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by Gigachad 1369 days ago
Long time steam user and have never felt compelled to buy any of that. I get an absolutely massive amount of value out of Steam and I'm yet to see another store that even runs on Linux, let alone actually boosting the whole ecosystem with Proton and other efforts.

I bought a new racing wheel a while ago and it wasn't quite working on linux, after doing some searching I found that a Valve employee was working on a patch to the kernel to fix this racing wheel just to make gaming on linux better.
3 comments
Zhyl 1369 days ago
FWIW itch.io also runs on Linux and have developed their own 'Proton-alike' which automatically sets up Wine prefixes for Windows games.

They're standing on the shoulders of Giants, but I also don't see (m)any of the other stores doing likewise.

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ekianjo 1369 days ago
itch.io may be great and all but its missing good commercial titles. It feels like any kind of subpar game ends up there.
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Zhyl 1369 days ago
It's an indie store, the natural successor to the flash game websites of yore. Getting games from there sight unseen is like picking up some games from the bargain bin - a lot of rubbish but the occasional gem.

It doesn't need 'good commercial titles', it needs to be seen as the preferred option for supporting Indies over steam (i.e. if you are presented with the choice, go for itch. If you're already on steam then steam has earned its money).

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troyvit 1369 days ago
Do you think there's room in peoples' lives for Steam _and_ itch.io or do they overlap too much?
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Zhyl 1369 days ago
Most of the high end of itch is on steam, so you could life a happy and fulfilled life without hearing about itch at all.

On the other hand, if you're someone who is frustrated with the commercial nature of current stores and are pining for the simpler times - itch is very much going to scratch that... Itch.

I personally end up mostly on Steam, but on the occasion that I've really wanted to support a developer (usually puzzle games like Patrick's Parabox) I'll go to itch. The bundle for Ukraine recently also had some excellent finds in there.

tl; dr - if you are an indie connoisseur then yes, if you just want to game then probably not.

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troyvit 1369 days ago
This Linux thing can't be over-stated. I'm a dad with 2 teenage daughters and yet aside from school devices and their phones they never touch anything but Linux. Steam is a huge reason why that's possible.
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sascha_sl 1369 days ago
> Long time steam user and have never felt compelled to buy any of that.

That's really the trick. Valve is targeting "whales" in the same way that mobile games are. Just not as blatently.

CS:GO and the attached gambling economy regularly goes on to destroy wallets of parents and others at risk of gambling behavior.

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iforgotpassword 1369 days ago
Ok, but that's specific to CSGO, not steam in general. No game I own seems to have gambling or micro transactions, or they're just not blatantly trying to shove it into my face so that I didn't even notice. Compare this to any mobile game or pay2win games that aren't even really playable without constantly pouring in money.

Valve certainly isn't a saint, but when it comes to steam, it's a decent platform that gets the job done and doesn't get in your way, no dark patterns there.

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