I think Steam might be the only private company in this.
Really says a lot.
this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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steam is just so based.
I dont think a single more based company has ever existed. It rivals the greats like linux, with a touch of gambling.
Linux isn't a company.
I dont think a single more based company has ever existed.
Hyperbole much? I like Steam as much as the next guy but lets not pretend the guy that owns 6 yachts is a good person just because he's better than the next worst. Steam DRMs the shit out of games sold on their platform and if you're an indie dev that wants to sell your game Steam is THE place to do it.
Steam made $10bn last year, they have about 100 employees (their parent company Valve has about 400). I used to be a bigger fan of GabeN but more recently really started considering him and looking into it and realized he's just another unethical billionaire. This video by Coffeezilla is a good jumping off point. regarding the intentional targeting of youth with addictive gambling mechanics in loot crates and circumventing gambling laws. It's all very purposeful and continues to this day.
I will always have some admiration for a person that sets up shop in Microsoft's back yard and bases the system on Linux. I hate the DRM aspect and couldn't care less about what promoting whatever with children because quite frankly that's just not going to be solved by anything other than parents taking better care of their kids. The same can be said about exposure to any kind of media, including not letting children watch commercials on Saturday morning because gee whiz, that stuff is exploitative.
To me complaints about exposing kids to gambling is just finding something to be pissed off about and reinforces my feeling that the Left has picked up the kinds of puritanism that used to be associated with the Right.
But yeah. DRM software is a serious thing to worry about. Selling people vapor is kind of a shitty thing to do.
Steam's DRM is completely optional and is among the least intrusive DRMs available for developers to use. Many games are sold 100% DRM-free on Steam.
I don't know of a single game on/from Steam that doesn't require Steam to run. Thats DRM.
It is entirely up to the developer if they want to use it though. It is not mandatory for a developer to use Steam DRM even if publishing on Steam.
Kerbal Space Program 1, at least used to not require steam running at all. I havent tried in a while, but it was supposed to stay that way.
Oh wow that is interesting. So the vast majority of devs just choose to lock it to the steam.exe?
Yeh plus they let neonazi groups usw their forums for recruiting and hate speech, because they don't want to pay any mods.
Paying someone to do that kind of work is the opposite of Valve's ideal, if I understand them correctly.
They prefer systems working well enough with as little human assistance as possible—see: review system with reactions and surge detection; user-defined game tags; front page recommendations completely based on trends; the market; and so on.
That's not to say these are bad, but they could often be improved, if only Valve was willing to pay the human cost. But part of the reason Valve remains small is they try to automate as much as they can (and if it can't be automated, it might never get done, specially considering their corporate structure).
N.B. I still prefer them over majority of companies in this space, but let's not ignore their issues, e.g. gambling. As an aside, I also appreciate GOG's "no DRM" stance, but I use Linux and sadly native support isn't there. Kudos also to Itch.io.
While I wasn’t a mod for Steam proper, I was a mod for a popular game that routinely had its share of hate groups and 8ch mobs try to take over. The flagging system worked pretty well for keeping the worst of this stuff out. Plus, the publisher is permitted to make moderators for its own Steam forum. So if you are seeing shit get out of hand on a particular title, blame the publisher, not Steam.
don't forget valve gets minors (and adults) into gambling.
I sometimes feel an anxiety when pondering what will happen when daddy Gabe isn't here to keep the wolves at bay.
That's my fear too , whoever gets their hand on valve will decide the future of pc gaming kinda , I just hope it won't get sold to ea , riot , tencent or whatever
gabe is a very smart person, if he doesnt have a post death plan for steam i would be immensely surprised.
The fact he is doing research on BCIs, I like to imagine his plan is digitizing himself so he can live forever on the net.
Honestly, I've been weaning myself off Steam for awhile now. It's great what they did to make PC gaming more accessible, but I also feel like Steam itself is an unnecessary dependency for most video games.
There should be protocols that games can implement to integrate with launchers and organize playing online.
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