B…B…B…BLOODY SCREEN! SO REAL!

That’s IMO a big part of what’s different between the 7 transition and this one. Last time Microsoft was going around upgrading people’s computers for them, and even if people didn’t want to jump to 10 right away, they allowed Win 7, 8, and 8.1 keys to activate it pretty much whenever. Now with their hardware requirement, they’re official line is telling people without TPM that their hardware is junk when they stop supporting Win 10. That drove people to look for the better alternative Microsoft won’t tell you about.

It was 5-10 years ago, not too hard to find and a little before Google intentionally made things harder to find. I’ve used many public and private trackers, but it’s just that these days my interest in movies has disappeared almost completely, and I’m happy with most of the games I have.

I’ve had a lot less of a desire to pirate games after moving to Linux full time a few years ago. But FitGirl has been the one reliable place for public torrents, compaed to chancing it on the third Google Link or scrolling through the Russian CS-Rin-Rulette forum to find links.

You are correct, though it bears stating that they make millions from kids gambling and they make billions for their software distribution platform, as one indicator of Valve’s priorities as a for-profit company.

Call me a shill, but Valve’s actions indicate that they care about the money that comes from improving a product or service. That differentiates them from many publicly traded companies that care about money at the expense of the quality of their own products and services.

Waiting for the free to claim weekend. Or have Epic offer me a free Steam Machine one week as thanks for opening their still half-baked store.

Oh boy I also hope this comes with the login queue battle royale mechanic (video) as well. Couldn’t call it a modern AAAA experience without one.

1.5V Li-ion batteries in AA size that can be charged by USB-C are now available. For stuff like TV remotes, flashlights, little toys and gadgets anything more seems overpowered than needed.

He has no official ties with the European Citizen’s Initiative (besides “hype-man” as I recall he described it) but he is the founder of the Stop Killing Games movement, encompassing the original research effort in terms of what people could do to stop games being lost or intentionally destroyed.

In one sense yes they are a monopoly. But there are alternative game stores. However Valve has earned their cut of money by actually trying to make a platform that works for game developers, game players and themselves.

Don’t get me wrong, they have a high risk of turning bad and extorting the market they have captured. But the truth is that every equally or greater sized competitor (Microsoft, Ubisoft, EA, Epic) has already skipped to the extortion part of the cycle and Valve simply hasn’t, and hasn’t really expressed any intention to do that. Being a privately owned company, Valve is allowed to sit back, enjoy the money they do make and not have to constantly ask for more, and develop what the staff feel like making without strict deadlines.

The smaller competitors are still great even if not as feature filled (GOG, itch) and you should support them too. So while I reject that Valve is the big bad, I also reject that Valve could never enshittify. My position is that Valve has earned a trust no one else has (even itch had to cave to Credit Card companies), and that trust is Valve’s to break.

I think your average Linux user does want to give game creators their fair share. But they would like to withhold from those that take away from others.

I more or less stopped pirating games after moving my PC to Linux full time.

It has a Garfield Kart 1 feel to it.

Oooh! This sounds like fun!

In Asia, 8s and 88s are considered lucky.

Paradox’s modus operandi is to put everything in DLC after DLC package. It’s worked sometimes in the past (for the publisher, developers and end users) but when “base-game” releases have been so half-baked due to publisher time pressures in recent years, gamers have gotten tired of having to pay more to get the full game version of the game right around the release date.

https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/pc-gaming/steam-drops-windows-7-and-8-support-with-the-latest-client-users-told-to-update-to-a-more-recent-version-of-windows-to-continue-gaming

When 7 and 8 support was fully dropped (where the newest Steam client requires 10 or above to run at all), Steam clients on older OSes were not updated automatically. It’s only if you manually try to update the launcher, it would “brick” your installations.

I agree that GOG’s method will stand the test of time better (as we wouldn’t have to archive specific versions of Steam), but for those with existing setups you aren’t SOL right away when support ends.

Interestingly this instalment is made by Sonic Team, when the previous racing ones were made by Sumo Digital.

If Nintendo can abuse the US patent system, it would seem fair for individuals to be able to freely infringe Nintendo’s copyright.

(Note if you are making a Nintendo fan-project, DON’T ANNOUNCE ANYTHING until you get your first usable build ready for release!!!)

Ubuntu-based, Arch-based, Fedora-based distributions will do you fine.

Debian is great for having a rock solid stable system that works, but not for the latest and greatest software or hardware combis.