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Thank You, Valve

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Re: Thank You, Valve

#61

Post by danuker »

robertlagrant wrote: post #33
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Oh please. Any time a company does something good. "Let's not kid ourselves. It's all for the money, honey!" I didn't say that I'm not happy for what Valve is doing, but I don't trust any billion dollar tech megacorp like Microsoft, Apple, Google, Nintendo, Valve, etc. to have the best interest of the consumer in mind, regardless of how fun their IP is for my entertainment. Pro-consumer actions on their end are alwa…

Yes, and we're not their friends. We'll go elsewhere as soon as we see a better deal. So what?

There is no elsewhere, when you consider network effects. The largest platform has the most to gain, when it makes use of social interaction.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#62

Post by noirbot »

Xelbair wrote: post #27
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>What they did for Linux as a gaming platform is spectacular. Definitely yes, but let's not kid ourselves. Valve is not doing this from the generosity of their hearts or love for the Linux community, or the gaming community, but Proton and the Steam Deck are their future insurance policy against Microsoft coming after their profits in the future. The writing was on the wall, they saw how much money Epic was giving to…

I don't care for underlying motives as long as the results are aligned with mine. The end result is that landscape is better for the customer. I seriously do not get why people think that companies do 'good' for any other reason than money.

I don't think anyone is implying they did it for any other reason. Only a bunch of people jumping on to a seemingly good thing a company did to be a killjoy about it.

Yes, they're clearly doing this to help the Steam Deck and other projects. I'm sure that will make them money and I'm sure someone at the company will do something with that money that people object to. That's just the nature of living in anything beyond a barter economy with humans. I think most people (especially on HN) get that. We don't need 5 people to pop out and remind us of it every time a company does something.

Unless it's obvious that there's a clear malicious intent hidden in what the company did, a lot of times it just feels like "How dare these people feel some joy. Capitalism must make everyone feel bad all the time."

Re: Thank You, Valve

#64

Post by ineedasername »

Rooster61 wrote: post #28

I dig most of this article, and I do applaud the work Valve is doing for the Linux gaming ecosystem, but I draw a line at supporting kernel level anti-cheat drivers. That trend in gaming bothers me to no end, and I refuse to knowingly install a game that features one. The presence of 15 year old script kiddies using aimbots does NOT IN ANY WAY justify having kernel level control over my machine, Linux or otherwise. V…

People that like to play those games can always dual boot so that kernel-level access doesn't run on the non-gaming OS. It's not ideal, but it allows Linux gaming without compromising your kernel for non-gaming work. Or if you want the option of switching without a reboot you can run another linux instance in a VM, even a VM that uses a logical partition instead of its own image so that you can also boot normally into that partition when you want. Again, not ideal, but if you're committed to Linux then it's still better than being forced into Windows for gaming.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#65

Post by zozbot234 »

oefrha wrote: post #59
zozbot234 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stream gaming is inherently safe from cheating too, because the game logic and rendering is not computed directly by the player so there's no way they can 'cheat' in a conventional sense.

What? You can totally build an aimbot using nothing but image recognition.

Image recognition is way too slow to help with aiming.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#66

Post by Bancakes »

Rooster61 wrote: post #28

I dig most of this article, and I do applaud the work Valve is doing for the Linux gaming ecosystem, but I draw a line at supporting kernel level anti-cheat drivers. That trend in gaming bothers me to no end, and I refuse to knowingly install a game that features one. The presence of 15 year old script kiddies using aimbots does NOT IN ANY WAY justify having kernel level control over my machine, Linux or otherwise. V…

Game devs should know who's cheating serverside. After all, that's where most of the logic takes place, specifically because they don't trust users.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#67

Post by Rooster61 »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #53
Rooster61 wrote: post #28

I dig most of this article, and I do applaud the work Valve is doing for the Linux gaming ecosystem, but I draw a line at supporting kernel level anti-cheat drivers. That trend in gaming bothers me to no end, and I refuse to knowingly install a game that features one. The presence of 15 year old script kiddies using aimbots does NOT IN ANY WAY justify having kernel level control over my machine, Linux or otherwise. V…

But it should be an option for those that wants to play knowing there are probably fewer cheaters if they opt in. There will always be trade-offs in freedom when you try to implement rules to improve the freedom of those that want to play on a balanced playing field. This is true in society as well.

It's not freedom, its security. DRM is neither here nor there as long as its in user-space. It sucks for the consumer, but I understand why companies do it even if I don't like it.

Kernel level drivers are a whole different can o' worms. A corporation could make my gaming rig into part of what amounts to a spyware botnet with me being none the wiser other than encrypted traffic coming OUT of my machine. Those drivers by design are black boxes, and there is no way to monitor what your machine is actually doing. That shit shouldn't be on mine or anyone else's system, especially under the premise of a "fair gameplay environment".

Re: Thank You, Valve

#68

Post by sbarre »

Rooster61 wrote: post #45
Kuinox wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish you to play a competitive multiplayer game filled with cheaters. You don't know if your opponent is good or cheating. It simply kill all the fun. If it won't work on PC, multiplayer gaming will simply moves to consoles. Great, now you are stuck with a closed standard, with a closed OS, where you can't run the programs you want.

I have. Many times. Yes, its a bit of a bummer. No, it still doesn't justify Tencent being able to see more about what is going on in my machine better than I can. Video games are a hobby for 99% of people out there, including myself. I can do without a plaything if it means not handing over the keys of the computer I built with my own hands to nefarious actors. That is FAR AND AWAY more important to me, and I'd hope…

Wild how this turned from "I don't want a game-related kernel-level driver in my system" to "I don't want China spying on me" in one reply. You lost me there to be honest, if you think the "true" purpose of anti-cheat drivers is for a foreign power to spy on us boring ordinary uninteresting people.

But you are correct in saying that it's a personal choice for everyone to make for themselves, based on how much they value fair play in their hobby of choice.

Particularly for anyone who puts hundreds (thousands?) of hours into getting good at their competitive multiplayer game of choice, the trade between installing an anti-cheat, suffering cheaters, or giving up on their hobby, is probably not the same math you're doing.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#69

Post by cinntaile »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #46
sillysaurusx wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh please. Any time a company does something good. "Let's not kid ourselves. It's all for the money, honey!" Well yeah. That's what a company is. Companies are also people, and people make decisions, and those decisions are sometimes influenced by more than the mere bottom line. You can't read their minds, and it's the opposite of charitable to assume the worst. Fully agree about the rest though. It certainly makes b…

Agreed. Profit is fine, monopolies are not. It's not a hard line to draw.

Well seeing as there is little to no consensus on whether certain tech companies have a monopoly or not... I'd say it's a hard line to draw.

Re: Thank You, Valve

#70

Post by Kelamir »

nameisname wrote: post #40

This is great but I still dislike that valve has no customer support whatsoever. They also offer no refunds for errors in their system. I've been in situations where I purchase something off the market and it says "could not find an item at that price" and purchases it anyway without updating the screen. This resulted in me having multiple of the same item and they wouldn't even acknowledge the issue. I'm anti steam…

Sorry to hear about that. Valve has customer support though. On a request I had a few months ago I got responses promptly.
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