A golden age of consumer convenience is passing • Hacker News Board

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#151

Post by plonk » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 7:46 PM UTC

P5fRxh5kUvp2th wrote: post #126

pdpi wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s important to take Steam DRM in context. In a world where DRM was becoming more intrusive by the day, and you had to contend with every game having its own unique way to mess your system up in its fight against piracy, Steam provided one single DRM system that almost everybody agrees to use. For consumers, worse than no DRM, but miles ahead of the status quo it replaced. Also, Steam does have an offline mode. You…

To add to this, the original Witcher is the game that made me decide I was never again going to install a game directly. It was going to be steam or gog, and I've kept to that over the years with few exceptions (rpg maker games, etc). As a freelance developer I would run vmware with a dedicated partition for the VM. The VM was linux and the partition itself was either ext3 or reiserFS (can't remember). Since Windows…

You can download all 3 Witcher games without DRM after buying them on GoG. Did you have the standalone version? I don't understand why they put a DRM in it.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#152

Post by plonk » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 7:49 PM UTC

Jimajesty wrote: post #59

I feel like clicking the link and getting hit immediately with four tiers of subscription option from the Financial Times was a strong enough case in point that I scarcely needed to read the article itself.

The prices are awful too. It's clearly not targeted at random people wanting to stay informed.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#153

Post by _Algernon_ » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:01 PM UTC

ramesh31 wrote: post #9

I finally broke down and paid for YouTube Premium. There is literally no other option to watch YouTube on a TV nowadays. It is absolutely mindblowing the level of nonstop ads they shove down your throat in-between (and during) every single video now. Completely unwatchable otherwise. And it's impossible to buy a dumb TV in 2022, so you're stuck with the official Android/Roku YouTube apps that have no ad-blocking capa…

As longs as you don't rely on The Algorithm (i.e. you watch a fixed set of channels), you could probably rig up some kind of NAS to TV streaming set up, using ytdlp to download videos to the NAS.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#154

Post by cebert » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:16 PM UTC

flyaway123 wrote: post #123

dixie_land wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me it’s about context. Steam ads do not bother me that much since it’s easy to turn off/dismiss, but also importantly they're "first party" - I’m already on steam and a gaming mood so I don’t mind checking out offers for other games. Streaming ads are annoying because under no circumstances I'd be thinking of picking up tampons while watching a football game.

What's your thoughts on targeted ads in general? Setting aside the ease of dismissing - would you be willing to give up some data to allow them to be smarter (having more context)?

I am not willing to give up my personal data for the sake of advertising. I don’t understand stand why advertisers need to be so intrusive. If you visit a tech news site vs a celebrity news site like TMZ, you can make some generalizations about the audiences without more evasive targeting.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#155

Post by honkdaddy » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:27 PM UTC

plonk wrote: post #152

Jimajesty wrote: post #59

I feel like clicking the link and getting hit immediately with four tiers of subscription option from the Financial Times was a strong enough case in point that I scarcely needed to read the article itself.

The prices are awful too. It's clearly not targeted at random people wanting to stay informed.

I had to go check - $40/mo for a digital newspaper?! Surely this is aimed at a different demographic than mine, because I can’t imagine anyone I know paying that for news.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#156

Post by bobthepanda » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:31 PM UTC

jcranmer wrote: post #49

TheAceOfHearts wrote: post #13

Media embedded advertising has already been a thing for years, but companies hate leaving money on the table so they cannot resist the temptation of showing more ads. I wonder why it is that Steam hasn't had any issues remaining such a successful video game platform, while other forms of media have struggled to keep up. You're competing with piracy, but you throw ads in my face. I can download any show or movie I wan…

> I wonder why it is that Steam hasn't had any issues remaining such a successful video game platform, while other forms of media have struggled to keep up. Well, Youtube's ad problem comes from the fact that it is run by the largest internet advertiser. Netflix--video streaming in general--suffers from the fact that there are very few major content producers, and after seeing the monetary success of Netflix, the con…

At the end of the day a movie or tv show is a non-interactive stream of media that has two states, play or pause. (Rewind, fast forward and skip sometimes too.)

A games launcher is a lot more complicated. A few publishers have tried their hand at it (EA Origin, Ubisoft Uplay) and for the most part they suck.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#157

Post by xbar » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:32 PM UTC

nasmorn wrote: post #139

jcranmer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wonder why it is that Steam hasn't had any issues remaining such a successful video game platform, while other forms of media have struggled to keep up. Well, Youtube's ad problem comes from the fact that it is run by the largest internet advertiser. Netflix--video streaming in general--suffers from the fact that there are very few major content producers, and after seeing the monetary success of Netflix, the con…

Origin is so bad that nobody would ever install anything but an exclusive from there. I would rather install a new App Store.

Yup.

Thanks, Unity CEO.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#158

Post by jeromegv » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:32 PM UTC

overeater wrote: post #129

beloch wrote: post #86

"The money thrown into the convenience economy has also created a crowded marketplace. Couch potatoes can choose between Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus and others, and a glut of ultrafast delivery and takeout services; ride-seekers can switch between Uber, Lyft and Bolt. " Home video and taxi-cab service are very different sectors. Uber has engaged in some pretty "creative" (i.e. unethical) business tactics to mu…

> Uber has engaged in some pretty "creative" (i.e. unethical) business tactics to muscle their way into the taxi industry while avoiding both regulations and the payment of decent wages. They moved fast, but it was only a matter of time before government regulators (and their own reputation) caught up to them. Transportation is, indeed, something that's going to go back up in price in the short-term, if only because…

That’s the problem. You are unwilling to discuss the wages. This predatory capture also existed to ensure a decent wage.

Uber did everything they could to hide the true cost of being a driver. Tons of sneaky fees. Gray area for insuring your car. Dropping drivers wages just after they bought their vehicle from a Uber financing program.

There’s a reason the quality of Uber drivers went down, the good ones realized that there was no money to be made once you accounted for all the hidden cost.

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#159

Post by jeromegv » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:34 PM UTC

polskibus wrote: post #103

It’s not just about on demand online services. Inflation is sky high everywhere, that will eat up a lot of convenience in daily life. There is a small chance that this will reduce wealth inequality but it may be only temporary.

Did inflation in the 70s/80s destroyed convenience?

Re: A golden age of consumer convenience is passing

#160

Post by ChrisLomont » Sun, Aug 21, 2022, 8:39 PM UTC

notsapiensatall wrote: post #116

ChrisLomont wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam still has shareholders to answer to, with the same human motives as any shareholder, so I don't think this argument holds water. I suspect they'd try to get whatever growth they can because otherwise eventually someone will overtake them. And empirically they are still growing at rates [1] not common among any class of companies, so someone there is certainty pushing for incredible growth. [1] https://www.stati…

The difference is that their shares are not publicly offered. Their shareholders much more likely to be people with vested interests in the company's long-term health, rather than retail investors and hedge funds who reliably demand short-term returns.

The majority of public shares are held in long term investments like 401ks, whose owners are most certainly interested in long term growth. Buy and hold is by far the biggest amount of investment type of stockholder. Most people don't care to fiddle with microtrading.

As the buffet bet made clear, and as the majority of advice and investors do, long term ownership outgrows those chasing short term returns, despite pop belief.

I think you vastly overestimate the dollar amounts behind stock owners.