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I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

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Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#51

Post by elzbardico »

homebrewer wrote: post #4

I've long wished for rich western societies to run extensive student exchange programs with low income countries. Living even one year in most of the world will change your outlook for the rest of your life.

Usually the people in low income/developing countries that engage in student exchange programs are upper middle class and beyond and have lives no much different from their peers in developed western societies.

People in western societies tend to ignore that developing countries are not merelly poorer but also generally marked by extreme wealth and income inequality. The rich and the upper middle class for all practical effects live like the citizens of developed countries, it is just that there are less of them compared to the general population.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#52

Post by topgrain2 »

post_break wrote: post #9

You have a steam deck you don't use, so sell it and buy the Steam Machine, and then don't use that either.

I'm in the "steam deck that I never use" camp but it's because I've been too lazy to take a Saturday to repurpose it into a dedicated console piracy device, it turns out I hate playing basically any PC game "on the go" (their touchpad-thingies seem to please some people as a mouse replacement but I find them entirely unusable), and it's just weak enough that I've found it worth keeping my old gaming PC around for now for 1080p+ gaming at OK quality & frame rate (and if I've got that plugged in, why plug in the steam deck?)

For me the Steam Deck proved to me that Linux gaming was viable (finally! I've been trying since the days of Unreal Tournament being a current game and having an official Linux binary, LOL) and that I like the idea of an official Valve device, but that I needed a little more power and a desktop-alike form factor to reach a point of "good enough" for me (well, portable would still be fine, I just wouldn't use it that way so it'd be better if I didn't have to pay for the extra parts or have the added complexity and jank-risk of a dock)

Like if my gaming PC broke I would't replace it (at least not for quite a while) but I would plug my Steam Deck into my monitor and start using it again, it's not that the device is wholly useless to me. It just wasn't quite a fit for what I do & want, it turns out. I do use my gaming PC, and that's what a Steam Machine would have replaced. I even have Bazzite on there so I for-sure would have used the Steam Machine, as I basically have a somewhat rougher-edged (and way bigger, with obnoxious "gamer light" horse-shit all over because that's hard to avoid for some reason) version of it already.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#53

Post by foo12bar »

blitzar wrote: post #26
foo12bar wrote: post #18

At this price point they should have never released it, they should have waited. Everywhere I see reviews of it on the internet, come along with forced smiles and talk about how they agree with the philosophy behind it and they should be commended for fighting against Windows. But ultimately no one recommends this to the general public. The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop. Only thing they can do n…

> The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to sell out. If prices go back to normal, v2 of this product will be great. This version, at these specs, at this point in time would only be a buy if it was good value (like $500). People will buy them all anyway.

Selling out doesn't equate to success. They've already said the initial launch will be heavily limited.

What matters is if they make a profit throughout the product's lifecycle. Not whether they sell out on initial release.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#54

Post by topgrain2 »

vel0city wrote: post #5

I'd say if you feel this way and you're not really using the Steam Deck as a handheld you might as well sell it and take the money to buy the Steam Machine. Used 512GB Steam Decks go for >$500, you'll probably get a bit for selling the docking setup you have as well.

... holy shit, why are they so high used, I'd never have guessed?! Thank you for pointing this out, as someone with a Steam Deck I almost never use and a desktop gaming PC running bazzite that I do use, a lot, but wanted to replace with a Steam Machine, I'll probably do exactly his.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#55

Post by butz »

It is possible to build an equivalent PC with Steam Machine specs, with same case size (internal PSU) and similar or lower price? I'll probably still a wait a bit to see reviews from actual users, but I really dig the form factor and was unable to find anything similarly sized with built-in PSU.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#56

Post by elzbardico »

slibhb wrote: post #14
everdrive wrote: post #8

"Nothing is safe, nothing is reliable, and I am looking at the extremely real possibility that I am already unemployable if I have to go back on the market." Anyone I know who has needed to look for work has had a hell of a time with it. It's a scary world out there.

In the US, unemployment is at 4.3%.

Employment numbers don't tell the whole history. You may lose your job as a SWE making 200k/y and to control the hemorrage of your savings, accept a part time contractor role that nets you a fraction of what you used to get, without benefits, or you can start driving for uber, door dash, etc. All of it will make you count as employed.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#58

Post by esseph »

foo12bar wrote: post #53
blitzar wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to sell out. If prices go back to normal, v2 of this product will be great. This version, at these specs, at this point in time would only be a buy if it was good value (like $500). People will buy them all anyway.

Selling out doesn't equate to success. They've already said the initial launch will be heavily limited. What matters is if they make a profit throughout the product's lifecycle. Not whether they sell out on initial release.

> What matters is if they make a profit throughout the product's lifecycle.

That may not matter either.

In fact, the most likely outcome is that they sell out of inventory, and the next iteration of the device gets GTA6 level hype. The scarcity of the premium product.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#59

Post by foo12bar »

Aurornis wrote: post #28
foo12bar wrote: post #18

At this price point they should have never released it, they should have waited. Everywhere I see reviews of it on the internet, come along with forced smiles and talk about how they agree with the philosophy behind it and they should be commended for fighting against Windows. But ultimately no one recommends this to the general public. The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop. Only thing they can do n…

> Everywhere I see reviews of it on the internet, Gaming reviews have diverged from reality. Everything is about finding controversy and something to be angry about. Gaming journalism and social media are extremely toxic, but not really indicative of average gamers or consumers any more. > The writing is on the wall. This thing is going to flop. I would bet that it's going to be oversubscribed and sell out.

I bet it sells out, too. But selling out a heavily limited release doesn't mean they are going to make a profit.

Re: I am a person who will look at the Steam Machine and cry

#60

Post by NavinF »

elzbardico wrote: post #56
slibhb wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, unemployment is at 4.3%.

Employment numbers don't tell the whole history. You may lose your job as a SWE making 200k/y and to control the hemorrage of your savings, accept a part time contractor role that nets you a fraction of what you used to get, without benefits, or you can start driving for uber, door dash, etc. All of it will make you count as employed.

That's often called "occupational mismatch" and it smuggles in a normative claim that someone always deserves a job matching their prior title, education, or salary. Labor statistics do not and should not assume that.

Also in my experience part time contractor roles are awesome. <20hr/wk = low stress, most of my big purchases like computer hardware were deductible business expenses, and the coveredca subsidy let me get a very good health plan (courtesy of all the full time guys who bleed taxes and get zero subsidies in return)

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