Lesson learned: don't bite the hand that feeds you
Uh, no. lets correct this. The "lesson" is
"that Steam is "the most incompetent piece of f**king shit"
But to be honest the REAL point that was being made was
"I hope by the time my next game comes out steam doesn't have this awful fucking monopoly anymore."
No amount of "But I like steam because they tell me to" does not change the fact that Steam is horrendous for all consumers of ANY digitally distributed content on ALL platforms thanks to their grievous mishandling and malicious butchery of this industry. This is in fact something incredibly important because its finally showing what has been lacking proper attention. The fact that steam hurts developers every bit, if not more than it ever helps them.
That is what consumers need to see more of. They need that fun house mirror that they look at that convinces them that steam is good for players, and developers all out of the goodness of its capitalistic little heart to be shatters so the distorted image the mass public has of steam can actually be seen for what is at the very forefront of what is wrong with the industry today. Showing the public the fact that ever steam user is actively hurting ALL gamers does nothing. Showing them the fact that Steams products have inherently less value but are charged as if they were the same does nothing. Showing how Steam screwed every gamer in every country other than the US has done nothing.
Pointing out Steam has made unlawful demands of its customers has done nothing. Pointing out that steam is not above holding your library hostage in order to coerce your compliance to their unlawful demands has done nothing. Pointing out that steam has already reneged on their terms and forced all gamers to agree to alteration of the deal after the terms of the transaction had already been agreed to has done nothing. Cant escape this comparison.
And most importantly as it relates to this topic, Showing people that you get NOTHING in exchange for your money when you make a purchase through steam clearly does nothing with pages of patting each other on the back for coming to the defense of their "benevolent gaming benefactors" when a developer has in fact shown each and every steam user exactly how easy it is to have that vast backlog you have sunk tons of money into that you want to whine and cry over the beating your wallet is being given every time Steam has a sale is at the pleasure of Gaben, Valve, and its subsidiaries that can be taken from you at any time with or without reason. The developer has proven this unequivocally to each and every one reading this because what you actually saw in the whole exchange is a developer said something that Steam did not approve of and without batting an eye cut them off their service. Now think how quick you would lose that precious library of games you bought because they were cheap but you know you will never install them, much less play them, would go up in smoke and all the money you sunk into it goes with it, if you did the exact same thing and it was able to catch enough attention. Now if you think they didnt bat an eye over dropping PA dev... imagine how little they are going to care when it is just a consumer who they do not actually have a binding contract with, and the only thing in place is your capitulation to unfavorable terms of service written in thick legalese to ensure you have no recourse no matter how you protest.
Witness has been bore to what Valve does to those who do things that goes against their wishes. So there is no excuse for anyone to keep operating with this insane valve can do no wrong mentality when almost everything they have done has wrong either you or another gamer like you. Cease this "but that would never happen to me" mentality already because its that denial that is choking the life out of this industry and makes it harder for proper alternatives doing legitimate business to take root by doing correctly what Steam insists on doing wrong.
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Oh and Ill admit im not siphoning 5 pages worth of posts to verify so I will just say, in case it hasnt already been pointed out, Paranautical Activity was not some steam exclusive, so to claim
Here's a free life tip that should seem obvious: don't threaten to kill the man who controls the only platform your game is available on.
It might be a good idea to make sure what you are going to say is actually accurate before handing out life tips.
http://www.desura.com/games/paranautical-activity
I guess It is understandable to make such a mistake. When the overwhelming majority of consumers perpetuate the fallacy of Steams benefit, it dupes developers into believing it too, especially when Steam actively preyed upon them. So when you have both consumers and developers perpetuating such fallacy, then of course journalists would fall prey to the same trap. Sad but true and it is that point made example that illustrates just how bad this problem has become thanks to the false notion that steam is "the only" anything.killed