[serge2k]

> I'm guessing that these structures are only effective in firms like Valve

Valve seems like the poster child for upsides and downsides of this system.

They release cool games, make lot of money, Hats!

On the other hand, steam is still really clunky and their customer service has historically been horrible.

[was_boring]

So terrible that I quit using them all together. My account got into a state were I could not buy any games, and after weeks of customer service emails which lead no resolution and only canned responses, I just gave up on the platform enterily.

I've never tried so hard to give a company my money and have them so actively refuse it.