Valve has a monopoly on PC gaming, this is a problem.

[MartFassage]

We've all seen steam fall in quality in a lot of ways recently. They have brutally destroyed the market for people who dont have a smart device, ignored customer support for a long time and now their recklessness has cost people money and progress on Steam because they decided that golden names are such a big problem, patching that without consideration of what the patch does is far more important.

I've been on Steam for almost 4 years now, and spent thousands on it. I'm level 100+, have over 300 games, and every day I talk to friends on steam and play some games.

However, since I started using other services, I've realised that valve has a huge monopoly on PC gaming, and so they don't want to improve the quality of their service, rather secure the money they've made and let it stagnate.

What are your thoughts?

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por Zetikla:

Publicado originalmente por Connor McLoud:

The only issue I really have is lack of a phone number in my country I can call for support. I have ALL my games on Steam but if something goes wrong I'm screwed.

Bit weird since all other services I use, even my €10 monthly mobile internet service, have a phone number.

because surely a phone line would make support fast

oh wait it wouldnt

I really, really want to know where this idea comes from. Probably from people who feel they can berate and cojole their way into gett the answer they want,.

[WolfEisberg]

Publicado originalmente por Zetikla:

ironically enough the oh so overly praised GOG basically seems to slowly become a Steam imitator themselves

Why do you say that?

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Zetikla:

ironically enough the oh so overly praised GOG basically seems to slowly become a Steam imitator themselves

Why do you say that?

You mean asside from the client, the badges on sales, the Early Access...

[WolfEisberg]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Why do you say that?

You mean asside from the client, the badges on sales, the Early Access...

Given the tone of the thread, you make it sound like those are bad things. But what badges on sales? Got a link for that? Never seen anything like that on GoG.

People worried about Steam being a monopoly, but then make it sound like that it is bad for someone else to offer similar type service. It makes no logical sense.

[Start_Running]

For the last couple sales they've basically done the whole badge things where you earn badges and XP for doing stuff.

[WolfEisberg]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

For the last couple sales they've basically done the whole badge things where you earn badges and XP for doing stuff.

I have been a part of the last couple of sales and I didn't see anything like that.

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

For the last couple sales they've basically done the whole badge things where you earn badges and XP for doing stuff.

I have been a part of the last couple of sales and I didn't see anything like that.

Then you weren't paying attention and missed it.

[WolfEisberg]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

I have been a part of the last couple of sales and I didn't see anything like that.

Then you weren't paying attention and missed it.

That makes no sense, cause neither in galaxy or on website is there a place to show badges or what level or rank you are according to the XP you earned.

[Start_Running]

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

Then you weren't paying attention and missed it.

That makes no sense, cause neither in galaxy or on website is there a place to show badges or what level or rank you are according to the XP you earned.

THe badges expire with the sale more or less. Each sale you have to go through the motions of earning them again by performing the same actions.

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Zetikla:

ironically enough the oh so overly praised GOG basically seems to slowly become a Steam imitator themselves

Why do you say that?

maybe because GOG galaxy is ever so glacially slowly trying to do everything the steam client does

If you think Steam doesn't move fast, GOG Galaxy is only like 7 years behind and is implementing features even slower than Steam does. Announced in 2014, released in 2015, even today it still barely does anything other than 'auto update games'

[Satoru]

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

Then you weren't paying attention and missed it.

That makes no sense, cause neither in galaxy or on website is there a place to show badges or what level or rank you are according to the XP you earned.

You essentially logged into GOG and clicked buttons to 'earn XP'. The more XP you earned you could be rewarded with free games. The onyl way to really get a free game was to buy stuff to bump you to the next tier

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:lMpSCYAIUckJ:https://www.gog.com/index.php/news/the_monstrous_winter_sale_has_arrived+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

There was even a leaderboard fro who had the most XP

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/monstrous_fall_xp_leaderboards

They've been doing this for the past few sales. The Fall sale had a similar gimmick

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

Publicado originalmente por Zetikla:

because surely a phone line would make support fast

oh wait it wouldnt

I really, really want to know where this idea comes from. Probably from people who feel they can berate and cojole their way into gett the answer they want,.

To be fair, it would make support respond to them immediately if a phone line were suddenly created just for them right then and there.

However, now we have the difference between "transient" effects -- those that happen just after a disturbance to the status quo, such as adding a phone line -- and "steady-state" effects that last. if Valve just created a phone line, the steady-state effect would be that people would just jam up the phone line, so instead of online support being jammed up, you'd now have online support and the phone line that are both jammed up.

Publicado originalmente por eisberg:

Publicado originalmente por Start_Running:

For the last couple sales they've basically done the whole badge things where you earn badges and XP for doing stuff.

I have been a part of the last couple of sales and I didn't see anything like that.

Oh, they were there. They just don't yet have a user profile page feature for displaying stuff like this yet, so all it is is a little thing appearing on a temporary page, for now.

I think they're working on profile implementation, but they haven't rolled it out yet.

Do note that you can already send friend requests to people, but you have to do it through the Galaxy client or the forums at the moment.

These aren't quite like Steam's badges though -- except maybe the individual components of the Community Badge. Because we're talking about things like "click this check-in button five times during the sale" and "add 10 things to your wishlist during this sale". For doing this, you get a small amount of XP, which can put you slightly closer to getting a free game during that sales event for having gotten a certain amount of XP in total. Most XP comes from making purchases though, and there are usually three freebie tiers for three different games, the first of which you'll reach by spending a little money, the others, more money.

I honestly think this is a pretty decent idea. They get to highlight an old game that people aren't paying attention to, they generate attention to their sale, and people can get a free game if they spend some money.

[smash]

Publicado originalmente por PSN Master Race:

they decided that golden names are such a big problem, patching that without consideration of what the patch does is far more important.

I feel like this thread only exists as a thinly veiled bash against Valve's decision to patch unexpected behavior.

[xaxazak]

(This post was written way earlier but somehow I mucked up the send).

Publicado originalmente por cinedine:

Publicado originalmente por Spawn Of Totoro:

As for Blizzard...remember, it is Activision Blizzard, so you would have the CEOs of Activision in the mix as well and that may not turn out as well as one would hope. Sadly, the Blizzard of the past is no more. It is now the secondary head of the hydra. Blizzard still puts out some good games though.

I actually don't think they changed much. In the Vivendi-Activision-merge they just got the spotlight position in the name, because it was the most well-renowned studio on PC.
They've already milked WoW and let other franchises play the second fiddle in the Vivendi days.

That's nothing compared to what happened after the merger, though.

Publicado originalmente por cinedine:

And I kinda remember Kotick saying/lying he don't want to mess with them and let them do their own thing.

FTFY. Kotick is to gaming what death is to life.

Many people were promising that the merger wouldn't change anything much. Then the merger changed everything and Blizzard became suck. WoW numbers dropped massively as the anti-fun culture crept in. SC2 became DRM, surface-pretty, and its game design was driven by eSports and target markets.

Had this not happened they'd've kept far more fans, WoW would still be going strong, and they'd be making way more money.

[dollar store]

I think that Valve needs to think about not just the money but the customer satisfaction. Because soon people are going to get bored of spending hundreds of dolllars on virtual items and they are going to realize that valve has pulled one of the most successfull money steals of all time using something hard to resist, skins. They used this and made their fortune only because we as people of 2017 for some strange reason would pay $1000 dollars for an awp dragon lore instead of buying a handgun for that price to protect yourself.