8 ms·

I don't see epic being a better alternative to Steam. Steam sucks, is anti consumer but Epic is even worse. They don't even allow communication or rating. Isn't

I don't see epic being a better alternative to Steam. Steam sucks, is anti consumer but Epic is even worse. They don't even allow communication or rating. Isn't Epic also mayorly Chinese owned? And their constant pushing that I should install and run their service all the time, even try to trick me into installing it is also very suspicious. I will not run some game selling platform's service in the background all the time, even if it's just on a gaming machine. Bad enough my graphics drivers run harmful spyware in the background (nvidia). Then their return policy is the same as Valve's 2h and I have to waive my 14 day right of withdrawal from the purchase. Replace shit with more smelly shit.

t3rabytes 4y ago
Tencent has a minority stake, Tim Sweeney is still majority shareholder.
est 4y ago
> Isn't Epic also mayorly Chinese owned? By Chinese you mean Tencent? Tencent is south-african owned.
- Quikinterp 4y ago
  Tencent is Chinese and has its hq in China.
- imchillyb 4y ago
  > By Chinese you mean Tencent? Tencent is south-african owned. @est > Founded in 1998 with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China,... > ...Tencent has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2004. > https://www.tencent.com/en-us/about.html#about-con-1 https://www.tencent.com/en-us/about.html#about-con-1
  - est 4y ago
    Since we are talking about how Epic was invested by Tencent, the same rule applies here: https://www.ft.com/content/1270c7e4-95e4-406f-b712-c3234152437f https://www.ft.com/content/1270c7e4-95e4-406f-b712-c32341524... South African internet group Naspers, Tencent’s biggest shareholder
    - solardev 4y ago
      In China, the government is more powerful than capital. No matter where their money comes from, Tencent is at its heart a Chinese company, with all the shenanigans that entails.
      - est 4y ago
        > the government is more powerful than capital That depends how you perceive government. The Chinese government is just one of the the executive branches of CCP holdings.
        solardev 4y ago
        That's a strange way to look at sovereign wealth. Their government has power far beyond the budget and no real checks and balances.
robertlagrant 4y ago
Steam might not be perfect, but compared to any other option I can think of it's not only better, but far, far better.
- ThunderSizzle 4y ago
  Agreed. I haven't come across a store/library system in any ecosystem that I'd prefer. In fact, I feel like Steam is a model for other places like e-books, movies & tv streaming, etc. Is Steam perfect? No. But Amazon Prime gives me the shivers after they arbitrarily pulled movies from libraries after purchase intentionally and without refund. Audible/Kindle tries selling me while I'm in my library, etc.
- geekifier 4y ago
  > Steam might not be perfect, but compared to any other option I can think of it's not only better, but far, far better. What about GOG? Their client is optional, you can download full installers for offline archiving, no DRM. First option that comes to mind that is clearly superior.
  - Benanov 4y ago
    IMO GOG is great for single-player games. For multiplayer, the Steam integration for some a nice bonus and others a necessity. I had to re-buy Stardew Valley on Steam because the GoG version only had "connect to IP" (I cannot run GOG Galaxy on Linux) and all of my friends were using Steam versions that had other connect options.
  - HideousKojima 4y ago
    GOG is definitely superior as far as respecting the rights of consumers is concerned, but their web store and library client (Galaxy) doesn't offer nearly as many features as Steam. Things like hosting mods and making them super easy to download/install through Steam Workshop. Or things like streaming gameplay to a different device (or even streaming your normal desktop allowing you to use it from a different device so you aren't just limited to Steam games). Or WINE emulation on Linux with minimal configuration needed. Steam provides some legitimate value-add features that pretty much no one else does, making it much more than just a storefront.
HelloMcFly 4y ago
Steam doesn't feel anti-consumer to this consumer.
- viridian 4y ago
  It's a host DRM, and many games also integrate with steamworks, making it an embedded DRM that can prevent your games from launching without a connection even if they otherwise wouldn't need one. As others have said, this is inferior to both GOG, and physical media, except a large percentage of physical media now also does not function without the aid of online DRM.
  - P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
    inferior to digital media my ass, DRM on digital media hosing my linux partition is what pushed me to exclusively use steam and gog.
  - ThunderSizzle 4y ago
    I'd say the cd key and cd check of physical media is more anti-consumer than Steam. Of course there were third party patches to remove the cd check, but that's no different than making a way around steam drm.
  - mrguyorama 4y ago
    The DRM built into steam is pretty purposely nerfed. Supposedly it is trivial to bypass, which is why many game companies put 3rd party DRM in as well. If valve dies tomorrow, it will be way easier to revive most of my steam library than anything on origin or EA whatever-its-called-this-week. They also just have like 20 years of clear results, consumer non-hostility, and goodwill
  - HelloMcFly 4y ago
    I get it, I understand, but I like the product they've given and I like that it continues to improve.
oneoff786 4y ago
Epic Games gives a free game every single week and has done so for the past couple years at least. Many of these are fairly big titles. Around Christmas they have done a free game every day. They’re very pro indie dev on the unreal side. I don’t mind steam but epic is clearly the better choice for me.
- artificialLimbs 4y ago
  Give a game... take a game...
  - oneoff786 4y ago
    Shrug. I’ve enjoyed Civ 6, Control, Dead By Daylight, Darkest Dungeon, 20XX, Remnant, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Star Wars Squadron, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Enter the Gungeon, Darkwood, Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars, Blair Witch, XCOM 2, Scythe, Verdun, Ring of Pain, and many other titles all for free. I don’t like them dropping support for these games but it’s still a huge net positive for me, and I’d try to buy everything on epic if I’m going to buy it accordingly.
imchillyb 4y ago
> alternative to Steam. Steam sucks... @lakomen Steam is the best content delivery platform for games. Developers have spoken with their content and users have spoken with their accounts. It's not as good as it could be, sure... But, what is? Even EA brought back titles they'd removed from Steam, as it hurt their bottom line. Players prefer Steam over all other CDNs. The numbers assure us of this.
dawnerd 4y ago
Valve will refund games past the 2h window if you have a reasonable reason. I had to the other day when I just couldn't get a game running despite following all of the community suggestions. Ended up going over the 2h window without realizing it and they approved the refund without issue.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  Valve's refund policy before they made it better was probably the closest to anti-consumer you could call them. In many countries it was straight up illegal and had to get put through court before they would give you the rights you had as an australian citizen for example.

t3rabytes 4y ago

Tencent has a minority stake, Tim Sweeney is still majority shareholder.

est 4y ago

> Isn't Epic also mayorly Chinese owned? By Chinese you mean Tencent? Tencent is south-african owned.

Quikinterp 4y ago
Tencent is Chinese and has its hq in China.
imchillyb 4y ago
> By Chinese you mean Tencent? Tencent is south-african owned. @est > Founded in 1998 with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China,... > ...Tencent has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2004. > https://www.tencent.com/en-us/about.html#about-con-1 https://www.tencent.com/en-us/about.html#about-con-1
- est 4y ago
  Since we are talking about how Epic was invested by Tencent, the same rule applies here: https://www.ft.com/content/1270c7e4-95e4-406f-b712-c3234152437f https://www.ft.com/content/1270c7e4-95e4-406f-b712-c32341524... South African internet group Naspers, Tencent’s biggest shareholder
  - solardev 4y ago
    In China, the government is more powerful than capital. No matter where their money comes from, Tencent is at its heart a Chinese company, with all the shenanigans that entails.
    - est 4y ago
      > the government is more powerful than capital That depends how you perceive government. The Chinese government is just one of the the executive branches of CCP holdings.
      - solardev 4y ago
        That's a strange way to look at sovereign wealth. Their government has power far beyond the budget and no real checks and balances.

robertlagrant 4y ago

Steam might not be perfect, but compared to any other option I can think of it's not only better, but far, far better.

ThunderSizzle 4y ago
Agreed. I haven't come across a store/library system in any ecosystem that I'd prefer. In fact, I feel like Steam is a model for other places like e-books, movies & tv streaming, etc. Is Steam perfect? No. But Amazon Prime gives me the shivers after they arbitrarily pulled movies from libraries after purchase intentionally and without refund. Audible/Kindle tries selling me while I'm in my library, etc.
geekifier 4y ago
> Steam might not be perfect, but compared to any other option I can think of it's not only better, but far, far better. What about GOG? Their client is optional, you can download full installers for offline archiving, no DRM. First option that comes to mind that is clearly superior.
- Benanov 4y ago
  IMO GOG is great for single-player games. For multiplayer, the Steam integration for some a nice bonus and others a necessity. I had to re-buy Stardew Valley on Steam because the GoG version only had "connect to IP" (I cannot run GOG Galaxy on Linux) and all of my friends were using Steam versions that had other connect options.
- HideousKojima 4y ago
  GOG is definitely superior as far as respecting the rights of consumers is concerned, but their web store and library client (Galaxy) doesn't offer nearly as many features as Steam. Things like hosting mods and making them super easy to download/install through Steam Workshop. Or things like streaming gameplay to a different device (or even streaming your normal desktop allowing you to use it from a different device so you aren't just limited to Steam games). Or WINE emulation on Linux with minimal configuration needed. Steam provides some legitimate value-add features that pretty much no one else does, making it much more than just a storefront.

HelloMcFly 4y ago

Steam doesn't feel anti-consumer to this consumer.

viridian 4y ago
It's a host DRM, and many games also integrate with steamworks, making it an embedded DRM that can prevent your games from launching without a connection even if they otherwise wouldn't need one. As others have said, this is inferior to both GOG, and physical media, except a large percentage of physical media now also does not function without the aid of online DRM.
- P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
  inferior to digital media my ass, DRM on digital media hosing my linux partition is what pushed me to exclusively use steam and gog.
- ThunderSizzle 4y ago
  I'd say the cd key and cd check of physical media is more anti-consumer than Steam. Of course there were third party patches to remove the cd check, but that's no different than making a way around steam drm.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  The DRM built into steam is pretty purposely nerfed. Supposedly it is trivial to bypass, which is why many game companies put 3rd party DRM in as well. If valve dies tomorrow, it will be way easier to revive most of my steam library than anything on origin or EA whatever-its-called-this-week. They also just have like 20 years of clear results, consumer non-hostility, and goodwill
- HelloMcFly 4y ago
  I get it, I understand, but I like the product they've given and I like that it continues to improve.

oneoff786 4y ago

Epic Games gives a free game every single week and has done so for the past couple years at least. Many of these are fairly big titles. Around Christmas they have done a free game every day. They’re very pro indie dev on the unreal side. I don’t mind steam but epic is clearly the better choice for me.

artificialLimbs 4y ago
Give a game... take a game...
- oneoff786 4y ago
  Shrug. I’ve enjoyed Civ 6, Control, Dead By Daylight, Darkest Dungeon, 20XX, Remnant, Pathfinder Kingmaker, Star Wars Squadron, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Enter the Gungeon, Darkwood, Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars, Blair Witch, XCOM 2, Scythe, Verdun, Ring of Pain, and many other titles all for free. I don’t like them dropping support for these games but it’s still a huge net positive for me, and I’d try to buy everything on epic if I’m going to buy it accordingly.

imchillyb 4y ago

> alternative to Steam. Steam sucks... @lakomen Steam is the best content delivery platform for games. Developers have spoken with their content and users have spoken with their accounts. It's not as good as it could be, sure... But, what is? Even EA brought back titles they'd removed from Steam, as it hurt their bottom line. Players prefer Steam over all other CDNs. The numbers assure us of this.

dawnerd 4y ago

Valve will refund games past the 2h window if you have a reasonable reason. I had to the other day when I just couldn't get a game running despite following all of the community suggestions. Ended up going over the 2h window without realizing it and they approved the refund without issue.

mrguyorama 4y ago
Valve's refund policy before they made it better was probably the closest to anti-consumer you could call them. In many countries it was straight up illegal and had to get put through court before they would give you the rights you had as an australian citizen for example.