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Honestly? I'm over it. I do try to be there, and try to make it so that I contribute to the amount of users Matrix, Fluxer, and Stoat/Revolt.

But it's, like, whatever. I'm using these things to talk to people. I'll be wherever the people I want to talk to are.

I will say that it actually IS annoying to listen to people who are pushing for alternatives act like most of us, fellow Linux users, haven't tried. A lot of us have, and we are open to moving if things if it gets better... But it's just not good enough yet, for one reason or another.

(I am very looking forward to Fluxer app for mobile tho, that's definitely a major reason why I haven't opened the GOL Fluxer server as of late)

Also, someone commented about Discord looking at processes. Here's the thing: if I open the Discord app, instead of a tab on my browser, it's because I do want to show what I'm doing to my friends. You might not be into that, but I like to show what I'm playing/watching because it can be a fun conversation.

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Just in time for when the Steam Controller arrives :)

Maybe I should give it a go then.

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Quoting: JohnologueI'm sure with this first run, people were ready to just keep buying until it sold out.
I assume the next batch will be more normal.

Maybe they should just charge extra for the first run with full transparency that the price goes down after. People who want it NOW can pay, and scalpers are told upfront "you are going to lose a lot of money".

Probably still a bad idea for a lot of reasons. If it was an easy problem, I'm sure people would've had a fix for it by now.

I'm not so sure the next batch will be much more normal. A DigitalFoundry YouTube poll with 20K responses had the following results: 8% got one, 9% didn't get one, 33% would get one later and 50% didn't want one.

The amount of people who didn't get one is just as large as the group that did. So Valve can sell that amount again. And possibly more, as there's even more people who might try to get it next batch as well.

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I dont get why the scalpers are such a big factor at all. No ne has gotten just one controller yet, and still their scheme seems to find customers. We know that there will be enough controllers for everyone, so in my book, anyone who pays the scalp-extra can´t be helped. I want so many things very bad, but the anticipation for things is a nice thing, right? It just sucks if you don´t know if you get a chance to get a toy.

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Quoting: Jarmer^ what's also frustrating about that, is even when you have steam itself set to use whatever version of proton as the default (so for me it's proton-cachyos-11) - if there's a native linux build, you often won't even know it's running on that instead of proton.

It's a little hidden, but in the Steam library, if you click on the (i) to "Show game details" there is a "Runs on this computer" section that indicates what runtime is used. That could be Steam Linux Runtime, Proton, etc.

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Since we are on the subject of alternative voice communication programs, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with GameVox:

http://www.gamevox.com

Here is a rather limited comparison of GameVox to Discord on their website:

https://gamevox.com/compare-discord/

It is currently in "public beta." There is a Linux client in addition to clients for iOS, Android, Mac and Windows. The applicaiton works in a web browser and there is self-hosting option. According to the website:

No Personal Data Harvesting: Unlike many competitors, GameVox does not require an email address for account creation and does not use ads or data mining.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyThere is a cynical side of me that says the buzz surrounding "Gizmo sales crash site, gizmo sells out in hours" is bigger than the buzz surrounding "gizmo sells this many units out of a large stockpile" even if the second number is bigger. So, what's the motivation to fix it?

It's definitely a better headline than "$vendor gets rid of unwanted inventory in a massive firesale," that's for sure.

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There is a cynical side of me that says the buzz surrounding "Gizmo sales crash site, gizmo sells out in hours" is bigger than the buzz surrounding "gizmo sells this many units out of a large stockpile" even if the second number is bigger. So, what's the motivation to fix it?

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I have now seen two or three games where the difficulty factor is about a bloodsucking landlord demanding more. I feel like that says something.

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Finally we can give lazy and talentless people money for generic and thoughtless AI slop games! How long have I waited for this day!

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Quoting: HendrinMckaySadly, there aren't any mitigation's that folks won't find a way around. There was already a cap of two steam controllers per account that people were already getting around by buying non-limited steam accounts. Also, the level stuff does nothing, there are already sites that let you pay to level up steam account levels faster. Having had to deal with this for a company in the retail space with GPU's a few years ago, it is very hard to combat this in any meaningful way unfortunately. The scalpers will find a way, short of having some kind of lottery system which just pisses off paying customers.

there is one fix, make a shit ton of steam controllers, so they dont get sold out in the first place, but that is kinda of asking too much for an device no one knows how big the demmand is.

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i forgot to mention, some scalpers are puting ridiculous prices, i mean, if you can purchase one controler for 400 you can just wait a bit more and purchase the machine for whatever price valve puts in.

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i think this is good news and bad news at the same time.

the bad news is, valve is completely under estimating their demands, i mean, not only the controller should have a bigger demmand than the machine, but the machine should have an bundle that include the controller as well...

the good news is, those controllers are most likely sold at a profit, the more they sell, the more they can make not just controllers but the machines as well, that might be sold at a loss, not to mention purchasing then togheter with the bundle probably is cheaper than separatedly, the more expensive the controller was the easier to make the machine bundle seems like an good deal since they include it.

then, if they can relase the machine togheter with half life 3 in a bundle...

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Quoting: HendrinMckay

Quoting: melkemind

Quoting: ArehandoroBloody scalpers.

There are like 4 listings on eBay. Is there any real evidence a large number of sales went to scalpers?

Just after release in the few hours after there was up to 500 listings, most selling at there buy it now price within 15-30min or so.

Fair enough, but next to the tens of thousands or maybe even hundreds of thousands Valve sold, that's a drop in the bucket.

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Valve still hasn't shipped my controller. I'm starting to get antsy. Might have to write a sternly worded letter...

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Godot is free forever and supports C# for programming by the way

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great game btw gets my ever so desirable endorsement

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Seems like I was very lucky to get mine when I did! I spent about an hour trying to get one and kept being hit with the "There seems to have been an error initializing or updating your transaction" error. I watched it in my cart slip from 3-5 Days to 6-10 Days...

I hope more stock comes in soon and stays available! I really want to get one for my girlfriend. Or maybe I'll just get myself a backup one. 😆 Now my worry is getting myself a Steam Machine and Steam Frame.

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^ what's also frustrating about that, is even when you have steam itself set to use whatever version of proton as the default (so for me it's proton-cachyos-11) - if there's a native linux build, you often won't even know it's running on that instead of proton.

Sometimes I only even know it's happening because of what you said: weird issues / glitches / crashing. Then I go into the game properties, and go to the "force the use" and select whatever version of proton and it'll work so much better.

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I'm sure with this first run, people were ready to just keep buying until it sold out.
I assume the next batch will be more normal.

Maybe they should just charge extra for the first run with full transparency that the price goes down after. People who want it NOW can pay, and scalpers are told upfront "you are going to lose a lot of money".

Probably still a bad idea for a lot of reasons. If it was an easy problem, I'm sure people would've had a fix for it by now.

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Quoting: JustinWoodI cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

many things could be done, it could be per account as you said, and also they could ask for the account to be older than a certain amount of months to be eligible to purchase, ofc scalpers probably have thought this and have thousands of bot accounts, but it could mitigate the issue, also maybe they could put a cap that if you havent spent like lets say 20 dollars on purchases in the store, you are not eligible to buy the controller... just some 2 minutes ideas from the top of my head.

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Quoting: Liam Dawe

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphone

Quoting: Liam DaweMoving your personal Operating System is far far far easier than upping your entire social group to a different chat app, that has far less features and is more confusing. It's not realistic to expect that to happen any time soon either, especially as Matrix just overall - sucks.

Oh, and people keep bringing up this privacy stuff about age laws as if they only apply to Discord. Any serious chat app will also have to do similar things if they plan to run any services in countries where those laws apply. Thinking otherwise is daft, burying their heads in the sand level stupid.

Sorry, but that is mostly nonsense.

I run the GamingOnLinux Discord with over 8,000 people in it. I also run our Fluxer with a few hundred people in it. I also previously ran our Matrix rooms. I have a firm grasp on what I'm talking about here.

Quoting: PlayingOnLinuxphoneFirst of all Matrix has nearly every feature Discord has *snip*

It doesn't. Discord has an entire ecosystem of plugins and bots, for starters. But the biggest issue is multiple rooms per-server. Matrix attempted to do something like it with you banding together multiple standalone rooms, but it works nothing like Discord does.

Matrix is nothing like Discord. Full stop. Saying otherwise is plain and simply false.

You don't like that Spaces are not 1:1 functional wise as Discord servers are, but what is the problem? I don't see a reason why multiple rooms would be worse. A more polished GUI and you would not even notice a huge difference to Discord servers.
You say Matrix sucks, because less people using it results in less people creating bots and plugins? That's exactly the reason why Linux desktop "sucked" for 3 decades, to tell it in your words. And it still would suck if nobody would ever have used and further developed it. All Matrix requires are more people and more donations and once it passes a critical mass, the development accelerates beyond what Discord is capable.

I did not say "Matrix is like Discord", I said "Matrix is the only full-featured alternative to Discord". That is a difference. If I don't rely on all these features, there are also other alternatives. If I want something that can replace Discord in most aspects on long term and does not bind me to an enshittification-service (aka centralized platform), then there is no alternative to Matrix. Simple as that. Other services lacking features and have even less size or the same issues as Discord has.

Edit:
I am aware that managing huge communities is another story for the moment. My arguments are more for private users creating a friends or guild space. But I also expect a lot of improvements for huge communities.

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I cannot help but question what the point of having a 2 controller limit was when that limit was *per transaction*. At the very least, that should be limited to 2 per account until they've got a better idea of the demand. And frankly, I find the attitude of saying "Don't bother trying to deal with the scalpers" to be rather ridiculous. The markups I was seeing on Ebay yesterday were honestly obscene, to say nothing of the fact that they're blatantly against Ebay's ToS given that there's no way any of those sellers actually have the product in hand like they're supposed to.

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Go after the scalpers! ffs... "criminals always find a way" isnt even an argument, this is like saying that police should be abolished because criminals always find loop holes to commit crimes.

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Quoting: melkemind

Quoting: ArehandoroBloody scalpers.

There are like 4 listings on eBay. Is there any real evidence a large number of sales went to scalpers?

Just after release in the few hours after there was up to 500 listings, most selling at there buy it now price within 15-30min or so.

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Quoting: ArehandoroBloody scalpers.

There are like 4 listings on eBay. Is there any real evidence a large number of sales went to scalpers?

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Well, on the bright side, this is great for Valve and people who want the steam controller to be supported for a long time. The more they sell, the more likely they are to stay committed to their product.

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I liked the reservation system they had in place for the Steack Deck, hope they'll do it like this again at least for the Frame and Machine to mitigate the scalper issue and it was nicer to be able to "pre-order" stuff and get put into the line and get an estimate date than such sellouts where you read the news and once you get home after work and want to order stuff they're sold out with no proper way to at least "get into the line".

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Quoting: Mountain ManPeople on Reddit lamenting that there's not even the option to give Valve your money upfront, and then they ship as units become available, which would be the sensible way to do it.

Amen!

My thoughts exactly. I wouldn't care if my Steam Controller 2 didn't arrive until Christmas, just as long as I knew when to expect it. Right now the uncertainly is killing me 🤔

Not really... but I would like to know when I am going to be able to get my hands on one. Liam's review got me excited!

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Quoting: ElectricPrismI know it's frustrating, but we also should know that by selling out, Valves hardware is now even more prestegious which will drive sales more, because psychologically people always want what they CAN'T have.

I definitely fit into that category

But my mentality with the steam controller is that they will produce plenty of them in the long run since it goes hand in hand with their upcoming steam machine

It's the more "limited edition" type things that always get me psychologically wise lol

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