cross-posted from: https://lemy.lol/post/30531009
This is your reminder to use better alternatives like:
Alternatives that is not opensource:
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It’s not that I trust Valve. It’s that I distrust them the least when compared to the other giant companies out there. And I already have 90% of my games on Steam.
I trust GOG the most, but Steam is solidly second-most. Guaranteed that if Epic had their way, the PC gaming landscape would be just as trash as the console one, if not moreso.
Valve could definitely go off the deep end after Gabe is gone, and that’s why good third-party competition is still healthy. But for right now, they’re one of the few large companies I’ve seen that aren’t on the enshittification warpath.
I too prefer GOG, but the fact that they still haven’t made a native linux port of GOG Galaxy causes me to mostly use Steam. I usually use GOG for indie stuff. Oh, and I recently bought Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 there, as I felt it was about time I gave Chris Sawyer some money for all the fun the pirated version I downloaded 25 years ago have provided.
Also quite a few games have worse or non-updated versions on GoG (this isn’t GoG/CDPRojeckt’s fault, but it’s still a pain factor)
Similarly, sometimes the Linux or MacOS ports for a game don’t make it to GoG while the Windows version does.
I hate how I get charged overseas transaction fees for every purchase.
Yeah they ever get Linux support they will become my favorite.
Have you tried the Heroic Games Launcher? It’s currently the most advanced launcher for GOG games on Linux, even implementing support for some of GOG Galaxy’s online services. Additionally it’s officially affiliated with GOG, so you can “donate” to the project by purchasing games through the client.
I have not. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until you mentioned it.
But I sure as hell will give it a go now that I am aware of its existence. Thanks for the tip!
Yeah, I feel like I trust Steam as long as Gabe is calling the shots at Valve. I’m sure it helps that they’re a private company. Hopefully whoever takes over after him will have learned the lesson that you can make a nearly unimaginable amount of money in this industry without putting the screws to the consumer. If they were public or let the business “experts” in I’m sure there would be all sorts of moves to extract more money from customers that would end my trust, but I feel like overall I have a couple of decades of experience at this point that Valve isn’t actively trying to hurt me.
Oh crap… you bring up a good point. How long do we think Gave has left? There is absolutely no way Steam won’t get worse after that happens. Enjoy it while it lasts, I guess.
It’s also that they put out a product I actually find value from like Linux support, Steam Input, forums, workshop, etc. I enjoy using Steam because I find it to be a good experience.
It’s like reasons people prefer Android or Apple even if they share the same apps. Really can’t discount the experience simple things like navigation and social features do to add value. Those who dismiss it as unimportant probably share the same views as some MBA who only looks at the numbers and think they can just enter and corner a market through brute force spending.
Better alternatives? That is highly subjective. Itch’s store-front experience sucks balls and they lack 98% of the features Steam has. I appreciate their existence and have bought games from them, but language like that will only serve to alienate people that know how much Itch lacks compared to Steam.
Dear god I just wish itch had the ability to sort games in literally any way at all… Please let me sort all the games I got from bundles holy shit it would make me use the store way more…
Honestly even sorting by platform would be enough just fucking anything please
Well-deserved shout-out for GOG. Its standalone installers make actually owning your games much more convenient than it would be on Steam.
… if you’re on windows
I know about heroic but gog does not care about anything other than windows. Linux support for gog galaxy has been the most requested feature for years and nothing is happening. Instead the work falls back to the community
Your statement “if you’re on Windows” is still wrong.
Additionally, the Heroic project is officially affiliated with GOG, so saying that they don’t care is also wrong.
Well I didn’t know they were affiliated so that changes things a bit. Did they announce this somewhere? I couldn’t find it in the faq
In case anyone here doesn’t know already, many (most?) Steam games can be run without Steam, using a tool like this one:
https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator
If you’re concerned about what might happen to your game library if Steam disappears or changes drastically, make backups. There’s a good chance you would still be able to play them.
I don’t trust any corporation. However, Valve has treated customers with respect and doesn’t try to bend us over. For that, I’ll keep buying from them.
However, I fear for the day Gabe Newell is no longer running the show.
I trust Valve to be lazy and swim in their sea of profits rather than go searching for more.
They have thus far avoided serious levels of enshittification because they don’t seem motivated in maximising immediate profits and killing their golden goose.
The day they get replaced by a competitive non-monopoly is the day it becomes a race for the bottom, who can invent the most predatory way to drain profits from users? Nobody else will be able to compete, so they’ll all be copying each other on their way down.
Streaming services all over again.
Not all monopolies are bad.
