sugar_in_your_tea

@sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works

Mama told me not to come.

She said, that ain’t the way to have fun.

Profil ze zdalnego serwera może być niekompletny. Zobacz więcej na oryginalnej instancji.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, the left trackpad sucks. I think they could also fit another joystick if they made the right trackpad a little smaller.

sugar_in_your_tea,

PS1 controller

The original PS1 controller didn’t have joysticks, and when it did, the position sucked for larger hands. I have always preferred the XBox layout.

you had to map it

Did you? I thought most games worked fine, though admittedly I only played a couple because I never got used to the trackpads.

I think it wasn’t very post all popular because it was so different. Even if it worked as expected out of the box, a lot of people dismissed it at first glance. It was also only available through steam, so there was less reach.

But even then, I still don’t think it failed on its own merits. I think there wasn’t a compelling reason to get it without a Steam Machine, which flopped because Valve didn’t commit to it.

sugar_in_your_tea,

It absolutely is.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, the touchpads are cool, but I would’ve bought a Steam Deck without them, but I wouldn’t if Proton didn’t exist. I was on Linux already when the Steam Deck came out, so I was already familiar with Proton.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, I consider them “better guys,” since they’re better than their competitors. I say this because:

  • they firmly support Linux, which was my platform of choice before Steam came to it
  • they have useful Greeks features like Steam input
  • they have a good refund policy
sugar_in_your_tea,

Exactly, I’d rather lose a D-Pad than a joystick, and the Steam Controller lost both. That’s why my Steam Controller sits on my desk largely unused, while my PS4 controller gets all the love (I prefer XBox controllers, but PS4 has better Linux support).

I’d love to see the Steam Deck controller be made standalone, it’s super comfy and preserves both joysticks and the d-pad while having useful trackpads.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I use them for point and click games and other games where a mouse is better.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Sure.

It’s important to note that the PS1 also borrowed from previous designs, namely the Super Nintendo with 4 face buttons and N64 (the controller with joysticks came out a year after).

Xbox’s main innovation was the offset joysticks, which may have been due to patents more than anything, but I preferred it. I also didn’t mind the two extra buttons, and was a little sad when they went away, because they were largely replaced by the joystick buttons, which I think are hard to use properly.

But yeah, design stagnated a bit after the PS1 controller.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I also prefer controllers (grew up playing Halo on controller), and gyro aim is sweet, but touchpads never felt good to me. I like physical buttons for d-pad style input (even a joystick is fine), and the right touchpad felt too much like a mouse to the point where I’d rather just use a mouse.

The Steam Deck strikes the right balance for me. The touchpads work when the mouse really is preferable, and they stay out of the way when I use the joysticks.

sugar_in_your_tea,

The original article completely misrepresents the initiative:

We appreciate the passion of our community; however, the decision to discontinue online services is multi-faceted, never taken lightly and must be an option for companies when an online experience is no longer commercially viable. We understand that it can be disappointing for players but, when it does happen, the industry ensures that players are given fair notice of the prospective changes in compliance with local consumer protection laws.

Private servers are not always a viable alternative option for players as the protections we put in place to secure players’ data, remove illegal content, and combat unsafe community content would not exist and would leave rights holders liable. In addition, many titles are designed from the ground-up to be online-only; in effect, these proposals would curtail developer choice by making these video games prohibitively expensive to create.

…

Stop Killing Games is not trying to force companies to provide private servers or anything like that, but leave the game in a playable state after shutting off servers. This can mean:

  • provide alternatives to any online-only content
  • make the game P2P if it requires multiplayer (no server needed, each client is a server)
  • gracefully degrading the client experience when there’s no server

Of course, releasing server code is an option.

The expectation is:

  • if it’s a subscription game, I get access for whatever period I pay for
  • if it’s F2P, go nuts and break it whenever you want; there is the issue of I shame purchases, so that depends on how it’s advertised
  • if it’s a purchased game, it should still work after support ends

That didn’t restrict design decisions, it just places a requirement when the game is discontinued. If companies know this going in, they can plan ahead for their exit, just like we expect for mining companies (they’re expected to fill in holes and make it look nice once they’re done).

I argue Stop Killing Games doesn’t go far enough, and if it’s pissing off the games industry as well, then that means it strikes a good balance.

sugar_in_your_tea,

If that’s their argument, then the counterargument is simple: preserve the game another way. If hosting servers is dangerous, put the server code into the client and allow multiplayer w/ P2P tech, as had been done since the 90s (e.g. StarCraft).

What they seem to be doing is reframing the problem as requiring users to host servers, and arguing the various legal issues related to that. SKG just needs to clarify that there are multiple options here, and since devs know about the law at the start (SKG isn’t retroactive), studios can plan ahead.

It’s just a disingenuous argument trying to reframe the problem into cyber security and IP contexts, while neither has been an issue for other games in the past.

sugar_in_your_tea,

They retain copyright based on existing law, and trademark is irrelevant since it’s defended in courts, not EULAs.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I could imagine third-party companies springing up whose entire business model is JUST providing unofficial servers for discontinued games and moderating them

That kind of already exists, you can buy hosting for Minecraft and other games. AFAIK, moderation isn’t a part of it, but many private groups exist that run public servers and manage their own moderation. It exists already, and that should absolutely be brought up as a bill is being considered.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Exactly, and that also includes online games like Minecraft. Nobody is going to sue Microsoft because of what someone said or did in a private Minecraft server, though they might if it’s a Microsoft hosted one.

sugar_in_your_tea,

They still will, this will just limit their ability to force you to move to the next one once the servers shut down.

sugar_in_your_tea,

True. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t attack predatory behavior when we see it. If they want to sell me something, I need to own it, and that means I get to use it after they’ve stopped supporting it.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Sort of. They need to have the tools as well. So I suppose they could release the APIs for their servers before shutting down their servers so community servers can be created, that would probably be sufficient. But they need to do something beyond just saying, “we won’t sue you if you reverse engineer it.”

sugar_in_your_tea,

Sure, you’re paying for a performance when you watch a film or play at a theater. If I pay to watch a video game tournament, I’m likewise paying for a performance, not the game.

When you buy a film (DVD, Bluray, or Digital Copy) or a recording of a play performance, you own that copy and can watch it as often as you want for as many years into the future as you want. What we’re saying is that video games should work the same way, if I buy a game, I should be able to play it whenever I want at any point in the future. That’s it, it’s the same thing as with a film.

sugar_in_your_tea,

They should be compelled to either make those cosmetics available for everyone or have some technical means to prove ownership (e.g. blockchain or cryptographically signed file). You can’t lose stuff you bought just because the publisher shut down the servers.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, I run a Minecraft server at home, and it’s great. I’d love for more games to do the same.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I basically quoted the whole thing, the last bit wasn’t really relevant. And yeah, it’s pretty much just BS.

sugar_in_your_tea,

that’s exactly how it works right now

Right, I’m explaining how Stop Killing Games would change things if adopted.

Public servers will either sell micro transactions themselves

That can certainly be restricted, since they’re profiting off someone else’s IP. Selling hosting is one thing, reselling assets in the game is another thing entirely and AFAIK would be a violation of copyright’s fair use provisions.

If they’re no longer profiting from a game, surely releasing access to gated content isn’t an issue any more? It’s not like they are losing anything. So I think unlocking cosmetics for everyone would be fine, but it’s up to them. If they want to preserve the restriction, they can find a way that doesn’t reauire ongoing costs, such as the ones I mentioned.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup, that’s correct. What about it?

sugar_in_your_tea,

And for Microsoft, to get a back catalogue to ensure your subscription service remains attractive.

sugar_in_your_tea,

What do you mean? Pretty much every game on Steam is “third party.” They do mention certain things on the store though, like kernel level anti-cheat or needing a third party account, though I don’t know how many people check that.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, I draw the line at the kernel.

If they want to protect against piracy (losing game IMO) or try to limit cheating, that’s fine as long as it doesn’t impact gameplay (i.e. I can still party SP offline) and it keeps working in 20 years when they’ve stopped supporting the game. If that means releasing a patch to remove server interaction when they shut the servers down, that’s fine.

I am not okay with needing to install a kernel module just to play a game. That’s a security risk, prevents compatibility tools like WINE from preserving the game, and makes the game more fragile (will a kernel update break the game?). That’s a red line for me, and I refuse to play any game with kernel-level DRM or anti-cheat.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That’s a pretty beefy rig:

  • top end CPU
  • nearly top-end GPU
  • probably a high end mobo and RAM
sugar_in_your_tea,

not finishing so many of your games shows some kind of problem

If they’ve played 23%, that’s a lot of games, as in, well over 1k. Thy said nothing about how many they’ve finished, but I don’t think “finishing” is all that important.

What I’m more interested in is how much time they have for playing games. What’s they’re lifestyle like that they can play nearly 2k games while also accomplishing other life goals? It’s not an unreasonable amount, just sufficiently high that it raises some eyebrows.

I feel like it’s an obligation for me to finish a game unless I don’t like it.

If OP isn’t finishing any games, yeah, I agree. But there are a ton of games that I don’t find worth finishing, in any sense you define that, but that I still find worth playing.

For example, I didn’t finish Brutal Legend because I really didn’t like the RTS bits at the end. I still love that game and recommend it, but I only recommend it w/ the caveat that the ending is quite different from the rest of the game and it’s okay to bail. That type of game isn’t going to have an amazing ending, so the risk of not seeing the ending is pretty small (and I can always look that up on YT or elsewhere if I want). I did the same for Clustertruck because the ending had an insane difficulty spike on the last level and I just didn’t care enough to finish it.

However, other times I have pushed through, such as Ys 1 Chronicles, which has an insane difficulty spike on the final boss. I am happy I pushed through, because I really liked the world and the ending, which feeds into the next game (in fact, on Steam, it automatically started Ys II after finishing Ys 1). I ended up not liking Ys II as much (still finished), but I really liked the tie-over from the first to the second.

So yeah, I don’t fault someone for not finishing games, but I do think they’re missing out if they never finish games.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Exactly!

And it’s highly unlikely that OP is playing 100% new-releases, especially w/ that 200+ installed games, so they’re probably getting a bunch of those well below store price (i.e. through bundles and whatnot). I have several hundred games, many of which I haven’t played, and most of those came in a bundle that included a couple games I did play (and the total price was significantly less than the retail price of the games I did play).

I’m guessing that’s OP’s case, and given how many they claim to have played, I’m guessing they have a lot of time to play games.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yeah, I have far fewer games and have played a lower percent of the ones I have. There are just so many bundles that have one or two games I do want and I just add the rest to my library.

sugar_in_your_tea,

A lot of Steam games don’t have any DRM, and most of the rest are pretty easy to strip.

Give it a shot sometime. Completely quit out of Steam, turn off your internet, and try running some of your older Steam games directly from the Steam folder.

I do this somewhat often when my kids are on my other computer playing games on my account and I still want to play something. It’s a little trickier on Linux since you need something to run the Proton/WINE layer, so I mostly stick to Linux-native games in that pretty rare case.

sugar_in_your_tea,

No, the Steam life is not to play games, but to buy them.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Exactly. I have something like 10-20 “complete” games because they either give 100% completion for rolling credits or I really enjoyed the game and ended up completing the achievements anyway. Of the rest, I’ve probably rolled credits on 80% of my “played” games, because sometimes I just lose interest before I reach the end, while still enjoying my time w/ it.

Games should be fun, and if they stop being fun, move on.

sugar_in_your_tea,

That sounds awesome!

I chose a bit of a different life path with different rewards and caveats. I’m glad you found something that brings you joy. :)

sugar_in_your_tea,

Really? I haven’t tried that since they revamped the sharing thing. I have three accounts, one for me, my wife, and one my kids share, and they’re all linked. Most of the time my kids use my account, but I can easily change that if it’ll allow simultaneous play (on different games).

Thanks for the tip, I’ll try it out!

sugar_in_your_tea,

My history with consoles is:

  1. Whatever by brother bought
  2. OG Xbox to play Halo
  3. Xbox 360 for Kinect games
  4. Switch - play w/ kids; Smash has been amazing for this
  5. Steam Deck - not a console, but I use it as one; got it to play games in bed

I play most games on PC because I’m just not as interested in exclusives anymore, except maybe Zelda games, and with BOTW and TOTK, I’m less interested in those (they lost the formula I like).

I’ll probably get the Switch 2 eventually, but I’ll wait until there’s a game I really want (say, ALttP remake or something), my kids break our OLED Switch, or there’s an OLED Switch 2 with better battery life.

sugar_in_your_tea,

While true, I think it’s important to note that many buy the Switch for other reasons. My kids wanted a Switch, but I didn’t get it until there were enough games my wife and I really wanted to play. My wife was bummed about Kinect dying and was Ted a replacement for her exercise games, and I had been missing Zelda games, so I got the Switch, some Just Dance games, Ring Fit Adventure, the two Zelda remakes, and a couple games for the kids. The kids have kind of taken it over, but it still fulfills our purposes in getting it.

My point is that the Switch has a lot more appeal than just shutting kids up for a bit. It’s a good console on its own, and the only console I’m willing to buy. The PS5 and Xbox Series has nothing I’m interested outside of a few exclusives, so my wife and I just play on our PCs and my Steam Deck.

sugar_in_your_tea,

The jobs do exist, and I’m pretty sure the young men are working them, but the jobs also kinda suck.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Maybe. But in many areas, only one party realistically has a shot, so reps basically get elected in their primary process. So instead of needing a majority of the total population to win, you just need a plurality of the few who get involved in the primary process.

Blame the people involved in the primary process, not the people who only vote in the general election.

What are your favourite single-player games without much fluff, grinding or difficulty spikes? angielski

Hello, in the recent years I find myself willing to spend much less time and energy on games, but I do still enjoy them. Oftentimes I end up quitting a new game I tried out relatively early on, because I’m encountering some block, grind, non-optional boring side quest, empty open world, uninteresting clutter or details that I...

sugar_in_your_tea,

I really like the Ys games, and I think Y’s Origin meets those requirements. The boss fights are difficult, but no crazy difficulty spikes, provided you’ve been killing things properly along the way. I only had to grind for a few min for one boss, and that’s back because I actively avoided the mobs and ended up underleveled.

Zelda games tend to also be really well designed, pretty much any will do.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Yup! Most of my wishlist is on sale.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Same, and I’ve even played one or two!

sugar_in_your_tea,

I’m still mad Galaxy doesn’t support Linux. I’d probably still use Heroic, but the mere fact of being a second class citizen doesn’t feel great.

sugar_in_your_tea,

This is an oldie, but Lords of the Realm II. I loved the first two, but had trouble with the third and ended up giving up, assuming it was a me problem.

Nope, the community pretty much unanimously hates it. It’s not a terrible game per se, it’s just very different from the first two, throwing out everything most people liked about the predecessors and not exactly succeeding at the new mechanics.

I’ve decided to build my own take on the best parts of all three, we’ll see if I ever finish it.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Boots up Hitman.

sugar_in_your_tea,

I’m guessing something like a “justice boner,” but with misinformation?

sugar_in_your_tea,

There really should be another level to it:

Tinker: runs fine with some in-game config or with Steam OS tools like Steam Input

It would exclude any lower level tweaks like changing launch args or using a special Proton version, those can stay unsupported. Basically, if you can get it working well intuitively without looking stuff up online, it should have some level of support.

I’ve played several “unsupported” games that work fine, so something should be done here.

sugar_in_your_tea,

Switch between left and right and you’ve got a party!

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