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Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

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Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#151

Post by gruez »

skotobaza wrote: post #112
gruez wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>instead of making a functioning store. For all intents and purposes it's "functioning" for me. You can search for a game, hit buy, put in your credit card number, then download/play it. I've seen some spurious arguments about how it lacks a cart or reviews, but it's a stretch to claim the lack of them makes them non "functioning". I never bulk buy games, and for reviews I can go to steam or metacritic.

In 2025 I expect an online store to have at least some cataloging option (like Steam's tags) and some user feedback (like Steam reviews or Steam community discussions). Yes, most of Steam's features are half-baked, and Valve doesn't really want to improve them (curators, user tags, guides etc.), but it's baffling that no other store gives at least the same amount of those features to you. Even though they could.

>In 2025 I expect an online store to have at least some cataloging option (like Steam's tags)

To be fair most online storefronts don't have that. Amazon/walmart at best have "categories", which epic also has. Even online content portals like spotify don't have tags, preferring something like "more like this".

> but it's baffling that no other store gives at least the same amount of those features to you. Even though they could.

The better question is why storefronts don't directly compete on price. We see with airlines that consumers are willing to put up with hellish conditions to save a few percent on airfare. Those features are definitely nice, it's just unclear how they can avoid the free-rider problem if there are competing storefronts.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#152

Post by chrisnight »

axus wrote: post #98
immibis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gabe is the Apple of PC gaming, taking a 30% tax on all transactions. It's not this particular kind of evil, but it is a different kind of evil.

Can a Steam Deck install games without using Steam? If so, big advantage over Google Play and the App Store.

Yes, I have plenty of games from, e.g. the Epic Game Store on my steam deck, even in the steam home page, seamlessly.

Gamescope is even fully open-source, so you could remove the steam deck UI, and still run any game with the same performance benefits of not running it inside KDE. Of course also, you could flash a new OS on the device itself if you wanted to entirely remove Valve’s presence.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#153

Post by ceejayoz »

bigyabai wrote: post #131
worldfoodgood wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok! Happier is a fine place to be. They are both still too high. Not everything has to be binary -- I can think Valve is offering some utility and also think that Valve is charging too much for that utility. The fact that Gabe has a billion dollars worth of yachts probably suggests that maybe, just maaaaaybe, that 30% could be lower and Steam could still provide you the same level of marketing support and player base…

> They are both still too high. You don't get to decide that. Apple's price is not set by free market competition, Valve's is.

Apple's price definitely gets affected by competition.

https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/19/apple-may-lower-app-store-com...

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/apple-announces-app-s...

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#154

Post by sugarpimpdorsey »

worldfoodgood wrote: post #38
elephanlemon wrote: post #8

As a kid I always lamented that every studio seemed to sell out as soon as they had the chance. Valve is basically the only one that didn’t… clearly it’s paid off very well for Gabe and the employees. Wish more people would resist the payday and keep what’s theirs.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

> They also have an internal culture that's been fairly regularly criticized as being pretty uncomfortable for women and minorities.

If they don't like the culture, then they should work elsewhere.

I hear Google is hiring.

Nothing worse than joining a company you contributed zero to building from the ground up, then unilaterally deciding the culture needs to change according to your whims, right now.

You might feel uncomfortable working in a black barber shop. Or a cat cafe with pet allergies. You've contributed nothing to their business, they shouldn't have to change for you.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#155

Post by worldfoodgood »

xhrpost wrote: post #108
worldfoodgood wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

If you were a dev selling a game years ago when physical distribution was the only method, you'd likely end up with a lot less than 70% after both the publisher and retailer take their cut. https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/company-town-blog/sto...

[flagged]

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#156

Post by Phelinofist »

axus wrote: post #98
immibis wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gabe is the Apple of PC gaming, taking a 30% tax on all transactions. It's not this particular kind of evil, but it is a different kind of evil.

Can a Steam Deck install games without using Steam? If so, big advantage over Google Play and the App Store.

Sure, it is a Linux box after all

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#157

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

martin-t wrote: post #110
pixelpoet wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll probably end up buying GTA 6, once it's on sale or something; good people worked on it too I would imagine, and helped make it a good game. Also, with apologies for the whataboutism, we unfortunately finance thugs all day every day (my internet provider, German government and pension, Deutsche Bahn, etc are massive extortionists); it's not really black and white.

And this is why "vote with your wallet" does not work. As a consumer there's no way to decide who gets the money. In fact, even the people who made the game (did the actual work, not managers, advertisers, etc.) don't get to decide. Correct me if I am wrong but the programmers, designers, artists have already been paid and any money from sales goes to the company and its execs/shareholders. (And yes, employees can al…

It would work if we dispensed with intellectual property and instead voted on what should be created rather than on what already has.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#158

Post by worldfoodgood »

xinayder wrote: post #95
worldfoodgood wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

> They also have an internal culture that's been fairly regularly criticized as being pretty uncomfortable for women and minorities. Source?

A couple sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9aCwCKgkLo

https://medium.com/dunia-media/the-nightmare-of-valves-self-...

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#159

Post by kotaKat »

worldfoodgood wrote: post #38
elephanlemon wrote: post #8

As a kid I always lamented that every studio seemed to sell out as soon as they had the chance. Valve is basically the only one that didn’t… clearly it’s paid off very well for Gabe and the employees. Wish more people would resist the payday and keep what’s theirs.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

> They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want.

Fun fact: Nintendo's revenue split on WiiWare was 60/40, and required minimum downloads to even get your revenue out of Big N.

Re: Rockstar employee shares account of the company's union-busting efforts

#160

Post by worldfoodgood »

sugarpimpdorsey wrote: post #154
worldfoodgood wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve makes a significant amount of their money from the gambling they've attached to their games, and profits immensely from the culture of farming loot boxes to gamble on for skins and such. They also take an absurd cut of developer income and saddle devs with costs that they don't always want. (Selling on Steam? Valve takes 30% and forces you to moderate the forums on your listing page that you cannot opt out of.)…

> They also have an internal culture that's been fairly regularly criticized as being pretty uncomfortable for women and minorities. If they don't like the culture, then they should work elsewhere. I hear Google is hiring. Nothing worse than joining a company you contributed zero to building from the ground up, then unilaterally deciding the culture needs to change according to your whims, right now . You might feel…

What nonsense. A decision about workplace should be a combination of factors -- workplace culture, products you can work on, compensation, skill fit, alignment with your interests, etc.

You should feel empowered to have a voice in the products of your labor. And you should feel empowered to have a voice in the culture that produces those products.

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