Quoting: Philadelphus

Quoting: tarmo888NFTs enable securely buy/sell your items on secondary markets without an intermediate, the blockchain is just a permissionless distributed database. Steam is against this because they don't want the items traded on secondary markets, they want you be vendor-locked to their platform.

This is where I tend to get lost when I try to connect theory to practice. In theory, it sounds great. In practice…what secondary markets exist between games? If I buy some ultra-deluxe Pokéball in Pokémon: Crypto & Currency edition, I can't exactly use it in Call of Duty, nor can I take a sniper rifle into Stardew Valley. I can certainly imagine horrible cash-grab cross-overs where you buy like a skin in one game and another game allows you to use it there, but that's quite superficial, and merely requires coordination and cooperation between the games involved, not a blockchain per se.

Secondary market doesn't mean "same item implemented in multiple games. Secondary market means the same item sold it multiple markets.

Traditionally, in order to sell your CS skins, you would need to sell it on primary market or send them to escrow account who handles the sale. Worst case, you would beed to sell your whole account to sell one item.

With distributed ledger and smart-contracts, you can have the item in your wallet and have a sale listing on multiple secondary markets without the need of escrow.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: tarmo888Many won't understand NFTs until Steam removes trading cards (their ToS allows them to do it).

Ok, let's play through this: Steam removes trading cards. You've got a signature somewhere in a blockchain that one of many million of those cards is yours. What now? I sure won't buy it from you, because... what would it do for me? I can't show it in my profile, I can't make a set, I cannot do anything with it! Neither can you. So... what?

You might not be able to show it on your Steam profile, but any website could read the data from blockchain and display them. That's even if Steam removed it from their API.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Xpanderlol at the renders.

Has there ever been a NFT/blockchain game thats gameplay first?
Epic Games store is full of this web3 asset flip trash or very bad clones of actual good games.

Don't really understand the benefits of NFT either if you can just use microtransactions (not that i like microtransactions either, but for free games its fine i guess) that are way easier for end user to use, rather than creating random wallets and going through multiple conversion things to get something etc.

This looks like its gonna fail big.

Many won't understand NFTs until Steam removes trading cards (their ToS allows them to do it). People need to lose something before they start looking for alternative solutions. I am sometimes surprised how slow this process is, even when free-to-play online servers get closed left and right and people losing everything they spent on micro-transactions.

Fun fact, Valve's flop Artifact still has trading cards, but none of them load because the images are only on Steam servers. Images of properly done NFTs are stored on IPFS (torrent like filesystem accessible via web gateways).

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Matombo

Quoting: sergeThe point of NFT is that you can sell it to someone else, when you do not want to play anymore, or when you gain a better one.

Which can be completly implemented without NFTs if the game publisher wants, and can be completly blocked by the publisher if he wants even when using NFTs.

So where is the necessity for NFTs again?

Sure, but that's limited to one store/platform. You can't leave the store with that item and you can only find a buyer in that same store. If you put that in real world context, you wouldn't consider that owning something. Buying non-NFT digital items is illusion of owning these items.

NFTs enable securely buy/sell your items on secondary markets without an intermediate, the blockchain is just a permissionless distributed database. Steam is against this because they don't want the items traded on secondary markets, they want you be vendor-locked to their platform.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

It's amusing that all the blockchain/NFT haters are already yelling "scam", but they aren't even accepting payments yet. Who exactly is getting scammed?

They don't have even tech specs and they don't have anyone who would manufacture the parts, yet I see so many legs shaking because it uses Linux and maybe AMD.

It's true, it could have better experience than all the Windows handhelds, but as long as they only have an AI generated images, there is nothing to worry about.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: chickenb00I have to wonder what is going to happen when Microsoft gets off their asses and releases a controller-friendly version of Windows, basically something like SteamOS or even just BigPictureMode with quick access to all of the little toggles you normally need via a quick button combo. Suddenly ROG Ally will be much more competitive when you no longer have to dip back to the desktop and play with Control Panel to get things working.

Unlikely to happen, even the Xbox app on PC isn't gamepad-friendly (even Microsoft Store is better), they probably don't care about 1% of potential customers, especially of those who aren't locked to their store. I don't see them making handheld that is locked to Microsoft Store (or Xbox app) either, if anything, they would do something like Playstation Portal (depends on how successful that idea is), but only for Xbox Cloud.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

There is only 26 games with that tag right now https://steamdb.info/search/?a=app&q=&category=61 [External Link]

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: FutureSuture

Quoting: tarmo888

Quoting: FutureSutureThere are plenty of gamepads but none quite like the Steam Controller which actually has a cult following meaning that some people did want it. It is a shame that many more chose more expensive gamepads with less functionality, worse battery life, and more stick drift.

Missing essentials and then claiming that others have less functionality is a weird hill to take a position on. Stick drift is non-issue for hall effect joysticks and touchpads don't replace joysticks. Cult following often have unreasonable affection for weird things, yet weird controllers most often fail. The best part of Steam Controller was its customization, which was later added to all controllers thanks to SteamInput.

Missing essentials like what? Another vestigial stick that would also get stick drift? Now that is a weird hill to take a position on, particularly when the Steam Controller has plenty of features compared to the console controllers while costing less to boot. That is not even debatable. The touch pads alone offer a plethora of options simply not possible on those other controllers.

Stick drift is not an issue for Hall effect sticks which are another solution, yes, but do Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft offer those on their controllers? No. Not even their incredibly expensive premium controllers do. The Elite Series had stick drift so Microsoft decided to release the Elite Series 2 which costs even more while also boasting stick drift. Sony even turned stick drift into a business by selling replacement sticks for the very expensive DualSense Edge instead of simply having it use Hall effect sticks from the start for its outrageous price. Hall effect sticks have been around for decades yet barely any controller manufacturers and no console manufacturers want to use them. Heck, I believe the Dreamcast controller used a Hall effect stick decades ago but that did not catch on which is unfortunate. Touch pads definitely do replace and most assuredly surpass sticks considering the stick drift epidemic and how much more versatile they are. I would not be surprised if more controllers out there in the hands of consumers used touch pads rather than Hall effect sticks.

An unreasonable affection for weird things is rather dismissive considering the facts. Like I said, it is a shame that many more chose more expensive gamepads with less functionality, worse battery life, and more stick drift, but to each their own. I find reports of stick drift practically every single day in the circles I frequent and just wonder how many of these people actively and perhaps even vulgarly shunned the Steam Controller for its touch pads. Would it be appropriate to say that these people shot themselves in the foot?

Yes, the customisation is excellent, but it was not exactly added to all controllers later thanks to Steam Input when said controllers miss basic features like, and let's ignore the phenomenal touch pads for a moment, back buttons. Kind of ironic since you started your comment by saying that the Steam Controller is missing features. Like I implied earlier, the Steam Controller is a monster considering the price it launched at, offering features normally seen in premium controllers.

LOL, you mean those back buttons that they got sued for. Back buttons are not essential, they are nice to have. 2 joysticks are essential. Only Nintendo can challenge what is essential and even they make mistakes.

Valve learned an expensive lesson from that, so Steam Deck didn't remove anything essential, just added more nice to haves. They probably could have done only 1 touchpad, but that would have looked weird. Most people really don't like weird gamepads.

Even Steam Deck has those shitty joysticks that will eventually drift, they come with huge dead-zone from start. I don't think Steam Controller had hall effect sensors either.

There could be many reasons why other gamepad makers don't use hall effect sensors for joysticks:
* Other companies have patents, which means extra cost.
* It doesn't play well when your gamepad already has hall effect sensors in triggers.
* Stick drift isn't that bad issue for large enough group of people, who played long enough to buy a new one.
* Easy remedy for early stick drift is to add little more deadzone.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: FutureSutureThere are plenty of gamepads but none quite like the Steam Controller which actually has a cult following meaning that some people did want it. It is a shame that many more chose more expensive gamepads with less functionality, worse battery life, and more stick drift.

Missing essentials and then claiming that others have less functionality is a weird hill to take a position on. Stick drift is non-issue for hall effect joysticks and touchpads don't replace joysticks. Cult following often have unreasonable affection for weird things, yet weird controllers most often fail. The best part of Steam Controller was its customization, which was later added to all controllers thanks to SteamInput.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: GuestI find it so dumb. Steam is specifically supporting Linux because of their liking of it, yet they still refuse to make updates an optional non-forced thing for all games on Steam. Then (forced) updates for games come out and break compatibility with Linux, and they have to deal with the repercussions. Why not just give players the freedom to stay on the game version they were on, and less people would have to deal with having their games break on them, and could also be a turn off for people buying their Steam Deck. If you could downgrade versions, then the people who did accidentally update and had there game break could still go back to the previous version and play again.

Because that wouldn't work. Most online games require an update before you can play with others (developers want all online gamers on latest version). Also, it's more a hassle for users to know, which version they should go back to and then finding out that it no longer works anyways. Better bet is that each new version fixes more problems than introduces. So, if it no longer works with Proton, it's a sign that Proton need to be updated.

View this comment - View article - View full comments