So are we just going to get an article from every other line in the hl2 documentary?
this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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So we ended up hiring most of the original Steam team from that other company to build initially this sort of in-game advertising streaming model but then [Steam]
Wow it could have been so much worse
I sent them an angry email when I bought my first house. I had purchased a physical copy of a game because I was waiting for my Internet to get turned on. I wasn't able to play because it required an internet connection to complete the registration. I was so mad. I told them I would never buy another thing from Valve. That turned out to be the lie of the century. I was super wrong and Valve has been a company you can be proud of for decades. I often think about what a jackass I was for sending that email.
I don't think you were a jackass. You purchased a physical copy and thus shouldn't need an internet connection to start your game (unless it's multiplayer only). It's crazy how easy it is for people to get used to new normals when it comes to things like this.
Valve has been a company you can be proud of for decades.
So proud of a company whos ceo built a billion dollar fleet of mega yachts abducting kids into gambling.
I remember hating the idea, during the age when games came in boxes. Now i support Steam with the tremendous support they've given the Linux platform. Most games i have are games on Steam, but i do have a bunch on GoG, as well as Itch.io. Don't keep all your eggs in one basket, but have to admit the Steam basket is humongous.
I still have a bulk of those CD’s (not the boxes anymore). I keep them in a binder with the CD holder sleeves. Same for my drivers, and operating systems. I have disks of going back to NT, 95b, and 98. I only started in to PC’ in 1998/9. I wish i had my original Voodoo3 driver disk. I remember buying that card in my way back from school one afternoon. I was so excited to install it.
I was skeptical of Steam when it launched as well. It has proven to be a good service.
But that's just a happy little accident. Gabe is too much of a good guy, so he actually built a good distribution platform that also pushes for improvements for the whole ecosystem (like the Linux thing).
When he's gone, capitalism dictates that enshitification must ensue in order to squeeze out every single cent of short term profit, and we'll be screwed.
Depends on what happens to the company. Maybe he has children that can inherit his company shares and maybe they don't want it to change.
Maybe they set up a trust or something that can take ownership.
I really hope valve never gets sold.
I remember hating the idea, during the age when games came in boxes. Most games i have are games on Steam
If they are yours can you send me a copy as proof that they are actually yours?
You can easily zip up a steam game and send it yes. And if the game developer did not implement any drm, You can play it as well. It would be piracy tho... so i support that ;)
GOG is pretty good but they have zero Linux support that I'm aware of. Had to return a game I bought off there last year. Bought it through Steam and it worked seamlessly.
Some of their games have Linux support but also it seems very much that they do not care about going out of their way for Linux so it gets forgotten about for most titles
I feel like proton is going to bandage it all together. Most indows games that don't have kernel level anti cheat are going to work using a proton layer.
In GOG's defense, they don't have the resources that Steam does but it's still pretty annoying. I have no plans to personally seriously use Windows ever again for personal use but Linux desktop usage is low and not something I'd expect a company that's GOGs size to spend much time on yet. Steam can and does. I respect that a lot.
Companies can choose to be a part of the solution, or a part of the problem. And i can choose to spend my money on the solution. I would love some redundancy on the linux gaming store front tho, just valve seams a bit fragile. And afaik gog or anyone else can also use proton or???
GOG actually has a relatively good selection of Linux games.
Relatively is the key word. I haven't had a serious issue with anything running on Proton and the way Steam implements it. I've had one issue out of one trying to play a game on GOG. Don't get me wrong, I think GOG is great though.
it's time to learn how to install umu and use it in heroic then, my GoG games run with proton through heroic, no problem.
He's right. Everyone hated the idea of any always online DRM to play the disc you bought in a store. Steam backed off with options for a game to sometimes work offline and a pinky promise to free your games if Gaben died and the new owner decided you own nothing.
It's weird, people hate the current DRM system for games and love Steam. Yet it was Steam that pioneered it. If Steam failed, there's a chance we would still own games instead of them being tied to online DRM verification.
Steam is the benevolent dictator but that's not going to last forever.
Steam pioneered always on drm? Do you have a source? I thougt that was ubisoft and maxis primarily. That developers use steam services to implement their always on drm is something else. But it is the developers that have to click that checkbox.
Games used stuff like cd keys and even pieces of paper that deciphered codes as DRM. DRM was always something sought after by companies. Just take a look at Sony rootkit scandal for music CDs.
It could last a very long time, though. It's a privately owned company, so if they keep it that way, there's no board to satisfy with big payouts and stock holders to appeas. There's a lot less bullshit to deal with when you're a private company.
Also, drm and online registering is way older than steam.
The best drm was back on floppy drives. You needed a piece of tape to cover the square hole so you could copy the game for your buddy. Lol.
There were some very elaborate copy-protection schemes. Like, "go to page 12 in the manual and enter the word at the bottom of the page". Of course, people could just share what the word was, so some games did stuff like having a fucking codewheel in the manual, instead. So you had to take the code the game gave you, turn the wheel to the correct spot, and then enter the result the wheel gave you.
One of the most famous moments of Metal Gear Solid is an anti-piracy measure.
Split the wheel and copied it on the school copier. ;) much easier the copying the whole manual that was sometimes needed
This is revisionist history. Steam was not the origination of DRM or even online DRM.
He didn't say valve created DRM he said that steam pioneered it. Don't revision people comments.
That's what pioneered means.
Had to google "pinoneered", but it say: "developed or be the first to use or apply" and i do not think valve did either.
They have an easy way for developers to implemet drm by require steam services tho.
But in my opinion it is better there are few well understood methods instead of a million uniqe ones. Incase there is a world this have to be reverse engeneered.
I remember, buy game. Enter CD key "key already taken" Return game "sorry, box is open we don't take media returns" Rage.
I remember taping over the square hole.
"Actually this disc is defective. I'd like to exchange it for a new one."
This trick will be useful if you ever go back to 1999.
No, that's what consumers like you are thinking in hindsight and unrelated.
The context Gabe is talking about is when he was approaching publishers. They were just being anti tech and believing in traditional brick and mortar. They were definently pro-DRM. They just couldn't fathom a digital marketplace.
Maybe you weren't old enough to remember it, but people were pissed and swore they would forever boycott Steam when it released
I indeed was one of them. Managed to boycott until left4dead2. Then i caved in. The war was lost anyway. And now i have easily put 5 figures into steam and own nothing.
steam drm is the bare minimum license check and its not mandatory for anyone to implement in their game
Steam is undoubtedly convenient.
But if any game you care about keeping is on GOG, it's a good idea to buy a copy on there, and then squirreling away the offline installer files/extracted game files somewhere safe.
Steam is undoubtedly inconvenient. Imagine a third party proprietary launcher filled with ads was required to use your browser.
The only "ad" steam pushes into your face is the startup pop-up, which can be disabled in settings.
Without that, you can use whatever you like to launch your games. Valve doesn't care. You can have a desktop shortcut for every one of your games and never see steam open, or use something like PlayNite to aggregate the games from several services into one library.
You can use steam without ever seeing an ad. Due to low internet bandwidth I just turned off the couple of popups and I currently see 0 ads if I don't specifically go to the store part. Steam boots into library, so no ads, none in downloads. I don't use the rest unless I'm actually looking for a new game.
What a load of fucking shit. My "everyone" loved the fact that we didn't have to keep track of stupid garbage fucking DVDs and keep track of some license key.
Yeah I am old enough to remember it being just a launcher (ala Ubisoft or EA games) for Half life 2 and a way to counter-strike with no mods. TBH I thought it was gonna fail hard and then after a decade of success, even I was stuck on steam. Also to add originally they only sold valve games as literally no third party was willing to give them a cent and they were short on IP.
That tracks, everyone still owned their games back then. At least Gaben got his 8 yatchs though.
Remember when you could sell games you'd never play again and people less fortunate than you could have their fun with them for a much lower price?
Yeah, but now at least the games still go on sale for a cheaper price and there isn't a rare game that you can't find anymore and if you do it's $130.
Fun fact: if you want Harvest Moon for snes the game will cost you about $400. Good condition with the box and papers will go over a grand. Snes Aero Fighters is $1,500 for an ok cartridge.
True, that's a point. Though we don't know if it would be that way now too with ownable physical stuff. Gaming became waaaaaay more mainstream.
Also, steam inventory-gift-games are equally priced now. For collectors. At least thrice the original asking price for stuff you even can get for free. Last one i sold was 15 when it came out, was already in bundles a lot and it went for 100 moneyz.
Some older ps2 games like monster inc and finding Nemo sell for like $100 last I saw. Before they mastered them for modern consoles, kingdom hearts was about $60 for ps2