How has your Chosen Community Incensed you Lately?

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Gamers and Epic Store:

Look, I'm number one on the list thinking that Steam needs competition. I don't like the financial Split they trot out. A lot of shovel wear. And frankly, if Steam wasn't the only true game in town (Puns, I got them), they might be pushed to make L4D3 or Portal 3 or any of the threes.

But the Epic Store isn't competition in the way any of us defined it. It's a Rich Bully. It breaks deals that affects customers and then goes on its high horse and say how we're short sighted to see that when we crown fund a game with the expressed intention on playing the game on steam, that it's obvious that when Epic throws more money to the Developer in order for a timed exclusive... it's only to the gamer's benefit. And how dare you not see that?

The EGS is still no where near worth a customer's time. None of the features that makes Steam a pioneer are there. And people say that EGS is new and you can't expect them to be at Steam's level. To those people, I simply ask why shouldn't we? Steam had to figure this out being the only game in time. With every lump they received for being lacking, they redefined themselves into being one of the best game managers I have ever seen. Complete with friend interactivity.

All EGS had to do was copy and paste.

The road map they had could have easily been implimented before they released the EGS. Then I feel a lot of gamers like me wouldn't have a problem with popping over to EGS and seeing what's what. But frankly, I'm getting less for the money and I'm tired of Game Developers trying to act indignant and saying I just don't want people who work on games to get their fair share. That's bullshit. That's like me going to a resturant that treats local farmers amazingly, but then gives me grief for not wanting to eat at their establishment even if they have craptacular service, dirty dishes on the regular, and they never clean their bathrooms.

Great for them, and I'm glad they are getting a good deal. But it shouldn't come at me getting a worse deal than at other places.

But no. Even though I have great anger for Epic, it's the gamers themselves that eat this up because they can't wait. Gamers consistently complain that they need to be treated better, but then flock like idiots to be abused again and again. When you constantly show Developers that you're more than happy to pay through the nose for an inferior product, what epitus do they have to actually give you a good product?

Why should Game Developers value the Gamer over the Investor when the Investor has shown time and time again that they are more than willing to leave if a game doesn't live up to their expectations. But we're so damn impatient that we'll run giddy like a little Kid in Dave and Buster's because the sounds are loud and the lights are bright... but half of the experiences in there are broken.

But we do it time and time again...

Bonus Community Grievance! Vegans!

God, there are so many of you give us all a bad name. The sanctimonious crap these certain vegans keep spewing that "Nothing had to die to be on my plate" completely ignores that plants are alive.

Life needs to consume life to live. It's as simple as that. That's why you can't eat rocks and live to be a hundred... or at all. To say 'all life is precious' and to arbitrarily say "Well this life doesn't really count" makes me hate going down into Vegan Recipes to see how people liked the recipe or the changes they made.

If my stomach didn't have so much problem with meat now...

 

[CaitSeith]

"Nothing had to die to be on my plate"

LOL. It reminds me a joke that's more than 40 years old.

"OMG! There is a corpse inside the fridge"
"What corpse? That's just the chicken for dinner"
"But it's dead! And when something is dead, how do you call their body?"

 

[Trunkage]

Bonus Community Grievance! Vegans!

God, there are so many of you give us all a bad name. The sanctimonious crap these certain vegans keep spewing that "Nothing had to die to be on my plate" completely ignores that plants are alive.

Life needs to consume life to live. It's as simple as that. That's why you can't eat rocks and live to be a hundred... or at all. To say 'all life is precious' and to arbitrarily say "Well this life doesn't really count" makes me hate going down into Vegan Recipes to see how people liked the recipe or the changes they made.

If my stomach didn't have so much problem with meat now...

There isn't just that where I live. Currently there are quite a few organised Vegan protests, blocking farms and stealing livestock

I've also never understood that they don't think plants are alive. It's like, if it doesn't 'talk', you cares. Fruitarians are even weirder. Their only eating plant foetuses and somehow that make them morally more superior.

 

[Squilookle]

Honestly Steam has such an unrelenting stranglehold on the PC market, that for Epic to try anything less than what it's doing is to pretty much admit defeat already. They're not going to shake up Steam's monopoly without ruffling a few feathers. I agree a crowdfunded game going Epic exclusive at the last minute is a dog deal, but I'd say the onus of the blame for that is on the developers for getting greedy, not on Epic for offering the payout.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Chosen community? There ain't one. Past experiences havn't been positive in that regard, so prefer to resist getting involved in any. A lot of moving around means getting to see a lot of different types and although first impressions are usually positive, they don't stay that way for long. The scientific community is the closest to something admirable, but I'm more just hanging out on the sidelines picking up the dropped breadcrumbs really.

The epic stuff can't quite really get on board with. Seems like a lot of unnecessary anger for something so trivial. Keeping a distance there.

With veganism, can empathise with not wanting to encourage the meat industry more than it is, but can empathise with distancing from the overzealous peoples also. I am awaiting the future where we can merely tattoo photosynthetic cells onto our bodies so the measuring of different values of life can be done away with. And people who don't want totally cool visible tattoos can have the transparent tattoos instead; everybody wins!...any other eating would be entertainment. There may need to be a slight reprogramming of DNA, maybe not...but if so, we're on the right track so far; https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/may/15/cambridge-scientists-create-worlds-first-living-organism-with-fully-redesigned-dna [small]Bring on the human testing! Ahahah![/small]
(Was gonna make a thread about it but getting real tired of seeing my long ass username everywhere as it is and honestly have been trying to post online less recently)

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

Chosen community? There ain't one.

After a certain event in the gaming community a few years prior and a really shitty move by the political party I was involved with the year after, I've pretty much sworn off being a member of any "community" that is not my family, friends or vocational. It is not that interest groups or hobby communities can't do good stuff, but my personal experience is that they also tend to be rife with the sort of inter-personal conflict that I can absolutely do without when I'm not on the job.

 

[Lufia Erim]

How exactly would you go about trying to compete with steam?

No seriously, if the consumer friendlineds won company wars, GoG would be the most popular platform.

Epic is using the ONLY VIABLE WAY to compete with steam. Sure their store needs work, and should have been on par with steam before launch. But there is literally no other way to compete with a behemoth such as steam without buying high profile exclusives.

I remember back when everyone hated steam when it launched. We have come full circle.

 

[Saelune]

How exactly would you go about trying to compete with steam?

No seriously, if the consumer friendlineds won company wars, GoG would be the most popular platform.

Epic is using the ONLY VIABLE WAY to compete with steam. Sure their store needs work, and should have been on par with steam before launch. But there is literally no other way to compete with a behemoth such as steam without buying high profile exclusives.

I remember back when everyone hated steam when it launched. We have come full circle.

By being worse than Steam? Steam has problems, I am aware, but we need to stop pretending Steam is some pile of garbage.

All Epic is doing is lowering an already too low bar of morality in digital gaming.

 

[Saelune]

Chosen community? There ain't one.

After a certain event in the gaming community a few years prior and a really shitty move by the political party I was involved with the year after, I've pretty much sworn off being a member of any "community" that is not my family, friends or vocational. It is not that interest groups or hobby communities can't do good stuff, but my personal experience is that they also tend to be rife with the sort of inter-personal conflict that I can absolutely do without when I'm not on the job.

That's not really how that works though. You're part of The Escapist community for one. And as much as people want to pretend they are 'above it all' and refuse the 'Gamer' title, playing games makes you one, though it hardly means anything beyond 'plays video games'.

To truly not be part of any community is to isolate yourself completely.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Honestly Steam has such an unrelenting stranglehold on the PC market, that for Epic to try anything less than what it's doing is to pretty much admit defeat already. They're not going to shake up Steam's monopoly without ruffling a few feathers. I agree a crowdfunded game going Epic exclusive at the last minute is a dog deal, but I'd say the onus of the blame for that is on the developers for getting greedy, not on Epic for offering the payout.

How exactly would you go about trying to compete with steam?

No seriously, if the consumer friendlineds won company wars, GoG would be the most popular platform.

Epic is using the ONLY VIABLE WAY to compete with steam. Sure their store needs work, and should have been on par with steam before launch. But there is literally no other way to compete with a behemoth such as steam without buying high profile exclusives.

I remember back when everyone hated steam when it launched. We have come full circle.

I've already addressed some of these points in the original post, but I'll go through it again.

To be fair, I wouldn't even mind if I got something more than just a timed exclusive. As of now, Origin has more in their launcher, and I despise using it.

I stated before that while I'm not a fan of Epic's practices, I'm more displeased with how all you do is hear people whine and complain about how disgusting Epic is... and these sales are through the roof. I've seen multiple people complain about how they can't stand what Epic is doing, but they have to complete the series.

And more to it, I can not stand the smug about of BS that Tim Sweeney keeps putting out [https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-03-22-sweeney-epic-games-store-is-making-the-industry-better-but-gamers-dont-see-that].

"Ultimately, this is about making the industry a better place, starting with the terms available for developers. I understand gamers don't see that. They don't see the hardship of making a payroll and seeing the store suck out 30% of the revenue from it. It can be jarring to see the industry is changing in ways that are typically invisible to us as gamers."

If you take a poll, you'll find that most of us gamers want a fair split for Developers. We want them around to make the games we love. This is our passion. But Epic's moves are not about making the industry a better place for gamers. And that's what bugs me about it. Because if it was, they would have sunk their billions into the interface from the get go and even hired a separate team to make it glistening and beautiful. They would have made an actual quality product AND done the game poaching.

And to be fair, that would have been amazing. Before the EGS launched, I was admittedly among the few who saw that this could give real opposition to steam. Real challenge to bring about a dynamic that could benefit us and possible revitalize the PC Market. That's all we could have ever asked for. But we don't have that. We have a platform where the gamer seems to be the last thought in this equation.

This is about trying to take over steam's position. And frankly... yeah, whatever. Who cares? My games will be on my laptop regardless when we get down into it. I'll double click on an icon and I won't be bothered. But don't come at us with Sanctimonious BS that we don't care about Industry. We do. We fear crashes, We mourn great companies being shut down because they don't make EA Fifa money and the like. And before Steam, we still had problems with Steam getting complacent. The Meme that Steam can't count to three, Shovelware and Market Bloat, Artifact... we've had issues with Steam forever.

I literally do not care if Steam gets replaced with a better market. That would be best for the industry. But this isn't a better client. The roadmap was available, and Epic decided not to take it. It decided to do the bare minimum because that's what Gamers have accepted over time as long as there is a bell or a whistle about. Steam bumbled their way to where they are now because there was not a system for them to draw inspiration from or to gauge what the burgeoning PC gaming market would need. They messed up all the way to the top.

Epic could have aped it wholesale like Origin or Uplay. There's literally no other way to do it. They have the money, and they could have hired literally thousands of people to get it done. They chose not to. That doesn't inspire confidence that they are doing this strictly to make the Gaming Industry better when they choose to do it with the bare minimum effort other than buying up exclusives.

And as usual, Gamers do not care. Fuck respect, Fuck dignity. Where is my shiny?

Epic is trying to crave their way into the landscape. And while I don't like their practices, and some of them belie the BS Tim wants to push all the time, I get it. I can dislike something but understand why it's done. But once again, it's the gamers' acceptance for Less that signals to the industry as a whole that they don't have to try that hard to put in quality that bothers me. Because I can vote with my wallet all I want. If the masses are so entranced with the idea of "MUST GET SHINY NOW", my little voice and laughable notions about mutual respect in this industry means nothing. And I have to accept what comes with that.

EGS is just a new iteration of The Gaming Market vs the Consumer. And once again, the Consumer whines and gnashes his teeth... then gets in line to have another crappy deal dished onto their plate and then bemoan that they do not get enough respect. Or they just jumped in the line without a second thought. Making it easier and easier to ignore us and do whatever they like as long as they appease their investors.

 

[Saelune]

And as usual, Gamers do not care. Fuck respect, Fuck dignity. Where is my shiny?

Most people don't care. They make up excuses or are just willfully ignorant. A lot of people just want to spite Steam, even if it means endorsing even worse practices. Others just want their free games.

 

[Agema]

Epic is using the ONLY VIABLE WAY to compete with steam. Sure their store needs work, and should have been on par with steam before launch. But there is literally no other way to compete with a behemoth such as steam without buying high profile exclusives.

Anyone can compete with Steam with enough time, effort and investment. GOG for instance might with some backing. It doesn't really require a massive player. Steam's big advantage is probably the extensive development tools that makes life easier for people making games: it should be relatively easy to undercut as many feel it's percentage of sales for distribution is very much on the high side.

I remember back when everyone hated steam when it launched. We have come full circle.

Did they? I don't remember that.

I think Steam had to overcome that faint discomfort that you no longer have a hard copy, such that if Valve went bust and Steam died, then your game access died with it.

The main problem with Steam is that it is, in ways, victim of its own success. It is full of a terrifying quantity of garbage: derivative, poorly designed, trash by independent developer chancers.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Although I really want people to put in input about their issues with their communities as it were, I'll continue with the Epic Game Store thing with this breaking news.

Epic Game Store Mega Sale is Store-wide and Epic is eating the cost of the discount, instead of the developer [https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/epic-plans-more-exclusive-games-store-announcements-store-wide-mega-sale/]

THAT is how you use your money to benefit Developers and Win Fans. Steam, you can not stay silent forever if you want to live.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

That's not really how that works though. You're part of The Escapist community for one. And as much as people want to pretend they are 'above it all' and refuse the 'Gamer' title, playing games makes you one, though it hardly means anything beyond 'plays video games'.

To truly not be part of any community is to isolate yourself completely.

Well, I suppose I am part of those community, though these days I hardly care what goes on here. As with the gamer title, I used to be more invested in the Escapist but lately I'm just coming here since there is the occasional cool discussion I want to be part of.

However, I disagree with the definition of gamer. One can play tons of games without actually being invested in the communities surrounding them, which is where I am at these days. I tend to follow (but not participate) in the subreddits or official forums of games I play at the moment, but can't care less about the drama surrounding those games.