When you’re required to use their “store” to play the games too, then it’s a platform. And an isolated one, at that. Imagine you could only buy a game AND PLAY IT at Walmart.
Platform exclusivity is part of Epic Games’ problem. Not the sole issue, but a big one.
[…] the devs got a bigger cut than they’d get on steam
Inconsequential, considering the game is still not profitable, even after a year. The devs lost money on this game. If it came to Steam, they’d be swimming in cash right now. The cut they get from the store doesn’t matter if the game releases on a single store that most people refuse to use.
If Epic Games would be an actual competitor to Steam instead of trying to lock their content behind a paywall and force users to use them over the competition, then people might consider using their service. But as long as they continue to use shitty practices, most people are going to avoid them and use their competition’s service.
By using their service and giving them money, you’re validating their shitty practices and propagating this garbage across multiple platforms when other companies see it’s profitable.
If you want gaming to get better, stop giving bad companies your money and attention.
“They Live!” A guy finds some strange sunglasses that lets him see the subliminal messages hidden in all our print and media and advertisements. He can also see aliens walking amongst the population, disguised as regular humans!
Turns out, Earth had been invaded by aliens long ago and they’ve been keeping us under their control with subliminal messages for decades.
This is a compartmentalization technique seen in a lot in people with ADHD. Not saying OP has ADHD, but it’s something to look into if they have other signs.
I did this for literal decades. I was excited to start my adult life after high school, but an opportunity I couldn’t pass up dropped into my lap, so I chose that route instead.
Joining the US military was that opportunity. My uncle explained how the Air Force had taken care of him for 30 years, giving him free food, free lodging, free education, free travel around the globe, free medical and dental, and a steady, decent paycheck on top of it all. It sounded too good to be true, so I signed up as well. I figured I could get back to my plans for adult life later, after I’d taken advantage of all the benefits the military could offer me.
20 years later (3 years ago), I retired from the Air Force. It was a pretty stressful career, in a positive way, so I was glad to get home, relax a bit, then finally pick up my life where I left off.
The things is, a lot happens in 2 decades. All my friends had left town and moved on to new lives, new careers, created new families, etc. my own family had mostly moved away, except for my dad who was still living in my childhood home. He offered to let my wife and I stay with him rent free as long as we wanted. He passed away last year and I inherited the house from him.
So now I’m back in my childhood home, just starting to really get settled back in and trying to figure out what to do with myself. I feel like my life has been on hold for so long, I don’t even know where to start in picking things back up again. I’m not young anymore, so a lot of the physically active jobs and hobbies I was previously interested in are either difficult or impossible for me now. I also changed a lot mentally with 20 years of military service. I’m not the same person I was at 18, so I have to readjust my interests and hobbies.
Fortunately, I have a lifelong pension from the military. I was grandfathered into the old pension program before they switched to a 401K-type plan, so I get paid half my final paycheck every month for the rest of my life. I also got the coveted “100% Permanent & Total” disability rating from the VA, so that is an additional monthly payment for life that’s about double the size of my pension. Plus free medical and dental for life. My wife didn’t retire from the military, but she also got the 100% P&T disability rating, so she gets the same medical pay and benefits as me.
So with all this passive income, we can actually be retired, as of 38 years old, and have the free time every day to focus on rediscovering our lives. I don’t feel like I need to put my life on pause while I work a job I don’t necessarily care for, or save up enough money for something I really want to do. I can live my life fully now, unpaused, for the first time in my life. It’s been very liberating, both mentally and physically.
I was serving in the US military the first time Trump was president and he tried to ban trans people then. The Department of Defense told all of us to not take action yet, and they managed to talk Trump out of the decision.
But that was when we had a Democrat majority in the other government branches. This time, it’s all Republican, and they love cutting our military pay and benefits. Don’t let them fool you; they act like they care about the military but they just use us for the good press. If it weren’t for Democrats, we wouldn’t have any benefits left. I’m retired now, but I expect my pension and VA medical benefits to be gutted under Trump. I might actually have to end my retirement and go back to work.
I expect trans people will actually be banned this time. Plus gay people; Republicans were pissed we let gay folks openly serve a decade ago. And women’s roles in the military will probably be restricted too, if not outright banned. My wife served in the military too and she’s had her own challenges with people not respecting her authority because she was a woman. I imagine it’ll get far worse soon, with Trump’s presidency inviting misogynists out into the open.
I’m getting a new OLED Steam Deck in the mail within the next hour or so, so I’m glad to hear its battery is handing well.
I have an original LCD Steam Deck from their initial announcement of the device, which is still showing 100% battery health. The battery doesn’t last very long unplugged, though. I’ve had to make sure I have a charging cable everywhere I go. So I’m looking forward to the longer lifespan of the new Steam Deck.