Exactly, and Steam is not a bad company… yet.
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Broadfern@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Mmmm billionaire boot must be delicious
Steam is not a bad company but it is still a company that holds a lot of power, don’t forget that.
brathoven@feddit.org 10 hours ago
realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 1 day ago
Steam has had this power for ages tho and never abused it to the disadvantage of customers.
Supporting companies that don’t shit on consumers is equally important as boycotting companies that do.
pulsewidth@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Hmmm. Everyone takes Steam refunds for granted now. But until late 2015 they refused to do refunds for any kind of game purchase, even if the game was literally unplayable by buyers - until they were dragged through the courts by the ACCC and fined, with similar legal demands happening from the EU around the same time.
Dunno if I’d call that, “never abused their power to the disadvantage of customers”.
realitaetsverlust@piefed.zip 9 hours ago
That is not true. I know this because I had one case where I did get a refund for a game called “War Z” - I also found an article that explains that the game was pulled by valve and they have indeed offered refunds: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/how-not-to-launch-a-video-game-starring-i-the-war-z-i-
On the same site, I also found this article talking about a ubisoft game that was pulled: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/report-ubisoft-offering-refunds-on-i-from-dust-i-through-steam
Now, it’s debateable if this was a valve or a ubisoft decision - however, knowing ubisoft, I’d say they were pressured by valve to give in lmao.
I’ve also found this article on polygon that talks about another Early Access Title that was pulled by valve and refunded to buyers because it was shit: https://www.polygon.com/2014/5/6/5686826/earth-year-2066-refund-steam-early-access/
And that’s just what I found with a few minutes of research. I’m fairly confident if I search some more, I’ll find much more of those cases.
So yes, while the stance back then was “all purchases are final”, you were absolutely able to get your money back if the game was truly broken and unplayable. Don’t get me wrong, the current rule is significantly better, but claiming that steam hasn’t been on customers side back then is just straightup wrong.
pulsewidth@lemmy.world 52 minutes ago
Their policy was that if a game was activated on your account then you were not entitled to a refund. The fact that they pulled some games from the store due to significant complaints about those individual titles (or at publisher request), and subsequently decided to make an exception to refund that particular game for some people does not disprove that their standard policy was ‘you are not entitled to a refund’.
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip 4 hours ago
And I have an anecdote that counters your anecdote. I’ve been refused a refund. It was at their discretion. Game crashing withing 10 minutes of playing every time isn’t always enough to get them to deign to give you your money back…
So, yes, it IS true. Them occasionally making a PR friendly move and going against their own policy doesn’t change that
Chivera@lemmy.world 1 day ago
And if they get rid of most of the competition then they can treat us like garbage and we’d have nowhere to go.
Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus 1 day ago
If Valve would want to do that, they could have done so years ago. To the contrary, there are more stores where you can buy games online then ever before (Epic, Windows Store, GOG, Itch.io, Fanatical, Humble and so on, with steam keys and without), and i haven’t heard of a single aqcuisition by Valve yet.
Burghler@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
What competition lol
regdog@lemmy.world 1 day ago
At least they are not beholden to parasitic shareholders that demand quarterly grow at all costs.
imeanwhynot@lemmy.world 1 day ago
It seems from your response that you have at least some desire to educate… Why must that also come with derision?
It isn’t that hard to convey a message without such a contemptuous tone, and I’d venture to guess it would be more likely to persuade. Someone has seen some good in a thing. You can disagree without scorn.
Broadfern@lemmy.world 1 day ago
My apologies, this community is generally memey/jokey in tone, and was going with that. /gen
I’m also firing off dumb comments at like 2 am where I am, lol. Please do not take my short soundbites (text bites?) seriously.
On a more serious note, one billion dollars is a legitimately unfathomable amount of wealth and, by extension, unilateral power. That’s a dangerous thing for any one person to hold, regardless of how kind their heart is since it means the use of that power is dependent on the whims of one person.
Corporations are also, by their nature, driven by a profit motive. A corporation can do non-evil, customer-friendly things but that can also change very quickly. It’s important to differentiate between beneficial behavior and altruism.
Also, I typically don’t expect people to read me soapboxing unsolicited under a green text meme lol.
Also also, I am quite appreciative of the benefits of Valve’s efforts. I just don’t assume they’re purely doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. Nor do I expect/demand them to.
imeanwhynot@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’ve lurked on Lemmy for over a year and this post, for whatever reason, compelled me to register an account to respond; I took your comment to be a tad critical. It seems I may’ve misread the room here - my apologies if so. I agree wholeheartedly with pretty much all you’ve said. Thanks for the response.
Broadfern@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Your concerns are valid since text is hard to interpret due to lack of inflection, context, and other intonation indicators. I try to remember to use tone tags but don’t always.
Thank you for your thoughtful responses and engagement, though. Good faith discussion is an important thing on the web, and is a large part of why I like Lemmy over Reddit and other centralized social media sites. I appreciate you for that and adding to the constructiveness and positivity :) /gen
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, it’s better to have companies that have no power and do nothing.
Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yeah. I am a fan of valve but their complicity in cs:go skin gambling uhhh… gets worse and worse the more closely you look at it.
Its fair to appreciate the good they have done for linux and largely very consumer friendly business practices AND, companies are not your friends.
radiouser@crazypeople.online 1 day ago
Valve’s “hands-off” approach extends far beyond CS:GO gambling. They have the same willful negligence toward moderating their own official group chats.
For weeks, the official Steam Deck group chat has been flooded with racist slurs and hate speech. I and many others reported the individuals responsible, yet weeks passed with zero action taken.
Frustrated, I opened a formal support ticket. I detailed the offenses, provided evidence, and explained why a basic filtering system or active moderation is necessary for their own official spaces. Valve’s response? They closed my ticket without taking any action at all. They have confirmed, through inaction, that providing a non-toxic environment in their official communities is not a priority.
This experience has made me lose a significant amount of respect for Valve. I will now be actively purchasing my games elsewhere in protest.