Comment on Anon uses GOG
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 1 day ago
If only they gave a shit about their users enough to respect their requests for official Linux support. Various forms of this made 3 of the top 5 requests on their community wish list. Which they casually deleted and told people to use wine/proton.
This is not a consumer-friendly company. It just so happens that their consumer-oriented decisions led to profits. The moment this is not the case, they immediately change course every time. Same might be true for Valve, but at the very least we can clearly observe them sacrificing extra profits for a tiny minority of Linux users.
GOG is still mostly fine for Windows builds of games. You can support the devs and get DRM-free copies to store indefinitely. However, we shouldn’t blindly praise them and ignore the obvious bullshit they take part in.
Same might be true for Valve, but at the very least we can clearly observe them sacrificing extra profits for a tiny minority of Linux users.
Considering the Steam Deck exists, which necessitates Linux support, I’m fairly certain Valve is actively making profit from Linux support.
Which is a perfectly fine thing to do, and I really like it. But it’s not exactly altruism that’s driving their investments
It’s not altruistic, but it’s also not the behavior of a publicly traded company lol
Steam is a privately owned company though?
Yes, exactly.
clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I imagine that we Linux users are a very small share of their users. I don’t see anything malicious in it.
DupaCycki@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I disagree. It depends how you define ‘malicious’, but in any case I strongly condemn this practice.
CDPR is perfectly happy to pretend they’re consumer-friendly whenever it requires no actual work and brings profits. But the moment they have to spend a cent on changes to actually fulfill their users’ wishes (which they themselves published a wish list for, mind you) - it gets absolutely shit on and the users are told to stop bothering them.
This is nothing but a clear display of what kind of company this is. People keep praising them for doing so much for the users. Meanwhile Valve has been losing money for years, just to help a handful of Linux gamers. No corporation is your friend, but if you really want to go with the ‘least evil’ option - just buy the game on Steam and then pirate it for indefinite storage.
wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
I get your frustration, but Valve effectively prints money. They don’t need to care that Linux makes up less than 3% of all users, and they aren’t supporting it purely out of the goodness of their heart either, as they have direct incentive to do so through improving the Steam Deck.
Valve isn’t spending money or time tracking down rights holders of games that can’t legally be bought anymore. For all the good Valve does with Linux and Proton, there are games still being sold on Steam that simply do not work on modern machines. Steam leaves fixing that up to the devs.
We’re also just going to ignore Valve’s massive hand in popularizing the microtransaction laden lootbox hell? Team Fortress 2 has been an absolute money printer for them, and they’ve only brought that forward into all their other multiplayer games since, while doing nothing to curb all the gambling shit that has cropped up around things like CSGO skins. Or how about early access, never release “scams”?
I’m not convinced that any of that make Valve evil, but my point is that both of these companies aren’t your friends.
GOG isn’t just tossing stuff up on their storefront like Valve, they actively sort out how to get these games working on modern hardware and package it up in a way that is seamless for the average user. Unfortunately the average user is on Windows, and they don’t have the microtransaction mountains of money to burn pursuing Linux right now. That sucks.
As far as deleting the wishlist items? They answered it already.
Most importantly, a public wishlist isn’t a contract, and a company giving an answer you don’t like doesn’t make them evil.
I’m not happy about it, but this good vs evil, “this just shows the kind of company they are” shit is taking things pretty damn far.