Well because uhmm. Gamers just use it ironically you know. Free speech. Elon Musk help me, they want to persecute gamers. Gamers.

    • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      TF2 may have been ground zero for cosmetics and the lootbox

      Still don't have complaints about Steam as a storefront and way to run games though. It just puts the files on your hard drive and lets you fuck with them (unless the developer is a dickhead and puts Denuvo in their game). Compare this to the Microsoft Store- The Master Chief Collection recently got mod support for the PC... but only on the Steam version. The same goes for most other games with mods.

      To be fair, this is less because of Valve being great but because of everyone else sucking. I also like GOG but their selection is more limited and tend to use that mostly for old games

        • kristina [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          anything cool valve does is just because newell is an eccentric techbro and likes linux. as soon as newell dies that shit is going away

          • wwiehtnioj [none/use name]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Newell got rich as an early microsoft employee, Valve supports linux because they got scared they would be sidelined when microsoft launched the windows app store

      • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        GoG enabled me to replay the original Alone in the Dark from 1992, and as an added bonus, it was the rerelease version I had as a kid with the added woman protagonist and the little bonus game "Jack" where you played as a little girl dressed as a witch who needs to rescue Santa from a bunch of malicious toys. I fucking loved that game. It was my intro to Lovecraft. There's no actual HP Lovecraft text in it but the whole deal is steeped in Lovecraftian shit. Also it had all those old bullshit mechanics that games used to have, like an evil spellbook that kills you if you read it. Like if you read it at all you just die lmao. Kid me was so mad when that happened.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I love buying weird or obscure old games from GOG since I get to play them without my Steam friends asking me why I'm playing the Xbox Indiana Jones game

          • GrouchyGrouse [he/him]
            ·
            2 years ago

            I got drunk as a lord and tried to buy Terror From The Deep a while back just purely out of nostalgia but I was too drunk to remember my login and then woke up the next morning going "thank god, I hated that game"

        • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          There is no reason a PC game has to use Steam. To reach a console audience you have no choice but to give that 30 percent to PS or Xbox.

          Steam has features that does not help a specific game that players like to use, like game streaming, library sharing, remote play together. Which is why a player might prefer Steam to Origin let's say

            • CanYouFeelItMrKrabs [any, he/him]
              ·
              2 years ago

              There is no reason to exclusively be on Steam. But yeah a game not launching on Steam probably won't get popular unless has a giant company like Activision or Riot behind it.

              Epic has spent many millions of exclusives but even after 2 years does not have some of the features Steam has so I'll only use it if they literally give me a game for free (which happens often)

              If possible I get games on Itch.io or GOG for DRM free copies

        • bigboopballs [he/him]
          ·
          2 years ago

          unless you thoroughly reformat and factory reset your PC

          how do they ensure that?

      • Grebgreb [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Compare this to the Microsoft Store- The Master Chief Collection recently got mod support for the PC… but only on the Steam version. The same goes for most other games with mods.

        This is not true, the windows store version always supported mods. I have played a modified b30 I made and Vadam's Reach campaign without any hassle. What is true is that the mod tools are all needlessly locked to steam (with only Halo 1a's tools being free) and with support for the steam modding thing this just means mods are going to be locked to steam for no reason if the mod makers don't upload anywhere else, as is the case for Zomboid and probably a bunch of other games. If literally any other platform did this they would be rightfully ripped to shreds, yet for some reason everyone gives this shitty company a pass.

        It just puts the files on your hard drive and lets you fuck with them

        That's the case with Gog and Epic. Installing mods on Kenshi and Bannerlord respectively is just a case of dragging mods to the specific folder. This has to do with drm in the game and not the platform.

        Still don’t have complaints about Steam as a storefront

        I do. Steam is always consistently fucking awful to use and used to crash explorer relatively consistently when I used it. Never had any problems with any other launcher, including the ubisoft one.

        • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
          ·
          edit-2
          2 years ago

          From what I understand, the Microsoft Store versions of Bethesda games do not allow you to use .dll script extenders. AFAIK you can't do the required hex editing on the game .exe to unlock Control's dummied out PS4 exlusive content either. That was the sort of stuff I was referring to

          Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, I did remember one thing I don't like- the Steam Workshop, mainly on games I've pirated (Though you can still download the mods on there through unofficial means) I also don't like the "subscription" model it uses. I remember a scenario where a mod author ragequit a community, but before leaving they pushed an update that totally wiped their mods for every user. Very cool!

          I just haaaaaaaaate all the different Xbox Apps and their ugly console slash mobile phone design. As for the others, I've got decades of shit on Steam already, I just don't want to bother with other launchers. I wouldn't want to install another browser for a specific website either.

          In an ideal world you'd take the good features from Steam and put them into some kind of open source thing

        • KobaCumTribute [she/her]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Steam is always consistently fucking awful to use and used to crash explorer relatively consistently when I used it. Never had any problems with any other launcher, including the ubisoft one.

          Weird. Steam is awful, but I've found that it's tied with Epic for "at least it actually works and is basically functional" as far as launcher/storefronts go. The Microsoft Store/Gamepass, Uplay, and Origin are all some level of "does not even function as a storefront on a basic level and/or is completely broken."

    • Grebgreb [he/him]
      ·
      2 years ago

      :this: Death to valve and steam. They also tried to monetize mods and it's a gamble if mod makers decide to lock their mods to steam, nexus mods and the like are bad enough yet no one ever brings up how atrocious it is to have mods only available to a fucking storefront, and a dogshit one at that.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        2 years ago

        They also tried to monetize mods

        Holy shit, I've completely forgotten about that debacle!

        nexus mods and the like are bad enough

        What's wrong with them? They seem pretty neutral as far as a mod hosting platform goes ie. I click the download button I get the mod