I find it very hostile compared to, for example, GOG which lets me download games DRM free and run them without running an app.
Steam is a battery hog and is designed to entice you to keep it running all the time. I hate leaving it running which means I don’t have access to most of my library.
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
What are you on about? DRM is up to the developer, and while steam does use some resources it’s not enough to impact performance. And no, it’s a launcher, you use it when playing steam games or non steam games with steam overlay and controller support. See steam has this whole overlay system with a shit load of features from note taking to community walkthroughs, robust multiplayer support through the friends system, a whole ass chat client, and did I mention the incredibly robust controller support with exceptional customization features? I literally have to run three or four different pieces of software just to do what steam can do out of the box. As for the DRM free bit I think you’re thinking of gog’s offline installers. Their licensing language is the same as steams. But yes gog makes an offline installer available for all their games, they’re the only game in town that does though so they’re more exception than rule. I dunno why you have a hate boner for steam but it’s literally the only launcher with features that I use outside of open launcher -> open game. Hell it even has a frame limiter. I can use rewasd and ds4windows with rtss and still need to run another launcher, or I can just run steam which can do all that stuff itself. What aren’t you getting about the fact that steam does a shit load of things beyond letting you buy and launch a game, and all those things are why people like steam?
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It kills my laptop’s battery. It doesn’t matter if it’s not using much CPU, it keeps the CPU from sleeping and thus wastes a ton of battery. This is a well-known problem with software that uses its own timers and doesn’t optimize for battery life. Thus I do not want to leave Steam running all the time and so my experience is degraded. When I want to play a Steam game that uses DRM I need to start up Steam, log in, do multi factor authentication, then wait for Steam to do all its updates, then restart while the patches are applied, then finally get to my library so I can start the game. It’s like a 10-15 minute process that is usually enough to kill my desire to play the game in the first place, so I don’t bother.
As for DRM, well none of the games on GOG have DRM. Some Steam games have DRM, some don’t. If Valve wanted to, they could decide to stop offering DRM and then they’d be DRM free too. If developers didn’t want that they’d have to take their games off Steam and lose those sales. This would incentivize more developers to go DRM free.
But they don’t. Thus Valve benefits from DRM and so they deserve blame for it, not just the developers. You don’t get to have your cake and eat it too.
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Why do you need to leave it running? Why would you have it running if you’re not playing a steam game or using its overlay and controller features? You’re inventing problems that don’t exist because you seem to not understand how to use the software. You open it when you want to play a game. If it starts updating stuff, you pause it or cancel it. Why would you blame steam for developers pushing updates in the first place? Turn off updates, boom problem solved. Like yeah, gog is better in their DRM stance but galaxy is not great software, and updates are important for modern games that ship largely broken and unoptimized, and the gog offline installers do not make updating easy. You’re holding a fork and complaining that it makes for a shitty knife, like yeah bud, you’re using it wrong.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I explained why it needs to be left running: because opening it is too much of a hassle to even bother with. Thus I don’t, and I don’t plan to open it any time soon.
GOG Galaxy is a nonsequitur. I’ve never installed it and it’s never been required to download or play any game. I use GOG’s website to buy and download games. Galaxy might as well not exist and I’m fine with that.