I really enjoyed Apex when it came out, it felt like it had a lot of potential and a universe ripe with content to explore.

Then at some point they decided that all we needed was more skins to spend money on.

And appallingly it seems they were right.

The workshop is an interesting topic and one if like to see a larger discussion around - theoretically people are free to upload their workshop content outside of Steam altogether, but arguably it’s on developers to support importing non-workshop content.

Censorship is definitely something that needs sorting out. I hadn’t heard of much censorship going on but I can definitely see it happening, giv n Japan’s standards can differentiate massively from America’s. Clear rules need to be laid, and I hope clear reasons are given when it occurs.

It got added when they moved from Greenlight to the current system IIRC.

Double checked and it’s called the “Steam Direct fee”, is $100 (+ potential taxes) and you get it back when the game makes $1,000 “Adjusted Gross Revenue”.

I’m with you on all of this. I’m familiar with this (am a game dev) and you’re 100% right that the biggest cost is game distribution. One thing though: it costs ~$100 to list a game on Steam, which is returned to you after it’s made a thousand or two.

Honestly there’s nothing much valve can do to appease people, but I believe the most likely thing they can do is release data on how much distribution costs and give companies the ability to disable the “extra stuff” to save even a few percent of their revenue.

That’s on developers for not putting their games on other platforms, Valve do not prevent you from doing so. If they went crazy tomorrow, people can just jump ship.

I swear the only games that could never be on another store would be Valve’s own. It’s really not their fault that other platforms are so bad or niche.

Like realistically what should they do to not be seen as gatekeepers? Become worse to scare developers and customers onto other platforms?

I love playing “will the train be cancelled today?” every morning. Luckily covid’s WFH revolution means I have a plan b, but for people who have to go in every day… I pity them.

Are they gatekeepers though? It’s not like they own Windows or Linux and stop you from using any other store. Just having the biggest audience doesn’t make them gatekeepers to the market.

I never see people talking about what valve should change other than lowering the 30% cut, but arbitrarily forcing that would set a bad precedent.

Instead of virtue signalling here’s reasonable things Valve could do:

• allow developers to chose what features of steam they use for each game, allowing them to lower the cut by individually opting out of forums, workshop, cloud saves, achievements, inventory items etc
• offer a purchase = one time download with no drm (still legally one copy) for the closest thing to “owning” a digital game
• allow someone to inherit a steam account

Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I’m pretty sure proton is free to use and you can install stores and games not from steam on a Steam Deck, so again I really don’t know what they’re gatekeeping.

Deceive Inc. is such a good game. Charming characters and an art style that really immerses you in a fun way. They learnt a lesson really quickly that’s taken so many other games years to get right - buff the weaker, less fun stuff rather than nerfing the fun, overused things.

It’s just a shame that the multiplayer only market is so saturated at the moment with games trying to monopolise your attention. To even get people to try it is difficult due to the entry cost - which is a fair £17.

Cute mascot!

Whenever ECS is brought up, I just can’t think of a game I’d make where the pros outweigh the cons. I’ve come to the conclusion that I just don’t understand it yet, so I’d love it if someone who’s as passionate as you clearly are, could impart some of the things that made you fall in love with it.

better cuts for devs upper management

Increased tuition fees? I guess 50k in debt isn’t enough punishment for a decision 18 year olds are pressured to make.

Are European universities struggling as much? Because my (same age) co-workers say they only had a few thousand in debt for their entire courses, so there must be another way of doing things.

Everything about this project is amazing, but the documentation is something else. It is written so perfectly concise and yet easy to understand, gives example code just when you’d need it (and 90% of pages have C# variants and includes notes on how it may differ!) and so you just walk away knowing exactly what to do, or with a link to another useful, beautifully written page with what you actually were looking for instead.

I used to think Unity had good documentation, but now that I’ve seen this it’s just on a whole new level. It also genuinely makes me weep when I go back to work in a proprietary engine with such scarce notes that it’s easier to look for other places it’s used and spend a day writing your own for the poor souls who come after…

TL;DR Whoever writes the docs, I love you

Sometimes I feel like me and the people I play with are the only ones who like this game. I’m just glad that the team is committed to improving it rather than writing it off as a flop immediately.

Nope! Just jump right into 2’s single player mode and enjoy the ride.

Obviously he doesn’t spend enough time causing issues for his own companies and country, that he has to try and stir shit across the pond to cure his boredom.

How about doing something good with that spare time for once?

I used to really love this game. It has so much potential to be more than a battle royale, but it took like 4 years to get a permanent non BR gamemode. Battle passes only work if your players don’t get burnt out… And don’t get me started on collection events 2: electric boogaloo, this time with more gambling!

As a casual who didn’t start playing shooter games until late, if it wasn’t for SBMM I wouldn’t be playing them at all.

The real evil is engagement based matchmaking. I don’t want to beat players even newer than me every time I haven’t won in 20 games, and I certainly don’t want to be steamrolled by players who have been playing their whole lives when the same happens to them.

Steam continues to be the best platform for your game. In an industry that almost prides itself on not listening to customers, Valve really is a miracle.

Ah yes, Europe never had to deal with such far right-wingers. We’d like borrow the term you guys came up with to describe them in case we ever face such violent fascists. What was it again?

Oh right, Nazis.

Had the day off work to attend my sister’s graduation in this heat, only to hear the lads in the (lovely air conditioned) office essentially had a day off due to this. Can’t believe my luck today 😢