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1. 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat (hauntedowlbear@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 13:23:33 UTC 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat

   • Martijn Frazer
   • Lunar 🛸 ♾

   @lunarloony @Tijn

   Right? For instance, I appreciate Valve putting money and person-hours into my pet special interests (specific areas of open source software, for example) where most corporate behemoths would not, but the only reason the likes of Valve, Nintendo and Sega (each in really specific areas and not in general) seem likes "good" or "responsible" companies compared to the industry's conspicuously bad actors isn't because the "good" companies aren't bad actors themselves, but because they occasionally meet a minimum bar of corporate responsibility (and don't mind benefiting from the PR gloss it gives them).

   Fundamentally, the role of "large enterprise" as an institution and "billionaire" as an individual are both locked into social and economic roles that are inherently predatory and destructive.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 13:23:58 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾

     @HauntedOwlbear @lunarloony @Tijn I agree with everything above, but I have a big suspicion that things are gonna get much worse for both consumers and devs when Gaben is gone.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 14:06:14 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾
     • peterb

     @peterb @HauntedOwlbear @lunarloony @Tijn While that's all fine and good, you're not really paying any different price. Games are usually priced on Steam as they are on any other platform. It's the devs that are "paying", not you.

   • peterb (peterb@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 14:06:17 UTC peterb

     in reply to

     • Anatoly Shashkin💾
     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾

     @HauntedOwlbear @dosnostalgic @lunarloony @Tijn It's never fun to be in the role of Big Company Defender in any thread, but I'm gonna do it here. I resisted Steam mightily when it first launched but I came around because I realized that the 30% they were taking - from my POV as a consumer - was in fact giving me value for money.

     Might they turn evil someday? Sure - I spent money on other platforms (drengin.net anyone?) where the games are lost forever. But I have games I bought on Steam in 2003/2004 that I can still play today, and in practice they work better than many DRM-free games I bought *on disc* in the same timeframe. And I don't have to keep track of the disc.

   • 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat (hauntedowlbear@eldritch.cafe)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 14:06:18 UTC 13 barn owls in a trenchcoat

     in reply to

     • Anatoly Shashkin💾
     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾

     @dosnostalgic @lunarloony @Tijn

     Yeah, I suspect you're right, too, which is another item on my list of "things that concern me about Steam-as-DRM".

     To wave vaguely in the direction of classical history, it's only ever a matter of time until a Bad Emperor comes along.

   • Anatoly Shashkin💾 (dosnostalgic@mastodon.social@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 14:21:16 UTC Anatoly Shashkin💾

     in reply to

     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾
     • peterb

     @peterb @HauntedOwlbear @lunarloony @Tijn I mean you can just scroll up.

   • peterb (peterb@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jan-2024 14:21:17 UTC peterb

     in reply to

     • Anatoly Shashkin💾
     • Martijn Frazer
     • Lunar 🛸 ♾

     @dosnostalgic @HauntedOwlbear @lunarloony @Tijn Sure. Lots of products work that way, not just games. It seems to me the key question is whether the 30% devs are paying to Steam is worth the value they get from it. Whichever way that question is answered I think leads to an obvious answer.