woelkchen

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

That’s not how copyright laws work anywhere. You don’t own anything, it’s just a license.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

GoG Vault would disagree with you on that.

They are free to disagree on laws but they are still bound by them.

You can download the full installers and keep them, nobody can take them away or disable it remotely

That’s true but if your license is revoked, you’re illegally in possession of the game assets.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

Just pirate

What’s the point of GOG then?

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

i don’t want it to be the only option.

Neither do I but it is. GOG doesn’t support Linux. Heroic is a 3rd party community effort. Valve is currently the only company making financial investments into Linux gaming.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

when I am travelling internationally,the games I bought off GOG work, unlike Steam😡😡😡😡.

You must be doing something very wrong. I bring my Steam Deck on travels and it always works.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

All of the games on that list work without any kind of phone-home security check, or unlock code, or anything like that.

You didn’t scroll down the linked forum post, did you?

• DEFCON - Linux: Game contacts a key verification server as described here. Win and Mac have offline executables that skip the verification. But under Linux there is no DRM-free offline executable.
• F.E.A.R. - arguably a bug that stays unfixed. Securom remnants weren’t removed and can cause the single player game not to start.

That’s pretty DRM-y.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

Shit I really like GOG as it’s the only competition to steam

There are plenty of competing PC game online stores, it’s just that they all suck monkey balls when you’re not using Windows. Microsoft is currently using their old monopolist playbook and release Blizzard games to the fucking Microsoft Store and Game Pass and not a single 3rd party store.

And don’t forget that the other publisher-owned storefronts like EA’s and Ubisoft’s are also still alive. They suck hard but they exist and apparently they do well enough to continue to be around.

Steam is the only PC games store that fights Microsoft’s Windows monopoly. GOG Galaxy has been written using the Qt framework. Making a Linux version of an existing Qt application is relatively easy (at least compared to a full port). Do that, integrate umu-Launcher for Windows games, bundle everything up and release GOG Galaxy on Flathub. Boom, done. But they don’t do that despite their massive pile of Witcher and Cyberpunk money.

So plenty of competition exists but if you happen to not be Windows-exclusive, everyone but Steam is bad.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

GOG sells actual Linux games with no 3rd party software necessary to play them.

Ah yes, stand-alone binary installers that work only on a very tiny set of Linux versions because they rely on specific version of system libraries, sometimes contain distribution-specific hardcoded paths, and so on. I especially like those older Linux ports that exclusively target Nvidia drivers because why would anyone just have coded to the OpenGL standard back then…

We have Flatpak Runtimes and Steam Linux Runtimes since years. CD Project / GOG can’t even be bothered to pick these existing open source solutions.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

How do you use a Steam game after its license was revoked?

By default Steam is a mere download manager without any DRM. You can zip the game folder and back it up anywhere. Whether or not publishers go through the additional steps to enable one or more DRM solution is a different matter. My favorite Steam games have no DRM at all.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

Morals

Nothing moral about a store that affirms Microsoft’s Windows monopoly.

woelkchen, 6 miesięcy temu

For me Portal as well. I knew back then that people said it’s an afternoon game but I thought “an afternoon for a good player, certainly not me”. Finished it in an afternoon.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

I use my Deck docked regularly. In desktop use I see no benefit over Fedora and alike.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

No, Steam games do not have DRM by default. By default Steam is a mere download manager. For Steam DRM to be applied, the publisher has to run the drm_wrap command: partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm

Feel free to use SteamCMD: developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/SteamCMD

Where do you get those lies from? I’d kinda get it if Steam’s documentation for publishers was behind a NDA wall but it’s public.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Aren’t we all supposed to be against monopolies, steam needs competition

Steam is not a monopoly. The vast majority of PC gaming revenue is made outside Steam. Fortnite: EGS only, not on Steam. Minecraft: own web storefront and Microsoft Store, not on Steam. Roblox: I think it has its own storefront, it’s not on Steam.

Steam has an estimated revenue of 8.6bn out of PC gaming’s overall 45bn. It’s very far from even approaching 50%, let alone surpass it.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/50-Years-of-Video-Game-Revenue-Dec-30.jpg

I don’t mind other storefronts. What I mind is people spreading the false narrative as if one of the most widely installed storefronts (EGS because of Fortnite) is somehow the little underdog.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Dude, I embedded the source right in the comment you’ve replied to. 🤦

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Does the image have a source?

Yes, the image has a source and everything is detailed in the lower part of the image.

Also I don’t think just revenue some us the only Barometer for a monopoly. If something has very few users but had really high prices that they’re willing to pay for them by your metric they’d be closer to a monopoly than steam

But that’s exactly why the EU classified Apple as digital gatekeeper: iPhones have a lower installed base than Android in the EU but higher spending.

Given the massive popularity of Fortnite, I wouldn’t bet if Steam has a higher installed base than EGS. People just prefer to buy on Steam.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

The apple thing wasn’t about apple vs android for a monopoly. It was about how there’s no alternative option on ios for purchasing apps.

Nobody in the EU would have cared if the commercial app market wasn’t dominated by Apple. Plenty of devices out there don’t let you install random stuff off the internet but if the market dominance isn’t there, the EU won’t care.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

So, Microsoft – how’s Windows for ARM coming?

Phil Spencer doesn’t know his employer makes ARM computers. Not even Microsoft Solitaire Collection has a native ARM port.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Also it’ll be running windows

Xbox’s Windows is not the same as PC Windows.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Not a single Microsoft game runs natively an Windows ARM.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Xbox is locked down and barely has any security issues on user hardware.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

My Steam Deck runs most games just fine.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Probably not. The main culprit is probably the bundled, Chromium-based web renderer (CEF), not Steam itself.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Backwards compatibility on both Xbox and PlayStation cause problems as well.

By default Steam Deck users are presented with the “Best on Deck” tab in the store which is for verified games only.

Deck allows for tinkering and unverified games but it’s not the default experience. As a daily Deck user you should be aware of that.

woelkchen, 7 miesięcy temu

Also the market is pretty saturated at this point. People who want a Switch got one years ago.

woelkchen, 8 miesięcy temu

Steam is not the evil corporation people pretend it is.

Indeed. They’re not saints either but for my personal demands, they offer the best arguments right now. I rank funding improvements to the FOSS Linux stack higher than a DRM-free pile of shame. That may change in the future but for now I prefer Steam over GOG. CD Project is a rich company. They could make a Linux version of Galaxy, put it onto Flathub, make it behave well under Steam Deck Game Mode, and put a tiny fraction of their revenue into Linux improvements.

woelkchen, 8 miesięcy temu (edited 8 miesięcy temu)

GOG is funding the FOSS Heroic Games Launcher through an affiliate partnership

GOG has an affiliate links program. Heroic signed up for that. GOG isn’t specifically funding Heroic. Wake me up when CD Project / GOG is hiring a developer of Mesa or something along those lines. You know, an actual part of the technology foundation that’s being used by a wide range of Linux distributions.

An office worker sitting at a desk somewhere at a Linux-running PC is benefiting from technology advancements upstreamed by Valve as part of Steam Deck performance improvements.

Edit: GOG’s “funding” is an advertising tracker:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/1aec85c6-672f-4cdd-a3b6-c78bce8aa1a1.png

woelkchen, 8 miesięcy temu

And yet somehow I still doubt we’ll see it until Linux gets a much higher marketshare.

CD Project is doing nothing to improve that market share, hence why I don’t care to spend any money on GOG.

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

Maybe Ubisoft should for once make a good game (OK, Rayman Raving Rabbids for Wii was a fun romp for a bit). I’m constantly baffled how a company this shitty that’s constantly making super derivative games got so big in the first place.

woelkchen, 8 miesięcy temu

Mario & Rabbids Kingdom Battle was a rare gem from Ubi.

You’re probably right (I never played it). Completely forgot about it.

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

It’s my understanding that the creator took a payout.

AFAIK the only statement so far is “agreement” and that that can also mean a legally binding document to take down Ryujinx and never again develop Nintendo emulators or get sued to the moon and back, ie. “sign here or financial ruin”.

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

Nintendo wouldn’t be able to go after him for like DMCA type route.

Old school suing about “aiding and abetting” piracy until the defendant has no money left to pay lawyers works pretty much all over the world.

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

Not anymore:

https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e7748e82-2f8b-43f9-a5d5-4f93af52d5b0.png

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

Remember when mandatory Bethesda account in Doom64 was “just a bug” and then Doom Eternal had it for real?

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

API wrappers are not emulators.

woelkchen, 9 miesięcy temu

Bruh, don’t give them ideas for the next price hike!

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

And PSN requirement for PC gamers.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

ad-riddled

You see ads? ublockorigin.com

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

I eat that free hotdog every week, then go across the street and buy another one.

You actually eat it? I put it in the fridge for bad times but only eat the ones from the other side.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

Proton means that developers can just write games for Windows and expect to make that version compatible with Linux with minimal changes as opposed to making a native Linux version.

SteamOS is Valve’s own OS. Steam Linux Runtime is Valve’s own development target. Steam Deck is Valve’s on hardware. It’s a stable platform that doesn’t move constantly like chasing Windows compatibility through reverse engineering. Win32 is not Java, Proton is not OpenJDK. Windows games on Proton break constantly. The only way into the future is proper SteamOS versions, not buggy afterthoughts.

As a developer myself, I know that it doesn’t make sense for a developer in most cases to write a Linux version and support it when the Linux user base is tiny by comparison. It happened with OS/2 and it can happen again.

Steam Deck is not OS/2. Steam Deck is more like a video game console and needs to be treated like one with proper ports instead of broken shit like CS2, especially for Valve’s own games. Portal on Nintendo Switch works better than CS2 on Steam Deck because it’s a proper port, not an afterthought.

Stop repeating the same false arguments to me over and over again, as repeating those would make them right. If anyone of you would ever be put in charge of PlayStation, that entire business would collapse within months.

Not to mention Linux game developer tooling pales in comparison to Windows with DirectX.

Maybe Valve should improve that for their own platform then instead of relying of tools by a hostile competitor. It’s just dumb.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

A yes, because Steam Deck is the most optimal platform to play competitive FPS

That’s not even the argument. The argument is that Valve’s own game teams should be able to support their own hardware.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

No. Development occurs on windows machines

“Development occurs on” and “development target” are different things.

It’s obviously going to be steam deck day one.

Sure, like CS2 is on Steam Deck since day one and still broken.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

Valve is probably perfectly happy with just making sure proton compatibility is good.

Valve is happy that games break all the time? Yeah, sure buddy. If anybody at Valve was happy with that, maybe that Microsoft agent should lose their job.

They don’t expect developers to change their whole workflow to cater to the Deck

The point of cross-platform middleware is specifically not to “change their whole workflow”. 🙄

that’s why they’ve done so much work with proton.

Valve is also doing much work with SDL and so on to target native development, that’s why it’s embarrassing that they don’t target their own platform. All successful platform holders treat their platform as 1st class citizens: Sony targets PlayStation from day 1 of game development, so does Nintendo with Switch. Apple is not prioritizing Windows either.

Failing platforms are those where the platform vendor doesn’t even believe enough in it to properly support it. Since over a decade Microsoft makes ARM-based Surface devices and to this day Microsoft has ported not a single game, not even casual stuff like Minesweeper, over to Windows ARM. “Microsoft is perfectly happy with just making sure Prism compatibility is good” and yet emulated applications crash, perform worse, and result in battery drain. Similar with Steam Deck: The only way to ensure games perform to their best and don’t unexpectedly break on an update is proper SteamOS native versions.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

They are going to add Linux support the game is in alpha.

That’s not day 1. Why do I need to say it over and over again? It’s not like I spelled it out already: CS2 had a Windows-only pre-release and the Linux port was only added to the formal release, resulting in the Linux port being very buggy to this day! Their own platform needs to be the top tier development target from day 1. How is that difficult to understand?

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

It’s really not?

The quality of Proton is not the point, the point is that they’re not dogfooding their own platform.

You guys making the same comments over and over again. I can literally paste previous replies because nobody of you cares to actually read.

woelkchen, 10 miesięcy temu

Because they are developing the game for windows first since that’s where 93% of the customers are.

Why not develop for Windows and Steam Deck equally then?

Are you even thinking this through?

Definitively more than you.