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The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

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Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#181

Post by TehCorwiz »

vel0city wrote: post #168
TehCorwiz wrote: post #22

No company is your friend. But Valve does a great job at being consumer friendly. Steam is a great low-pressure sales environment. It provides features that make it more enjoyable for users to play, hang out, communicate, share content, mods. It doesn't harangue you or change your settings, or the UI, or your games (mostly) without reason and warning. Things work like you expect them to in other apps, back buttons wo…

> I bought Alan Wake 2 on Epic since it's a timed exclusive. I plan on buying it again once it releases on Steam because Epic is just so terrible. Epic is so terrible, I'll pay them twice for the same game! And we wonder why the game industry is in such a shit shape...

I know that some portion of profits from the game, even on Steam, will go to them because they funded and published it. But after the exclusivity expires I'd expect Remedy Entertainment will probably have the standard 70/30 split with valve and whatever Epic see from that sale will be a smaller percentage. I love Remedy and how they practice their craft and art.

Economic semantics aside, yes. I hate Epic so much I'll pay them again not to have to use it any longer.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#182

Post by ZeWaka »

butlike wrote: post #110
LightHugger wrote: post #45

> Some people have criticized that their company culture of libertarianism sometimes takes precedence over other important values including equity and inclusion. To push for equity is to discriminate and dehumanize people, so it's certainly good that valve does not put this value ahead of anything else let alone allow them to take precedence over taking care of their customer base. They are perfectly inclusive as wel…

The flat structure deadlocks projects and adds downward pressure to not take on ambitious ones (Half-Life 3?) as it requires massive-scale politicking.

Sounds like you're operating off of old knowledge from the Half-Life Alyx developer's commentary. They specifically changed their internal processes because of those issues.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#183

Post by johnnyanmac »

ziddoap wrote: post #160
johnnyanmac wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an exaggeration in that sure, it literally exists. But at this point you're not really engaging in good faith if that's your argument. Can we not do that ? >Can you name any competitive game that doesn't have balance issues? Sure. But I'm not entirely sure Bazaar is stable enough yet to have the mood swings of Overwatch 2. That's the danger. Make too many fans angry in this beta stage and you lose all goodwill f…

> But at this point you're not really engaging in good faith if that's your argument. Can we not do that ? Can we not say people aren't conversing in good faith solely as a method of shutting down further conversation? They stated something as an absolute and I gave examples of why it isn't an absolute. That's a perfectly normal conversation. It's not even an argument. As for Bazaar, it seems like you haven't played…

>Can we not say people aren't conversing in good faith solely as a method of shutting down further conversation?

I will call a duck a duck as long as it quacks like one. I simply want to maintain the spirit of the guidelines

>Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith

They made a hyperbolic statement and you are responding to the literal hyperbolic point and dismissing the main point in the same comment about the 90% monopoly. I don't see that as following the guidelines. There's no interesting conversation to have about "does your game not existing if it is not on Steam?", not even in a philosophical sense.

>it seems like you haven't played and aren't a fan, which is totally fine,

I'm just worried about its future. Especially in these turbulous times. You don't really get the luxury of rocking the boat that much. Maybe the founders will be fine, but the last thing I want is more layoffs over extemelty preventable issues.

> I'm not sure what your comments about "making my game with direct sales figures in mind" are referencing.

I wouldn't worry about it too mucn. Just personal ramblings. I'll just say "when I a good rush, sell shovels".

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#184

Post by tomnipotent »

SXX wrote: post #165
tomnipotent wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valve used its influence over game publishers to stifle their competition in the digital distribution market. I'm a happy Valve customer, and I'd still likely buy with them even if other platform's offered lower prices, but that doesn't change that they've leveraged their market domination to force concessions from publishers that benefit their business at the cost of competitors and customers.

I'm game developer, co-founder of my own company and I hate Valve 30% cut. Yet Valve did nothing to stiffle competition. Their only major requirement for games published on Steam was that games suppose to get same efficient discounts as they get on other storefronts. E.g you cannot constantly sell your game on Epic Games store for $10 while Steam version cost never drops below $12. Also game developers are allowed to…

Publisher's should be allowed to price their product differently based on the distribution fee of the platform. Steam does not allow you to do this.

For example a publisher could price a new title at $69.99 on Steam or $59.99 on Epic and make the same gross margin, given the platform fees.

That Epic is a sub-par distribution platform does not change this, and Steam's agreement precludes the possibility that competitors can compete on price. Amazon was forced to remove price parity after regulatory pressure.

So like Microsoft of the 90's, Valve is using their market dominance to force publishers into agreements that limit competition. It's only different because we generally like Valve. Epic and GOG cannot compete on price and use that as a mechanism to grow their business because Steam could threaten to remove your product. It just so happens that Steam is so good that even with price discounts it's unlikely that competitors could use that as a major advantage.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#185

Post by lawn »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #123
lawn wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install Windows on the Steam Deck if you want. But calling Windows more free than Linux because you can virtualize Linux is a noteworthy statement alright.

That's the exact argument people make on the Steam deck vs Nintendo. "but you can emulate switch games!"

You can virtiualize Windows on Linux too while you can't play Steam Deck games on Switch, so they're not comparable.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#186

Post by ZeroTalent »

vel0city wrote: post #177
whytevuhuni wrote: post #3

They’re not saints, especially with the games distribution platform monopoly they’re sitting on top of, but... I really think Valve have become the de-facto owners of the “don’t be evil” motto nowadays, even if they don’t advertise themselves as such.

They profit off getting kids addicted to gambling. Is that not evil?

Right. There is 1 good thing about Steam (it can be summarized to the point of openness), and the rest is evil. I don't get the article.

They have no morals with how they make money. No morals in politics. They are running a monopoly with a 30% cut.

How is that a "do no evil" company? Because you can install an app from Epic? Give me a break...

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#187

Post by freedomben »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #58
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sticky thing that keeps me in the steam platform is the software itself: notably, Steam Workshop. I normally source my games DRM free but after some experience trying to manage mods of heavily modded games like Rimworld I have come to discover that the value add of package management via Workshop for the exact same price is 100% worth it. Even though I trade DRM for it.

Yeah, GoG is my other go-to for games. I'm not a big fan of DRM, but I'm OK with DRM that respects me. Valve has never abused the DRM or let it get in my way. I can play offline, I can use multiple computers, I can share games with my family on their computers. All things considered it's pretty respectful of the reality of how people want to experience and share their content.

This is how I feel as well. I typically buy games on GOG if they have it, but if they don't I don't really sweat buying it on Steam as they are straightforward about what I'm getting. In the case of several games that I really like, I bought it on both!

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#188

Post by freedomben »

j1elo wrote: post #74
TehCorwiz wrote: post #22

No company is your friend. But Valve does a great job at being consumer friendly. Steam is a great low-pressure sales environment. It provides features that make it more enjoyable for users to play, hang out, communicate, share content, mods. It doesn't harangue you or change your settings, or the UI, or your games (mostly) without reason and warning. Things work like you expect them to in other apps, back buttons wo…

That's why lots of us are worried about when something happens to Gabe, and some black suited C level raven is promoted as CEO and starts asking questions like "why don't we push for the latest expansion packs? why don't we gate features behind subscriptions?" and all that anti-consumer shit that breaks with the original spirit of so many products.

Indeed, it's hard to imagine a person (that I don't personally know) who I more want to ensure a very, very long and productive life than GabeN. He has done more for us Linux/open source people than nearly anyone else I can think of besides maybe the Linux kernel team, Red Hat, and Arch, Debian and other bigtime contributors.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#189

Post by seba_dos1 »

That's an editorialized title ("The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly") and subtly different than what the article actually states. I don't think Steam Deck was made particularly software-freedom friendly. I do think that it managed to not be software-freedom unfriendly, and that's because unlike other vendors Valve did not care to make it so. It's a subtle, yet non-negligible difference that leads to different outcomes.

Re: The Steam Deck is software-freedom friendly

#190

Post by zenorogue »

TehCorwiz wrote: post #22

No company is your friend. But Valve does a great job at being consumer friendly. Steam is a great low-pressure sales environment. It provides features that make it more enjoyable for users to play, hang out, communicate, share content, mods. It doesn't harangue you or change your settings, or the UI, or your games (mostly) without reason and warning. Things work like you expect them to in other apps, back buttons wo…

For Epic, I am using Heroic Games Launcher, I believe it is much better than the official Epic app.
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