• Why do people love Steam’s DRM on everything, online only gameplay? Why do people love Steams totalitarian control and extortion deals?

    If people could built their own Steam client, it wouldn’t be so bad. I use Heroic on Windows for both Epic and GOG and get new games through Heroic so there can’t be telemetry or data gathering. Why won’t Valve allow a libre/free software Steam client to play games and let go of what people choose to install on their computer. I’m nit asking for DRM-free games, I’m asking ti stop dictator how I am allowed to play games.

    •  Godort   ( @Godort@lemm.ee ) 
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      2427 days ago

      Because Steam’s DRM is entirely unobtrusive, it doesn’t require online-only gameplay and the customer experience is excellent.

      When Epic tries to compete with Steam they don’t look to make a better user experience, instead they bribe developers for exclusivity deals to force people on their platform if they want to play a game on release.

      •  Onyxonblack   ( @Onyxonblack@lemm.ee ) 
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        27 days ago

        I left steam. Only interested in offline installers from GOG… When WWIII hits and players are still reliant on Steam’s Online DRM Leased versions of your games, like come on already!.. No Internet,no games… I’m burning all these games onto M-Disc media… I can sell games for bullets and food in the apocalypse!! Woo!

    •  nesc   ( @nesc@lemmy.cafe ) 
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      27 days ago

      There is a weird cult around steam, they literally can’t do wrong, and even if they do, well it was deserved. Dunno how that happened but it really does hurt me when games on gog aren’t updated for months for no reason but steam.

      •  Phuntis   ( @phuntis@sopuli.xyz ) 
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        27 days ago

        you’re just going to interpret this is as proving you right and me as a cultist but the thing about no updates on gog is nothing to do with steam that’s the publisher steam doesn’t make them do that there’s no reason it’s the publisher/developers I don’t think valve can do no wrong but I would say steams never done anything bad to me valve includes gambling in all their multiplayer games that are full of children they were one of the earliest companies to make loot boxes their business model though arguably even worse as they gave all the tools for an external economy for those skins and gave the crates out abundantly to encourage you to buy the keys because you already have the crate but the steam division in valve has provided me with a consistently great experience in every way games on there own launcher almost always just work on linux refunds are trivial family sharing is great for making it even cheaper I don’t like drm and I’d use gog more if they didn’t kinda suck from a user perspective but even with heroic playing games on gog is a little jank on linux in a way it just isn’t with steam and gog has literally no family sharing I don’t play games from the shared library much but I like having it when I do and my siblings actually do play some games from my library a fair bit steam/valve is a company like any others that ultimately cares about profit not me or any other customer but unlike other companies they understand the value of long term thinking and good customer relationships they don’t care about me but they know I’m more likely to keep coming back and buying loads of games if they don’t keep trying to screw me over and add lots of good features that save me money and make my experience better

        •  nesc   ( @nesc@lemmy.cafe ) 
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          227 days ago

          There were a few games that explained slow updates with “just download them on steam” when asked, ofc it’s not on steam that publishers are lazy. Publishers are lazy because steam has such an overwhelming majority that they can ignore customers on other platforms. I do prefer gog because they are drm free and offline, so in the inevitable crash of global internet i will have my oldie games, lol.

          •  Phuntis   ( @phuntis@sopuli.xyz ) 
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            227 days ago

            that’s still the publisher not steam and honestly a bit gog that they let them get away with that you can’t blame steam and customers largely using the better platform for awful publishers scamming people on a different platform

    • I don’t love Steam’s DRM at all, but theirs is the least obtrusive platform, and Gabe demonstrably understands that, and I quote the man himself, “Piracy is almost always a service problem, and not a pricing problem.”

      Admittedly I’m not happy about the near-monopoly they have on the PC gaming market, particularly because it’ll be a sad day indeed if Valve ever goes public and starts pulling scummy moves like Epic, among other platforms. But I’m happy to spend money with a business that treats its employees and customers like people and not untapped resources.

      • Piracy is because of price.

        Read the documents from the court case against Valve, such as their email communication. Valve got to this level by extortion and bullying.

        I do not buy games through Steam store, I will never buy a game directly from Valve.