Quoting: shorbergFor anyone unfamiliar with EU, a lot of the mess comes from it being a democracy. Don't get me wrong though, democracy while not perfect is the best we got or as Churchill put it [i]'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.'

As for everything, there are different shades of gray also democracy. The issue with EU democracy is that it's a very indirect democracy. The parlament is mostly fine. But for the government it wouldn't hurt to have less interference from national governments and more direct relationship with the voters. Yet (and this is true geopolitics) the EU is just another playfield for single EU capitals to subdue and/or excert their influence over the others. So I guess it cannot be helped. It would be a nightmare if not for the USA working hidden in the background to prevent anyone to have to much success. So, as far as I'm concerned, given the last century of peace I don't dislike the disfunctional status quo to much. As long there is no Frenxit or Germanexit, we should all be safe. :wink:

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Honestly as a European I don't dislike the single market. The implementation though is sloppy in multiple ways. But it would be unfair to deny that it improved over the years and it will likely improve more in future.

Currently my biggest complaint is more about digital content than for physical objects. Geoblocking was forbidden like 3 tears ago, but only for physical goods. In this case VGs are treated like physical objects (don't ask me why) so in Bruxelles they are adamant with their stance (and it makes sense: phisycal stuff has to be shipped and this levels the field. Only that VGs are not shipped at all). But actual digital content is infact still exempted from geo-blocking within the EU (which is nuts if you think about it). So for example on German Netflix you won't be able to see Spanish or French Netflix stuff and viceversa. Which for me, personally, sucks a lot. So yeah, my biggest issue right now is more about "availability of content" rather than mere price. The same way I purchase abroad what I don't find in the national shops. It's the usual copyright bullshit the EU is in love to. :grin: Remember the meme thing?

Regarding the price issue (which is also a very real issue), in theory this should be fixed by better redistributing the wealth among the union. There are purchasing power regional differences in every market yet uniformed prices work anyway. Just because of this. But the country with "The Positive Trade Balance" tm is very receptive on several fairness topics but not this one. So I don't see the EU changing their policies anytime soon. Shame. This considered, regional prices are imho a kind of a necessary adjustment for fairness until the real issue isn't properly addressed. Again, take Netflix as an example. Since they are currently exempt from geoblocking they do use regional pricing in EU and it works wonders: they're unreasonably overpriced everywhere... but in a proportional manner. So it sucks for everybody in the same way. :grin:

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You know guys for legal topics regarding gaming and entertainment in general there is this [External Link] (imho very) interesting channel on youtube where an actual and competent US lawyer discuss and explains topics like this. At least for me it was enlightening regarding a lot of US legal disputes regarding videogame topics (like Epic vs Apple). I'd wish there was something like this for IT legal matters in general outside pure entertainment.

Anyway regarding this subject he explains how there is a lot of intellectual dishonesty from Google and publishers in general. Alex Hutchinson is correct when he says streamers don't have the rights to do what they do. And that they are the total mercy of publishers. The fact that publishers (so far) always decided to not enforce the terms of use they themselves conceived and imposed to their users (including streamers) doesn't change that a streamer today has 0 power to defend his job should a publisher decide that it don't like him anymore. The whole point of EULAs is that they can (eventually?) be enforced, that's why people take the hassle to write them.

There would be a healthier and more honest relationship between streamers and publishers if EULAs explicitly allowed for streaming.

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Nice. I would have love to pledge them but these days with the EGS uncertainty around I couldn't find the determination to do it.
Still it's good for them that they managed to do it. I'll likely buy the game when it done.:grin:

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Poor xbox. And poor ps5. Brutalized even before leaving the womb.

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Without Linux gamers there are no Linux native games. But without Linux games there are no new Linux gamers. The old eternal cycle.

Yes Proton killed the porting of titles. But on the other hand it's few steps away from providing windows parity to virtually all titles (with the notable anti-cheat issue that remains mostly outside Valve influence reach).

Say what you want about proton. Things will never change if only a 5% of games is playable on Linux. With proton, in as little as 2 years, there will be substantial parity between windows and Linux.

Then maybe nothing will happen and there will be no conversion trend. But maybe people will start to convert. It's a bet Valve is right to take. The cycle has to be broken somehow. And I don't see any morally acceptable way to take the other route and force people to to install Linux to create a demand for Linux native games.

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Aww. This is one I would have loved to bake.:sad:

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If one just bothers to look at Steam review score chart he will immediately realize that 25 euro are steal for this masterpiece.

Wube is one of those developers that doesn't fear forums or reviews. :)

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Reminds me of one time where an anonymous colleague force pushed the master on a separated branch where we had a version we still had to support on a single customer. The pain. But yeah, with some effort git allows to recover even from that. Still it's a lot of waste time for some people to recover things and for other people to wait for some people to recover things.

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Quoting: RFSharpe

Quoting: EhvisThe only discount you can get is the Humble Choice discount on the humble store.

Factorio has been on my Wishlist for quite some time. When I added it to my Wishlist, I took my usual approach for games over $20.00; "I will wait until the next Steam Sale event and buy it at a discount". I have yet to see it discounted (granted, I could have missed it). Factorio has now left Early Access. Quite often when a game leaves Early Access it is discounted a standard 10%. Not Factorio.

I am going to have to come to terms with the fact that if I want to play Factorio, I must pay the full $30.00 price. No discounts on this game.

BTW: I do not doubt it is worth the price.

The devs policy has been to not participate into sales.

The reasoning is that the game is already sold at the right price, no reason to wait if you want to play it (no 60$ inflated price that drops to 30$ during sales).

Personally I like that. It's really annoying when you want to buy something but you have to wait for sales. Surely a lot of people don't understand the anchoring manipulation and will be urged to spend. Yet for those who understand it's a lot of hussle. In my eyes it's much better a transparent and honest approach like theirs.

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