19 votes

Steam Winter Sale is live until Jan 3, including voting for the Steam Awards and a daily "advent calendar" of Steam items

16 comments

  1. [12]
    kavi
    (edited )
    Link
    I don't use Steam, but I think things like this are why people like Valve so much. I might actually pick a game or two up, since they're so cheap. Are the streams from Twitch, or does Steam have...

    I don't use Steam, but I think things like this are why people like Valve so much. I might actually pick a game or two up, since they're so cheap. Are the streams from Twitch, or does Steam have it's own streaming service?

    1 vote
    1. [2]
      Deimos
      Link Parent
      Steam has its own streaming. It's definitely less fleshed-out than Twitch, but you can use it for basic streaming pretty easily. You can set up your Steam preferences so that you're always...

      Are the streams from Twitch, or does Steam have it's own streaming service?

      Steam has its own streaming. It's definitely less fleshed-out than Twitch, but you can use it for basic streaming pretty easily. You can set up your Steam preferences so that you're always automatically streaming and friends (or even anyone) are able to watch what you're playing. I've used it a few times to show games to friends that were curious about them.

      7 votes
    2. [10]
      Comment removed by site admin
      Link Parent
      1. [9]
        kavi
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        I don't mean to come off as proud at all - sorry if it comes off that way. I don't have much money at all (as a kid), so the vast majority of my games are pirated. I have still purchased a few...

        I don't mean to come off as proud at all - sorry if it comes off that way. I don't have much money at all (as a kid), so the vast majority of my games are pirated. I have still purchased a few games though (Cuphead via GOG and some other indie games). Also, most of my library are ROMs, which are nigh-impossible to get legally.

        I also don't think it equates to "stealing" the games. It doesn't deprive them of anything, and if it wasn't piratable, then it wouldn't change much at all; it would just mean I'd get a different game. I've pirated Cuphead and then bought it legally because I like it, and it's the same story with Minecraft PE.

        Edited my original comment to reflect my intentions.

        9 votes
        1. [9]
          Comment removed by site admin
          Link Parent
          1. Adys
            Link Parent
            Here's the secret with Piracy that some companies understood early on (Adobe), some took a long time to come around (Bethesda), and some have yet to understand (Nintendo): The people who pirate...
            • Exemplary

            Here's the secret with Piracy that some companies understood early on (Adobe), some took a long time to come around (Bethesda), and some have yet to understand (Nintendo):

            The people who pirate your product are legitimate potential customers.

            Obviously they don't do that anymore, but Adobe back in the days used to (off the books) distribute its own cracks of Photoshop on torrent sites, and warn against viruses/trojans etc (do torrent curation). A simple strategy that paid off tens if not hundreds of millions. Photoshop ended up on the computers of school kids and potential budding artists. Those exact same people were the ones who, a few years down the line, would go on to become professional artists. And what tool would they ask their employer to buy enterprise licenses of? The one they learned their craft on.

            Game piracy is in a similar state. If, say, you know for sure @kavi won't buy your game (eg. because they don't have the money). Would you rather they play it, or not play it? Which one of the two has the highest likelihood of resulting in a sale?

            Well, neither of those change the amount of money that customer has, so the chance of a direct sale is unchanged. But if you're confident about your product, then you know damn well that that user may go on to talk about that game with their friends etc, and become an ambassador for it. This is what people mean when they say "let the product do the talking": If your product is good enough, it markets itself through its users. Then in the future, the situation of the customer in question may change. They may have more money and want to buy the product, or merchandise around the product, or the product's next iteration, your next game, or they may use the product in a professional capacity and ask their employer for 100 licenses.

            Note that there's always a balance to strike between that and devaluing your own product, but overall I've been of the mindset that distributing your product for free, even at cost, is beneficial. That's the same principle why entire PC gaming rigs end up in twitter giveaways. Why car companies will give away entire vehicles to give away on TV shows. Oh, and why Amazon will give you $100K of free AWS credits if you ask nicely.

            13 votes
          2. super_james
            Link Parent
            This is flat wrong. Piracy is copyright infringement, unlike theft piracy does no tangible harm to the victim as they are not deprived of any possessions ('potential earnings' are not property)....

            piracy of any kind is still stealing

            This is flat wrong. Piracy is copyright infringement, unlike theft piracy does no tangible harm to the victim as they are not deprived of any possessions ('potential earnings' are not property).

            Attempting to win arguments by conflating the meanings of words like this is sloppy.

            8 votes
          3. Kenny
            Link Parent
            Amen. The cultural sense of entitlement around this issue is ridiculous.

            if you can't afford a product, then that does not entitle you to still use that product.

            Amen. The cultural sense of entitlement around this issue is ridiculous.

            4 votes
          4. [5]
            kavi
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            No worries, to each their own. I still don't think piracy is theft in that manner, and while we may have contrasting views, you have a fair argument. I believe all software should be free and...

            No worries, to each their own. I still don't think piracy is theft in that manner, and while we may have contrasting views, you have a fair argument. I believe all software should be free and don't like copyright, and piracy is a form of expressing those opinions for me.

            4 votes
            1. [4]
              calcifer
              (edited )
              Link Parent
              You say you are a kid now, but this means when you are an adult you'd never get a job that involves software, movies, tv shows, music, games, books, art and so on if someone has the rights to that...

              I believe all software should be free and don't like copyright

              You say you are a kid now, but this means when you are an adult you'd never get a job that involves software, movies, tv shows, music, games, books, art and so on if someone has the rights to that work, right?

              If your answer isn't "of course not, I will only work at a place where everything is 100% free & without copyright!", then I don't think you are being honest with yourself.

              2 votes
              1. [3]
                Weldawadyathink
                Link Parent
                I don't know @kavi 's opinion, but free software does not necessarily mean no money changes hands. As a perfect example, tildes is free (both free to use and free as in freedom to change and...

                I don't know @kavi 's opinion, but free software does not necessarily mean no money changes hands. As a perfect example, tildes is free (both free to use and free as in freedom to change and modify) and Deimos still makes money from it. Synergy is free (as in freedom) but is still a paid program.

                5 votes
                1. kavi
                  Link Parent
                  Yeah, that's how I prefer monetisation. Via donating, the way many things do eg Wikipedia.

                  Yeah, that's how I prefer monetisation. Via donating, the way many things do eg Wikipedia.

                  2 votes
                2. calcifer
                  Link Parent
                  I know that, which is why I've linked to the FSF definition. Or did you mean to reply to someone else?

                  I know that, which is why I've linked to the FSF definition. Or did you mean to reply to someone else?

                  1 vote
  2. [2]
    slugo
    Link
    can someone explain to me the items you get in the advent calendar? i don't understand what they are used for, and steam doesn't really explain it well.

    can someone explain to me the items you get in the advent calendar? i don't understand what they are used for, and steam doesn't really explain it well.

    1. Deimos
      Link Parent
      They're Steam items, like backgrounds you can set on your Steam profile, and emotes you can use in Steam chat. I just sell all of them on the marketplace for about 5 cents of Steam credit each.

      They're Steam items, like backgrounds you can set on your Steam profile, and emotes you can use in Steam chat. I just sell all of them on the marketplace for about 5 cents of Steam credit each.

      1 vote
  3. [3]
    Comment removed by site admin
    Link
    1. [2]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Yeah, XCOM 2 is great, and the mod scene for it is fantastic. <3 Long War 2 especially. Dragons Dogma is not a Dark Souls ripoff at all. Other than them both being rather difficult and obtuse...

      Yeah, XCOM 2 is great, and the mod scene for it is fantastic. <3 Long War 2 especially.

      Dragons Dogma is not a Dark Souls ripoff at all. Other than them both being rather difficult and obtuse Japanese RPGs that don't hold your hand at all, they have next to nothing in common. If I was to compare it to any game it would have to be Monster Hunter in terms of fight mechanics but without the zany story, and in an open world setting a bit like Zelda BotW. I personally didn't enjoy it all that much because of the incredibly sparse story and somewhat empty feeling of large parts of the world... but for $9 it's not a bad deal if that sort of game is your thing.

      And BATTLETECH is pretty solid from what I have played of it so far (11hrs)... but it's unfortunately just really time consuming. Each mission takes 40min+ so I got kinda sidetracked and put it aside for other games. I definitely plan on going back to it at some point though.

      3 votes