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Here's another way to look at the Linux market share on Steam
5 Dec 2017 at 6:25 pm UTC
5 Dec 2017 at 6:25 pm UTC
Quoting: etonbearsI probably find it even more disturbing to see the same sort of blanket influence/group-think behaviour where it crops up in the financial world. It is a root cause of the mass stupidity that gave us Tulip Mania, the South Seas Bubble, Collateralized Debt Obligations ( the result of which we are all still feeling ) and now looks like we will get it again with Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies...Don't look now, but Collateralized Debt Obligations are back. I think they gave them a different acronym, but I read an article a while ago saying the same basic schtick is quietly making a sizable comeback. Gotta do something with all that Quantitative Easing cash.
Here's another way to look at the Linux market share on Steam
5 Dec 2017 at 6:21 pm UTC Likes: 1
On the first question, I suspect it would unless it was a really big discount. Valve gets, what, 30%? Sure, some purchasers would just play the games they have on their PC anyway, only in front of a TV instead. But the main market they'd be going after isn't like that. I'm a pretty low spender and over a few years I've dropped a few hundred on games. It adds up. I'm sure they could do fine selling $100 or $200 below cost--they'd want to do a bit of market research on how much console users spend on games to get it right. They might not initially make much money doing that, maybe even take a loss in the first year or so, but I don't think cashflow is a huge problem for Valve. They'd make money in the medium term and improve their strategic position.
At the same time, I question whether increasing prices would make much difference. People in a broad sense have a budget for games; they buy when they can afford them. If I'm willing to blow around $200 in a year on games, it doesn't matter much to Valve whether it's 4 games for $50 or 8 games for $25. If they bump their percentage, sales will decline (and developers will find it a less attractive platform). They'd be better off pricing the boxes on the assumption of the game price structure staying the same.
5 Dec 2017 at 6:21 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: KetilI wonder about that. The question is, first, would the money Valve made from game sales to Steam Machine buyers pay for the discount on them, and second, would jacking the prices up make any difference?Quoting: MohandevirConsole pc should be targeted to console users and the typical console user doesn't care about upgradability that much. This Dell and Zotac nailed it but the price tag... Ouch! Way too expensive. This is why I have the feeling that Valve is in a much better position to offer a cheaper solution partnering with AMD and, if it is not enough, sell it under cost. Afterall they already got the games catalog to absord the loss. PC gaming, as a whole, would benefit from a successfull Steam Machine campaign.The money from selling under cost has to come from somewhere. For consoles it comes from the pricier games. If valve did the same with steam machines, then I am afraid the price of all steam games would increase, which would be bad for everyone except Valve.
On the first question, I suspect it would unless it was a really big discount. Valve gets, what, 30%? Sure, some purchasers would just play the games they have on their PC anyway, only in front of a TV instead. But the main market they'd be going after isn't like that. I'm a pretty low spender and over a few years I've dropped a few hundred on games. It adds up. I'm sure they could do fine selling $100 or $200 below cost--they'd want to do a bit of market research on how much console users spend on games to get it right. They might not initially make much money doing that, maybe even take a loss in the first year or so, but I don't think cashflow is a huge problem for Valve. They'd make money in the medium term and improve their strategic position.
At the same time, I question whether increasing prices would make much difference. People in a broad sense have a budget for games; they buy when they can afford them. If I'm willing to blow around $200 in a year on games, it doesn't matter much to Valve whether it's 4 games for $50 or 8 games for $25. If they bump their percentage, sales will decline (and developers will find it a less attractive platform). They'd be better off pricing the boxes on the assumption of the game price structure staying the same.
Here's another way to look at the Linux market share on Steam
4 Dec 2017 at 11:40 pm UTC
4 Dec 2017 at 11:40 pm UTC
It weirds me out that with the thousands of games around, many of them really good, the statistics can be pulled around so much by one or two top-selling games. Clearly everyone's buying the top game because everyone else is buying the top game, not because it's one they will intrinsically find fun. The mindset unsettles me.
Here's another way to look at the Linux market share on Steam
4 Dec 2017 at 11:16 pm UTC Likes: 1
This is something of a misconception. Governments do, it's true, do plenty of atrocities 'on their own hook' for reasons of state. But an awful lot of government atrocities are committed on behalf of corporations. So for instance, much of the impetus for WW I on the British, German and French sides at least was about cornering markets for their respective industrialists and financiers. Most of the impetus for colonialism was commercial; India was conquered largely for the benefit of the British East India company, the genocide in the Belgian Congo was an almost entirely private matter (the CEO happened to be a king, but the Belgian state had nothing to do with it) and so on. In Latin America, coups were fomented, dictators installed, thousands massacred and disappeared, mainly for the benefit of outfits such as the United Fruit Company. Nowadays the big players backing the wars tend to be oil companies, mining companies, military contractors (Halliburton anyone?)
Corporations play a huge role in the impetus for most wars and atrocities, and have for as long as they've existed.
4 Dec 2017 at 11:16 pm UTC Likes: 1
Quoting: Boogiepop_PhantomProbably off-topic, so put it under spoiler.
Spoiler, click me
but how did you come to such conclusion?I am actually live in one of aforementioned countries, and I doubt they will bring any kind of freedom to the world.
Power of corporations is a grim alternative to power of dictators.No, just no. All the most horrible atrocities were commit by states, governments. Look at 20th century and even now. Corporations are little children compared to them. Plus I never had this resentment against corporations to begin with. I would take Microsoft over Putin any day.
Spoiler, click me
This is something of a misconception. Governments do, it's true, do plenty of atrocities 'on their own hook' for reasons of state. But an awful lot of government atrocities are committed on behalf of corporations. So for instance, much of the impetus for WW I on the British, German and French sides at least was about cornering markets for their respective industrialists and financiers. Most of the impetus for colonialism was commercial; India was conquered largely for the benefit of the British East India company, the genocide in the Belgian Congo was an almost entirely private matter (the CEO happened to be a king, but the Belgian state had nothing to do with it) and so on. In Latin America, coups were fomented, dictators installed, thousands massacred and disappeared, mainly for the benefit of outfits such as the United Fruit Company. Nowadays the big players backing the wars tend to be oil companies, mining companies, military contractors (Halliburton anyone?)
Corporations play a huge role in the impetus for most wars and atrocities, and have for as long as they've existed.
Linux market share on Steam drops again as Steam continues to grow
4 Dec 2017 at 7:37 pm UTC
It's still not good. And I suspect that the Chinese will be among the last to start using Linux unless there's some kind of concerted government action to change things. So to some extent these percentages probably represent a new normal; when the Chinese influx stabilizes a bit we'll have the new floor from which to measure future growth (which will tend to be, for a while at least, happening in places other than China).
4 Dec 2017 at 7:37 pm UTC
Quoting: subSorry, but I don't see the point always mentioning that the absolute number of Linux Steam users "still" grows. It sounds like saying "It's not that bad".Presumably what counts for developers is who buys games. So for instance, if there are patterns observable in different locales, like English speakers having more dough to buy games with or Chinese (simplified) users tending to be fanboys of a single game and not buy that much else, developers would be fools not to look past the raw numbers of individuals on Steam.
It is that bad - the fraction of Linux users is far below 1 %.
And THAT is ALL that counts to developers (unless they are Linux fans).
It's still not good. And I suspect that the Chinese will be among the last to start using Linux unless there's some kind of concerted government action to change things. So to some extent these percentages probably represent a new normal; when the Chinese influx stabilizes a bit we'll have the new floor from which to measure future growth (which will tend to be, for a while at least, happening in places other than China).
Cutthroat is an amusing 2D party game involving stealth shenanigans
30 Nov 2017 at 6:56 pm UTC
30 Nov 2017 at 6:56 pm UTC
Where's Killer Waldo?
Point & Click adventure game Black Mirror now available on Linux
30 Nov 2017 at 6:51 pm UTC Likes: 1
30 Nov 2017 at 6:51 pm UTC Likes: 1
TV series? Game? Black Mirror is obviously a song by the sometimes famous and often good band, Arcade Fire.
Oxygen Not Included from Klei Entertainment is now officially available on Linux
29 Nov 2017 at 6:49 am UTC Likes: 1
29 Nov 2017 at 6:49 am UTC Likes: 1
I had no idea asteroids were so wet.
Open source game engine Godot secure funding from Enjin Coin, Godot gains 'Onion Skinning'
27 Nov 2017 at 6:07 pm UTC Likes: 3
So it's nice that some of the money this company gained from floating this speculative instrument is going to something that's actually useful like Godot.
27 Nov 2017 at 6:07 pm UTC Likes: 3
Quoting: Doc AngeloNotable difference between the well known Bitcoin and Enjin Coin: The company Enjin already created all of the 1,000,000,000 ENJ and already sold most of them to people who hope that the currency gains value over time. They think of those people as investors.They may think of those people as investors, but they are not investors, they are speculators. In my opinion cryptocurrencies basically exist purely for speculation (well, as they currently exist--the blockchain technology itself isn't the issue, there's nothing to prevent a country issuing currency in crypto form, or for a cryptocurrency to otherwise have some form of backing, but generally so far they don't). They are currently growing because pure speculation has become such a big part of our financialized economy. And any given cryptocurrency will exist as a going concern with noticeable "worth" for precisely as long as there is buzz about it, prompting people to think that if they get some, somebody else will potentially pay them more than they paid for it. As soon as people stop being interested in a cryptocurrency, it is worthless. And if the general trend for the world economy to be full of bubbles and financial speculation ends or is interrupted, in some sort of crisis a la bigger 2008 or some collective realization that financial elites are looting the economy and hollowing out the tax base, cryptocurrencies will also see a very major crisis, with a lot of people left holding stuff they thought was worth something except it ain't no more.
So it's nice that some of the money this company gained from floating this speculative instrument is going to something that's actually useful like Godot.
Looks like the 4X turn-based strategy game 'Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War' will come to Linux
24 Nov 2017 at 11:36 pm UTC
But that's not really fair competition. Once I accepted that Pandora wasn't Alpha C (just as Civ: Beyond Earth also failed to be Alpha C), I was able to appreciate it for itself and it's a pretty decent game, with some interesting key differences (global rather than city-based resources, for instance). There are two keys to doing decently at it IMO: The AI smells blood; keep a big armed force because if you're weak everyone will attack you even if you had friendly dealings (plus there are bugs and aliens to crush). And, micromanage your tiles; citizens doing unproductive work kills.
Anyway, I can see them doing a good job at this.
24 Nov 2017 at 11:36 pm UTC
Quoting: RutineI was very happy at the release of Pandora, because I love turn based strategy games, especially 4x games. However it felt... incomplete, not so good.Well, like the few other games in Pandora's particular sub-sub-sub-genre, it suffered from not being Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri was the greatest Civ-like game ever released, and head, shoulders and upper torso above any other Civ-like SF game. I would pay hard cash on barrelhead in an instant if someone were to take Alpha C, change nothing substantive about it, but give it modern UI controls and make it run on modern computers/OSes (including Linux of course). If I do the right fiddling I can still get my old Loki copy to work, sort of, but it's tricky, and while it's still marvellous it does suffer from being made before mouse wheels were a thing.
But that's not really fair competition. Once I accepted that Pandora wasn't Alpha C (just as Civ: Beyond Earth also failed to be Alpha C), I was able to appreciate it for itself and it's a pretty decent game, with some interesting key differences (global rather than city-based resources, for instance). There are two keys to doing decently at it IMO: The AI smells blood; keep a big armed force because if you're weak everyone will attack you even if you had friendly dealings (plus there are bugs and aliens to crush). And, micromanage your tiles; citizens doing unproductive work kills.
Anyway, I can see them doing a good job at this.
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