Yes, the Steam Deck is great, and Steam is definitely one of the best games platforms there is. And Valve has done great work supporting Linux and open source development, and forcing more transparency for sellers on Steam.

But I feel like people sometimes just love valve for everything they do. GabeN is still a billionaire, buying super-yachts and stuff. Valve makes a ton of their money from gambling on loot crates in CS2 and TF2, and have not done enough (imo) to stop even more predatory third party item gambling sites. And whenever I bring stuff like that up people keep defending Valve.

We should be able to praise their great games and hardware, at the same time as criticising other parts of the company.

  • WaterSword@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
    73·
    28 days ago

    pretty much every post mentions that steam wins by simply being the only storefront that understands the value of customer satisfaction and retention Yes, but I feel like that they often talk about in a way like they are on the same team. Like: “but steam/valve, they get us, they have our back” but maybe I am generalising too much.

    • brucethemoose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      27 days ago

      No that’s exactly it. “Same team.”

      Especially the specific hostility to the “other team.”

      I think human brains are just fundamentally tribal. We (in aggregate) simply cannot help ourselves.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        27 days ago

        Correct, we are wired for small group formation that anchors our individual and collective identities.

        Our brains, broadly, are very not good at existing in a world with billions of people with smartphones.

        So, we become parasocial, we become bigotted based on notions of different ‘kinds’ of people, we develop fandoms, etc.

        We’re built for living in bands, tribes, of between 50 to 200 people.

        We have not biologically caught up with the last couple few % points of time of our entire evolutionary history, civilization and technology exploded way faster than natural selection can rewire our brains.