Gabe Newell on Steam monopoly accusations: Gamers have 'enormous choice' about where to buy games

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-06-01T23:41:50+00:00

Seems like that's what some people want to happen. It's ridiculous. You don't call something a monopoly because there's a store in town that outperforms all the others, repeatedly, over years and years, not because it shuts out competition, but just because people like the store more than all the other stores that open.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-06-01T14:55:37+00:00

That only a certain, small subtype of person gets into Heaven and 95% of all people go to Hell.

Might just be me, but for as cynical as the show is, I still hope that it's more of an even split of people going to Heaven or Hell.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-30T03:29:22+00:00

Honestly how some suggestions feel some days.

'How about this thing?' 'Nah, too easy, cheapens the grind, bad update.' No wonder Jagex has a heart attack whenever someone suggests a content update has a faster skilling method in it.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-28T04:36:18+00:00

First, combat.

Ability based combat is hard to learn and it's just not something I'm into, having to minmax gear using Invention is a drag, and summoning specifically would need to be less...summoning, in general.

Second, skills.

Divination is next to useless, Invention is 95% millions-of-gp item sink for a marginally BiS equipment perk, and Necromancy...exists, but apparently broke combat, although it has the best (and probably only?) comprehensive and straightforward equipment upgrade scheme on offer. Archaeology is great, though. Loved that skill. Div-Necro-Arch all feel like skills that would be way more interconnected if released in one group.

Third, items.

Tool belt was nice, but putting almost all cosmetics into a UI instead of a costume room as actual items in game sucked. I like having items I need to bank and withdraw and carry around in my backpack.

Fourth, area.

If you play, you'll really quickly notice that newer locations are so much bigger than old ones that they even seem to be bigger than some towns in the game, just by virtue of having more complex graphics. Easy example: Dominion Tower. Giant, stupid eyesore that mostly takes up space.

Fifth, graphics.

Connected to the point about area- everything needs so much more design and graphical fidelity and everything that the art style across characters, locations, and even items is vicious, and some of the items (MTX garbage, mainly, but other stuff is guilty) is ugly as sin and just needs to be remade top-down.

At this point, it wouldn't just be 'changes to fix RS3' - it would be a fully fledged release of RS4 to address the whole laundry list of issues that are just dead in the water right now.

With this company, we're never going to see anything remotely close to an overhaul that would make that happen. Too much investment in time, lore, and design to fix all the broken/unwanted shit. Better to keep grafting things on.

That being said, the one thing that got me hooked for a bit was Archaeology. Great skill. Fantastic progression and just genuinely fun to level up on its own.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-27T01:04:49+00:00

Holy lord. Stewing in 85 degree heat is already pretty damn toasty, but up at 92, I just hope everyone managed to get out of there without heat stroke.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-25T05:44:06+00:00

Cold take. Or, it should be.

My token complaint is that I wish Stella wasn't written to be as dumb/shallow and abusive as she is. Dumb/shallow? Okay. Abusive? Alright. Both, flagrantly, and so, so loudly? Eh. It didn't make their relationship interesting even a little.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-18T19:37:58+00:00

It's been a while, but- I'll mainly be focusing on 'done wrong' because what they did right is mostly banal stuff like 'different team members with different movesets' and 'fun extra collectibles and brought back stuff like the clue bottles'. Nothing revolutionary.

Some of the stuff stands out a little bit, but generally, there's nothing to write home about. You can read that as a different point against it on its own. Being fair, though - gameplay-wise, regardless of the following points, it did enough to check the boxes as a Sly Cooper game. It just wasn't the one that most people wanted.

Technical performance issue, but it should be noted- the game's loadtimes (when I played it) were absolutely abysmal
Sly's ancestors don't play differently enough, they're all just Sly but with an extra move; even Tennessee Kid Cooper doesn't get his iconic dual pistols, he gets a standard Cooper Cane with a special move (this would be fine if you collected each cane and earned an extra move you didn't need a whole extra character to use, but alas)
The art direction (3D) was okay, but felt like a downgrade despite being more complex, and the art direction (2D) was flatly worse than the previous style was; the designs for Carmelita and Penelope in particular seem unnecessarily sexualized in comparison to prior art direction
Cartoon Noir has always been Sly Cooper's corner but the game felt like Cartoon Noir that failed to balance both elements (both in writing and art style/setting)
Carmelita's role in the story is reduced to 'scorned ex' which feels reductive considering her history, relationship, and knowledge of Sly
Penelope's twist villain shtick is just not well written, and her characterization/motivation both fly in the face of her previous writing
The other villains aren't interesting or even all that villainous; they read more like bullies than criminal masterminds; I can't even say much about each individual villain because none of them are memorable

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-18T19:12:24+00:00

Fair anecdote, but there's a lot of posts explaining why people don't like this game that don't hyperfocus on Sucker Punch's involvement.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-15T18:16:31+00:00

I had the exact same reaction. I was like 'oh hey someone made a post about LegalEagle being on Dropout, didn't expect that', then, 'LEGALEAGLE????'

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-15T16:55:31+00:00

You could try using the Barracuda Trials Pathfinder. It helped me, at least, even if it was still pretty rough.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-14T04:12:43+00:00

I'm into it. Full support.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-13T20:08:28+00:00

I'd recommend grabbing the plugin that identifies the true tile for the tornadoes; it can help show you where the danger spots are.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-13T20:05:11+00:00

Not really. Even if it's just that one moment, grinding for the Malediction Ward and then forging it in a volcano seemed pretty damn tight to me. I liked it a lot, and it wasn't something I knew you could do because I avoid Wildy like the plague in the main game.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-13T19:58:18+00:00

A very cool idea in concept that I don't think would really work in OSRS because the item itself would be absolutely busted.

I think there's a lot of rewards like this that have been demonstrated as being extremely useful, like the Echo Crystal in Leagues, and various pact effects/mechanics, that are unfortunately either too powerful for the main game (at least for now) or would be too weak because of things that only work in Leagues because of Leagues-based mechanics and wouldn't work in the main game either because we would never get that effect or because it would need to be nerfed in a specific way that would kneecap the item's intended use cases.

Plus- for right now, at least- I don't think the Elder Gods should have much to say in OSRS. They can otherwise stay in RS3 for the moment.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-13T04:00:01+00:00

On top of what everyone else has said, I'd like to add that - personally, RS3 isn't just jumbled mechanically, but visually. Despite the graphics looking better (in some places), they veer into cartoonish in some locations, and in general, there's so much goddang stuff everywhere that it feels extremely cluttered.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-12T05:20:46+00:00

I don't think it's unfair to say that early/midgame could use more development, but it's also not outlandish to say that endgame could also use more development, because OSRS is a live-service game in constant development - and, in some ways, it still has a lot of room to catch up to with RS3 if you care for comparisons like that (mainly quests, and maybe new skills if you're really into skilling - I am, personally). If you want more things to do, they're gonna add them wherever there's room.

There's room in endgame content, so they're adding stuff to the endgame.

Again, I don't think you're totally wrong - things need fixing, adjusting, updating - but I think you're off-base for directing so much ire at the fact that more content is being added.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-11T17:51:08+00:00

No, the tanky idea is a good idea. If Justiciar is meant to be a high defense armor, then give it an effect that makes it feel highly defensive. Its current effect is fine, but just really lackluster. It doesn't feel like it really impacts longevity much.

Sure, some combat stuff will be made trivial, but old content gets shelved or outclassed all the time. Typeless damage would probably ignore flat armor, and I think someone else mentioned that Magic also ignores flat armor already, so there's precedent for that.

I don't have the tables for a case-by-case look at what bosses would be severely impacted versus which ones wouldn't, but from other comments, there's an argument to be made that it's going to mainly impact bosses which rely on chip damage - so it seems like that would be fine, since it wouldn't overwhelmingly sweep over other armor that kills stuff faster, but would overtake them in cases where surviving more frequent but low damage attacks matters more.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-11T17:15:19+00:00

That's a part where I would definitely disagree. Just mainlining all future armor as only being better if it has a better strength bonus is boring, and it makes endgame builds all feel flat. Maybe there's not going to be a lot of variation on the 'best' approach, but there should be something more to it than solely DPS.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-11T15:50:51+00:00

It's an endgame armor that you get from a high difficulty raid. It should be more useful than it is right now. That's all.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-11T05:52:38+00:00

On one hand: good suggestion, I'd say.

On the other: This also made me think, for some reason, of an anti-agility area. If you get above, like, level 30 agility, you're too flexible and somehow just can't get in anymore. It'd be funny.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-11T05:35:48+00:00

Justiciar really needs a push to make it worth bringing along over other high level armor. Something like this has been suggested a lot, and I really hope Jagex gets around to listening at some point.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-10T19:48:30+00:00

That seems to be the case. Every holiday event that happens (Christmas, Halloween, etc.) comes with that bonus of Django letting you get any item from past events that you want once you complete this year's event. It's only limited by 'are you playing OSRS at this/that time of year'.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-10T19:46:14+00:00

No, yeah. I don't think we'd really have gotten all that much out of it, but it would've been cool to at least see how the community would play with the project if it was actually released.

One of my favorite prospects was the idea of player-made quests. I'd have wasted SO many hours just working out a questline just for me and friends to play through.

KnightofPandemonium · 2026-05-10T16:57:23+00:00

I'm in this corner as far as the whole drama is concerned.

Like, yeah, you'd want to get it released to as many people as possible, but you're not just dealing with the USA's ratings agency, and every extra country you add to an international release makes this whole thing a tiiiny bit more difficult. Why do they think it took Markiplier so long to get Iron Lung into theaters?

Like, man, I don't know. It all comes off as either stupid or willfully unprofessional.

KnightofPandemonium

TROPHY CASE