I don't really think there's much meat here, mostly grist.
The individual arguments are the following:
- Valve has a monopoly
- Some people like Steam and not Origin and they're hypocrites
- Valve let people make money off selling content, but don't pay them enough
- Valve wasn't proactive enough in establishing an EU/AU-compliant digital refunds policy
- Some ex-employees of Valve didn't like the culture.
- Reddit memes are bad
If the point here is "Some People ThinK Valve Is Based And Lord GFaben Dot Meme Dot Bmp!!!", then, like, why would any right-minded adult spend time trying to refute idiot teenagers on the internet.
But if the point here is that this is an indictment of Valve generally, I don't see it. In order:
- Steam has a lower share of PC gaming than ever before. With Twitch, Itch, Gog, Humble, Origin, Uplay, Epic Games Launcher, Windows 10 App Store, Amazon, Battle.net, the Mac App Store, Beth.net, and others there are more clients than ever before. WePlay is about to be an 800 pound gorilla. More games are being sold DRM-free than ever before. Many of the most popular games on the internet are not on Steam. And Valve allows people to sell Steam games on any store with Valve taking a 0% cut, so also Steam the Client and Steam the Store are not connected at all. Moreover, with Greenlight and now Direct, Steam is using what clout it does have less than ever before to constrain winners and losers on their own platform.
- When Steam came out, I didn't want Steam because it was an annoying inconvenience. Then it killed FilePlanet, made patching easy, and then later it solved the 10 foot UI problem for PC, so it is convenient. By comparison, Origin is worse. It's not intrinsically against the rules for people to want their 30%, but they need to earn it. Valve earned it for me. EA didn't. Ubisoft didn't. GOG did. Humble did. Microsoft didn't. This isn't because I'm a hypocrite, it's because I'd generally prefer fewer better clients.
- It sounds to me like Valve is making an error reducing the payout for DOTA2 cosmetic makers. But in general, there's a difference between starting with a status quo where everyone makes money and clawing it back, versus starting with a status quo where no one makes money and giving them a little bit. The alternative to paying community content makers is not paying community content makers. That's bad. Moving to a world where they do get paid, even if it's only the top earners and even if they aren't paid enough, is an improvement. Let's keep improving it by improving what they get paid, allowing paid mods, and reducing gatekeeping.
- I agree with the AU court decisions and support giving consumers additional rights for refunds. Also, no one had a systematic digital refund policy. This was a case where tech got ahead of law. I am glad law is constraining tech. But let's not pretend Bad Actor Valve departed from the tradition of digital refunds to screw people. And their current refund policy is more automated and generous than most other actors.
- if the point here is to point out that Valve's flat hierarchy has strengths and weaknesses, and one weakness is cliquishness and dysfunctionality when it comes to major projects, sure. I think the presentation of digging up all the ex-employees that say bad things and none of the people who feel it is functional makes it difficult to say whether these experiences are the rule or the exception. It also isn't a consumer-facing issue; the bizarre thing is that reddit people care about Valve's corporate structure to begin with.
- Reddit memes are bad.
I think the lack of a through line or coherence to the structure of the essay means that it mostly seems like a stream of consciousness, and the fact that all of these arguments have been made before mostly makes it seem like someone muckracking rather than an original contribution.
But, finally, a lot of this kinda seems Lady MacBeth-y. Like, venting grievances is of course always allowed and fine, but then what? In the end you can basically choose to buy from Steam or not. If you don't, then you give up Steam's value adds. If that bothers you, then Valve has justified their 30%. If it doesn't bother you, life goes on. If you do buy from Steam then it's a tacit consent that, despite your issues, Steam's the best option. Doesn't mean we can't demand better, but it does mean that maybe some of the apocalyptic language is a bit much.
The one line I would want people to take from this post is that Steam never than a monopoly and has less control than ever, so I particularly object to the idea that Bad Guy Valve is Ruining It For The Rest of Us.