Poll of the Day > Why are so many gamers morons?

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.pcgamer.com/darkest-dungeon-2-steam-release/

"Darkest Dungeon 2 had already sold more than 100,000 copies on the Epic Games Store."

Exclusivity deals are bad for everybody.
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You're bad for everybody.

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Because they don't want to wait and ultimately don't really care about having to log into a different account to play their games. I really don't like Epic's approach to exclusivity (that is, throwing around money to buy timed exclusives to make their platform seem more appealing instead of trying to provide a service that competes more legitimately), but exclusivity to one digital storefront over the other isn't nearly as bad as exclusivity is on consoles, where there's a cost of several hundred dollars to access the exclusive content. Here, it's just an account, which is a relatively minor annoyance.

Me, I'm fine with waiting for Steam releases and I'm content to just enjoy the trickle of free games Epic hands out, rather than giving them any money. If they manage to put together a service that's actually better than Steam, I might start buying games there instead, but until then, I don't plan on rewarding their strategy. The free games are worth the effort of remembering an extra password, but that's about it.

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Because so much of any group of humans are morons?

adjl posted...

Because they don't want to wait and ultimately don't really care about having to log into a different account to play their games.

Convenience is definitely a huge thing.

adjl posted...

Me, I'm fine with waiting for Steam releases and I'm content to just enjoy the trickle of free games Epic hands out, rather than giving them any money. If they manage to put together a service that's actually better than Steam, I might start buying games there instead, but until then, I don't plan on rewarding their strategy. The free games are worth the effort of remembering an extra password, but that's about it.

I'm always amazed by the sheer number of free games these platforms give out, even if they're often minor titles.

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adjl posted...

Because they don't want to wait and ultimately don't really care about having to log into a different account to play their games. I really don't like Epic's approach to exclusivity (that is, throwing around money to buy timed exclusives to make their platform seem more appealing instead of trying to provide a service that competes more legitimately), but exclusivity to one digital storefront over the other isn't nearly as bad as exclusivity is on consoles, where there's a cost of several hundred dollars to access the exclusive content. Here, it's just an account, which is a relatively minor annoyance.

Me, I'm fine with waiting for Steam releases and I'm content to just enjoy the trickle of free games Epic hands out, rather than giving them any money. If they manage to put together a service that's actually better than Steam, I might start buying games there instead, but until then, I don't plan on rewarding their strategy. The free games are worth the effort of remembering an extra password, but that's about it.

Don't forget that if Epic manages to steal enough users to their store, Valve might have to start making games again. That's a huge plus, since Valve makes some of the best games out there.
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I learned yesterday that Epic Games killed X-Men: Destiny. There is nothing that that evil company can do to redeem themselves in my eyes.

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It's just 'cuz gaming is mainstream now

I remember I was great with computers in the DOS age but then Windows 95 made everyone think they're PC experts...

And now I'm obsolete!

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lihlih posted...

Don't forget that if Epic manages to steal enough users to their store, Valve might have to start making games again. That's a huge plus, since Valve makes some of the best games out there.

Eh, that's a stretch. If Steam does end up losing enough users to make a significant dent, odds are Valve will just try to make it more competitive, possibly reducing their cut to be more in line with Epic's and attract more developers. I don't think there's an outcome here where Valve would actually turn more of a profit by increasing their development efforts; Dota and CS:GO combined barely scratch the surface of the revenue they're making off of Steam, while requiring substantially more resources to run. Valve producing a couple new exclusive games also really wouldn't be enough to turn a tide of people flocking to Epic for the exclusives they buy, no matter how good they are.

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Not wanting to exclusively patronize Steam makes someone a moron? There's an almost endless list of reasons to tar gamers as morons and that's the one this topic is about?

SomeUsername529 posted...

Not wanting to exclusively patronize Steam makes someone a moron? There's an almost endless list of reasons to tar gamers as morons and that's the one this topic is about?

" I really don't like Epic's approach to exclusivity (that is, throwing around money to buy timed exclusives to make their platform seem more appealing instead of trying to provide a service that competes more legitimately)"
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Revelation34 posted...

" I really don't like Epic's approach to exclusivity (that is, throwing around money to buy timed exclusives to make their platform seem more appealing instead of trying to provide a service that competes more legitimately)"

Epic takes a shitload less of a cut than Steam, which is good for developers. If Epic wants to court developers by taking less of a cut, then that's a good thing.
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lihlih posted...

Don't forget that if Epic manages to steal enough users to their store, Valve might have to start making games again. That's a huge plus, since Valve makes some of the best games out there.

Wishful thinking. Even with the release of Valorant Valve still does not give a crap about CS Go. Cheaters run rampant & the servers are borked. You pretty much have to go to private servers to get a good match. An TF 2, yeesh, what a mess that game is. If it isn't Dota, Valve does not care

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lihlih posted...

Epic takes a shitload less of a cut than Steam, which is good for developers. If Epic wants to court developers by taking less of a cut, then that's a good thing.

"Exclusively deals are bad for everyone."
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Revelation34 posted...

"Exclusively deals are bad for everyone."

Epic takes less of a cut than Steam, so should Epic charge more just like Steam and fuck over the developers? The biggest reasons why developers are putting shit on Epic only/first is so they can make more money on games sold.
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lihlih posted...

Epic takes less of a cut than Steam, so should Epic charge more just like Steam and fuck over the developers? The biggest reasons why developers are putting shit on Epic only/first is so they can make more money on games sold.

No, it's primarily because Epic's paying them for timed exclusivity. Developers making the decision to only sell on Epic to improve their margins is fair game. Epic throwing around Fortnite money in a deliberate effort to make Steam worse by comparison, decidedly less so, and that's the reason for exclusivity in the vast majority of cases.

Also, as much as Epic's lower cut (including waiving the fees for using UE, which is even better) is a good thing for developers, their sale practices tend to amount to "we're discounting your game whether you like it or not," which is emphatically bad. That's how Walmart does business, and when you can compare your business practices to Walmart, you're not exactly a positive force for the industry.

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adjl posted...

[Epic's] sale practices tend to amount to "we're discounting your game whether you like it or not

Their publishing page says sales are not mandatory. I don't know whether this encompasses exclusivity contracts, but if not that's on the devs for agreeing to it. https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/publish

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They may have changed it since, which would be good, but I know their first major sale caused quite the uproar because developers basically woke up to find their games on sale without their knowledge or consent.

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