Personally, I blocked .ml already. Yes, they are a large instance with a lot of legitimate content, but theres such a disproportionate amount of extremism, hate and discrimination, and toxicity that I didn't find it worth being connected to.
Nah, LTT is almost certainly too small of a company to benifit from something like this. They want to help those really in need, like Bell and Rogers.
Sorry how is forcing me to run their stupid app that gobbles system resources, ugly as hell and super invasive to run every game good for the user?
Valve doesn't force you to run it, game devs do. Steam's DRM isn't mandatory for developers to implement. For example, I know FTL is drm free on Steam. If I remeber right, SteamPipe can also be used for a much more lightweight experience as well, if you don't want to do anything but install games (and not use their DRM or features).
You can’t move purchases out of your Steam account and Steam won’t even let you transfer it after you die. Not sure how that’s good for me like I’m dead you can’t let my kid have it because you’re so nice.
They will ban you indefinitely even over a small dispute, like say a charge back or sometimes just a random violation of their TOS which says they can ban you for no reason.
This isn't good, but its standard and unless licensing laws and/or other big publishers change, I doubt this will. Its not something that makes Valve any less of a standout in the market when every other company does much worse than this.
Needing an internet connection even for single player local games is also great stuff.
For developers that do chose to implement DRM, the offline mode on Steam is relatively permissive.
If you own a game and then buy a bundle with that game, they don’t give you another copy (that you could gift to someone) which is wild because you literally paid twice for it.
Again, this is set by the publisher/dev. Valve offers the option to discount the pack by the given amount. Not as good as traditional physical software, but again, its not as bad as basically all of the competition so...
But they are just as shit of a company as every other company. Like I said, they aren’t there for you. They just have good marketing and a good front facing VP.
Yes, because providing tools for gaming on Linux doesn't affect the customer buying/using their products. Neither does VR, or portable PC hardware as they're exactly the same offerings as a desktop PC with better marketing. Neither does improved controller support - its just flashy UI for what was already easy to do. Neither does providing tools and hosting for a modding API - any dev who doesn't launch with a home-made one is just too incompetent to be selling games anyway. None of these things are anything more than flashy marketing, so we should just be using itch.io's VR headset for the lower rates and Epic's Linux compatibility tools for those who don't want to support Microsoft's anti-consumer practices. And of course, instead of doing these things, they're secretly buying exclusivity to every game and preventing you from repairing your devices despite the repair information provided (but you don't realize because of marketing).
Also they control so much that just wait another 5-10 years when management changes. It won’t be good for the user I can tell you that.
Given that Gabe Newell owns a majority share from what we know, and he has shown a desire to build a stable, competitve company rather than just trying to join the race to the bottom, it'll likely be longer than 5-10 years. That said, yes, this is a concern, but thats unavoidable, and "but someday they might not be good" isn't a reason to dislike them as they are now.
I’m not talking about billion dollar studios. I’m talking about indie devs.
Billion dollar studios like Notch, Battlestate games, and Roblox (pre-Roblox).
Moreover, they take a 30% cut and no one has ever batted an eye, not even today.
Because unlike Apple, you can choose to instead or also sell on dozens of other storefronts that also charge about 30%, such as Humble, GMG, Fanatical, Epic, Microsoft, GOG, IndieGala, or GamersGate, or one of a half dozen or so that charge less such as itch.io, or you can just put it on your website. A monopoly doesn't mean something costs money, it means there are no other options. Theres more competition in the games retail market than there is most other areas.
Their success has been to convince gamers they are friends. That’s all. Apple on the other hand garners insane antipathy from the public.
The difference is that Apple follows the same sort of business practices as much of Steams competion, and the industry in general. They invest in measures to stifle competition, often at the cost of the user, rather than using their position for R&D or development that might help users. People view Steam positively because they're one of a very small number of companies that try and make a good, or at least innovative product, even if their end goal is still to get your money. Compare that to Epic, where they immediately started limitting consumer choice by buying exclusivity and by doing things like removing the Linux versions of games they bought (even after they had already been paid for), or what you're complaining about, Apple, where they prevent installing anything they didn't approve (esspecially anything indie), and don't allow devs to use services other than their own.
I was talking about whatever the current, popular CoD is. I don't follow the series, thus my not knowing. Last time I tried to play, it was Battle.Net exclusive.
The problem is that, at least for Steam, they're not a monopoly, nor are they necessary even within their market. Devs can and do distribute and/or market successful games without going through Steam and players can play games without ever getting Steam. I mean, if we were to take what I'd estimate are the most popular games right now:
Its absolutely possible to launch and maintain a successful game off Steam, and people have and continue to do so. Even exclusively talking about 3rd party storefront/launcher combos, theres a lot of options. Steam its just popular because its not only worth using (a bar most of the competition already fails to pass) but offers a lot both to users and developers from cheap, effective marketing, to tools to support Linux, to better controller support.
What are the other alternatives?
Source Filmmaker - basically the tech used in Valve's games (IE Half Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Gmod) but repurposed into an easy to use animation tool. Valve used it quite a bit for their content but it was also popular among amateur animators since it was easy to use and had bunch of ready-to-use resources from Valve's games.
Skibidi Toilet is a serious of SFM shorts that became popular with young kids. Think in the same vein as the weird flash videos or early SFM videos that were popular with young kids 10-15 years ago. "Skibidi" doesn't mean anything and is just taken from that.
I know in previous posts, you've talked about leaderboards and comparing stats to friends. For those who might be embarrassed by their stats or who would be anxious comparing stats, is ir possible to hide these menus and/or play the game without them? In particular, is it possible to play with other social features still enabled?
Does GOG allow it? I expect theres a clause for that in their TOS too.
Edit:
Regarding accounts, from their TOS:
(h) Don’t share, ‘buy’, ‘sell’, transfer, gift, lend, steal, misappropriate or misuse GOG accounts.
That said, I'm looking for details for individual games, but odds are, the rules are the same. Yes, you can still do it, but you can on Steam as well and if you're disregarding legality, theres always other options.
Edit 2:
3.3 Your GOG account and GOG content are personal to you and cannot be shared with, sold, gifted or transferred to anyone else.
From https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog
BOAT
Anger Foot - I played the demo previously and its the only game I've played that recreates the feel and flow of Hotline Miami successful. Very much looking forward to the full game. I'm temped to buy it at launch, even for full price, which I don't think I've done since XCom 2's War of the Chosen DLC.