I’d say Zuckerberg’s $77B disaster is not a forced mistake but a self-influcted wound. If anything, it’s the Cambridge Analytica scandal that pushed him towards the rebrand they would have been better off without.
Anon is a fan of GabeN
Submitted 1 day ago by Early_To_Risa@sh.itjust.works to greentext@sh.itjust.works
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/e33564b2-76c9-45d3-b029-0ce763344293.jpeg
Comments
ChaoticNeutralCzech@feddit.org 4 hours ago
halvar@lemy.lol 1 day ago
Guys I know he is not perfect but it’s understandable that people like him in a world where the average CEO drinks the blood of newborns daily.
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 4 hours ago
I’m pretty reluctant to be this flattening towards Gabe Newell and Valve.
Once Google was seen as one of the good companies. “Googling” became synonimous with searching on the internet. Most if not all competitors went bankrupt. When Google was accused of monopolistic behavior, its fans treated it as an attack on “perfection”. Google Chrome was a fast browser requiring less memory than its competitors. People saw them owning YouTube as a good thing. The most common form of toxicity towards new users in the Linux community was only providing lmgtfy links to them (I did get the occasional custom WinXP ISO torrent link too). Even their motto was don’t be evil.
And then came the YouTube content ID system. And then they were reluctant to throw off the far-right from their platform for breaking their ToS during Gamergate. Then they dropped the motto. Then they put ads into the Google search results. Then they let the far-right control their platform before the 2024 elections. And also they’re pushing AI hard.
Will Gabe Newell stick to his ideas, or get an anyeurism and join the Trump oligarchs?
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
It is fair to compare Google to Valve only in a category of “once been good”. Other than that, 2 different companies with 2 different mottos.
ICastFist@programming.dev 4 hours ago
Ok GabeN junior
Also, steam deck and steam machines aren’t sold at a loss
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
The steam deck was sold at a loss
The steam machine doesn’t have a price yet
ICastFist@programming.dev 1 hour ago
Got a source for that? Best I can find are “implications”, like Gaben saying the deck’s pricing is “very aggresive” and that the parts used sum up to roughly 1k dollars
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 18 hours ago
This is such a controversial person to discuss. On one hand, loot boxes, the steam market for trading, and a lot of gambling and profiteering going on. At the same time, all of the OP comments are also true.
Out of all the billionaires, I dislike gaben the least. The net good he’s done for gaming may not balance the scales entirely, but at least there’s a discussion to be had whether what gaben has done is for the better, or for the worse. Which is more than I can say about most billionaires I know of.
zebidiah@lemmy.ca 16 hours ago
Hot take: …but it’s just fucking gaming tho… He’s not fucking with manifesting some bullshit ideology throughout the world, he’s not trying to leave his mark on history… And if he is, it’s as a chill dude who gave us all a better alternative to piracy.
Alaknar@sopuli.xyz 6 hours ago
he’s not trying to leave his mark on history
He kind of is, but in the way old-school millionaires did - he has purchased a MASSIVE yacht and turned it into an ocean-floor research laboratory, either donated it to a university, or just allows researchers to use it.
infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 11 hours ago
Gabe was already wealthy with Microsoft money when he founded Valve, so when his new private startup found success he didn’t feel the pressure to go public, expand, dilute, and cash out. He made the judgement call that they already had enough talent internally to keep playing the hits while keeping all the profit for themselves, and he was right.
Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
I mean, he is developing the brain chip with his Starfish Neuroscience company but its supposed to be minimally invasive and let’s be real if its between his and Elon Musks (which is NOT minimally invasive and requires surgical implantation) I’m definitely going with his.
I wouldn’t say at this point its all about gaming though. Valve is, but not necessarily Gabe. Which I don’t mind but I could understand how some people wouldn’t like it.
buttnugget@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I remember back around 2010 period, maybe a bit after that, Valve and reddit were both hiring economists. We can see exactly why, now.
Redacted@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Gaben and steam are not perfect, but are monumentally better than what we would be stuck with on sony-soft
rockerface@lemmy.cafe 1 day ago
They’re succeeding by not actively running their platform into the ground, which is somehow inspiring and disappointing at the same time
imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 hours ago
succeeding by not actively running their platform into the ground
As someone who began to use Steam from 2007, and play their games since 2000 - they not only made their platform better over years, they also now branching out lately. Their hardware is either the best in price/performance or outright innovative.
They are not “succeeding by not actively running their platform into the ground”, they succeeding in actually providing a good service and getting better the more time passes. All that while all competition does is to attempt to expand their user base without actually providing a good service.
Just thought that if not Valve, we’d be stuck in the same shithole streaming services been lately.
MinFapper@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
That’s because they’re a privately owned company. They can decide when to prioritize long term profits over short term profits.
Most of their competition are publicity traded companies that have no such luxury. They have to make next quarter’s number higher no matter what.
Baggie@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
All that’s between you and success is a consistent and reasonable performance, but seemingly everyone else in the world is too greedy to pull this off.
kuberoot@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
I am a fan of Valve, but this is just way exaggerated. For example, encourages you to save money by having sales? Isn’t that about manipulating you into buying more games than you would otherwise, because you perceive the value as being better?
reev@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I fall for it every time and I couldn’t be more proud
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
Yeah, Valve are certainly one of the best options for buying games other than sometimes GoG or directly from the developer. But this level of simping for Valve is odd.
Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 13 hours ago
They don’t set the prices. Developers and Publishers of the game are the ones that do that.
PlayStation has been known to straight up limit and even DENY developers and publishers of indie games on their platform but its strange I never see hate for them very much. And they also have crazy sales on AAA games too.
Bababasti@feddit.org 1 day ago
Right? The best method of saving money is not to spend it in the first place, no matter how good the deal is. I mean, good deals are nice and all if you really need a thing.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Where I am, games in Steam cost about five to ten bucks normally, and two or three bucks on sale. Ten bucks goes quite far here, and without sales many wouldn’t buy games at all. Now, is it good value to buy games instead of not buying any?
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.
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.
brathoven@feddit.org 6 hours ago
Exactly, and Steam is not a bad company… yet.
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 21 hours 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”.
regdog@lemmy.world 1 day ago
At least they are not beholden to parasitic shareholders that demand quarterly grow at all costs.
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
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.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Yes, it’s better to have companies that have no power and do nothing.
Spaniard@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
They only began giving refunds when the European Union mandated it, back then only Origin (EA) gave refunds. Some times the EU is useful.
pulsewidth@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
The EU definitely helped. I’ll add that this was actually kicked off by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in 2014. They took Valve to court over their insistence that they can ignore Australian Consumer Law rights - in particular that if a product is ‘not fit for purpose’ then the buyer is entitled to a full refund, with respect to games. Valve offered no possibility of refund at the time. The case dragged on, but Valve eventually lost and was told to pay several million in fines, they appealed it to the High Court of Australia in 2016 - and lost also on appeal.
The judge was pissed at Valve, and wrote in their ruling:
“Valve’s culture of compliance was, and is, very poor”. Valve’s evidence was ‘disturbing’ to the Court because Valve ‘formed a view …that it was not subject to Australian law…and with the view that even if [legal] advice had been obtained that Valve was required to comply with the Australian law the advice might have been ignored”. He also noted that Valve had ‘contested liability on almost every imaginable point’.
Valve are generally a very positive force in gaming, but they’re definitely not the saints that OP image text implies.
nialv7@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
I have a bias in favor of Valve because I do like them. But I still do want to make a fair argument and would like to be corrected if I fail to do so.
So, yes, Valve’s refund policy in the past was bad, and yes, they were forced to change. But since then they have fixed their mistakes, and have arguably the most generous refund policy out there. Last time I bought digital content from Nintendo store I had to waive my refund rights.
They could have limited refunds to Australia but they didn’t. This has to count for something, right? Valve is a for profit company in a capitalist system, and yes they have bad practices. But surely we can agree they are one of the better ones?
diffaldo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 hours ago
Thanks for the info and sources!
ekZepp@lemmy.world 1 day ago
STEAM- Give a reasonable good platform for gaming.
OTHER- Kill themselves with shitty optimization and spam policies.
STEAM - Sit enjoing the sunny day, drink a coffee. Improve a bit the navigator to find new game.
OTHER - Keep a their shitty platform and doble down on AI Slop.
STEAM - Doing some yoga. Walk the dog. Add an AI disclaimer for the games.
BendingHawk@lemmy.world 1 day ago
People saying that when Gabe dies so does Steam seem to be missing a piece of the puzzle.
From everything I’ve read and can tell they work using an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program). Meaning each employee working there today is becoming partial owners in Valve. If you think they will allow some new face to show up when Gabe dies and flip the table you are missing the piece where the owners of this company are extremely well compensated today and a core part of making Valve successful today.
Lee@retrolemmy.com 21 hours ago
A ton of companies have ESOP, but that doesn’t stop enshitification because the employees generally don’t own enough shares to exert control.
nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca 20 hours ago
Those shares are also generally for sale for a high enough price. Given the immense current value of the brand, when Gabe dies vultures of every variety will start circling. If they offer employees 2x their share price to sell, enough of them will do it to lose control to investors that just want to enshittify everything and milk it’s brand for every last penny as they drive it into the ground.
TwistedTurtle@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
My company is an ESOP and shares don’t give us a voting rights or any actual control, it’s just a monetary incentive. The C-suite/board still control everything and unilaterally makes all the executive decisions.
truthfultemporarily@feddit.org 1 day ago
BTW the way refunds work is that steam withholds the money for a month to pay refunds with it. The publisher has no say, they just get gross - 30% - VAT - refunds.
GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 1 day ago
Also giving refunds is required by law in some countries, it’s not like valve invented it out of the goodness of their heart.
JesusChristLover420@lemmy.sdf.org 1 day ago
Australia sued them into their current refund policy
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
They did not need to extend that to countries like the US.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Is this supposed to be a negative?
uncouple9831@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Well the op said it was out of their own pockets, this is saying that op’s claim is fake.
The fact that you immediately got weirdly defensive about it tells me you think it’s a negative.
UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 4 hours ago
“No one does sales”
Sure. Don’t even need to get past the first line. I send my regards to OP.
rtxn@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I know this novel strategy that Valve employs might be difficult to conceptualize for people whose thinking only extends as far as “company evil, success bad”, so let me summarize it in a format that is easier to understand:
LH0ezVT@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I receive: half-decent product You receive: my money end of story
The sad thing is that them having a half decent product is something special in this world
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
How would you like to see it improved?
tetris11@feddit.uk 1 day ago
Step 1. Make a good product
Step 2. Corner the market
Step 3. Build up good will
Step 4. …?
Step 5. Keep building up good will
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Step 4 is “buy the company that builds the yachts you like”
nialv7@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Which is not great, but is a lot better than actively destroying the fabric of the society, like all other billionaires are doing.
Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Lol everyone always gets mad that dude has yachts.
Do you think that the CEOs of Microsoft and Sony don’t have yachts?
So that’s something they have in common. But consumer good will and overall happiness with the service isn’t. Only one of the companies have that distinction and you know which one it is.
unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
Believing that sales exist to save people money is the funniest shit i have ever seen.
chiliedogg@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Steam refused to issue refunds for a long, long time. In the end they started allowing refunds for everyone because governments started requiring it and it was easier to just allow them for everyone than having to do the legal footwork to have different policies based on geography.
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I think they’ve even been forced to pay fines because they refused to give refunds in countries where it’s a legal right.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Never thought I’d see the day when Lemmy has nice things to say about a billionaire who owns multiple yachts!
There’s a story recently about how a huge percentage of people’s steam libraries are never played. People just spending money on steam sales and amassing huge backlogs of games they’ll never get to. Valve has mastered the art of using sales to create FOMO and drive unnecessary spending!
nialv7@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
So your position is a store should never have sales? Besides, pretty sure games need to willingly participate to be on sale. e.g. factorio has never been on sale.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
I didn’t give my position.
I don’t participate in steam sales anymore. I don’t buy anything on steam because I’ve already got way more games than I’ll ever be able to play. If there’s a new game that I really want to play I’ll try to get it from outside steam if I can, or at the very least make sure it’s DRM-free so I can play it without launching the steam client (I hate the steam client but that’s just my opinion and I won’t tell anyone else what to feel about it).
Do I think they should be banned from having sales? No. I also don’t think gambling should be made illegal even though I’ll continue trying to warn people away from gambling.
Skankhunt420@sh.itjust.works 19 hours ago
Imagine arguing that creating a service so much better than the competition available in that industry that it drives people to spend the most money on that platform is a bad thing.
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
It isn’t better though? GOG is a better service. DRM-free, web based downloads (galaxy is completely optional). They even invest development resources to get old games working better.
Steam is mostly the dominant platform due to first-mover advantage. They aren’t the best and most of the games on Steam aren’t even exclusives.
tawaken@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
Wait, why we should not argue? Steam is not perfect so we yap. Also not good enough considering it’s just a game listing library and still taking 30% cut from devs imo.
aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 hours ago
he just took ownership of a $500M megayacht. Yes, he’s a bit better than other billionaires, but he’s still a billionaire. While other people starve to death he’s sitting pretty on billions. He’s as unethical as the rest of the oligarchy.
drunkpostdisaster@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
What exactly should be done about that?
chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
Done about what? I stopped using steam. I buy games directly from developers or from GOG or humble bundle as well as just supporting open source games.
Nothing I can do about GabeN’s yachts though!
Commander_Keen@reddthat.com 6 hours ago
Love live Lord Gaben!
Archer@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I was extremely impressed that Valve did an RMA replacement for one of my Index base stations even out of warranty. They explicitly did not have to do that. It’s been years but I’m still amazed
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Yeah my white OLED Steam Deck broke (it was definitely my fault), and they sent me a replacement, no questions asked. Also white OLED, after you couldn’t even buy them anymore.
QueenHawlSera@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
The power vacuum this man will leave behind sucks.
frazw@lemmy.world 1 day ago
“Sells hardware at a loss to hook you into the steam ecosystem and make more money by selling you software” FTFY
Don’t get me wrong, as companies go I like valve, but to say they aren’t making decisions based on making more money and just out of altruistic motives is madness. Businesses that aren’t healthy and competitive die, even if they have rabid fans.
d00ery@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Steam deck supports Xbox live streaming, gog, epic via lutris and heroic. Is about as far from a locked down ecosystem as one could possibly get.
frazw@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Never said it was locked. But being locked or unlocked doesn’t change the motivation and is irrelevant to my point. The more people on the steam ecosystem, the better for them. It is far easier to use steam on the steam deck than any of the options you put forward. Even so, not preventing their use means people are more likely to buy the steam deck, which in turn means they are more likely to use steam as their primary store.
Epic, etc are not a default and at the beginning were not easy to get working.
Oh and you got it the wrong. Those things support the steam deck (usually via third party hacks), the steam deck doesn’t support them, it you would be able to install them from the steam store with tight integration into the library by default. It just doesn’t prevent them. That is a BIG difference. But yes, doing similar things on other hardware might not be possible or at least as easy. I’m grateful their are so many enthusiasts out there making such things possible.
SpaceScotsman@startrek.website 1 day ago
Forgot about steam’s forced DRM on purchases. Forgot about their inconsistent policing of content in games they sell. Forgot about steam not wanting accounts to be inherited when you pass away. Forgot about their 30% cut for small devs while bigger devs get a smaller cut. Forgot about a lot of things.
hoppolito@mander.xyz 1 day ago
Don’t read this as a general defence of steam but I do want to correct a factual mistake: there is no forced DRM on steam.
Plenty of games are released on steam which do not rely on the steam client to be started and are in fact DRM-free. They can be backed up, and played on any machine without steam installed.
Some examples are Cyberpunk2077, the System Shock remake, Shadow tactics, and most of the devolver digital catalogue. The issue I personally have is that steam itself does not declare the difference anywhere in the store front, but at least it is always accurately catalogued on the lovely pcgamingwiki.
rockerface@lemmy.cafe 1 day ago
Yeah, would be nice if they added a DRM disclaimer like they did with AI
Glide@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Usually accurately displayed on the PCGamingWiki, at least. I’ve tested games that it listed as having SteamDRM and discovered that they’re actually DRM free. My experience is that new entries on Steam are likely to be listed as using SteamDRM. People usually just assume when they’re making the initial page.
Laser@feddit.org 1 day ago
I think this is factually wrong, Steam only introduced refunds because they were forced to for the European market
uberfreeza@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
As a fan of TF2, I’ll quote another greentext: “does nothing, competition keeps shooting themself in the foot.” It was about Overwatch vs TF2, but it’s mostly similar.
Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 1 day ago
When he dies gaming lives on within us.
Rikj000@discuss.tchncs.de 1 day ago
2 words though “Kiddie gambling”.
Sure Steam is one of the less evil companies out there, but they’re far from innocent.
k0e3@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
They sell their hardware at a loss?
Also, that’s not necessarily because they put the consumers’ needs advice anything else. Sony and Microsoft do this all the time simply for market share.
x00z@lemmy.world 1 day ago
All of the Valve employees are making bank. I don’t think they’ll be changing their core values any time soon even if he dies.
SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
Lets pray valve never goes public