I'm done with Steam! Just another dictator in the gaming industry!

[MattJE9601]

Until now I've always thought pretty highly of Steam, but today while trying to set up gaming computers for my kids I just realized how greedy and crooked Steam actually is as I can't share my large and very expensive game library with my kids.

By this I do not mean playing the same game at the same time. For that I obviously expect to purchase another license, and would have done for the games they like. I mean playing DIFFERENT games at the same time, each of which I have paid good money for a license for 1 person to play... but it seems that Steam doesn't believe I have the right to use more than one of my games at the same time. I am so sick and tired of the walled gardens and control surrounding the gaming industry as a whole. I'm trying to move my kids to PC gaming to get away from xboxes as I already can't stand Microsoft... and how many times I've had to pay for Minecraft just for a single person!

So here's the deal... unless this changes, I will no longer be buying my games through Steam. I will buy every game direct from the developer separate from ANY game launchers, and I will use an open source launcher to manage my games from now on. AND I WILL LET MY KIDS PLAY GAMES I'M NOT USING... like it used to be when we actually OWNED the games we paid for! I will also most likely dump my Deck and will not be buying one for each of my kids as I planned on doing.

I'm royally pissed, and everyone else should be too! This is like buying 2 cars from a dealership and them telling you that only one can be driven at any given time. Absolutely absurd and I'm done tolerating this BS! I only wish I could get my games away from Steam so I can completely dump it altogether, but unless I feel like paying for games again (which I honestly might just on principal) I'm still stuck using it for games I already stupidly bought through here. Lesson learned I guess.

I really wish enough people would throw a fit about this. I really don't want to hate Steam but I feel I don't have a choice here. I mean who the F do they think they are to tell us we can't use more than one of the products we own at a time? They simply do it because they have the power to and it makes them more money, plain and simple. Do the game police kick down our door because we shared a game of checkers with our kids? NO! But if it can be tracked digitally it will be shoved right up your *** every time. So goodbye Steam! Thanks for being just like everyone else...

[MattJE9601]

Nguyên văn bởi Cablenexus:

Also, OP should not buy games he don't use/play, like I did with 90% of my library :isurrender:

But they were on sale...

[MattJE9601]

Nguyên văn bởi Alice Liddell:

There goes achievement hunting.

Yes, that and stats are always nice... but honestly not that important. The freedom do do what I want with what I paid for is worth more to me.

[Cablenexus]

Nguyên văn bởi MattJE9601:

Nguyên văn bởi Alice Liddell:

There goes achievement hunting.

Yes, that and stats are always nice... but honestly not that important. The freedom do do what I want with what I paid for is worth more to me.

That freedom is gone a long time ago, except for boardgames and other physical media.
No full colored boxes anymore, no printed manuals to read on a journey (or toilet), no way to give away or sell your media second hand, even not to your own kids, no way virtual media ever becomes of any value after many years, like good old boxed collector's editions and so on.

It's the creator who choose to offer, the consumer who choose to buy and a new generation who thinks disposable is the norm.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

disposable versus neglected.... i have lots of boxes and things just taking up space
on shelves in real life... i look at my history of games spending every now and then...
but really
i like the no clutter no fuss let steam or who ever store it all til i want to use it again.. if at all...

we all got training in got a have it gotta have it..
but now we can have it not taking
up space and creating clutter..

[Tito Shivan]

Nguyên văn bởi RiO:

Most of those services only ever allowed account sharing within the household.

Netflix built their initial boom in account sharing. In the case of Netflix, they're indeed backpedaling. Or bait and switching, which would be more appropriate. Play the nice guy until you get a big enough part of the pie so you can stop being the good guy.
https://twitter.com/netflix/status/840276073040371712?lang=en

Nguyên văn bởi RiO:

The way they now enforce it is usually based on IP geo-lookup restrictions, which prevents concurrent access from multiple physical locations.

Which in turn now causes troubles to regular users who never abused the system.

Nguyên văn bởi MattJE9601:

See... there was a point to all this. Now (unless I'm still not fully understanding something) I don't have to hate Steam. I can hate the individual developers instead and find somewhere to go complain to them. Really wish more people would do this. Although, I'm still not sure I want to continue buying games on Steam. Or at least not all on the same account. That just seems retarded now.

Mind the fact you can have cheap games and frequent sales is largely a thing due to how DRM and account-tied services work.

On the long run your kids will have their own accounts with their own games, stats, friends. Gaming isn't moving away from account-tied services and is already shifting to Games-as-a-Service models.

[Cablenexus]

Nguyên văn bởi ragefifty50:

disposable versus neglected.... i have lots of boxes and things just taking up space
on shelves in real life... i look at my history of games spending every now and then...
but really
i like the no clutter no fuss let steam or who ever store it all til i want to use it again.. if at all...

we all got training in got a have it gotta have it..
but now we can have it not taking
up space and creating clutter..

From an industry point of view, without taking into account any social aspects or ethics, you are absolutely right. Services stand for less sharing, individual rights of temporary use and thus less caring. Not only games related. Also books, movies, government, banking and even healthcare.

Maybe the upcoming power of AI, which can spit out games-as-a-service models by untalented people without any creativity will turn the tides of time.

Just offering flat, digital, virtual and low value content will not be enough anymore in a year or two.

[Zarineth]

Nguyên văn bởi Alice Liddell:

Business is greedy. It is rare to find owners that are not greedy because business is about maximizing profits.

The only thing I can come up with in which Valve can still make more money is to allow our games to be sent to someone else for a small fee which would work in regards to sharing games or gifting previously played games.

Bottom line is money. Valve is in the money making business, same with developers and publishers - all business is about making as much money as fast as you can while you can.

This way Valve would lose A LOT of money and rob devs from potential income.

[Yu Ryujin]

Nguyên văn bởi Jack Schitt:

Did the new UI remove Family Sharing? I do hope that people this frustrated with anything Valve does consider that we're only one person of over 30 million users, if we stop using Steam we no longer have access to all of the games and other content we've purchased a license to use through Steam's services, and there really aren't any comparable services we can transfer our usage licenses from Steam over to - we would have to buy everything on that other services.

A lot of developers sell their software products through networks like Steam and that's the only places they're available. Stand-alone versions of games and software has become almost completely a thing of the past (20 years ago) other than Console gaming systems where we can buy a CD but even those are migrating to selling only digital copies online.

I don't like the monopoly either. That's not why I'm responding with a comment to this. My concern is all of the things you and anyone else with these thoughts are going to lose if they stop using Steam to run the software and games (etc) they've purchased a license to use.

We would lose a lot of time and money if we would leave Steam and stop using it.
Steam only loses a the few users that decide to leave. Their user base continually grows.
It doesn't hurt them at all, you're only hurting yourself.

The real question is, is it all worth?

Steam was kinda ok because it provided security, price, and commodities to its clients, which is being toned down lately. Even prices! you literally pay the same as physical when launched, you gotta find other ways to have better price than steam itself, because they eat game devs with a big 30 percent, and big titles usually have very shady managment.

Is it really worth to play with digital stuffs anymore, when gaming is not about games anymore?
This is something that in a few years we will have to answers actively instead of being so passive with the fat dumb butts eating other's people food.

Nguyên văn bởi Komarimaru:

Nguyên văn bởi MattJE9601:

Wow... the attitude people have is amazing. Just roll over and take it, huh? Humanity really is doomed. Clearly this isn't the kind of community I want to be a part of anyway.

People are just explaining the facts to you. You just don't like them, which is fine.

Been this way for well over a decade like I said before. You'll not find any other service out there like Steam, others being more restrictive actually.

GoG

If you want to send strong and fierceful messages, better know what one is talking about.

In my opinion, we will always have a choice, but choices require changes, and if something is not respecting you, you gotta find another "something".

In the end, its their choices to do better or worse, It is our choice to praise the good, and stomp the bad.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nguyên văn bởi Cablenexus:

Just offering flat, digital, virtual and low value content will not be enough anymore in a year or two.

People been saying that for years already. Reality is that the advantage of digital is that there is no shelf space to compete for. Low quality and good quality games can easily exist next to each other in the digital realms without actually interfering with each other.

The only thing I really miss about the old physical copies of the 80s and 90s are the manuals. Stuff like the Vault guide with Fallout, or the units guide I had with Codename Panzers.

Nguyên văn bởi Yu Ryujin:

Nguyên văn bởi Komarimaru:

People are just explaining the facts to you. You just don't like them, which is fine.

Been this way for well over a decade like I said before. You'll not find any other service out there like Steam, others being more restrictive actually.

GoG

While I love GoG for their past work on making older games run on modern hardware, their DRM free policy is what restricts them. Their catalog is still severely lacking and ultimately is a great addition to Steam, but not a replacement.

I do wish they would go back to their roots, but that's not profitable enough sadly.

[Yu Ryujin]

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

While I love GoG for their past work on making older games run on modern hardware, their DRM free policy is what restricts them. Their catalog is still severely lacking and ultimately is a great addition to Steam, but not a replacement.

I do wish they would go back to their roots, but that's not profitable enough sadly.
Ive been using Gog lately, way more than I expected, because so far it has been a sincere and comfy way of playing games. DMR free is actually a huge spot on.

GoG is aiming for the long run, I believe they will get better and better in the future, while Steam is going the other way, because the biggies thinks they own the mountain... Thing is, they only have the license to walk on this mountain, the mountain is ours, always will be.

[Cablenexus]

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

Nguyên văn bởi Cablenexus:

Just offering flat, digital, virtual and low value content will not be enough anymore in a year or two.

People been saying that for years already. Reality is that the advantage of digital is that there is no shelf space to compete for. Low quality and good quality games can easily exist next to each other in the digital realms without actually interfering with each other.

The only thing I really miss about the old physical copies of the 80s and 90s are the manuals. Stuff like the Vault guide with Fallout, or the units guide I had with Codename Panzers.

You cannot state that digital media isn't competing for shelf space. As if ads aren't a thing, and activity feeds, store fronts, bundle offers and much more.

I just wish that there will be more and better content offered in the future from a gamer's perspective. Some smaller publishers still offers boxes and printed manuals for example. Maybe in the future this comes back combined with other physical high value content. With low value content I mean it will never increase in value. Digital art, digital music, digital games or collector's editions will never increase in value. That is a change. A huge one.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nguyên văn bởi Yu Ryujin:

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

While I love GoG for their past work on making older games run on modern hardware, their DRM free policy is what restricts them. Their catalog is still severely lacking and ultimately is a great addition to Steam, but not a replacement.

I do wish they would go back to their roots, but that's not profitable enough sadly.
Ive been using Gog lately, way more than I expected, because so far it has been a sincere and comfy way of playing games. DMR free is actually a huge spot on.

GoG is aiming for the long run, I believe they will get better and better in the future, while Steam is going the other way, because the biggies thinks they own the mountain... Thing is, they only have the license to walk on this mountain, the mountain is ours, always will be.

Nah, GoG is mainly trying to stay relevant. They're slowly moving away from their core principles and once their principle of "DRM free" goes, they'll be just another Steam or Epic. Heck, compared to both Steam and Epic the prices on GoG are actually worse, especially discounted prices. And nowadays more and more old games on Steam are the exact same version as on GoG.

It's sad, but GoG isn't on the way up. Not without ditching what makes them special.

[Crazy Tiger]

Nguyên văn bởi Cablenexus:

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

People been saying that for years already. Reality is that the advantage of digital is that there is no shelf space to compete for. Low quality and good quality games can easily exist next to each other in the digital realms without actually interfering with each other.

The only thing I really miss about the old physical copies of the 80s and 90s are the manuals. Stuff like the Vault guide with Fallout, or the units guide I had with Codename Panzers.

You cannot state that digital media isn't competing for shelf space. As if ads aren't a thing, and activity feeds, store fronts, bundle offers and much more.

I just wish that there will be more and better content offered in the future from a gamer's perspective. Some smaller publishers still offers boxes and printed manuals for example. Maybe in the future this comes back combined with other physical high value content. With low value content I mean it will never increase in value. Digital art, digital music, digital games or collector's editions will never increase in value. That is a change. A huge one.

Actually, I can easily state that. Physical copies actually competed for shelf space. A store could only put up X amount of games and had to make choices. In the digital stores, there is infinite shelf space, there is no need to choose which games are for sale in the store.

I'm also a person who doesn't like curated stores. The main issue with the EGS for me is the lacking catalog. sure, if you're into new and popular stuff, you'll do fine there. But if you like the genres that are a tad more niche, you won't get much there. The advantage Steam has is that people can find stuff for all their tastes on one store.
Once Epic gets a much better catalog, they'll actually be able to provide competition to Steam. And with Epic going the same route as Steam (they're copying Steam Direct), that will become interesting.

[Yu Ryujin]

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

Nguyên văn bởi Yu Ryujin:

GoG is aiming for the long run, I believe they will get better and better in the future, while Steam is going the other way, because the biggies thinks they own the mountain... Thing is, they only have the license to walk on this mountain, the mountain is ours, always will be.

Nah, GoG is mainly trying to stay relevant. They're slowly moving away from their core principles and once their principle of "DRM free" goes, they'll be just another Steam or Epic. Heck, compared to both Steam and Epic the prices on GoG are actually worse, especially discounted prices. And nowadays more and more old games on Steam are the exact same version as on GoG.

It's sad, but GoG isn't on the way up. Not without ditching what makes them special.

Im checking sales rn and the prices are actually way better.

Epic is a bad joke, Pc got issues with it, and the way they do stuffs when you monitorize is pretty dirty.

I never took GoG seriously, but lately im using it more and more and... its actually pretty good.

freedom and performance check is there too.

I highly disagree. I'm not saying that its the only card one can vouch for, but they have the possibility to be huge in the future keeping their core idea and principles at check

We can also use more than one app to have our games, as long as they have efficiency, security and privacy in check. Whats the point of staying only in one store if they cant provide what I need for all games? One game will be better in one app, the other type of games... in the other.

[MattJE9601]

Nguyên văn bởi Crazy Tiger:

While I love GoG for their past work on making older games run on modern hardware, their DRM free policy is what restricts them. Their catalog is still severely lacking and ultimately is a great addition to Steam, but not a replacement.

I do wish they would go back to their roots, but that's not profitable enough sadly.

But what do you think would happen if everyone just refused to buy games anywhere else than GoG or similar DRM free platforms? That would send one hell of a message to devs and they would be forced to respond accordingly or go bankrupt. In this way the people have the power to change things very easily... we're just incapable of working together to make such changes happen. Same goes for all aspects of life. You vote with your money. That's really the only thing anyone cares about in this world.