• Spiralvortexisalie@lemmy.world
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    4 minutes ago

    Yeah I am old enough to remember it being just a launcher (ala Ubisoft or EA games) for Half life 2 and a way to counter-strike with no mods. TBH I thought it was gonna fail hard and then after a decade of success, even I was stuck on steam. Also to add originally they only sold valve games as literally no third party was willing to give them a cent and they were short on IP.

  • FreeBooteR69
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    2 hours ago

    I remember hating the idea, during the age when games came in boxes. Now i support Steam with the tremendous support they’ve given the Linux platform. Most games i have are games on Steam, but i do have a bunch on GoG, as well as Itch.io. Don’t keep all your eggs in one basket, but have to admit the Steam basket is humongous.

    • charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works
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      34 minutes ago

      GOG is pretty good but they have zero Linux support that I’m aware of. Had to return a game I bought off there last year. Bought it through Steam and it worked seamlessly.

  • Grimy@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    That tracks, everyone still owned their games back then. At least Gaben got his 8 yatchs though.

    • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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      56 minutes ago

      Remember when you could sell games you’d never play again and people less fortunate than you could have their fun with them for a much lower price?

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    He’s right. Everyone hated the idea of any always online DRM to play the disc you bought in a store. Steam backed off with options for a game to sometimes work offline and a pinky promise to free your games if Gaben died and the new owner decided you own nothing.

    It’s weird, people hate the current DRM system for games and love Steam. Yet it was Steam that pioneered it. If Steam failed, there’s a chance we would still own games instead of them being tied to online DRM verification.

    Steam is the benevolent dictator but that’s not going to last forever.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        I remember, buy game. Enter CD key “key already taken” Return game “sorry, box is open we don’t take media returns” Rage.

    • 100@fedia.io
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      1 hour ago

      steam drm is the bare minimum license check and its not mandatory for anyone to implement in their game

    • usrtrv@sh.itjust.works
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      2 hours ago

      No, that’s what consumers like you are thinking in hindsight and unrelated.

      The context Gabe is talking about is when he was approaching publishers. They were just being anti tech and believing in traditional brick and mortar. They were definently pro-DRM. They just couldn’t fathom a digital marketplace.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        1 hour ago

        Maybe you weren’t old enough to remember it, but people were pissed and swore they would forever boycott Steam when it released

        • Dyskolos@lemmy.zip
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          53 minutes ago

          I indeed was one of them. Managed to boycott until left4dead2. Then i caved in. The war was lost anyway. And now i have easily put 5 figures into steam and own nothing.

    • charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works
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      37 minutes ago

      What a load of fucking shit. My “everyone” loved the fact that we didn’t have to keep track of stupid garbage fucking DVDs and keep track of some license key.

    • MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz
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      1 hour ago

      Steam is undoubtedly convenient.

      But if any game you care about keeping is on GOG, it’s a good idea to buy a copy on there, and then squirreling away the offline installer files/extracted game files somewhere safe.