Would criticizing this specific cut be easier, if we talked about Apple’s iron grip on the App Store? Because it’s the same damn policy.

Except that it isn’t? Apple doesn’t let you circumvent their store, while Steam not only allows games to have their own monetization system, it allows off-site sales of the game on Steam. That is significantly more permissive, by a degree of magnitude that makes me wonder about your sincerity.

What Epic means by “for developers” is, developers keep more of the money. Walk me through how that’s bad for you.

Why should we accept an objectively worse storefront run by psychopaths because developers make more money under some circumstances? EGS is not supporting open-source software, Linux, VR. Their online backend is awful, with their chat and multiplayer still sucking years later. No remote play or remote play together. They don’t allow user tags or reviews. They are missing incredibly basic library sorting controls. No easily accessible news/update notes from developers. They have adopted virtually none of the pro-consumer moves such as identifying dead games, DRM, or third-party launchers before you buy. No custom profile pictures.

Also worth noting the featured/recommended list in the Steam store does a good job, even sending me the odd game with like 5 reviews that might actually suit my interests. I have on more than one occasion bought games I’d probably never see without this, and I’m in some communities with indie devs. I’ve demoed and tested games no one has ever heard of. If Steam can find me gems in the rough while I’m that low to the ground, they’re doing a good job.

If that feature alone isn’t worth Steam’s cut to you, frankly you deeply misunderstand the marketplace in general and just how damned hard it is to sell a game as a nobody. EGS and Prime will never support indie devs or niche titles this way, because it doesn’t make them money. Steam will, because it does. Think about that.

lmao no, she reacted much more strongly to my Stardew Valley pick though

I mean everyone gets harassed by the small amount of shitheads online. I used to get death threats at least once a day in World of Tanks. People would pick whatever they thought would offend me, throwing racial epithets, ableist terms… Name it, I got it. That’s how shitheads work: they throw stuff at you, see what sticks, and start digging where they see the marks.

What an absurd read. As if middlemen taking a third of revenue is pro-consumer.

Considering this was a shift from retail where getting games to retail cost a great deal more, how exactly is that bad?

Also you know nothing stops gamedevs from selling their keys elsewhere and getting all of the revenue right?

Sword of Truth series has some very cool ancient white magic in the world that you get to see.

A few books in it goes balls deep into libertarianism and becomes unreadable but it’s fun while it lasts lol.

Sounds like this guy smokes a lot a grass, does that count?

My wife listened to me get mad about Mass Effect 3 so I’m pretty sure she loves me.

Women just don’t thrive on competition the way we do. They will absolutely nerd out on most other shit though, anything from Pokemon party builds to Fallout lore to puzzles.

The only other girl filter I’ve seen besides competition is the hardcore autistic stuff like logistics and simulators; not nearly as many women playing Factorio, Mudrunner, Elite, etc… They’re out there though, and there are exceptions like Wurm Online that attract more women than you would otherwise expect.

My wife would casually watch me play games until she saw me playing Rust with the bros. She shyly asked if I could build her a computer.

Brother I had been building, fixing, and overclocking PCs for like 20 years by that point, a few a month even. I slapped one together from spare parts and got her in the game.

She immediately used the fact that she is a girl to work her way into the good graces of other factions and made us friends I couldn’t have imagined. She would change her name and kill sleepers to make our enemies think they had been raided by other enemies. She would make friends with the resident assholes and then map out their base layout for us.

My group has people in it like a top 10k solo no-build Fortnite player, a guy who regularly airdisked people 300m away in Tribes, and two top World of Tanks NA players: we are a force to be reckoned with on any day. She was armed with nothing but kindness and help for good people, and wrath for those who wronged good people.

She fit right in.

Steam was the first to offer 2 hour/14 day refunds, as well as refunds over broken games. They brought reviews to the storefront. Communities and discussion boards to communicate with devs and find like-minded players. Demos, 4 packs, easy access to servers and SDKs, easy update delivery and tracking for consumers…

It’s a store-front with a strong focus on consumer happiness. People are not going to give that up for EGS or Prime, which are run by psychopaths and not even remotely consumer-friendly. Tim Sweeny even said EGS is made for developers, with the implication it is not for consumers.

GOG is probably the closest competitor that stands any hope of success but they have steered clear of actually entering Steam’s territory, preferring to grab a market Steam neglects (retro PC gamers). Considering they have not developed the other systems Steam has I don’t think they want to compete and are content to coexist.

Downvoting because that link has more ads than content holy shit.

This is a product of a few things. Example: Conrad Black and Rupert Murdoch absolutely fucking up media across the anglosphere. Another example: the Protestant Work Ethic and excessive individualism, causing people to scoff at the idea of improving working conditions, and blaming the poor for their fate. Australia and the UK are having similar experiences.

Notably Québec, despite being in Canada, is not experiencing this problem to anywhere near the same degree. This is the hint that something is deeply wrong with English-speaking media.

The down votes are from people who were diagnosed with “stress” and are now addicted to anti depressants.

The downvotes are from people who think your statements are ignorant lol

I’ve been seeing people advocating ruining random Teslas and it’s pissing me off. Do people think rightoids make up the majority of EV early adopters? Fucking think about it before you go off spray painting swastikas onto innocent people’s cars holy shit.

I’m in a union that is about 70% women. A woman leads the union. Women get special delegates to the general meeting as do other minorities. You cannot criticize this without getting into some trouble.

I’m a lefty and I cannot safely discuss this. It’s very frustrating.

I’ve heard the terms “vulgar” and “dirtbag” to describe this kind of lefty. I’m down for it.

Let’s pretend any of that actually matters and the US government doesn’t have a history of losing to locals, and ask the following: what happens if you willingly disarm yourself? Criminals will still have guns, your police will still shoot “less-lethal” rounds into the heads of protesters, and you will still be oppressed.

What do you get out of this? A fraction of the illusion of safety? And all it cost you was the last defense against oppression anyone has.

The Taliban won and they don’t have advanced technology.

I don’t know how involved he is but yes, Rivals of Aether 2.