A) There is a cult of personality around Gaben. All of this is based around marketing, where gaben is presented as a fat nerd so hardcore gamers will like him. You like to think that the guy running a billion-dollar business is looking out for you interests. The fact that this is so obvious and people fall for it is sad.
Gabe is not CliffyB. He's not an attention whore, his "fans" are just making him into this celebrity.
Gabe himself doesn't really give a damn about publicity. The guy only gives maybee 1-2 interviews per year.
Oh, you know this, do you? You've talked to Gabe then, have you? Had a little chat about this whole publicity thing of his that he doesn't give a damn about?
I say Gabe really does give a damn about his public image, which is why he only gives maybe 1-2 interviews per year. The fact that message forums are full of people chanting "god gaben" is no accident. Valve is very careful to give out the image of Gabe as the likeable nerd that you can relate to. You can't relate to CliffyB, a muscular wannabe-rockstar. But you can relate to that fat guy who starts to breathe heavily after climbing a flight of stairs. Gabe is a brand.
B) Everyone gives a pass on Valve over shit they would never forgive another company. Horse armour pissed everyone off, but TF2 hats are fine!
In either case, nobody forces you to buy that shit. "Fans" want hats, Valve provides.
I.e. Valve milks their customers. But nobody calls Valve out on it.
C) Steam is one of the most offending forms of DRM. With GoG, you just download the installer and do nothing else (you actually own the game!). Afaik Direct 2 Drive, Origin, Gamer's Gate or Impulse don't need to run in the background either. Steam on the other hand does, and it also collects all kinds of data about the way you play all the time (which it may or may not sell to advertisers, to boot).
What's so offending about Steam?
Do you have problems understanding what you read or do you just not give a shit? You don't own the games you buy from Steam. You are monitored by it all the time. You can't release DRM-free games on Steam. Steam takes 30% off everything sold on it.
I understand arguing with you about these points is pointless, because you don't care about privacy, or about owning the things you buy, or about the fact that the more people use these kinds of services the more they will pop up in every other aspect of life.
The times where patches are uploaded on some shitty servers are over.
Is this the reason why Steam is so great to you? Because it updates the games automatically, so you don't have to click on the update button? Is that it in a nutshell?
Black Mesa was a prime example why every single game should be Steam exclusive.
You have got to be one of the stupidest members on this forum.
Every game should be a Steam exclusive? You want every game ever to be in Valve's renting service, which may or may not be around five years from now? You want to give a company a monopoly on PC gaming? What if I don't want to have Gabe check up on me every five minutes, what if I want to run my games without anyone else having a peek at what I'm doing. What if I don't want to use Steam?
I like using GoG. I like buying games from GoG. But apparently that's wrong, because every game should be a Steam exclusive.
People went apeshit when Blizzard made D3 always-online. Steam makes everything always-online. Yet that's somehow a good thing. Because that fat guy runs it.
