• @CitizenKong
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      173 days ago

      Yes, but can you imagine how much more shitty PC gaming would be without Steam?

      • @pivot_root
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        333 days ago

        Let’s see…

        • “No takesies-backsies” refund policy.
        • User “reviews” are hidden and only used to serve you better ads.
        • Supported platforms are Windows and Windows.
        • “Join our Discord to discuss game.”
        • Controller input rebinding is nonexistent; disabled people don’t matter.
        • Controllers are supported… except when doing anything before the game is actually launched.
        • Download strange DLLs from websites to install mods.
        • Alt-tab between your game and YouTube to read guides.

        And little Timmy said gaming would be better without a Steam monopowly.

        • @BoxOfFeet
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          33 days ago

          Fair points. Controllers work in big picture mode, but I get what you’re saying. But on the other hand, the Steamdeck and Proton have done a lot for making Linux gaming more accessible.

          • @pivot_root
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            83 days ago

            Oh, I was criticizing other stores.

            The offerings of Origin, UPlay, EGS, and Battle.net pale in comparison to what Steam makes available to customers. And out of those, the only one that isn’t a heaping dumpster fire is Battle.net–which actually put effort into its UX and design.

            • @BoxOfFeet
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              73 days ago

              Oh, i complete misread your comment. Sorry! I see that now. Steam and GOG are the only stores I have, I don’t play a lot of new games.

          • @[email protected]
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            43 days ago

            This is the case in steam already. There are lots of (mainly Indy) games that will start fine without steam.

              • Matt
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                22 days ago

                You just rent a license on Steam. So it’s a definition of DRM.

                • @[email protected]
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                  2 days ago

                  ik, but when you lose your account you can copy the non drmed games to another pc or smth.

                • @[email protected]
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                  12 days ago

                  The definition of digital rights management is licensing? That does not sound right to me.

                  A long time before steam the software sector moved to selling licenses only btw.

      • Enoril
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        103 days ago

        We have to thanks Vivendi group (a shitty conglomerate from my country who killed a lot of good products) who have forced Gabe to move to online sale as Valve couldn’t adapt the bad reseller contract they had with this Vivendi (who tried later to kill their business via lawsuit).

        If you didn’t see it yet, have a look on the 20 years documentary of HL2. Really interesting.

        • @ours
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          93 days ago

          Vivendi got so close to killing Valve and HL2, it is scary. Gabe had balls of steel and championed on.

      • GHiLA
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        13 days ago

        I’d say less shitty and just more fragmented.

        Indie games releasing on tiny little sites out there across the web, like how independent authors release on small publishers websites.

        Linux (as a gaming platform) would be fucking toast, though. You could hope for some of the efforts from the Raspberrypi and emulation community on that front, but not AAA.