Rentlar

I think you misunderstand, there’s two parts to this discussion that are being conflated together.

Valve’s involvement with lootbox gambling mechanics deserve a lot of criticism and it is ongoing, and is part of why Newell can own many yachts. They are under suit in many jurisdictions for it and imo rightly so. Reports of hate and the like deserve investigation also.

The Linux thing I think you are getting backwards, their efforts are bringing bringing an open computing ecosystem to the mainstream, their launcher hasn’t changed but the ability to run games (including non-DRM ones from Valve’s competitors outside of Valve’s platform) on a not locked-in operating system has gotten much easier. Your genuine criticism of one seems to be clouding your analysis the other. Why I give the example of Neverball even if it sounds like a strawman, if every controversy leads to a full boycot you would be left with very few options. You can allow yourself to praise one thing an entity does while criticizing another.

Also, you talk about holding different companies to the same standards, a noble thing I’d agree, but in a previous reply you were sharing articles you stated that you haven’t read. While I appreciate the honesty, is this part of your standardized approach to judgement?

It’s easy, if Neverball and Super Tux Kart are the only games one plays, nobody can claim they support monopolists, anti-consumer practices or billionaires.

I checked out the zoom platform, seems nice, majority are Windows games though.

I acknowledge that it’s important to raise awareness of bad practices, demanding change and highlighting alternatives where available. However, if you tie yourself in knots over every debacle, and permanently hold it as a grudge long after it’s addressed positively, then I’d start thinking your hobby is grudge-holding rather than gaming.

Thanks for showing up. And yes you’re correct, “doing nothing” is a meme, dervied from the fact that Epic, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony are all outwardly very anti-consumer, while Valve is simply less so. Yes they have done some shady things over 20 years, however they have also done wonders in the field of Linux game compatibility, helping (credit to the non-Valve developers) break Microsoft’s monopoly on operating systems for PC gaming. In contrast, GOG has done little besides provide the occasional script, Linux version of their official library manager is only now in development after 10 years of begging for it.

Yes, you can still play DRM-free games, FOSS games and get some games directly from the publisher, but in terms of distributors, you’re essentially left with itch.io (unless the time they removed nsfw games from CC processor pressure is also a bridge too far for you).

These were some pretty egregious mistakes indeed. I think the biggest one is noticing that it is inappropriate-looking for audiences in Germany, but somehow they didn’t stop to think whether it would be appropriate for everyone else?

I’m not going to boycot GOG over a major gaffe like that but, it’s a mournful day for the anti-Steam purist gaming cosumers we see around here. Just another instance of Steam winning by doing nothing while competition trips over itself again.

If they could develop F-AI-refox as a separate browser I could be cool with Firefox.

Yeah. I have used that. And I’m sure most with personal instances that just pressed the “Install NextCloud” button have no clue, including me.