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The Valve and Steam Platform Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Wirdschowerdn
- Start date
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In your neck of the woods, maybe. Up here it's only for online banking, and has been so for a decade now. And what kind of scenario that has created is...interesting.
To use the online banking features you need to apply for a special authentication key, which comes on a keychain. Then you needed to pick it up at the local bank. These things are so shoddily built that they only have a lifespan of a few years, so they need to be replaced at regular intervals. The thing is, due to the popularity of online banking the banks here are closing the local outlets, arguing that retaining staff is cutting into their costs (at the same time that they announce record profits year after year). In urban areas that's not a problem, but rural areas are hit pretty bad as banks are being closed in towns which then have to make up to 6-hour road trips to reach the nearest bank...so there are cases where the only option for banking is via the internet - which is every kind of wrong when it comes to a service. A service should always be ready to provide alternatives for its users.
"What about the Post Office?" some bright spark may ask. Well, the Post Office took part in the initial distribution of the authentication keys, but that turned out to be a fiasco, as about 5% (IIRC) of the keys were lost, damaged or stolen during the process. As a result the banks won't even dream of sending the authentication keys via post - not even via 'trusted' delivery services like UPS.
So the inevitable time is coming that far too many people here won't have (an easy) access to these authentication keys, and will have to face the prospect that they can't do something as simple as go to the bank when needed - all because the banks are covering their own asses (when they're already quadruple-covered by the state) at the cost of the user, and shifting any and all blame over to the user. This is precisely what's happening with Steam now - this is a trend I am not fond of, and none of you should be, especially since my question of "What will they do next?" hasn't even been addressed.
If I'm butthurt about anything in all this, it's Valve's refusal to provide alternate means to let users authenticate/protect their accounts. Right now it's "use this app or fuck off". I refuse, so they're telling me to fuck off. Good thing I've been steering away from Steam for the past few years, or this could actually be a problem.
amdus
Arbiter
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You can always use VirtualBox + Android x86 combo to install 'Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator'. Ofcourse you'll still need to provide a working phone number for receiving authorization code when you activate mobile authenticator for the first time.
Last edited:
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- May 8, 2007
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Umm.. you do realize that this actually is a good argument for two-factor mobile apps. That gets rids of all the delivery problems, as long as you have a trusted phone number already in the bank's system.
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When I said "major services" I actually meant Google and Facebook. It's optional, of course, but once you accept the idea that it's ridiculous that somebody should be able to get into your account just by guessing your password, not using it seems crazy. Besides, getting a secret code to your cellphone to unlock a website feels kind of cool. 
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Yes I do, and that's another point of concern. The banks here are rolling out their own apps at the same time that they're closing down bank outlets, and using that as justification to make everyone download and install them. Makes everything so much easier, yes...especially for the banks to learn more about their customers, including things they shouldn't know. And there have been plenty of customers unsatisfied with this...and they've all been promptly ignored.
Ever heard of the woman who bought her tampons for years using a credit card, and when she stopped doing so she started receiving diaper ads precisely 8 months afterwards? That's just the tip of the iceberg as to what happens when you leave a trail of breadcrumbs for the money companies to follow. I for one don't want to find out how big that iceberg can get.
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I agree with the privacy concerns, and maybe there needs to be a rating of banking apps based on this. That would definitely influence my banking decision. However, that's orthogonal to this issue. These apps do provide better security, too bad that some companies abuse this to gather more data. I don't know if Steam does this though.
LESS T_T
Arcane
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I don't play Dota so I have no idea how custom games work. But now you can support mod makers by buying a pass that last 30 days. It cost one dollar, Valve takes 30%. It also gives you extra stuff "freeloaders" don't have access to. You can all read more in the thread I guess. The entitlement argument is being used already of course. People are saying this is "pay2win" and so on.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/4ajcaz/supporting_custom_game_developers/
Personally, to me, it just seems like another way for Valve to make a quick buck on the back of the community.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/4ajcaz/supporting_custom_game_developers/
Personally, to me, it just seems like another way for Valve to make a quick buck on the back of the community.
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- Jan 28, 2011
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OMG Valve made a game! Sort of: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...new-game-out-soon-and-its-electrifyingly-good
Valve has a new game out soon, and it's electrifyingly good
Some of you will never be happy if it's not Half-Life 3, or at least another Left 4 Dead. Some of you just want to know what's in the next update for Dota 2, Counter-Strike: GO or Team Fortress 2. Some of you are still pretending that Steam Machines are going to be a thing. And some of you are wondering if Valve is really a game developer any more, or just a particularly idiosyncratic, not to say gnomic, platform company with more revenue than it knows what to do with and a habit of half-indulging its whims. (Hello, Steam Controller.)
Well guess what, Valve the game developer still exists, and it still has the goods. At GDC this week I played Valve's next game, which will be out in the next month or so and which is bloody brilliant.
Alright, so The Lab will be free, and is no more than a Portal-themed collection of virtual reality demos designed to show off the capabilities of the HTC Vive headset. But it's no less than a totally thrilling gaming experience assembled with a characteristic mix of humour, invention and finesse. Welcome back, Valve-the-game-developer.
The Lab itself is the hub area, an Aperture Science museum-cum-den where the exhibits transport you to the demos - which you accomplish by picking up a sort of snow globe representing the space you want to visit and smashing it into your face. You'll bring back toys and trinkets from your experiences to display and examine here in all their reach-out-and-touch-it, Source 2 engine, SteamVR glory.
There are no screenshots of The Lab available, which is both frustrating and wonderful, because it preserves the wonder and surprise.
I tried four demos. The first and simplest was a mountain view from the summit of a peak in Washington state. This rugged panorama, barely animated but nevertheless breathtaking, was assembled from hundreds of photos. You use the Vive controllers' warp movement method - hold a button down, point where you'd like to go, and release to move there - to flick between a couple of areas that you are then free to walk around in wonder. An adorable robot dog accompanies you and it will play fetch if you throw a stick for it. Cute, and heart-stoppingly beautiful, but basic stuff as Vive's virtual spaces go.
In the second demo, I "recalibrated" a string of neurotic personality cores - the chatty robotic eyeballs from Portal 2 - by firing them out of a catapult at gigantic Jenga towers of crates and explosive barrels, causing merry destruction. This thunderous fun was helped along by a stream of laugh-out-loud one-liners delivered by the cores before you fling them to their doom. What really impresses here, as in the original Portal demo, is the Source 2 rendering. The scuffed and dented cores have an amazingly credible textural finish if you study them up close, and Portal's aesthetic, which is plain but precisely finished and exuberantly animated, is a perfect fit for VR - outlandish enough to excite, grounded enough to convince.
The third demo begins with you stepping up to a model castle on a table, leaning in to study a tiny Aperture stick figure wearing a VR headset, and clicking on it to be transported to its spot on the castle battlements. There you play an archery game, using a longbow to rattle off shots at invading stick figures. This one struck me as being less about VR itself than a use of VR to rehabilitate motion controls. Not only are the Vive controllers more reliable and responsive than Wii, Kinect or even Move, but the exact correlation between the position of your hands in real and virtual space eliminates the disconnect some motion control games suffer from and the problems they have with on-screen representation. Using the bow to draw and loose off shots is amazingly fluid, intuitive and satisfying - especially when leaning forward over the battlements to shoot at stick-soldiers below.
The Vive controllers look cool, in a weird way, and they are wonderfully precise and low-latency.
The best and last demo I tried encases you in a steely spherical chamber. In front of you a tiny toy spacecraft hovers. Reaching forward to pick it up, you can now fly it around as if you're a kid with a toy plane, and enemy craft spawn all around. Just aiming your ship at an enemy automatically opens fire on it, while they shoot red dots back, at first in a slow stream and eventually in a pulsing blizzard. Yes, it's a bullet hell shmup in full 3D virtual space, and it's absolutely exhilarating. At first your instinct is to dodge the enemy fire with your own body, but it's the ship you need to keep intact, and soon you get into threading it through the intensifying storm of missiles and other hazards as you line up your shots. It's a simple but gratifying arcade game in an entirely new idiom. I cannot wait to try it again.
A common worry about VR is that you don't want to spend that long in it, and that in a number of ways it's not all that compatible with the kind of luxuriant long-session gaming that so many of us enjoy. It's beginning to dawn on me that this is missing the point. The immersion VR offers is not the immersion of the epic first-person action game, or the alluring other life of an online world that you can lose days to. It's the immersion of the arcade in its 1980s/early 90s pomp: immediate, thrilling, physically involving, technologically spectacular and shit-off-a-shovel quick, it engulfs your senses. It's a bit gimmicky, perhaps, but it's also bigger and brighter and more exciting than playing games on your TV at home. You reel away after a few heart-pounding minutes and look forward to your next opportunity to have a go.
This may not be what we think of as video games now, but it's where video games came from - and now Valve, of all people, is here to remind us of it in all its frivolous, end-of-the-pier glory. The Lab may be no more than a few small but perfectly formed demos, but right now that's exactly what VR wants and needs.
kazgar
Arcane
GUILTY!
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/03/valve-found-guilty-of-dececptive-conduct-in-australia/
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/03/valve-found-guilty-of-dececptive-conduct-in-australia/
Valve Found Guilty Of Deceptive Conduct In Australia
For years, the US video game company Valve has refused to provide refunds for games purchased on Steam, even if the products were found to be unfit for purpose. Today, the Australian Federal Court finally ruled that Valve was in breach of Australian Consumer Law; something that was obvious to pretty much everyone. Here’s what the verdict means for Steam purchases.
The Federal Court found Valve guilty of engaging in “misleading or deceptive conduct” and making “false or misleading representations to Australian consumers” on its online game distribution platform Steam. The gaming juggernaut broke consumer guarantees under Australian Consumer Law; specifically its lack of remedy for goods that are not of acceptable quality or fit for the purpose for which they were sold.
The Court found that Valve made the following false or misleading representations to consumers, in the terms and conditions contained in three versions of its Steam Subscriber Agreement and two versions of its Steam Refund Policy:
The case was initially brought forward by the ACCC over a year ago. Valve initially attempted to defend its lack of a refund policy by claiming it conducts no “official” business in Australia. But this is plainly false. By making its online sales portal available to Australians, Valve was clearly carrying on business in Australia.
- consumers were not entitled to a refund for digitally downloaded games purchased from Valve via the Steam website or Steam Client (in any circumstances);
- Valve had excluded statutory guarantees and/or warranties that goods would be of acceptable quality;
- Valve had restricted or modified statutory guarantees and/or warranties of acceptable quality.
“In this case, Valve is a US company operating mainly outside Australia, but, in making representations to Australian consumers, the Federal Court has found that Valve engaged in conduct in Australia,” ACCC Chairman Rod Sims explained.
“The Federal Court’s decision reinforces that foreign based businesses selling goods and/or services to Australian consumers can be subject to Australian Consumer Law obligations, including the consumer guarantees.”
So what does this mean for Australian Steam customers? Not a whole lot, actually. Last year, Valve quietly tweaked its refund policy to comply with Australian consumer law while the court case was still in full swing. But if you unsuccessfully applied for a refund prior to June 2015, you might want to give it another shot.
The court decision also has wider ramifications for overseas software companies operating in Australia. As Rod Sims explains:
“This is the first time Courts have applied the extended definition of ‘goods’ to include “computer software” in the ACL. It will provide greater certainty where digital goods are supplied to consumers through online platforms.”
According to the ACCC, Steam has over 125 million users worldwide — with approximately 2.2 million of those users being Australian consumers. In 2015, Valve’s revenue was reported at over $3 billion. In other words, it can definitely afford to refund your crappy copy of Batman: Arkham Knight.
What was "misleading or deceptive" about refunds.It was a common knowledge they don't give them easily.But never mind now they can refund the retards for Batman: Arkham Knight so money can go to next AssCreed or other shit. Government once again protecting retards for been stupid. 
Lucky
Arcane
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2015
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- 672
It's another attempt at quietly monetizing the mod scene. These slow increments is how you get people to start liking practices that are actively against their own interests.
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- May 25, 2006
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The system in this case is set up to reward mod authors who actively support their mods, so it seems in this case it is in the interest of mod users since it decreases the chance that a mod you like will be abandoned.
Lucky
Arcane
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- Apr 28, 2015
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- 672
The modding scene is already far more dedicated to maintaining what it creates than companies, plus a popular mod is isn't suddenly going to get abandoned anyway and if for some reason it does, involving money will only cause people to be less likely to allow others to pick up where they left off. All these attempts at getting payment involved will only cause creative stagnation by discouraging the sharing of ideas and assets, thereby ruining the most creative scene in the industry. Not everything needs to be about money.
There was an incident already. One of the first mods that got promoted had stolen stuff in it
I suppose Valve might try another 'first to put it on Steam owns it' charade, which will cause plenty of drama if they do.
Maybe because it is an early access game, and not released yet?
Yeah, looks like that is the case. No other EA game work, but then Age of Decadence don't show anything either. I refuse to think that nobody is playing that game right at this moment.
Steamcharts is where I go to see all that.
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LESS T_T
Arcane
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AFAIK, it's not visible when the number is too low (hundreds, I guess). (It's nothing to do with Early Access. Check out the certain popular Early Access game
: http://steamcommunity.com/app/221100)Like BlackAdderBG said, SteamCharts is your best source for that.
LESS T_T
Arcane
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Heh, Steam now display top seller chart for your country by default.
Top Seller for your country: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=topsellers&os=win
(You can use country codes to check out other country's top seller (this only works while you signed out). e.g. "cc=uk" for UK.)
Global Top Seller: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=globaltopsellers&os=win
Top Seller for your country: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=topsellers&os=win
(You can use country codes to check out other country's top seller (this only works while you signed out). e.g. "cc=uk" for UK.)
Global Top Seller: http://store.steampowered.com/search/?filter=globaltopsellers&os=win
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