Gabe Newell ruined PC gaming

[Ɖrəɐɱ]

If Gabe Newell never created that subpar shooter, he would have never made enough cash to create the social network game platform we've come to accept as the norm. Which in turn would have ensured that the standard for game releases would have been much higher, and 99% of these indie jokes would never see the light of day. Instead, we're now locked in this fever dream of amateur hell where "anything goes." The quality of every genre has tanked. The pushing of technological and gameplay limits has completely ceased to be a thing. In fact the only innovation in the last decade+ has been VR, and there are maybe 2-3 titles worth looking into on that front. Despite the several years of the stagnate priced tech being around. Throughout the history of this industry there have been moments that really questioned the validity of this medium. Catastrophic moments that shifted things far away from what they once were. Valve with Steam has been the worst of them all. The total monopoly over the gaming market and lax standards on quality has made it so even the big name devs no longer bother trying to release anything even resembling a final product. Why should they. If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel. I'm not saying all indie devs are bad. There definitely are exceptions, for example, Dave the Diver is a phenomenal game. One of the best of the decade, easily. Though the greats are too far and few in between a horde of asset pasting nonsense, that in truth has no business being on this platform, let alone having a price tag.

So you might be asking at this point, what can be done. Well, truthfully with EA gobbling up every developer of note and cannibalizing their content, Bethesda being devoured by the sinking ship known as Microsoft games, Blizzard being a branch of Antifa and valve standardizing garbage as triple A releases (looking at you Hell Divers 2). I don't think there is much that can be done. Short of waiting on new developers popping up with passion projects to carry the torch of bygone days, such as Warhorse Studios, we're just going to have to "try" before buying. If not, we're going to be locked in with something that would barely qualify as a beta test back when full release meant something.

[The nameless Gamer]

Originally posted by Tito Shivan:

Originally posted by The nameless Commander:

Going digital may have not reduced the cost of making games, but it allowed to spread more than ever.

And that was the role Steam played in the democratization of production tools. Putting worldwide online distribution at the fingertips of any developer.

And thank goodness for that. I would probably have given up gaming a LONG time ago if there was nothing available but the usual "popular" FPS games and sports simulators.

[WraithTargundaMajarie]

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

If Gabe Newell never created that subpar shooter, he would have never made enough cash to create the social network game platform we've come to accept as the norm. Which in turn would have ensured that the standard for game releases would have been much higher, and 99% of these indie jokes would never see the light of day. Instead, we're now locked in this fever dream of amateur hell where "anything goes." The quality of every genre has tanked. The pushing of technological and gameplay limits has completely ceased to be a thing. In fact the only innovation in the last decade+ has been VR, and there are maybe 2-3 titles worth looking into on that front. Despite the several years of the stagnate priced tech being around. Throughout the history of this industry there have been moments that really questioned the validity of this medium. Catastrophic moments that shifted things far away from what they once were. Valve with Steam has been the worst of them all. The total monopoly over the gaming market and lax standards on quality has made it so even the big name devs no longer bother trying to release anything even resembling a final product. Why should they. If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel. I'm not saying all indie devs are bad. There definitely are exceptions, for example, Dave the Diver is a phenomenal game. One of the best of the decade, easily. Though the greats are too far and few in between a horde of asset pasting nonsense, that in truth has no business being on this platform, let alone having a price tag.

So you might be asking at this point, what can be done. Well, truthfully with EA gobbling up every developer of note and cannibalizing their content, Bethesda being devoured by the sinking ship known as Microsoft games, Blizzard being a branch of Antifa and valve standardizing garbage as triple A releases (looking at you Hell Divers 2). I don't think there is much that can be done. Short of waiting on new developers popping up with passion projects to carry the torch of bygone days, such as Warhorse Studios, we're just going to have to "try" before buying. If not, we're going to be locked in with something that would barely qualify as a beta test back when full release meant something.

You All Are Nutz...


Gabe Newel Didn't Ruin Sht...

All Gabe Newel Did, Was Ruin Gabe Newel...

I've Said It Once, & I'll Say It Again...


Today Isn't About Tripple AAA Studios,
& STEAM Buying All Of Them Up Don't
Mean Squat To Me At All, ~_~

STEAM Could Die Off, & I Won't Care...

Gaming Ain't Dead, Just Cause STEAM Disappears... ~_~

People Need To Look Beyond STEAM...

Gaming Is Still Around, & It's Still Popular Among People...

Your Just In Denial, Because Your Lost In This
EPIC Problem That Is STEAM...



You Think That All Games Are On STEAM,
& That This Is The Only Place They Exist...

You Need To Get Your Head Out Of The
Gutter, & See The Reality Of The World??

Gaming Isn't Dead, & Gabe Newel Won't
Do Crap To Change Anything, ~_~


You People Are Just In A Delusion Of The Bigger Picture, ~_~




Yes, They Can Actually Be Harmful To The Gaming Industry,
But Sooo Far They Haven't Done So... & I'm Not Going To
Explain How That Would Look, Be, Or Happen... ~_~


I'm Just Pointing Out That Gaming Isn't Dead,
& People Are Just Delusionaling That It Is, ~_~

[Paratech2008]

Gabe has less impact on the market than the publishers who have expensive pre ordering of games, day one bugs, multiseason dlc, etc.

I'm having more fun with a game that cost me a bit over $2 than any AAA game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2180000/Elemental_Survivors/

[Ɖrəɐɱ]

Originally posted by Intelligent Jew Businessman:

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

To claim that before steam, PC gaming as a whole was a niche market that was barely getting by is if not the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, pretty damn close to it. The Steam storefront went live in 2005, the last year where anyone had any right to call PC gamers a masterrace of any sort. PC gaming throughout the 90s and early 00's was in a steady climb with genuinely remarkable titles that made console games look lackluster on the technological front. It was a time when envy was justified. Steam didn't influence anything besides the death of freedom for developers. As for finding games to buy, that was not reserved to gamestop. Many retailers carried PC games. I never, not once found myself unable to find the game I wanted be it on launch day or whenever. And if I'm being completely honest, a small selection of really well made titles that are now considered legends of the pc gaming industry is far better than a wave of garbage that belittles the overall quality of the entire industry.

Steam sales were high because you weren't allowed to port over your previously owned non-valve games to steam. You were forced to re-buy them, and as herd mentality reigns true people accepted the practice. Gamespy was good, but admittedly clunky. X-fire was outdated for the times and it's UI was lackluster. Valve created a user friendly all-in-one package that should have ended with user connectivity, but instead took the entire market by stranglehold and made it so you almost entirely could not game on PC without buying games through steam. The difference in price was negligible and in no way affected piracy. Piracy exists because a lot of people don't have the means to live, not because a game is $10 more expensive.

As stated in my previous response which you reported and had deleted, piracy was MORE SAFE 20 years ago than buying a game on steam is nowadays. That isn't me advocating anything. The movie industry began the virus laced downloads, and the gaming industry followed. At the time of Steam's store launch you could easily download everything without a single worry. That truth stayed true for many years after, as well.

Steam had virtually no hand in reducing piracy, and if it did it was negligible at best. As stated, it was going strong, and safely, years after the steam store front became mainstream. As for inequality, that concept is directly tied to the standard of living. Inequality here in the west far surpasses that of countries like Russia or China. Though neither you or I are really warranted in commenting on the successful functioning of these nations as they are the opposition to our own, and as such propaganda will never really let us see the real picture.

And as I've stated through experience, Steam had negligible influence on the front of piracy. You're right about the varrying state of things had it not been for this monopolization, through.PC gaming would have been in a far different place today. Playstation owners wouldn't be making a fool of RTX 4090 buyers. With better looking and developed games overall. Instead there would be a standard far greater than what has ever been seen, or will ever be seen given the trend of this shovel-ware fever dream. Truth is PC gaming died many years ago due to Steam&EA.

I never dodged the question. You reported my response. If your only complaint was you having to travel to multiple stores, then to that I'll say this: What modern pc game would you travel to multiple stores for? I know you'll copout and name a title that wouldn't pass pre-alpha standards 20 years ago. Realistically speaking, PC gaming is dead, and to prove that point I'm willing to wager you couldn't fill the same single shelf in gamestop with quality titles today as you could back then. But ay, thousands of indie titles, right? To progress.

Also, I never had to travel to multiple stores to find what game I wanted. I was able to buy collector editions of games months after release. Now not only am I not permitted to own a physical copy of anything, but the chances of me be able to purchase a collectors edition is on par with me getting struck by lightning. Gotta love scalpers. Late stage capitalism at it's finest.

Im not denying PC games were good quality twenty years ago and im not denying people didnt play them. When i say 'market share' I mean exactly that. How much money was being made. Playstation dominated the market. Here is an example:

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps4-made-up-largest-part-of-ubisoft-game-sales-dur/1100-6421105/

And i would say the ease or pc game piracy during that time was part of the problem along with other things.

When steam first came out it didnt have a lot of games being sold. It took a while for gaben to prove to publishers that his platform was good and worth it. Steam sales were not high at the start, there were barely any games besides valve developed games. Dont know where you get that info from. And games definitely were much cheaper on steam than at stores and the old steam sales added to that substantially. Maybe i had issues finding PC games for cheap because im canadian, but that just proves my point that games werent as abundant as console games globally 20 years ago.

Nice assumption that i reported your post??? Why the ♥♥♥♥ would i do that? Nice bad faith assumption there... I thought this was a good, productive discussion we were having, i didnt report anything you said. But it seems you think differently and are now mad for some reason... Whatever.

Imagine. Piracy is still an issue in countries like china and russia to this day. Here is a good article explaining what i mean:

https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/should-we-fight-piracy-

"I think it's important to stop fighting this illegal system with solutions that are definitely harming our digital freedom online. Instead, we should be focusing on finding ways to beat piracy all at once - possibly by delivering better on each single aspect piracy has to offer.


For instance, I personally think our games are easier played through a pirated version of the original. Hell, I have even read an article about some developer recommending their players (the ones that actually bought the game) to download a pirated version, because their failed DRM security options held them back from playing the game properly. A serious confirmation that fighting this system, even with heavy security solutions, is not a wise thing to do!"


That is EXACTLY what gaben did.. Systems like denouvo actually promote piracy because people think they are too intrusive...

Again, i didnt report ♥♥♥♥, dude. Give it up. Is that all you got? And i listed more reasons than 'availability' as to why pirating was so much more rampant in western nations before steam.

"Late stage capitalism at its finest"...

It all makes sense now, youre a communiust... amazing. This guy is complaining about steam being too capitalistic when video games in general are a product of capitalism itself...

You accusations and bad faith discussions are telling me i shouldnt waste my time engaging with you any longer, especially after your "late stage capitalism" reddit hivemind type comment....

Starbucks commies will be starbucks commies....

Why do you think the majority of normal pc gamers like steam? why do you think its so popular? why do you think there are actually memes of gaben depicted as JESUS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ CHRIST? Because the trope is he saved pc gaming. Do you know why gaben quit microsoft? if you knew, the reason alone should tell you someting.

You just have a hate on for steam and gaben because you are a communist and steam is very much capitalistic and you think all capitalism is bad. Thats where your whole argument derives from and its terribly short sighted.

Steam didn't hinder piracy. Denuvo was, if anything, a bi-product of Sony's ingenuity. 12 year olds and 40 year olds who act like 12 year olds don't prophesied anything through their photoshopped proof of spectrum. Canada was not in a pc games shortage. Never was, until recently that is. Maybe if you didn't live in the largest city in Canada, which means the majority can afford a pc, you wouldn't have experienced that at all.That greed came back to bite you, and I find that funny af. If only everyone was afforded their wants and needs, right?

Calling someone a communist displays nothing but a lack of intellect. An inability to look outside the cage that is capitalism. I don't fit your cookie cutter sports teams that seek only to enslave their populations. Capitalism is one of the worst mistakes in history, far worse than the creation of the automic bomb. As can be seen by the immense inequality. But moving on from unquestionable facts, to claim video games were being made solely for monetary gain... No, they weren't. Yes it was expected to be paid. Yes people made careers out of their creativity, but it's their creativity that created a need for those careers. Nowadays it's the opposite. It's a cash grab as nobodies using indie dev tools fight to unleash their next rust clone onto the world to make a quick buck.

The majority of pc gamers. You're a comedian. Free thinking individuals don't have a choice. When given only 1 option, 1 platform, what else is anyone to use? Yes it's UI is user friendly, yes it makes for incredible ease of use, but at the cost of the pc gaming market as a whole. Every other day a clone of a clone of an indie clone gets center stage on the store page. A teenagers garage project now gets twitch supported into the stratosphere. The idea of a triple A pc exclusive titles is now non-existent. If you thought Sony was dominating before steam, you wouldn't believe how unbalanced numbers are nowadays. lol Sony is ahead of "steam/pc gaming" by leaps and bounds in both tech and developers who know how to utilize it. The fact that PC gamers still support corrupt PC part makers is a show of subservience more than anything else, and we have steam to thank for that.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Oh, it's just a "capitalism bad" thread.

[Ɖrəɐɱ]

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Oh, it's just a "capitalism bad" thread.

It's a thread of many truths. The amount digested is based on your intellect.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Oh, it's just a "capitalism bad" thread.

It's a thread of many truths. The amount digested is based on your intellect.

Uh huh.

Do you watch Rick and Morty?

[morrisseyshair]

Steam is a problem like social media is a problem. The internet is centralized between a few companies. Steam, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube. That's a problem. The internet used to be the wild west. Anything went. Now it's bought up by a few companies.

[inpurpleshadows]

Originally posted by Ɖrəɐɱ:

If Gabe Newell never created that subpar shooter, he would have never made enough cash to create the social network game platform we've come to accept as the norm. Which in turn would have ensured that the standard for game releases would have been much higher, and 99% of these indie jokes would never see the light of day. Instead, we're now locked in this fever dream of amateur hell where "anything goes." The quality of every genre has tanked. The pushing of technological and gameplay limits has completely ceased to be a thing. In fact the only innovation in the last decade+ has been VR, and there are maybe 2-3 titles worth looking into on that front. Despite the several years of the stagnate priced tech being around. Throughout the history of this industry there have been moments that really questioned the validity of this medium. Catastrophic moments that shifted things far away from what they once were. Valve with Steam has been the worst of them all. The total monopoly over the gaming market and lax standards on quality has made it so even the big name devs no longer bother trying to release anything even resembling a final product. Why should they. If a 1 man team can release a game and make millions over night over a gimmick, what logic is there in working for several years on complex systems only to maybe earn enough to justify a sequel. I'm not saying all indie devs are bad. There definitely are exceptions, for example, Dave the Diver is a phenomenal game. One of the best of the decade, easily. Though the greats are too far and few in between a horde of asset pasting nonsense, that in truth has no business being on this platform, let alone having a price tag.

So you might be asking at this point, what can be done. Well, truthfully with EA gobbling up every developer of note and cannibalizing their content, Bethesda being devoured by the sinking ship known as Microsoft games, Blizzard being a branch of Antifa and valve standardizing garbage as triple A releases (looking at you Hell Divers 2). I don't think there is much that can be done. Short of waiting on new developers popping up with passion projects to carry the torch of bygone days, such as Warhorse Studios, we're just going to have to "try" before buying. If not, we're going to be locked in with something that would barely qualify as a beta test back when full release meant something.

How is a sole developer at fault for "ruining" PC gaming? If anything, PC gaming is thriving. I've played a ton of great triple-AAA and independent games that were recently released. Not to mention, with PC, I'm able to access a lot of older games as well and Steam has been a phenomenal platform in making games both accessible and convenient to those with a PC. However, I do agree that most of the Steam store is filled with shovelware garbage, though if you look hard enough, you can find some absolutely incredible gems.

[hypehype]

Gamers ruined PC gaming by spending money on micro transactions, loot boxes, gacha games, season pass, battle pass etc.

Why innovate when you can get a fool to spend £20 (50% or the original game price) on a silly pixel golden skin decoration for a gun?

[deborahsimpson]

Soory I dont have clown awards to give

[deborahsimpson]

Originally posted by Castyles:

Valve: Don't accept shovelware/early access on the store.

Customers: Don't buy shovelware/early access games.

Problem solved.

But ppl like shovelware like Redfall

[Realigo Actual]

Redfall isn't shovelware. I picked up base edition for Todd, hoping for a P3 miracle, but expecting cancellation.

Even in the state it is, there is more game there than many indie games. If it were a AA game, people would be talking about what a great game it is. Is it a tentpole? ♥♥♥♥ no. Is it bang for buck? Maybe not. But it is a good game if you like vampire crap or New England vibes.

[Ludus Aurea]

Remember when Steam forums was a separate website and it wasn't full of bots, clowns, toxic tryhards, award trolls and flat out idiots on a level that rivals Twitter? Lol, why are level 0 profiles even allowed to post?

[Tito Shivan]

Originally posted by Ludus Aurea:

Lol, why are level 0 profiles even allowed to post?

Private profiles all show a level of 0.