Comment on I hate when a PC game is ONLY available on Epic Games store

• SloganLessons@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Long story short, there were two main issues that people had with Epic:

  • they made exclusivity a thing inside pc platform (this was the main issue for most people)
  • Tim Sweeney is generally disliked

  The first issue speaks for itself. The second needs a bit more context.

  Tim Sweeney has an history of being arbitrary. One year he says one thing, the next another. Relevant to this case, Tim was openly against PC gaming back in the day, while Valve was pushing for PC gaming. We’re talking around 2010, where console gaming was predominant, most publisher favored consoles against PC. Valve at the time was one of the few companies betting on the PC platform.

  Now, he’s suddenly pro PC gaming. People see this as him doing a 180, and trying to take the spoils from Valve’s work.

  Then there were also some comments that he made that aged like milk, but generally speaking this is why people take an issue with Epic but not Steam

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• GalacticHero@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I mostly take issue with the paid exclusivity deals from Epic. That kind of thing can stay on consoles. I also don’t trust Tim Sweeney or Tencent, and I feel that they’re kind of openly hostile to consumers.

  I don’t care for intrusive DRM, but it’s clearly marked which games have it on Steam and which don’t. I won’t buy anything that requires a second account or has Denuvo. I don’t do online matchmaking games anymore, but if I did, I’d also avoid anything with kernel-level anti-cheat. I don’t really mind Steamworks DRM, though. It’s not intrusive and Steam is useful enough that I normally have it running in the background anyway.

  I also like buying on Steam because they’re contributing so much to Linux gaming and FOSS, even if Steam itself isn’t FOSS. It’s because of them that I can have a Windows-free household without any significant compromises.

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  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That kind of thing can stay on consoles.

    I understand console exclusives. The hardware is different, it takes extra time and money to be compatible with multiple systems.

    Epic exclusives is just “fuck you you have to buy from me because I threw some money around to say so.”

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• cmhe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Well I can only speak for myself, but I prefer games stores in that order:

  1. GOG, because DRM free and they don’t enforce game updates.
  2. Steam, because they are well integrated into the SteamDeck, they push Linux gaming, and Gabe seems to be an alright guy.
  3. Itch.io, because lots of indy games
  4. Epic Game store, good: free games, bad: Epic and Tim Sweeney.

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  • kazerniel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    For the top dog PC game store, Valve could behave much much worse.

    But also much much better. They are really hands off with scummy dev practices, such as paid review farms. Sentinels of the Store covered them here. After it blew up, Steam removed some of the most obvious cases, but afaik others remain.

    Steam has also been hosting numerous outright neo-Nazi groups for many years (PDF) and never really stepped up effectively against them. User reports and media attention has limited effect.

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    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Steam has also been hosting numerous outright neo-Nazi groups for many years (PDF) and never really stepped up effectively against them. User reports and media attention has limited effect.

      As a general rule, steam discussion boards for a game are moderated by whoever the developer assigns that power to, and steam user groups are moderated by the group owner or whoever they delegate that power to and Steam doesn’t particularly care so long as you aren’t doxing, openly coordinating harassment, or doing something explicitly illegal in the US.

      That’s also the general tilt they’ve taken with what’s allowed on the store since they opened the floodgates - if it’s not illegal and it’s not going to get them sued, it’s probably allowed if properly tagged. Which is why you can find Sex With Hitler side by side with Super Lesbian Animal RPG.

      Worst they do is block it from specific regions if the local government requests it - see that game where you essentially play as Hamas fighting against the IDF that they recently blocked from the UK, the one where the largest part of the game description is arguing that the game isn’t antisemitic hate speech just because the enemy are Jewish. The call to block it came after a new patch that apparently added a scenario based on the Oct 7 attack.

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    • cmhe@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sure.

      Valve can do a lot more, but what is more concerning to me is if they are actively consumer unfriendly. There is a difference between passively allowing bad stuff to happen, and actively doing bad stuff.

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      • kazerniel@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        There is a difference between passively allowing bad stuff to happen, and actively doing bad stuff.

        I don’t see that much difference. They are half-arsed about store and community moderation to such a degree that it feels like deliberate neglect. They chose the responsibility of running a platform, so need to do the job properly. If they need to hire more staff to do it, perhaps they could afford it from their 9 billion USD profits (as of last year).

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  • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Epic Game store, good: free games, bad: Epic and Tim Sweeney.

    Sums up how I feel about them. I have lots of games on my Epic account. I have paid for none of them, and refuse to change that. If it’s an Epic exclusive, it will eventually either release on other platforms, become an epic store free game of the week, or be an epic store freebie on amazon prime. I have enough games in my library I can wait.

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