[RD] Games as a Service

At least ground squirrels are kind of cute

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Ok, that was pretty good, Tim.

Grey squirrels tho, not chipmunks.

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Team Fox Squirrel!
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General Squirrel in his bunker surveying the battlefield.
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He_eat_the_peanut.jpg
 
Moderator Action: This is an RD thread, folks. Let's get back to the main topic, please.
 
We did get a little squirrelly there.

Steam still sux though, to be fully back on topic. The cynical hypocrisy of running a DRM business under the banner "by gamers for gamers" cannot be denied, and should never be forgiven or rewarded.
 
The US is trying to negotiate a trade wherein we get Lemon and certain other assets and get to ship out Gabe Newell and all his evil minions, but since such a trade is grossly imbalanced a whole lot of cash would be required. Failing that I am trying to get her to transfer to Team Belize.
 
Yeah man. Steams a scam, so is Amazon, and so is the American dream.

Your point being? Are we just listing true statements here? :D
 
Your point being? Are we just listing true statements here? :D

Thats my preferred reading! My point being: If Steam is a scam then its the gentlest of the 20 times I am scammed a day and I could suffer to be scammed in this manner more often. There are many worse scams continually going on that too many people accept, than light implementations of DRM and the political/property issue of "who owns muh vidya games".
 
Thats my preferred reading! My point being: If Steam is a scam then its the gentlest of the 20 times I am scammed a day and I could suffer to be scammed in this manner more often. There are many worse scams continually going on that too many people accept, than light implementations of DRM and the political/property issue of "who owns muh vidya games".

The fact that there are worse scams does not make this any less of a scam. There is always something worse. I think calling this kind of behavior out, no matter how insignificant it seems to you, is my moral duty. I think passively accpeting this kind of behavior from companies is not just irresponsible, but actively harmful. Passivity is the ultimate enabler of disgusting and scammy business practices.

Just look how quickly GB did something about gambling (loot boxes etc.) in kids games only because there was one mediocre article from the BBC after there were some twitter wars and stuff. What we need is people that can agree on what the problem is and devise a solution, make other people aware, mobilize. So many predatory practices have been accepted by gamers as new industry standards and it really ticks me off. The passivity of the majority is hurting everyone.

The passivity of the majority is the reason why we have people like this:
openly admitting they are abusing their players psychologically and talk about them like they're freaking less than livestock. Because that is what we are, cash cows. That, my friend, is the state of the industry.
 
I've been reading a lot of this and not chipping in (for once!) mainly because I think there are valid points all round. All I'll say is that I have a simple bias for criticism of Steam rooted in the fact that it's 2020 and it's apparently still unpopular to criticise the rolling-in-money company that is historically a trashfire on customer (and volunteer) support.

There are things that Steam's competitors regularly get chewed out for (for greater or less offences, and greater or lesser actual problems), Steam just gets crickets on. Or worse, legions of people claiming because how Steam "got there first" or some other free market-esque apologia that we must just accept its problems (while also claiming in the same breath that Steam is also factually better). I've simply been exposed to too much of this, though being a long-time community moderator and Steam community moderator hasn't helped.
 
A lot of people grow up in this predatory environment and quickly develop a Stockholm syndrome relationship towards their overlords. People will rationalize all kinds of **** as long as that **** seems normal to them, and many predatory practices have indeed become absolutely commonplace.

I have said it on another occasion, I think. My 16 year old cousin wanted to design a game with me. He was super excited, so was I. I've always wanted to do this.

I asked him for his ideas, and the only part of the game he ever considered was the monetization. **** me, dude. It felt like someone hit me in the back of my head with a hammer, I was just sad and in disbelief. I have tried to make him understand that you actually need a game first, to then profit off of it. But he mostly fantasizes about # of downloads, in-game stores and DLC, he had absolutely no plans or ambitions about the game itself. Luckily that's changed a bit.
 
Thats my preferred reading! My point being: If Steam is a scam then its the gentlest of the 20 times I am scammed a day and I could suffer to be scammed in this manner more often. There are many worse scams continually going on that too many people accept, than light implementations of DRM and the political/property issue of "who owns muh vidya games".

Steam is the most invasive form of DRM ever marketed. The fact that it was well marketed and there are still gamers running around posting on game sites about how it is "light implementation" or even taking offense when it is pointed out as DRM at all is absolutely remarkable testament to just how effective a scam Gabe and his merry band of lying asshats have pulled off.
 
There are two other reasons why I prefer GOG games over Steam, aside from the DRM:
  • GOG lets me install where I'd like. Steam forces it into a SteamApps folder.
  • GOG lets you download older versions of games without any hassle. There are ways to get older versions with Steam, but it's a bloody pain and I think newer versions of the Steam client patched the loophole that allowed it anyways.
 
There are two other reasons why I prefer GOG games over Steam, aside from the DRM:
  • GOG lets me install where I'd like. Steam forces it into a SteamApps folder.
  • GOG lets you download older versions of games without any hassle. There are ways to get older versions with Steam, but it's a bloody pain and I think newer versions of the Steam client patched the loophole that allowed it anyways.

Those are both aspects of the DRM.

"We know you would like to be able to install where you want, but our DRM is dependent on everything being in one folder so that's how it is...remember, by gamers for gamers."
"We know that when a game automatically updates and breaks all your saves it must suck not to be able to just undo the update, but the marketing of the DRM which is our actual bread and butter product requires us to be able to demonstrate to our customers that gamers allow us to probe their every orifice at will so we're just gonna keep doing that."
 
I remember watching a commentary of a Half-Life 2 speedrun where one of the runners mentioned he had to leave the game running indefinitely to prevent it from updating (as one of the glitches needed to do the speedrun had been patched out).
 
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