Re: Happy St. Nicholas Day!

On Tue, 10 Dec 2024 10:27:30 +0000, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

On 09/12/2024 15:35, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Sun, 08 Dec 2024 20:29:40 +0000, ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) wrote:
 

Mike S. <Mike_S@nowhere.com> wrote:

On Sun, 8 Dec 2024 19:00:04 -0000 (UTC), candycanearter07
<candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:

>

I still need to actually make a GoG account.. maybe once I read through
all my new messages.

>

I consider GOG to be my second most important gaming library behind
Steam. EPIC is in a distant third.

>
Ditto. Origin too which is super rare. Also, Battle.net but that's only
for Diablo games. I used to have Bethesda until they shut it down and
moved to Steam.
>
>

You can get free games on GOG from time to time if that matters to you
at all.

 

Ditto.

 
What, no love for UPlay?
(that's a trick question, obviously. Of course nobody loves UPlay)
 
If you go by numbers, I think my physical media library is in lead by
far, but digitally the title goes to my Steam library. It's followed
-not too closely- by GOG. Itch.io is in fourth place (thanks to some
massive sales where they literally offered hundreds of games for mere
dollars). Amazon and Epic are neck and neck, after that The rest -EA,
Ubisoft, Blizzard, etc.- are mere rounding errors in comparison.
 
If you go by games played, that's hard to say. My physical media
library gets a lot of use but I don't tend to stick with the any of
the individual games for very long (I'll play a DOS game for twenty
minutes here, a PS2 game for an hour there). But with the games I play
to the end (e.g., the ones I bore you all with my descriptions at the
end of the month) are almost all installed digitally. It's probably my
Steam library that sees the most use, just because it does have an
ease-of-use that's hard to beat. But GOG comes a close second (or
third). My other libraries are mostly there for Numerical support.
 
But even I've gotten to the point where I don't want to accept new
digital services into my life. Things like Luna or Legacy Games or
Bethesda or whatever Microsoft calls their platform now... I've not
bothered with any of them.
 

>
So the vast majority are Steam followed by GoG (a lot of which are from
Amazon) and finally Amazon itself. Very much all digital as well now.
>
The big publishers own launchers have basically made a game a no buy for
me due to their history of just stopping you playing the single player
component of a game. My only Steam refund was because I just didn't
think that Battlefield 1 would have it's own launcher.

I haven't gone quite that far yet, to absolutely blacklist games just
because they use their own launcher, but it's certainly a
consideration when buying. One of the reasons I've cut back on Ubisoft
games (aside from the fact that they're such repetitive shit ;-) is
that I don't want to bother with UPlay. But if the game happens to be
something I'd want to play, I'd endure the client.

But I absolutely won't be BUYING anything through their storefront.
For that I'll stick to Steam or GOG.

These first-party clients (UPlay, EA, BethNet, etc.) are largely
cost-centers almost entirely dependent on 'whales' to keep them
afloat. (Especially sports-game whales, who buy every FIFA game card
ever made, year after year). Average gamers do not buy games from
them. Even Epic Game Store still isn't profitable, depending almost
entirely on income from Fortnite players.

Presumably the business case exists to keep these clients running, but
honestly I think a similar case could be made to just transfer all
these sales to Steam and cut out the expense of maintaining all the
servers and staff. Even with Valve's 30% cut (probably 20%, since
Valve discounts companies that rake in the big bucks) they'd still
make profit. Don't C-levels like cutting staff and closing
departments?