Quoting: no_information_here

Quoting: g000h- I don't like to uninstall a game until I've completed it, and now I'm racking up about 40 installed games and practically zero completions.
- A lot of the time, I'm keen to have relatively casual entertainment when gaming, and find that often games are set up to be frustratingly difficult.
- Going somewhat in hand with the previous grievance, I'm irritated by games requiring excessive numbers of controls. Quite often I'm having keyboard fumbles and not able to change weapon or swap mode or whatever. It's not so bad if the game is slow, but if it is a twitch-shooter like Serious Sam, where you need to make key presses as fast as possible, well - Not happy.
- If I leave a game for a while, then I forget the story, where I've got to, and get disinclined to go back into it again. That accounts for about 30 of my 40 installed titles.

This all sounds very familiar! I can't speak for others, but I think getting older makes me less tolerant of frustrating games. Also, I am spoiled for choice so it is very easy just to move on to something else. In the "old days" I would never leave a game unfinished. Fight to the bitter end, even if I wasn't really enjoying it...

Forgetting storylines just means I have to play only 1 or 2 games at at time, until completion (or abandonment). I also have to wait for a solid stretch of time when I can actually play so that my memory doesn't get interrupted.

All of this is the reason why I play the first run of all my games on the easiest setting and then adjust accordingly. I don't have enough play time to waste an hour on a single combat or puzzle that require too much reflexes.

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Quoting: wvstolzingIn any case, in easier difficulties one can pretty much ignore potions & alchemy; so there's a way to bypass that, if you don't enjoy it.

Since I'm a "fealty casual", that's exactly what I do. Not a fan of Darksouls like battles. :)
I confirm. No need for potions and alchemy to get through a full run.

Personnally, I'm trying to figure out a way of removing my computer from my living room and use the Steam Link app on my android box (iptv)... Unfortunately performances are not stable. There are games like Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max that are stuttering like hell and there are games like Witcher 3 and Bioshock Infinite that runs like champs... Go figure.

This said, Witcher 3 on my cell phone, in 720p, with a steam controller phone mount is just awesome. A little small, but awesome. :)

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Personnally, back in 2012, prior to Steam for Linux release, the only game I was playing was Lord of the Rings online through wine. When came Steam beta, in november(?) 2012, I began building my Steam library. 6 years later I stand on top of a 250+ games library with a huge backlog of games I never played. I many cases I bought these games just because I wanted to support studios that decided to go Linux. I made great discoveries of jewels I wouldn't even have looked at, in other circumstances.

Happy birthday Steam Linux and thank you Valve!

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Quoting: Mal

Quoting: MohandevirUnfortunately, on PC, game boycotts will only damage the industry. Just look at Deep Silver's answer. Instead of understanding that exclusives are a bad concept, they throw back the pressure on the customer's shoulders.

That's a common misconception. As long as a market is profitable someone will invest in it because there will be return of investment. PC gaming is in no way in peril (not until Gabe goes mad and follows Sweeney on the exclusive deals route at least)

Metro is in no way a small IP or an unknown one. If it had released on Steam it would have generated tons of revenues. These are not words from a revenue desperate indie that is starving and risking default. Deep Silver simply choose to be greedy and put Epic money above their customers. What the hell they expected out of from this? That they could shit on people heads and people would applaud them?

These outings "if you don't buy then we don't come on PC" are just vents coming out of bad managers. Which mentally sane person in this industry thinks that your can raise sales by blackmailing your potential customer? Those are the words of frustrated management that knows it took a healthy IP and ruined it for short term greed but doesn't want to admit its errors so it blames others (the consumers). It's nothing new, that's a common trait among powerful people (and I'm not playing anti elite populist here, it just happens that I have a passion for history from middle age to modern era in general, it's how human societies go... these are the kind of people that usually get in power :) )

So really. They don't want to sell nest Metro on PC because the shit they made? Who fucking cares. These are the golden ages of PC gaming. If they don't sell on PC then it's them deliberately choosing to lose money. And if THQ shareholders don't push to fire the guy who wrote that bullshit and start to mend the relationship with their customers but instead choose to go full kamikatze... bye bye! We won't miss them. Some another publisher will make sure that any gap they leave will be filled with new awesome IPs.

In all this story really we consumers are the strong side. We may lose a game or two true, but we simply cannot lose the war, unless as I said before Gabe goes nuts and Valve and Epic agree to make a monopoly cartel. Who I'm really sorry for are the devs that genuinely worked with passion on Metro games and now see their legacy ruined by people who has 0 interest in gaming but only think on make quick money. These are the sole helpless victims in all this affair. More so since it looks like Deep Silver decide to play dirty by using them as meat shields in their total war vs the whole PC gaming world. :(

Edit:
Ok looking at the last minute link of Nevertheless it seems that Deep Silver did not in fact played this dirty and is not using 4A games devs as meat shields. Nice to see that. Now I don't think they can just trash their exclusivity contract with Epic without paying a gazillion penalty so they won't just U-turn on this one. Let's hope they learnt something from this and don't further damage their own business. If publishers stop signing exclusive deals with Epic out of consumer rage backlash, Epic will be forced to switch to abandon its monopolistic aims and switch to a healthy competitive strategy. To the satisfaction of everyone (except Epic itself I guess).

You are totally right. PC gaming is not in peril. It will take a lot more than that to threaten PC gaming. Still, this kind of instinctive reaction is a disturbing tought, should it become a major trend (exclusives and bad sales)...

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Deep Silver decides to go the exclusive way and then talk about users being close minded and not coming back to PC platform... Yeah right!

Didn't say I wouldn't buy it though. But I won't buy it on Epic Store. Period.

I waited more than 3 years to be able to play Witcher 3. I can wait at least a year for Metro: Exodus to come back on Steam and I may buy it if it works well with Proton (Gold or Platnium). I'd prefer a native build, but...

Unfortunately, on PC, game boycotts will only damage the industry. Just look at Deep Silver's answer. Instead of understanding that exclusives are a bad concept, they throw back the pressure on the customer's shoulders.

That's exactly what I was referring to when I said that Epic was exposing us to the destruction of PC gaming. Didn't know they would prove me right that fast...

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Quoting: etonbearsI would expect that a high proportion of your Steam titles could be easily recovered if the service disappeared, so long as you have kept a copy, since you may no longer be able to download.

Just an educated guess: Chances are that they are the same games that are playable in offline mode, and there are quite a lot of them.

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Quoting: scaine

Quoting: gradyvuckovicIt's pretty simple for me.

I already have a Steam account.

I already have over 200 games in Steam.

I have no desire to see Steam suffer, because any threat to Steam is a treat to my game library.

Steam is run by Valve. Valve heavily supports Linux, more so than any commercial entity would while thinking rationally and I am infinitely grateful to them as a result.

Exclusives aren't competition, exclusives are the opposite of competition. I refuse to be forced to use a platform due to exclusives.

I wouldn't buy a game from a store that doesn't even have a native Linux client, even if I was interested in shopping elsewhere.

What cut Valve takes from devs is irrelevant to me, as Steam's prices are usually better than what I get in retail stores, they run frequent specials with great discounts.

Steam's service is fantastic imo, and I am not on board with the mindset of 'Everything needs to be redesigned every 2 years to stay cool', that's not actually user friendly at all. If something is already great, it doesn't need to be redesigned, it just needs to be refined and Valve have been refining Steam for a decade. It's almost perfect the way it is.

Fortnite needs to die as soon as possible to cut off Epic's source of revenue, I can't believe I use to think they were an OK company.

Great post. I can't believe @Shmerl is holding his/her(?) tongue over this thread so well, because of course not only is the shoe on the other foot (exclusives outside of Steam), but also you've raise the excellent point that a threat to Steam/Valve is indeed a threat to your carefully horded (and paid-for) steam library. We're just renting those titles (permanently) rather than owning them.

Is Epic running the same gig? Or can you download a DRM-free version of their titles for play without the need for the Epic launcher? Knowing Epic, I'd expect both a forced launcher AND draconian, bullshit DRM on everything. In fact, isn't Metro getting the Denuvo treatment now too?

Shmerl's probably cackling away at the irony of us Steam users realising that Steam's DRM threatens those precious libraries. Okay, probably not. Shmerls always struck me as a fairly mature dude. I'd be cackling away though, if I didn't have nearly 800 (!) titles on Steam right now and precious few are DRM-free from Humble, GOG, or Itch.

I am buying more Itch titles these days though. Love those guys. Especially love the fact that you can overpay on that platform if you choose. Not so much of a fan that they apply VAT at the end of the transaction though. I wish they'd tidy that up.

I can't say if it applies for a lot more titles than this, but I'm able to launch Steam's Witcher 3 without even launching Steam, as a standalone game, just with Wine+DXVK and the Witcher.exe launcher. All is not doom and gloom in an hypothetical Steam failure. That's what I was doing before Proton. You just need to keep a backup of those games. Is this what you are referring to?

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Quoting: EikeI wonder how big the influence of Fortnite really is. People played PUBG before, they'll wander off to WhatEver then... I get it that they are making lots of money and why they are trying to turn it into something lasting longer, but I'm unsure this will work out.

Thing is... I don't know if the target audience of Fortnite is the same than the one for games like The Division 2 and Metro: Exodus. Personnally, I wouldn't allow a 10-12 year old to play Metro: Exodus. But hey, that's just me. I might be wrong, but the target audience of games like Metro: Exodus is probably on Steam (somewhat more mature users), and now, they are pissed off, big time! When you kick the hornet's nest...

https://www.pcgamer.com/metro-review-bomb-steam/

Let's wait and see what happens.

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Quoting: TobyGornowPlease, I beg you, stop saying Valve is nice or nicer than Epic it hurts.

Sure Valve is not perfect and they have to up their game, but I beg to differ: they are a lot nicer than Epic. A LOT NICER!

What we may be exposed to, with what Epic is proposing is this:
PC exclusives = More hacking = Lost sales for developers = Studios going out of business = Less games published on PC = Back to square one in the early 2000's when PC gaming was trying to survive.

Might be exagerated, but as simple as that. Valve understood that and Epic now risks destroying it. All Deep Silver had to do was sell Metro: Exodus on both stores. 50$ on Epic and 60$ on Steam. Now that is competition!

Edit: I will never install an Epic launcher on any rig, even if there's a Linux client, as long as this is Epic's strategy.

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Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: Mohandevir

Quoting: TobyGornow

Quoting: Nevertheless

Quoting: TobyGornow

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: TobyGornowMaybe the Orange box was the wrong example ( still an exclusive, You could install Half life 1 without Steam ), take Yakuza 0 instead : you cannot buy it physically, in any way, even if you could you'll be kindly invited to connect on Steam. You can buy it on Humble or elsewhere, sure... and activate it on Steam. In any case, you'll end up on Steam. That's why I said it's time that Valve gets a taste of his own medicine, there is a lot of exclusive on Steam that are not Valve's IP.

That's the publisher's fault for not releasing it anywhere else. That's completely different from what Epic is doing. Other devs release their games on multiple stores.

Same thing dude, Yakuza is tied to Steam as much as Exodus is tied (temporarily) to Epic store, that's simple exclusivity for me, Valve made us and dev captive for too long, today your a big publisher you have to put your catalog on Steam otherwise you'll sell peanuts.
And in Epic case, they just made a cash proposition to Deep silver that was accepted, it's just fair business against a competition using the same tools and again no emotions in business. I repeat it : Deep Silver should suffer a massive boycott of their games but it won't happen, people are sheep waiting to be shaved and then put down. Epic is not at fault here, they are just competing against an enemy in an almost monopolistic position and they need big guns in order to do it. Valve is not a Care Bear, they deserve some hard competition.

Compare it to the only supermarket in town. It has a good relationship with other, smaller stores in the neighborhood, and it even develops stuff usable by them too. Still it might be the only store who sells bananas in the whole area you live in. When someone else opens up a supermarket next to it and claims the whole banana market for itself (say for the next year, prunes is forever), you really think that's the same?

Man, thanks for dumbing it down for me... My Turn : Metro exodus bought on Amazon (or Wherever) and forced to be activated on Epic Store = Exclusivity / Yakuza 0 bought on Gog or Humble (or Wherever) forced to be activated on Steam = Exclusivity.
And because you like to play on words : They are not claiming the whole Banana market just a new variety they PAID for. And again, YOU are right those methods are digusting but common practices in retail or others market, Valve is no stranger to those.

Edit : The friendly local supermarket you described fu***ng killed physical distribution of Pc gaming, nice relationship if you ask me.

Quoting: kuhpunkt

Quoting: TobyGornowSame thing dude, Yakuza is tied to Steam as much as Exodus is tied (temporarily) to Epic store, that's simple exclusivity for me, Valve made us and dev captive for too long, today your a big publisher you have to put your catalog on Steam otherwise you'll sell peanuts.

It's not the same thing. They just chose to go there and use Steam, while you can still buy the game at many other stores.

And I'd be happy for other stores to get Yakuza without the Steam-connection. THQ is doing that for example. You can buy Darksiders 3 pretty much everywhere, which is something Valve promotes.

You can buy Metro Exodus on Amazon or at your local supermarket but will be forced to activate it on Epic Store. Deep silver chose to go with Epic like Sega decided to go with Steam.

Guys, I'm on your side here, just saying that Valve is not the nice player you want him to be and, from my point of view, Proton / SteamPlay is just Valve trying to scrap the bottom of the pot for the last crumbs giving you the illusion they care about you: they are not, they answer only to dollars. Those company are not giving anything for free, believe me I work for one of those big global retail company. And remember you still have your free will to not eat banana, I know it's good but you can live on prunes or apples. Eat local.

Is there something special with Yakuza?

Usually Valve never asks for any kind of exclusivity. If Yakuza is only available on Steam, it's on the publisher who decided it was the way to go. Nothing prevents them, tomorrow to publish the game somewhere else. That's the major difference with Metro: Exodus and Epic's deal; cash was laid to make sure the game won't be on another store for a complete year.

That's how Valve works, usually, unless there is something special with this game?

No, he just doesn't seem to get that. And it's not even "usually." It's always. Valve never asks for exclusive deals.

Back when they announced the Source 2 Engine (which they still have to release, but that's another topic) they said it will be free for everybody to use, with the only requirement that any game using it ALSO has to be sold on Steam. That's it. That's the opposite of exclusivity.

I used "usually" because sometimes, my knowledge is lacking, but I was pretty sure it's "always". :)

This said, maybe Valve should require that once your game page is up, you have to engage yourself to sell your game on Steam for a minimum of a complete year, not including pre-sales or early access, on day one of official launch. You may sell it elsewhere but you must sell it on Steam with these terms. This would probably prevent other Metro: Exodus messes.

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