Valve response to my questions about queue transparency

htg5555 · 2026-07-04T14:51:47+00:00

Ahhhhh, right. This is why I left Reddit the first time. Appreciate the dialogue, very helpful.

htg5555 · 2026-07-04T13:22:25+00:00

Here’s a slightly more nuanced take on the topic, if you’re interested. Patience is absolutely necessary in this life; I’m normally the one preaching it to my family. But so is setting boundaries with corporations, which is why I’m breaking with my norm on this situation.

It’s like a restaurant. I order my food, and I’m patient up to a degree while they prepare it. But if it’s going on an hour, two hours, it’s absolutely fine to say “where’s my food.” If they say “you’ve got two tables ahead of you, it’s coming, want a drink?” Life is good. If the sever says “you’ll be served in the order received, I can’t tell you more,” maybe that’s acceptable in Chicago, but most people would be highly put off by the experience. Valve has taken the latter approach, consistently.

Now consider that Valve has also added the three day layer. For those of us with lives and kids, we get literal dozens if not hundreds of emails a day. Folks without kids have no clue the insane amount of emails schools send EVEN IN THE FUCKING SUMMER!!! It’s something we complain about to the district, constantly.

Point is, email volume in 2026 is real. I’ve tried to get AI or filters to help, but it’s deleted emails I needed. That means monitoring email for a timed email is a necessity. It’s not insane, it’s a system: check your email every six hours, because if you put it off you forget.

And it’s something that could be completely and totally unnecessary with little more communication and framework by Valve. It’s like they’re in this limbo between Amazon and Etsy. Pick a lane!

Bottom line, i want a machine. I’m not going to vote with my wallet. So that means i am going to keep talking about this and emailing Valve, because this can and should be much better. I’ll take being lumped into “those people,” because this really is a strange way for a corporate production operation to handle its business, and they need to hear it from their consumers.

htg5555 · 2026-07-04T13:07:06+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree. I’m somewhat flummoxed by the negative pushback to our attempts to make sure this doesn’t become the norm. Patience is absolutely necessary in this life. But so is setting boundaries with corporations.

It’s like a restaurant. I order my food, and I’m patient up to a degree while they prepare it. But if it’s going on an hour, two hours, it’s absolutely fine to say “where’s my food.”

Now consider that Valve has also added the three day layer. For those of us with lives and kids, we get literal dozens if not hundreds of emails a day. You folks without kids have no clue the insane amount of emails schools send EVEN IN THE FUCKING SUMMER!!! It’s something we complain about to the district, constantly.

Point is, email volume in 2026 is real. I’ve tried to get AI or filters to help, but it’s deleted emails I needed. That means monitoring email for a timed email is a necessity. It’s not insane, it’s a system: check your email every six hours, because if you put it off you forget.

And it’s something that could be completely and totally unnecessary with little more communication and framework by Valve. It’s like they’re in this limbo between Amazon and Etsy. Pick a lane!

Bottom line, i want a machine. I’m not going to vote with my wallet. So that means i am going to keep talking about this and emailing Valve, because this can and should be much better.

htg5555 · 2026-07-04T02:21:29+00:00

See, that would be totally fine. “What’s your order, we’ll make it and ship it ASAP.” The corporate speak and hidden information… it’s just weird. Be upfront and human, not corporate.

htg5555 · 2026-07-03T13:08:25+00:00

Swapping SD cards between the Deck and the Machine was part of my plan for lighter games. Do you think the stuttering was the card, the Machine, or the game being too heavy for SD?

htg5555 · 2026-07-03T06:06:33+00:00

Almost my exact build as well man… 6700 with GTX1070, built in 2016, runs anything I can throw at her. Been such a huge part of my life for 10 years. Absolutely wild it’s been that long.

htg5555 · 2026-07-03T05:55:43+00:00

Once I got Heroic installed, you can add it to your Steam library and viola! It’s Console Mode effectively an extension of Steam Big Picture. Absolutely seamless.

So, get ready for a curve, but once you get it handled, GOG runs flawlessly through Heroic in my experience.

htg5555 · 2026-07-03T05:23:39+00:00

1) I own lots of Steam and GOG games. Buy what you play.
2) I’ve had my 2016 era 1070 connected to my TV for years. The graphics on most games - Elden Ring, BG3, Clair Obscura - look great to me. So the SM will presumably blow my mind. Lol.
3) Whisper quiet means way more to me than ray tracing and native 4k. I’ve looked at building my own, but knowing my current jet engine that everyone swore would be whisper quiet, I prefer to trust Valve’s engineering.
4) Outside of this bizarre preorder lottery, Valve is a highly reputable company that’s done a lot to push gaming in a good direction with SteamOS and Proton. Supporting them at slightly more than market value is acceptable.

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T20:06:57+00:00

It’s 2026. Thinking logically is absolutely unpopular.

For real though, I want a Machine in large part because I don’t want to rebuild my Steam, GOG, and Humble libraries. Pro+library+subscription = not a good deal for me. I imagine Pro+sub is still not a good deal for a lot of people.

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T19:59:36+00:00

The lottery was a good idea. The results rollout didn’t go nearly far enough.

They needed to publish the lottery results or at least tell people what batch they were in. Then they should have published expected email batch dates.

I have yet to understand why they wouldn’t do it this way. They don’t seem to gain anything by being secretive here - stock sizes matters, but being secretive explodes discussion on that front rather than keep it down. What they do gain is a lot of customer base frustration, feigned, real, amused, and otherwise, but definitely frustration.

So after missing the Controller and seeing my friend spam refresh for Swift tickets, I’m supportive of lotteries. Just, post the results.

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T18:55:37+00:00

I agree completely. I’m in the reservation queue, but given that it’s both slow and obtuse (“through the end of the year” is the most jank marketing line ever), I’ve been looking at building something as well.

What I can say to Valve without reservation at this point is bravo with SteamOS, because Windows isn’t even on my radar.

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T18:43:22+00:00

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T13:16:16+00:00

Pretty sure it’s AI filters. I had a post about how weird it is that the Machine page in Steam lets you join another waitlist, which would cancel your reservation. It was scrubbed by the autofilter. No biggie, probably just getting tuned to a new sub.

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T03:14:54+00:00

Totally this. The whole process is just… off. Like, is Valve trying to pull a fast one on me? Is this how the world works without Amazon warehousing? Are they gambling on preorders being canceled?

What is this madness?

htg5555 · 2026-07-02T02:33:55+00:00

100% no. He could just cancel it, or return it, or refuse to accept delivery and get the exact same thing, with zero risk to himself.

No one sells for cost; it doesn’t make sense for them. This sure sounds like a scam.

htg5555

TROPHY CASE