Steam class action lawsuit(s)

[TYRVNT]

I've never made a Steam post before. I never felt the need to, though I've been helped by the lovely people who post many times, so I thank you for that. Buuuuut also, that's part of why I love Steam...

And that brings me to today's rant which I randomly feel the need to write after seeing a YouTube ad encouraging me to join a class-action lawsuit against Steam. It's not the first I've seen, but it's the first one that made me stop and say, "Wait, WHAT?"

Of course, I understand how the world works. For the most part, it's probably just some people trying to make a quick buck, and to profit from our flawed legal system. I admit, I didn't even bother to investigate it further as I simply don't care. However, one thought just occurred to me after seeing it, which is:

"Steam is far from perfect. Valve has much they can improve on, and I hope they do. However, that being said, in today's world, I struggle to think of another company, not just in the gaming industry but in general, that does as much to be genuinely pro-consumer as Steam does."

I had not stopped to consider it before seeing the ad for the class-action lawsuit, but ironically, it made me realize that Valve is one of the most pro-consumer companies I've ever encountered or dealt with. And so, any "monopoly" they may have over the gaming market is not due to nefarious practices or backroom deals (though, of course, it's possible that's a part of it behind the scenes), but because it's just THAT MUCH BETTER than any alternative out there.

Huge shout out to GoG & GoG Galaxy, I love what they stand for and how they operate, I'm glad they exist and encourage people to check them out. But... again, they're no Steam. And every other launcher I can think of, I honestly put on the same level as bloatware in my mind at this point. xD


So i guess TL;DR:
Today i found it super ironic that in a world of ♥♥♥♥♥♥, evil companies, I got an ad to join a class action lawsuit against one of the ONLY ones that seems to actually care about me as a user, Steam 🤣

[xBCxRangers]

Another day, another lawsuit against Valve and Mr Newell.

I suppose the only question to be asked, is what did Mr Newell know, and when did he know it?

Follow our LAWS, Mr Newell

[Boblin the Goblin]

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

SlowMango님이 먼저 게시:

That doesn't make sense because the Deck doesn't require Steam and isn't locked to Steam only.

They are still just selling you a product.

Most people used Internet Explorer as their browser, not because it was good, and not because they were locked down to it, but simply because it was included and set as the default.

That still doesn't mean they made the Deck cheap to "monopolize the market".

I am glad you understand how buying a product works.

[D. Flame]

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

Dreadslacks님이 먼저 게시:

You really have no idea what you're talking about. How the hell do you think google makes money?

Ad revenue - Suggest you do a basic search before posting, personally i'd suggest using google ;-)

and what does Google put at the top of their search results? Sponsored ads.

[Brian9824]

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

Ad revenue - Suggest you do a basic search before posting, personally i'd suggest using google ;-)

and what does Google put at the top of their search results? Sponsored ads.

Yes ad's, which are not search results. You CAN pay to have product ad's displayed more prominently, you can't pay to have your site show up more prominently. There is an entire profession devoted to search engine optimization which helps companies make sure their sites display as prominently as they can. If you could just pay for that it would be far cheaper and easier.

[D. Flame]

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

and what does Google put at the top of their search results? Sponsored ads.

Yes ad's, which are not search results. You CAN pay to have product ad's displayed more prominently, you can't pay to have your site show up more prominently. There is an entire profession devoted to search engine optimization which helps companies make sure their sites display as prominently as they can. If you could just pay for that it would be far cheaper and easier.

They look like ads. Google also rearranges the following results based on ad data as well. Two people can do the same search and get different results. And the sponsored ones still end up at the very top because they paid for that position.

[Large Tomatoes]

SlowMango님이 먼저 게시:

That doesn't make sense because the Deck doesn't require Steam and isn't locked to Steam only.

Yes it does, it makes absolute sense. OK, so you can buy a deck and install windows and play GOG games, or even just install Lutris and play everything but Steam games in SteamOS, sure!

Tell me, how many people do this do you think? I prefer GOG to steam when GOG have the game I want. But because it's just a hassle getting a GOG game working on the deck I just install the Steam version. Convenience wins!

I genuinely don't understand your logic here?

Convenience wins!

Have you tried installing anything but SteamOS on the Deck? Valve deliberately took forever to release drivers for Windows, in fact to this day the best way of running windows on the deck is by third party drivers. (Yes, Windows 11 runs exceptionally well on the deck, even better than SteamOS). Now, another problem. When you first install Windows 11 on the deck everything works just fine, the track pads work like track pads, the controller works as expected you can even play games. Then as soon as you install Steam everything stops working unless you launch it through Steam. This isn't a Windows problem, this is a deliberate action by Valve to make the Windows experience painful deliberately because then most people will give up and just use SteamOS and Steam.

Convenience wins!

[Boblin the Goblin]

Tears in the rain님이 먼저 게시:

SlowMango님이 먼저 게시:

That doesn't make sense because the Deck doesn't require Steam and isn't locked to Steam only.

Yes it does, it makes absolute sense. OK, so you can buy a deck and install windows and play GOG games, or even just install Lutris and play everything but Steam games in SteamOS, sure!

Tell me, how many people do this do you think? I prefer GOG to steam when GOG have the game I want. But because it's just a hassle getting a GOG game working on the deck I just install the Steam version. Convenience wins!

I genuinely don't understand your logic here?

Convenience wins!

Have you tried installing anything but SteamOS on the Deck? Valve deliberately took forever to release drivers for Windows, in fact to this day the best way of running windows on the deck is by third party drivers. (Yes, Windows 11 runs exceptionally well on the deck, even better than SteamOS). Now, another problem. When you first install Windows 11 on the deck everything works just fine, the track pads work like track pads, the controller works as expected you can even play games. Then as soon as you install Steam everything stops working unless you launch it through Steam. This isn't a Windows problem, this is a deliberate action by Valve to make the Windows experience painful deliberately because then most people will give up and just use SteamOS and Steam.

Convenience wins!

Games with Steam DRM require Steam. It doesn't stop from launching games that don't have Steam's DRM.

[Jon the VGNerd]

xBCxRangers님이 먼저 게시:

Another day, another lawsuit against Valve and Mr Newell.

I suppose the only question to be asked, is what did Mr Newell know, and when did he know it?

Follow our LAWS, Mr Newell

Ah yes, still lacking maturity like always and still resorting to slandering and victimizing.

[Jon the VGNerd]

Also Valve moderators need a serious wake-up call and stop catering to that one person who's been nothing but a troll who's also victimizing and slandering to "Mr. Newell" to no end. How many times does that one keep on violating ToS and EULA until they're eventually caught?

[Brian9824]

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

Yes ad's, which are not search results. You CAN pay to have product ad's displayed more prominently, you can't pay to have your site show up more prominently. There is an entire profession devoted to search engine optimization which helps companies make sure their sites display as prominently as they can. If you could just pay for that it would be far cheaper and easier.

They look like ads. Google also rearranges the following results based on ad data as well. Two people can do the same search and get different results. And the sponsored ones still end up at the very top because they paid for that position.

Yep, ad data incorporate your cookies, browsing history, etc. However the search results are not effected by anything paid.

Again ad's are not search results. If I google PS4 the ad's for stores selling it are not the same as the websites that show up as part of the search results

[D. Flame]

brian9824님이 먼저 게시:

D. Flame님이 먼저 게시:

They look like ads. Google also rearranges the following results based on ad data as well. Two people can do the same search and get different results. And the sponsored ones still end up at the very top because they paid for that position.

Yep, ad data incorporate your cookies, browsing history, etc. However the search results are not effected by anything paid.

Again ad's are not search results. If I google PS4 the ad's for stores selling it are not the same as the websites that show up as part of the search results

False, but you just refuse to listen to facts or reason, and your continuing to be wrong doesn't actually affect me at all, so I am done trying to explain it to you.

[Mad Scientist]

Jon the VGNerd님이 먼저 게시:

Also Valve moderators need a serious wake-up call and stop catering to that one person who's been nothing but a troll who's also victimizing and slandering to "Mr. Newell" to no end. How many times does that one keep on violating ToS and EULA until they're eventually caught?

Seriously.
People that get axed from multiple game hubs then trolling the steam sections is a rather serious problem needing resolution.

[D. Flame]

Tears in the rain님이 먼저 게시:

SlowMango님이 먼저 게시:

That doesn't make sense because the Deck doesn't require Steam and isn't locked to Steam only.

Yes it does, it makes absolute sense. OK, so you can buy a deck and install windows and play GOG games, or even just install Lutris and play everything but Steam games in SteamOS, sure!

Tell me, how many people do this do you think? I prefer GOG to steam when GOG have the game I want. But because it's just a hassle getting a GOG game working on the deck I just install the Steam version. Convenience wins!

I genuinely don't understand your logic here?

Convenience wins!

Have you tried installing anything but SteamOS on the Deck? Valve deliberately took forever to release drivers for Windows, in fact to this day the best way of running windows on the deck is by third party drivers. (Yes, Windows 11 runs exceptionally well on the deck, even better than SteamOS). Now, another problem. When you first install Windows 11 on the deck everything works just fine, the track pads work like track pads, the controller works as expected you can even play games. Then as soon as you install Steam everything stops working unless you launch it through Steam. This isn't a Windows problem, this is a deliberate action by Valve to make the Windows experience painful deliberately because then most people will give up and just use SteamOS and Steam.

Convenience wins!

No, it is a YOU problem. YOU took the device out of spec, so it is on YOU to maintain, support, and fix it when issues arise.

Linux is free and open. Windows and Microsoft are greedy and control freaks. They keep taking more and more choice away from the end user and manufacturers. They keep raising their prices to squeeze more money out of their users. They keep adding spyware to spy on their users then sell that data for even more money.

There are more than a few reasons why the Deck made the right choice when it avoided Windows, especially Windows 11. Plus, Windows 10 is getting discontinued soon, and we saw how that worked out for Windows 7 users.

[Start_Running]

Dreadslacks님이 먼저 게시:

Start_Running님이 먼저 게시:

snip

"This isn't even a matter of Quality in most cases. Its about preference."

Nonsense argument to conflate the two so you can treat both criticisms the same. They are not. Plenty of games and movies promise big and don't deliver, if they can't keep their promises, why do they deserve our money? that was the premise it was given to them. You know the other commonly known word for that? Fraud.

Yeah but no one every said a bad movie was a fraud now was it?
As long as there is a movie then the product is delivered. A person not liking the product is their own concern That's just a person not liking it. And where or not one likes any given piece of entertainment is simply a matter of preference. There is no film or novel so bad that someone didn consider it wirth their money and no film or book so good that someone didn't consider it a waste of their money.

Dreadslacks님이 먼저 게시:

"Most stores of the physicial (sic) variety will say quite clearly they do not accept returns"

Doesn't change that it's anti consumer and that this is another arguementum ad populum fallacy.

Maybe but doing the reverse is anti retailer sooo yeah the happy medium must be struck. In the end personal responsibility is what takes precedent. You as the buyer have the ultimate power over WHAT WHEN and HOW MUCH you spend your money on. The retailer has to make the offer and you have the right to refuse that offer and keep walking.

A consumer can protect themselves by simply being aware of that simple fact. Their money, Their power, Their decision, Their responsibility.

And once you accept that you make sure to hone that decision making so you don't waste money on a product that is not worth the price.

Tears in the rain님이 먼저 게시:

SlowMango님이 먼저 게시:

That doesn't make sense because the Deck doesn't require Steam and isn't locked to Steam only.

Yes it does, it makes absolute sense. OK, so you can buy a deck and install windows and play GOG games, or even just install Lutris and play everything but Steam games in SteamOS, sure!

Tell me, how many people do this do you think? I prefer GOG to steam when GOG have the game I want. But because it's just a hassle getting a GOG game working on the deck I just install the Steam version. Convenience wins!

I genuinely don't understand your logic here?

Convenience wins!

True,. But is it Valve's fault for being so convenient?
I mean GoG could awlays come out with their own Hand Held gaming solution.... but that's not gonna happen since GoG isn't exactly turning the kinda profit that leans into that sort of R&D.

Tears in the rain님이 먼저 게시:

Have you tried installing anything but SteamOS on the Deck? Valve deliberately took forever to release drivers for Windows, in fact to this day the best way of running windows on the deck is by third party drivers.

I mean have you ever tried getting windows to run on a GBA or Switch? Or PSVita?

Tears in the rain님이 먼저 게시:

Convenience wins!

Yeah. And that's why Valve is toops they have the greatest level of convenience. and other stores simply choose not to match that level.

[Jon the VGNerd]

Mad Scientist님이 먼저 게시:

Jon the VGNerd님이 먼저 게시:

Also Valve moderators need a serious wake-up call and stop catering to that one person who's been nothing but a troll who's also victimizing and slandering to "Mr. Newell" to no end. How many times does that one keep on violating ToS and EULA until they're eventually caught?

Seriously.
People that get axed from multiple game hubs then trolling the steam sections is a rather serious problem needing resolution.

It is. Even Support blatantly ignores them, even with screenshots as proof. If Steam can't overhaul the moderation system for the better, then it's only going to get worse over time because of their slow handling of reports. And they keep letting trolls like that one guy go off easy.