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The first one was freaking hard if you try to get the OCD award on the levels, I only get in few levels of the first world, then I just ignore it

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So, this particular elephant in this particular room bugs me a lot, because I'm under the impression I'm treated like a complete fool.

GOG is selling these games they are trumpeting they will maintain to have them be playable. OK, but how is that different from the Before Times when they were also selling these games, and also maintaining them? Presumably for the reason that selling a non-functional product isn't a very attractive proposition from the (potential) customer's point of view. If that Win7 work needs some more work to make a title function under Win12 you either put the work in and keep selling the game, keep potentially profiting from it, or you don't do anything, keep the game up on the store and draw ire from your customers, because you're knowingly selling damaged goods, OR you delist it, and that's not very... uh, preservationist of you. So, am I to assume that games not inducted into GOG's prestigious Chosen list will, at some point, become non-functional? That's also a terrible idea to implant into your customers, but that's what they suggest on the flipside of all their new marketing. It's just stupid to do it this way, no other way for me to say it.

I mean, I get this is marketing, but I think they handled this (non-)switcheroo poorly. It just bothers me. Even if you soften the angle into "additional effort/special care" that still makes the alternative kind of uncomfortable to spell out ("yeah, they're baaaaasically playable, sure, whatever"), but at least that's - I think - preferable to what we have now.

Or, they started saying the quiet part out loud and since they're doing it via marketing they're actually putting it through a megaphone. Time will tell.

For some years now GOG has been making me uncomfortable with buying games on their store. A lot of what they do or say, or what we hear is happening or not happening internally has that "this is extremely uncertain and unstable as a business that they have no idea how to run to turn a profit" subtext.. I hope I'm reading too much into this. And I'm assuming with Alpha Protocol, Croc and maybe some others they got a cash injection to try and get some profit going, but I'm still watching them closely, and not believing that's possible. There's little to no money in preservation, that's flat-out not what preservation is or is about. And I'm just not sure Croc was spending that money wisely, as much as I love Croc. Where this seems to be going - to me - is to a point where CDPR, a public company, will run out of arguments for keeping GOG afloat. The shareholders will demand blood. All the game preservation hot air won't matter at that point.

Sorry to be a downer.

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they need to either find a way to get the majority of online multiplayer games working, or find a way to convince developers to actually support Linux-based operating systems.

As long as they do it safely without poisoning Linux with the same garbage system-wide data collection Windows has..

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What's the current most annoying issue you want to see solved on Steam?

The lack of big-name, online multiplayer games.

I love my Steam Deck and it has quickly become my main "console" - but if the Steam Deck is ever going to compete with "The Big Three" (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony) directly or make real headway in market share, they need to either find a way to get the majority of online multiplayer games working, or find a way to convince developers to actually support Linux-based operating systems.

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It's a shame this game is not working on the Steam Deck, because it actually looks pretty good!

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@Caldathras:

Good idea. How do you go about blacklisting a developer/publisher? I've never done that before.

It's a pain these days, tbh, and it's creator-dependent sadly. Used to be, you could browse to a game, click on the developer or publisher link, and that would take you to their "creator page", and then you could just "Ignore" them, which would include any future titles.

These days, clicking on those links seems to take to you a list of their games instead, which is a bit of a pain. BUT, you can still go to certain pages manually.

For example, the publisher "505 Games" has this "publisher page" here:
https://store.steampowered.com/pub/505games

However, for that to work, the developer or publisher needs to have created their page. And since Valve seems to have retired creator pages (original link here: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/creator_homepage), I'm not sure it's always going to be possible to ignore at the creator level.

Which is a pain. Ha ha - maybe Valve DID report to creators that their pages were being ignored, which of course hurts future sales, so Valve agreed to hide them?

Because why address a source of discontent, when you can just put a plaster over and pretend it doesn't hurt? /s

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@ElectricPrism

How do Humble Bundle buyers get a Steam key?

https://www.humblebundle.com/home/keys

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For X-COM: Apocalypse, OpenApoc is being developed at https://github.com/openapoc/openapoc

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if the people who make it are incompetent

It's a really good thing they are. Otherwise they might have noticed that people can open a terminal on the Deck...

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How do Humble Bundle buyers get a Steam key?

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@scaine

I tend to just blacklist the dev or publisher page on Steam when I see this kind of attitude.

Good idea. How do you go about blacklisting a developer/publisher? I've never done that before.

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@heidi.wenger

There is also Zoom Platform to get DRM free games:

https://www.zoom-platform.com/

There is also Itch.io:

https://itch.io/

And, sometimes, IndieGala:

https://www.indiegala.com/

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But.. but...
Steam Does have an integrated voice chat.

Typo. X) I WASN'T aware.

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Excuse me? XCOM 2 is already 9 years old? … Where is my coffin?

Der Zahn der Zeit nagt.

SCNR

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A Brand New Options Menu - Never before included in a 2DBOY or Tomorrow Corporation game!

Now that's what I call an easy buying decision!

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And they kept their promise: those who bought it via their site and their Humble store widget, on that purchase page is now also a Steam key available.

Yes, I can confirm this, too. Steam install seems to be stable but I only played a couple levels to test it so far. They have added Steam achievements. I am guessing they will eventually add badges/cards at some point, too.

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Normally I ignore games if they succumb to Epic Exclusive deals, but I think I'll make an exception for these guys.

Happy memories of playing their first game, one of the very first Linux native games I played, about four years before we got the first taste of Steam for Linux.

Man, I was still dual booting back then, for goodness sake!!

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I tend to just blacklist the dev or publisher page on Steam when I see this kind of attitude. No hard feelings, it's just a better use of my time not to see them in future.

But I wonder if the Devs/Publishers realise that the door is getting closed so permanently. It would be interesting if Valve shared numbers with Devs/Publishers on how many accounts have them blocked.

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Ha, can you imagine ANY other store (Windows, Sony, Nintendo, whatever) that would allow you to sell your games on it, accessing its insane potential selling power... and yet NOT support that store owners own console!?

I know Valve love playing being the good guy, but sometimes I just want them to put their foot down, y'know?

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I do definitely wonder . . . if this ACE thing works by whitelisting, and if the people who make it are incompetent (which it kind of seems that way--like, if you're going to whitelist the Steam Deck, how hard is it to find out what models of Steam Deck there are and make sure they're all whitelisted?), then . . . how hard is it going to be for someone to make a little package that tells ACE your Linux machine is a Steam Deck?

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I agree that Valve needs to push harder, especially if they're planning to release SteamOS to the general public. It's nice that they added the anti-cheat label on Steam store pages, but they have enough leverage to do more since it's obvious these publishers want their games on Steam.

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And they kept their promise: those who bought it via their site and their Humble store widget, on that purchase page is now also a Steam key available.

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A couple of things I'm eager for, wayland support for the steam client and non-garbled side menus in big picture mode.

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I would love to see Republic Commando get added to this list. Otherwise, good start.

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I want aware Steam has integrated voice chat.

But.. but...
Steam Does have an integrated voice chat.

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The Turpentine Gun seems like a shoutout to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

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No. It’s an anti-cheat problem, not a Steam API thing.

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thought I was the only one with the non-home partition recording not working completely , good to know I'm not the only one!

but that means that there's more people with this problem and it hasn't been fixed yet... not good to know

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i wonder if doing SteamDeck=1 %command% as the launch command changes the behavior?

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Did you try with the steamdeck docked and with a mouse etc connected?

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