Comment on When we eat the billionaires, we should spare Gabe Newell? No?

• nomy@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  What actions are you referring to? I appreciate Steams contributions to the Linux ecosystem but that’s about it, and even that is completely self serving. Locking everything on their platform behind DRM? Taking a 30% cut of everything sold after monopolizing the PC gaming market?

  He’s a big proponent of microtransactions and was one of the first to introduce lootcrate mechanics for skins. Skins that you can buy/sell with real cash off-site. There’s a billion dollar online casino ecosystem where you use skins as chips to play games that’s basically targeted at kids. Valve is completely aware of it and it breaks their ToS but they profit greatly so they look the other way and continue to push shitty scratch off ticket loot boxes to kids. There really is no such thing as an ethical billionaire.

  Unless you know about some great philanthropic work he’s doing?

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  • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Look at the things Bill Gates, Elon Musk, etc do when they’ve amassed wealth.

    On both the personal (abusing their power for sex including pedo shit) and economics (abusing their power by killing competition through either legal means, EEE, etc)

    They’re a monopoly because they’re just that good, not because they’ve killed all competition with unfair practicies and as I’ve argued numerous times they offer support unmatched on both developer and end user side with various features. They also contribute to a lot of open source projects and have literally bankrolled Linux gaming over the past decade to feeat effect.

    Please doe the love of god stop conflating things adults do with “targeted at kids”, that’s simply untrue. Please show me what game you’re describing.

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