I’ve had this question looking at the Quake con sale, and Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth is for sale on both platforms. I ended up buying it on GOG. What is your opinion?

  • @woelkchen
    link
    31 year ago

    Steam’s colour scheme makes it difficult to read and causes eye strain and headaches for people with astigmatism, like me.

    The Steam Store is just a website where a user style such as https://uso.kkx.one/style/219929 can be applied like any other. Game prices are just black on white using that theme:

    The Steam Client itself is largely or perhaps even fully controllable via command line (https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Command_line_options#Steam) and you can set any color scheme to your terminal as you like:

    The Steam Client also supports skins since forever: https://steamcustomizer.com/

    Steam may not have color schemes for all kinds of visual impairments and that’s a legitimate criticism but Steam has a bag full of aforementioned features for customization, so with a little bit of research (I was curious about that myself, so I spent like 5 to 10 minutes) I found quite easy workarounds. As someone who does not like to be blasted in the face with light themes, I look for similar workarounds all the time.

    • DreamySweet
      link
      fedilink
      English
      11 year ago

      That works for a browser but I would still need the client to install, uninstall, and manage game settings. Steam skins only work for a few areas of the client. Most of it will still be unreadable.

      • @woelkchen
        link
        21 year ago

        That works for a browser but I would still need the client to install, uninstall, and manage game settings.

        When you already own a game, the web interface turns the buy button into a play button and a not-installed game will be installed, so the user style is applied there. Also every single modern operating system has the ability to invert screen colors.

        Windows (looks a bit weird because I had to use my camera because Windows itself does not screenshot the inversion):

        SteamOS Desktop Mode (=Linux with Plasma Desktop):

        Biggest problem was the photo of the Windows screen. Otherwise maybe 2 to 5 minutes invested to find this out. OS-wide accessibility settings exist for a reason.

        • DreamySweet
          link
          fedilink
          English
          01 year ago

          I appreciate the help and it’s nice to know those settings exist, but I don’t think it is morally okay to support a company that is fine with discriminating against those with disabilities. If a PC game is only available on Steam, I will either purchase a console port and pirate the PC version or not play the game at all until it becomes available on a better service. If there is a Switch version, I’ll just play that instead.