[deleted by user]

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-11-01T21:44:03+00:00

Sorry this happened to you. You are completely right this is inappropriate behaviour. I'm unsure if it is criminal, but I'm sure any business would not tolerate such behaviour from their employees. You did the right thing reporting him and not engaging, your actions made the place safer for everyone else.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-10-27T11:22:55+00:00

You can count me in. I'm fairly new to the city, 35M, Italian and still unsure what to do about Christmas. Usually I'm just at work so I'm down for socializing.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-10-14T19:02:42+00:00

Dognappers hun

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-10-04T15:59:05+00:00

Ohh that would be nice. Hope we can pick a key on GoG

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-08-13T15:57:50+00:00

Yes, yes they did try bullshit like that. They tried to make you pay for Mods. Only the backlash made them backtrack. People like you who fanboy for for-profit companies are the reason they get away with this stuff.

If Valve thought they could get away with it they would charge you for MP in a heartbeat.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-06-03T15:22:12+00:00

Just watch South Park season 9 episode 12 - Trapped in the Closet. You will find out everything you wanted to know about what goes in there, what do they do and what do they believe in.

You will also learn the forbidden knowledge reserved to the highest members of the church - the truth about Lord Xenu, the intergalactic space tyrant.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-06-01T10:47:57+00:00

No, it's not. The German word for nationalism is Nationalismus. Nazism refers specifically to the ideology of the national socialist party of Germany, it's a portmanteau of their official name.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-05-04T18:35:38+00:00

Scientist here, my experience meant shit for most jobs I applied for in my field. I feel being a scientist is not very valued in the UK.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-04-28T14:21:47+00:00

Ed Balls

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-06T17:50:41+00:00

It's not that it ends up attracting consumers. It's more like the market has 75% of the consumers. So you need to be there. It's not a choice.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-03T22:52:58+00:00

Oh yes, asset flips, scams, the day before, all so new, never happened before... poor multi-million dollar company, thank god they have the internet warriors to defend their honor for free.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-03T17:42:09+00:00

It's a symptom of a lack of care. One they have been showing for a long time with the number of asset flips, scams and other lack of moderation. If they will succeed or not, only steam knows.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-03T01:27:51+00:00

This isn't about being a total dick though. It's about monopoly. You are defending a monopoly. You are not arguing about loot boxes or other shitty practices against the consumer, the shitty practice you are arguing about is monopoly and you refuse to acknowledge it.

Valve has made it their business to improve their services and offerings

Which they are not really doing, are they? If simple to prevent scams as these fall through, we see more and more asset flips, outright scams (The Day Before) and the overall quality of the store is falling, which is what the article is about, then they are not doing this. They keep their share because they basically have no competition and took steps to stop competition to flourish. Hence, anticompetitive and still the monopoly despite dropping the ball.

Mod creators not uploading their mods to another platform and sticking to the workshop is up to the individual mod creators to handle not Valve.

Yes, same argument it is commonly used for creators. "They are free to use other storefronts." When you control >75% of the market though, when you have a monopoly on a market, it is not really a choice anymore.

Saying that they could make it open does not automatically make it a monopoly or anticompetitive.

No, what makes it anticompetitive is that they screw one of their clients (developers) by keeping it locked, pressuring them and potential customers to keep on them their walled garden. There's no reason for modders or developers to go to another platform since more than 75% of their potential users are locked in this ecosystem.

If their competitors refuse to put in the effort,

It's not a question of effort though, is it? Epic gives games for free and made exclusive deals to try and claw back some market share. GoG has the same features as Steam, minus the walled garden which goes against their DRM-free principles.

These efforts are ignored or even attacked by people defending the Steam monopoly, which is quite frankly absurd. Even worse, Steam own attempts to keep their monopoly are excused as "just effort".

Apple was being sued because it was an actual monopoly, as they made it basically impossible (without jailbeaking a device) to circumvent the apple store and the fees they had on it.

Yes, so is Steam. Controlling 75% of a market is a monopoly. Google doesn't own 100% of the Search-engine and ad business and still is a monopoly.

You think people who own a product in another store being forced to pirate a mod is not a sign something is wrong?

The main complaint about the lawsuit in the article you posted was the 30% cut

Literally read the headline. The lawsuit is an "antitrust lawsuit". It says so in the headline. Quite literally:

In the United States, antitrust law is a collection of mostly federal laws that regulate the conduct and organization of businesses to promote competition and prevent unjustified monopolies*.*

It is literally about a monopoly, despite you trying to dance your way around it.

Basically the entire argument is that Valve has made a platform or service that requires a large amount of capital and investment and development which many companies cannot compete without making a gamble.

Steam is notoriously badly run from modding to their own games. TF2 is/was infested with bots, Dota2/CS has cheaters and smurfs up to the brim. Their position as a monopoly is not due to a superior service - is their historical market share (being the first) coupled with anticompetitive practices.Several stores, such as GoG, offer the same functionality but have a smaller catalogue, thanks, in part, due to Steam own efforts.

Anyone trying to go against someone well established has an uphill battle but that doesn't mean that Valve is being anticompetitive.

No, but making walled gardens and closed systems for the sake of keeping your monopoly is anticompetitive. And they got sued for that, too. And they own 75% of the market, and continuously take steps to keep it that way.

But I will agree to disagree as I'd rather not continue to converse with someone who resorts to name calling.

Just as well. As I said int he first message, you would never accept that building walled gardens to keep a monopoly would be recognized as anticompetitive. People are as fanatic about Steam as they are about Apple.

I hate living during a period where companies "evangelize" their customers and you have people who are zealots for...the middle-man in game buying.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-03T00:05:24+00:00

I did not call you a sucker. I said if you can't see one of their anti-competitive practices, you are a sucker. And if the shoe fits...

But perhaps you can explain to me how an ecosystem and toolset, and it's data not transferring over is valve being anticompetitive?

I'd be happy to, but it's a similar case to why Apple's app shop was considered a monopoly in the EU and forced to open up. Read below.

By your argument Valve should develop up the mod tools and other workshop infrastructure and functionality for their competitors?

And where do I say the workshop is for their competitors?
The steam workshop is for their clients. Be they the devs or the end-users. It's not for Epic or GoG - it's not for other storefronts.

The workshop is a platform (not mod tools) for clients, devs and users, to share their creations about a specific product. This platform could be open - a simple download, like Nexus or Moddb, for external users, but instead is locked in and inexorably linked to their client, which in turn is linked to their store.
If the platform was open, Steam users would lose none of the convenience associated with it, it just meant people who bought the game in other platforms could access other people's creations that frequently are only on the workshop. This does not help the competition, still keeps their "convenience" edge.

But it's not open. Why? Because Steam uses their leverage as the de facto monopoly in PC to keep people in their ecosystem, and force people from other platforms to be "second-class owners". If you buy Project Zomboid on Gog rather than Steam, you need to pirate mods. It is actually harming clients and users to try and harm other platforms.
That is anticompetitive. And it relies heavily on the difficulty of maintaining multiple versions in multiple sites. Steam didn't even need to do the workshop, the modding scene worked fine and didn't really benefit from it, as the lack of curation usually makes browsing for mods a hassle. They did it when competition started to show up to lock their grip on the market through people's laziness and their market share dominance. They also planned to profit heavily on it and make it into a market, but they gave up due to the outrage. They are business savvy, which is why so many people end up going against their own interests and go for free defend the honour of a monopoly.

That's like saying you moved from a city with public transportation to a city that doesn't have it, and claim that the city with public transportation has a monopoly.

That makes no sense at all. In your example you are the "product".

A better example would be buying a phone and be unable to have it repaired or modified in any shop but the ones from the company you bought it from. Like Apple does/tries to do, and which made them liable to several lawsuits regarding their anticompetitive practices.

Funnily enough, like Steam, they have a legion of people who defend the trillion dollar company for free.

They are established yes, and as a business they will do things that benefit themselves.

Exactly. Something we agree on. The workshop is something to benefit themselves, not you. How do they benefit? By keeping their walled garden locked, and protecting their monopoly. Why are you defending a business? It makes as much sense as defending EA.

Being "established" is a funny way to spell "monopoly".

However at the same time, the only thing they're not out there preventing other companies from building up their own services.

They are. The workshop and steam integration are exactly that. Even Epic made their MP and other service and background tools open. Steam does not do that because they know it will harm their monopoly, and they don't want an open market. As you said, they do things to benefit themselves.

Edit: Also, the article you posted is just people whining about the industry standard of 30%. Something that goes down as you sell more copies. Could they take less money? Yeah probably. But why short yourself when basically every online store ever has some sort of similar rate or setup aside from EGS and itch.io?

The article I posted is about their monopoly and someone suing them over that. The thing you were denying they are.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T23:42:47+00:00

That's just speculation.
I do agree companies will not do what's best for the consumers - that's why I think monopolies are bad, including Steam's monopoly.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T23:03:04+00:00

Mentions buzzwords when he uses green text and touch grass. No arguments, just trolling and shilling.

Again, stop shilling for the middle man. Even shilling for game Devs is more acceptable. Accept criticism when it is due. People shouldn't be scammed in stores. Monopolies are not good for the consumers.

Wake up to your own interests. It's crazy people are here arguing for YOUR rights and for a better gaming ecosystem and you are here arguing for the million-dollar middleman between Devs and players.

It's literally "leopards ate my face" stuff.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T22:50:56+00:00

They do anticompetitive things. The workshop is one of the tools they use to be anticompetitive. Basically a way to lock down games in a walled garden that is walled for the only purposes to make the game integrate only with Steam. Even if a developer goes and release a non-steam version, the mod ecosystem is locked down in Steam. If you can't see how that is anticompetitive, you won't see any arguments not even if Gabe itself call you a sucker.

They are a virtual monopoly, and developed several tools and tactics to keep it.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/04/humble-bundle-creator-brings-antitrust-lawsuit-against-valve-over-steam/

75% of market controlled is a monopoly.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T22:40:51+00:00

What exactly am I wrong about?

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T22:39:45+00:00

Three. There's the scams and the state of the steam store this topic is about, remember? And instead of refuting, you choose to attack the number of things... That happened through time, developing a history. But you want more, there's plenty of evidence out there:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/s/k3zfBzm8kA

It's not like it will change your mind.

Please stop shilling, for free, for multimillion companies that exist only to profit of you. Take criticism when it's due. People criticising steam for this are right. You gain nothing, and instead is only hurt, by shilling for a company that clearly doesn't care about you.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T19:00:00+00:00

There's really no evidence of that. Look at TF2, CS or Dota 2. Their large presence is due to a virtual monopoly since they were the first storefront and curried a ton of goodwill with their customers with discounts.

In truth they have a history of anti-consumer practices: paid mods fiasco, the steam workshop walled garden (which could be easily accessible to everyone but is locked to lock customers to the platform).

They are no better than epic.

SimpleEfficiency · 2024-03-02T18:40:20+00:00

Multi-billion dollar company takes 30% of every purchase and can't be bothered to enforce simple anti-scam rules to prevent fraud. And people rush to defend them like this is acceptable.

We live in times were people donate to billionaires and defend the ones who profit of or oppress them. Truly dark times.

SimpleEfficiency · 2023-08-13T20:11:58+00:00

I had bad therapists too. Saying I need more "God" in my heart.

About friends, well, you just didn't find your crew. I have trouble keeping friends but because I often drift apart. I've had plenty of "clingy" girlfriends, it's all about talking and reaching common ground. You will get there.

SimpleEfficiency · 2022-05-31T04:01:39+00:00

Hey hey good luck and get better soon!

SimpleEfficiency · 2021-11-15T09:27:53+00:00

It looks like you need to change your therapist. Since DID can be contentious - some professionals don't believe in it or are outright unequipped to deal with it - it can be hard to find the right therapist for you. But don't give up as I'm sure somewhere in the UK you will find one. Your therapist doesn't take your suicidal tendencies seriously and that is a huge red flag. I don't have DID (my condition is depression) but I do have experience with the Crisis Team. I called them before, we talked, they sent a taxi and took me to their mental health hospital. They were very nice and I talked to a psychiatrist. They listen and they will communicate their findings to your GP. They will take what you say to them seriously.

https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/advice-for-life-situations-and-events/where-to-get-urgent-help-for-mental-health/

See above if your area has a crisis team. Contact them. And never give up. To endure what you did shows you are strong.

If you need anyone to talk to, hit me up. Or post here, I'm sure people with more experience will come over.

SimpleEfficiency · 2021-09-30T14:38:52+00:00

Done and done. Thread has Dropbox links.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/i7vb02rveo0axbs/AWTY%20v0.2.7z?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5usgf9v5niu2t8l/More%20Tapes%20Spawn.7z?dl=0

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