. Valve just had to be dragged along, until they just decided automated refunds was better than having two guys at Valve manually approve every request.
Yeah, this is my 'issue' with Steam. I really, really dislike the corporate fanboys that think Steam and Gabe are some god. It's honestly very disturbing seeing people parade a company so high.
The only thing that is a REAL dent in Valve's crown for me is the Workshop margin for the item producers.
I see no valid reason to cut down the margins from 25 to 5%.
Especially not for a company that is more or less swimming in money and not publically listed. Why would they cut out their community like that? From TF2 to Dota and in parts CS, they are the biggest content producers they have atm and they go out of their way to make it harder for them to produce things for Valve? Not understandable for me. Not at all.
The advantages Steam has over say battle.net or Origin (respective libraries aside) are grossly overstated imo.
Yeah, PC port beggars, I know I know. It only exists here. :")
Usually, that also comes from people who are insecure about the loss of "their" games.
Yeah, this is my 'issue' with Steam. I really, really dislike the corporate fanboys that think Steam and Gabe are some god. It's honestly very disturbing seeing people parade a company so high.
Yeah I do find decreasing the revenue for item creators to be pretty troublesome and I would really like to see Valve address the issue.
Of Valve's 3 games I only play TF2 and I would like to see Valve do 3 things. First is increase the revenue that item creators make on event keys (from what I understand it's usually under 10%, increase it to at least 15-20%). Add a 1% item creator's fee for any community made items sold on the community market. Finally eventually put older items on the Mann Co store again (maybe 6 months to a year after the crate comes out).
That's because Marx is the best. The chapter in Das Kapital that deals with PC gaming was probably the highlight of that classic work.
If your goal is to have a company refrain from doing some practice, there is no law forcing you to boycott every company that does something wrong. Of course, if your goal is to have the higher moral ground, then in my book you lose by default.
With "every company is out to screw you as much as possible" posted in this thread, I feel justified in calling into question some people' grasp of grey areas.
The advantages Steam has over say battle.net or Origin (respective libraries aside) are grossly overstated imo.
Imagine if Undertale came to consoles.
Not gonna buy it though. I have it on Steam.
Well truth be told, what he did (Steam) was very revolutionary so I definitely give him props to that. But worshiping him like Jesus like how others worship Sony or Nintendo is another thing.
Honestly, I can deal with game franchise fanboys rather than console fanboys.
The thing is, the "I cant stand that platform because of its fanboys" is fuckin ridiculous considering you have fanboys, in equal numbers, for every platforms.
What if Undertale came to consoles ?
It's only ridiculous if they shove their opinions to you or say something like "you suck and mine is better" kinda thing.
So... like every platform fanboys ?
Or are you trying to make a narrative when it's only a PC/Steam thing ? Because, bad news for you, it's a 25 years old thing that goes back to Nintendo/SEGA.
It applies to all.
I don't why but why are you acting like a victim?
I'm not acting like a victim, I'm answering to your points, which goes back to the "I cant stand Steam because of the fanboys which often are PC port beggars" to which I reply with the following point: "It's silly to base your thinking on a fanboy base because everything has fanboys". Whenever it is a platform or even a game serie, popular things have a fanboy base too.
Honestly, I'm sorry to go off topic, but why are you coming off as incredibly defensive? It sounds like "oh! console fanboys are also like that!" or something.
I don't like platform fanboys whenever they advocate and shove their opinions on you. Period. Is that hard to grasp?
The one thing I strongly dislike about Steam is that it does a terrible job at showing you information about the games you own. Sometimes I'd be browsing my library, I click on the button to see more details, and it takes me to a screen that tells me:
With the exception which of my friends own it, all the other info is utterly useless to me if I haven't played it yet. Nowhere on that page is a description of what that game is about, there are no screenshots, no genre listing or tags, no feature list, etc. Valve has all this information in their store page, but apparently you don't need to know this any more once you already own it. My library is full of games I've never heard of, or barely know anything about. I've bought plenty of bundles in the past, bought things on the recommendation of others, or got gifted. Basically games I know little about, and probably will know less about the more time passes. I'm going to be less likely to check 'em out if I can't see what they're like when I'm flipping through my catalogue.
- How long I've played it
- Which of my friends own it
- My achievements
- Updates the game had
I wish the interface would just show me this basic storefront information.
Honestly, I'm sorry to go off topic, but why are you coming off as incredibly defensive? It sounds like "oh! console fanboys are also like that!" or something.
I don't like platform fanboys whenever they advocate and shove their opinions on you. Period. Is that hard to grasp?
That is one click too many if you are flipping through your games if you ask me.Every game has a link to the store page on the list of links on the right.