Quoting: NyxWasn't this in relation to Lost Ark, which was blocked in countries that had outlawed lootboxes, as they wanted their MTX sales?

No. The formal proceedings started in 2017. Valve say that the investigation started in 2013, and that they stopped doing the regional blocking (except in cases of legal requirements, like Germany's content laws) in 2015. Lost Ark didn't release in Europe till 2022.

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Quoting: KoopacabrasCorrect me if I am wrong, but EU comission ruling is against regional pricing, not against regional blocking.

No, it's about the blocking. An EU citizen getting lower prices buying elsewhere in the EU is Working As Intended as far as they're concerned. What they really don't want are barriers to goods and services. Like these. Or, as they put it, "today's sanctions against the "geo-blocking" practices of Valve and five PC video game publishers serve as a reminder that under EU competition law, companies are prohibited from contractually restricting cross-border sales. Such practices deprive European consumers of the benefits of the EU Digital Single Market and of the opportunity to shop around for the most suitable offer in the EU."

The EU Commission made a handy picture previously



that Liam included in his earlier coverage.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyYou are always a veritable mine of relevant information.

Survivorship bias: the times when I haven't got something useful to say, I try not to say anything.

In this case, it was really from reading Liam's prior coverage.

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QuoteTo sum up Valve tried blocking people buying games in different EU regions to get them cheaper, which is a breach of EU rules.

To be clear, it wasn't an action by Valve as such, and it wasn't sales on Steam. The publishers had their region restrictions on sales (which aren't allowed within the EU) and gave out Steam keys (for which Valve didn't get money); the publishers used Steam's region locks to prevent activation of those EU keys elsewhere within the EU, and Valve let them. That's why Valve got fined, but that's also why the fine is quite small. Valve subsequently fixed their tools so that publishers can't prevent activation within the EU of something sold within the EU, so it's just that historical breach.

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Quoting: M@GOidNice. Loved the first game. Finished it about 3 times. It scratched my itch for a new puzzle game after Portal 2.

But without Linux native support, I would only take it on a Steam sale when it will be heavily discounted, a couple years from launch.

Same. And it was one of the first games that my now-seven-year-old loved. But we'll be waiting either till it gets native support or gets 75% off (assuming it gets the Deck Verified green tick) - whichever happens first.

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Crimsonland and Neon Chrome are both good. Tesla vs Lovecraft is also good, but isn't in the sale.

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Quoting: tuubiBut forwards in a 3D game is "into" the screen, along the z-axis, not towards the top of the screen. And on the Deck that would mean towards the bottom or back of the device. It would be different if the screen flipped up like one of those laptop-shaped GPD devices. Or the Nintendo thingies with the flip screen. (Handhelds and consoles in general aren't my cup of tea.)

We agree, and apparently so now does Valve: the orientation of a device with a screen - which defines the other axes - has into the screen as forwards (the front of the plane in the image above).

Quoting: tuubiMaybe I don't quite grasp what you mean, but I don't see how I could hold any of my modern gamepads in an upright position, as in the bumpers / shoulder buttons facing the ceiling, unless I pull the controller right up to my chin. I hold them on my lap, thumbsticks pointing up.

They aren't pointing up so much as pointing towards you. Modern controller grips fit into the palm so that the controller is oriented in a way that means that they're facing you wherever they are in a circle centred on your head/shoulders, which means they're generally going to be oriented at around 45° to the ground. You're looking at the face of the controller, not the bottom of the controller. So there's no reason to define the axes of a controller without a screen any differently to the one correct way of defining the axes of a controller with a screen: the forward direction is into the controller's face. That's what I mean by "more upright than flat." The N64 controller was different, in that the shape of the grips did orient the controller away from the user so that it was mostly parallel to the ground.

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Quoting: MennenthThis is being corrected. A Valve dev in one of the communities AL2009man mentioned posted this:

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You'll also be able to change that on a whim using the new "Tilt Angle" setting, which virtually offsets the yaw axis to accommodate any handheld or controller and in any (pitch) orientation they are being held.

Yay!

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Quoting: tuubi

Quoting: CatKillerWhat it should be is that "roll only" means turning it like a steering wheel, and "yaw only" means pointing the Deck around the room to aim.

Their definitions kind of make sense if they consider the base orientation of the deck to be horizontal or flat on its back, whereas you (and I'm inclined to agree) think that it is upright, with the screen facing you. That would swap the axes like you're describing. I guess they forgot that the Deck isn't a gamepad.

While that might be mathematically true, looking into the screen is definitely forwards. Anything else is ridiculous.

And with controllers that don't have a perfectly clear, perfectly well defined, entirely-consistent-with-game-conventions-forever forward direction, it's only really the N64 controller that's commonly likely to be held horizontally; modern controllers are much more upright than flat.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyLooking at that picture, the roll axis is clear, but which of pitch and yaw are which seems to kind of change depending how I look at it. One moment it looks like the Yaw stick goes down and the Pitch stick goes sideways, next it looks like the Pitch stick goes up and the Yaw stick goes sideways.

Pitch up and pitch down are up and down. Yaw is side to side. Nodding and shaking your head, as another way to think of it.

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