4 ms·

It's interesting to see how this plays out. Valve + general purpose software distribution + linux ports + hardware speculation - Valve seems like the biggest pr

by duaneb 14y ago

It's interesting to see how this plays out. Valve + general purpose software distribution + linux ports + hardware speculation - Valve seems like the biggest proponent for general purpose, open computing these days (open in the sense of being able to do what you want with your computer). Could Valve be a valid mainstream competitor for the personal computer market? Not all computing can be done from a tablet or console.

jlgreco 14y ago
"Valve seems like the biggest proponent for general purpose, open computing these days (open in the sense of being able to do what you want with your computer)." I would have never seen that coming from a company who's most important product is more or less fancy DRM system..., but I surprise myself by finding myself agreeing with you. I'm not quite sure what that means. Maybe the DRM is more incidental that I thought, maybe they just have their heart in the right place, or maybe the state of things is just that bad.
- ddt 14y ago
  It has to do with the way Valve has approached it. From day one it wasn't, "How do we stop people from pirating?" It was, "How do we make a more convenient service than the pirates?" And that's where they won. In the early days, people pushed back. But then the brand of Valve as people won out over the brand of Valve as the makers of Half-Life. If you make a good product that has convenience over the alternative (piracy) and charge a reasonable amount, people will pay when they used to pirate. The DRM is incidental to the experience. Valve realized it first, and now you're seeing it replicated in things like Netflix and Hulu.
  - jiggy2011 14y ago
    Steam also succeeds because it is cheap, unless a game is selling well they drop the price by a lot very quickly. I've bought games that are only a year or so old for as little as £7.99 (Saints Row 3, Deus Ex HR etc). At highstreet stores it was very difficult to get games for less than £15 or so.
  - Foy 14y ago
    My options are: 1) Pirate a game + free - slow download - maybe doesn't work, maybe it's a virus - whatever cracked the DRM might cause bugs - multiplayer rarely (if ever) works 2) Buy from Steam - not free + but, cheap + 2 to 3MB/s download speed + automatic updates + always works, always seamless + "defragment game folder" options, etc, built in + fast, free, re-downloads for life (install as many times as desired)
    - jokermatt999 14y ago
      To add to 2), most games also back up your saves via Steam Cloud now. Not necessarily something you'll always use, but after a reformat, I greatly appreciated it. However, I have noticed that Steam's offline mode is rather fickle. I try use it when I'm at my friend's house (lack of wireless and a lack of an ethernet port. Weird, unusual scenario, I know), and half the time "Play offline" simply doesn't work. It's put me in the weird position of considering downloading cracks for games I legally own so that I can play them.
      - Dylan16807 14y ago
        Are you putting it in offline mode before you head over or after you get there?
        jokermatt999 14y ago
        After I get there. I have a desktop PC, not a laptop. I can't really leave it on and then head over. Unless what you're implying is that I need "activate" offline mode on my computer by using it when I'm online here? If so, I really wish Valve would make that much clearer than the infuriating error that pops up now when I try to use offline mode while offline.
        Dylan16807 14y ago
        Yes, the prescribed way is putting it into offline mode before you lose the connection. It sometimes lets you go into offline without a connection but I don't understand the method it uses to make that decision.
- mtgx 14y ago
  Valve wants Steam to be like Kindle. It's heavily DRM'ed, but available on any platform you can imagine, and therefore you are not restricted by the OS, only by Steam.
  - duaneb 14y ago
    That's a very good parallel, and it might give a glimpse into Valve's future.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
franzus 14y ago
> open yeah ... if only there wasn't that problem with valve not accepting everybody on their platform :)
- duaneb 14y ago
  That's a good point. I just assumed that because Gabe decried the windows app store lockin for ARM he would play nice on his own platform. I'm not sure if this would be true or not.
  - Dylan16807 14y ago
    Curated stores are fine and dandy as long as they're not mandatory.
- Foy 14y ago
  Personally, I love Steam for the fact there there are no $0.99 fart apps or flash games. Everything is high quality. No games on the store were purchased a thousand+ times with hacked Steam accounts just to get them to the top of the Steam store. Simply because the hacker wouldn't be able to get his shitty game onto the store in the first place. When I browse through the Apple app store I often feel like I'm sifting through a rubbish bin for something useful I accidentally dropped in there.
- james4k 14y ago
  Yeah, though there's something to be said about a curated store. All of the games on Steam are of a high quality. Also, Steam Greenlight [1] will make things interesting for app developers too. [1] http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/ http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/

by duaneb 14y ago

jlgreco 14y ago

"Valve seems like the biggest proponent for general purpose, open computing these days (open in the sense of being able to do what you want with your computer)." I would have never seen that coming from a company who's most important product is more or less fancy DRM system..., but I surprise myself by finding myself agreeing with you. I'm not quite sure what that means. Maybe the DRM is more incidental that I thought, maybe they just have their heart in the right place, or maybe the state of things is just that bad.

ddt 14y ago
It has to do with the way Valve has approached it. From day one it wasn't, "How do we stop people from pirating?" It was, "How do we make a more convenient service than the pirates?" And that's where they won. In the early days, people pushed back. But then the brand of Valve as people won out over the brand of Valve as the makers of Half-Life. If you make a good product that has convenience over the alternative (piracy) and charge a reasonable amount, people will pay when they used to pirate. The DRM is incidental to the experience. Valve realized it first, and now you're seeing it replicated in things like Netflix and Hulu.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  Steam also succeeds because it is cheap, unless a game is selling well they drop the price by a lot very quickly. I've bought games that are only a year or so old for as little as £7.99 (Saints Row 3, Deus Ex HR etc). At highstreet stores it was very difficult to get games for less than £15 or so.
- Foy 14y ago
  My options are: 1) Pirate a game + free - slow download - maybe doesn't work, maybe it's a virus - whatever cracked the DRM might cause bugs - multiplayer rarely (if ever) works 2) Buy from Steam - not free + but, cheap + 2 to 3MB/s download speed + automatic updates + always works, always seamless + "defragment game folder" options, etc, built in + fast, free, re-downloads for life (install as many times as desired)
  - jokermatt999 14y ago
    To add to 2), most games also back up your saves via Steam Cloud now. Not necessarily something you'll always use, but after a reformat, I greatly appreciated it. However, I have noticed that Steam's offline mode is rather fickle. I try use it when I'm at my friend's house (lack of wireless and a lack of an ethernet port. Weird, unusual scenario, I know), and half the time "Play offline" simply doesn't work. It's put me in the weird position of considering downloading cracks for games I legally own so that I can play them.
    - Dylan16807 14y ago
      Are you putting it in offline mode before you head over or after you get there?
      - jokermatt999 14y ago
        After I get there. I have a desktop PC, not a laptop. I can't really leave it on and then head over. Unless what you're implying is that I need "activate" offline mode on my computer by using it when I'm online here? If so, I really wish Valve would make that much clearer than the infuriating error that pops up now when I try to use offline mode while offline.
        Dylan16807 14y ago
        Yes, the prescribed way is putting it into offline mode before you lose the connection. It sometimes lets you go into offline without a connection but I don't understand the method it uses to make that decision.
mtgx 14y ago
Valve wants Steam to be like Kindle. It's heavily DRM'ed, but available on any platform you can imagine, and therefore you are not restricted by the OS, only by Steam.
- duaneb 14y ago
  That's a very good parallel, and it might give a glimpse into Valve's future.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

franzus 14y ago

> open yeah ... if only there wasn't that problem with valve not accepting everybody on their platform :)

duaneb 14y ago
That's a good point. I just assumed that because Gabe decried the windows app store lockin for ARM he would play nice on his own platform. I'm not sure if this would be true or not.
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  Curated stores are fine and dandy as long as they're not mandatory.
Foy 14y ago
Personally, I love Steam for the fact there there are no $0.99 fart apps or flash games. Everything is high quality. No games on the store were purchased a thousand+ times with hacked Steam accounts just to get them to the top of the Steam store. Simply because the hacker wouldn't be able to get his shitty game onto the store in the first place. When I browse through the Apple app store I often feel like I'm sifting through a rubbish bin for something useful I accidentally dropped in there.
james4k 14y ago
Yeah, though there's something to be said about a curated store. All of the games on Steam are of a high quality. Also, Steam Greenlight [1] will make things interesting for app developers too. [1] http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/ http://steamcommunity.com/greenlight/