... but why?
Usually, malware has a specific purpose, monetary or data gathering or disrupting infrastructure.

This just messes with your mods and steam stats for a title.
Very annoying especially for modders, but beyond that I don't understand the motivation here.

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Quoting: doragasuNow Nintendo needs an AI tool to automate Cease & Desists.

Lawsuit slop.

I'm fairly sure that's what law companies will do to each other in the future.
I guess there are positive outlooks as well 😂

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Imagine the computation cost of that nonsense 🤣

"Heat a village by creating slop"

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Nice.
I really liked the very "out there" storyline of the first one.

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That flow of +Chinese -Linux is fairly normal by now.
I wonder what is it that makes Chinese rise and ebb so sporadically - you'd think it would be a more or less constant chunk.

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FeelsMeltingNESMan

But honestly, I barely ever look at those banners, so I guess I can at least understand why they'd use AI art there of all places.
Put something there? Yes.
Spend actual money on real people for something practically no-one will even look at? No.

But then... why have any art there in the first place? Just have text. Or stock art.

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Quoting: CaldathrasThat's your opinion (one that I happen to agree with, mind you) but that doesn't make it right or wrong -- which is, after all, a value judgement.

Eugh. Spare me that relativistic stuff.
Having an opinion does not make that opinion valid.
There is such a thing as correct and such a thing as wrong.
Is 1+1 2? Are there clouds in the sky? Would fulfilling minimal end-of-life plans be expensive for publishers/developers? Etc.

Most opinions around this topic can be rather easily proven right or wrong - and honestly have been, plenty of times. Certain people just choose to ignore that and continue doubling down as if their opinions had not been proven wrong dozens of times over.
Maybe some day this will be known as PirateSoftware syndrome.

Quoting: CaldathrasHe may feel strongly that their strawmen have validity. Can you show him how those strawmen are not valid?

Engaging with strawmen or even validating them is pointless. They may well be valid, but their entire substance is not even being relevant to the actual topic.

The classic here is the "it would be too expensive for publishers to keep the servers infinitely".
Is that a correct statement? Yes.
Is that statement relevant to the initiative? No.

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Quoting: pbWhich means that anyone suing Valve does not represent the interest of the consumers - ever.

That is quite a sentence to write in a post probably meant not to be corporate bootlicking 😆

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Quoting: CaldathrasSpeaking from long experience in the retail industry, 30% is pretty much standard fair unless you are targeting wholesale business levels (mega corps with big box storefronts like Walmart, Home Depot, Office Depot, Best Buy, etc.). Computer hardware and livestock feed are two areas that I am aware of that operate on wholesale pricing margins. As such, I have absolutely no objections to Valve's commission structure and see no reason why they should be expected to target wholesale margins like the big box mega corps.

There is no argument anywhere that this isn't standard.

The argument is that the standard is simply way too high, filling coffers drastically more for the one taking the cut.
As someone who has worked with online infrastructures for ages, there is no calculation that even remotely ends in the 30% range of cost coverage.
Much more realistic is somewhere between 12-20% - and that doesn't even take into account all the services Valve charges for with that cut, WHICH AREN'T EVEN USED BY THE MAJORITY OF DEVS.
There is also size - a 2GB game quite frankly should get a (marginally, as one factor of many) lower cut than a 200GB one. Yet that doesn't happen.
Etc.
The whole system is full of logic holes like that. It is equal for all, but somewhat paradoxically, that does not make it fair.

I do not believe physical stores are a good comparison to digital ones. Digital infrastructure is much, much, much, much cheaper.
Although, hey, with the current pricing spikes and shortages, who knows, maybe we'll actually end up with 30% becoming reasonable.
I sure hope not...

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Quoting: Mountain ManFrankly, I have no time or patience for people who dismiss an opposing opinion as "drinking the cool-aid".

That is okay, not everyone can deal with honesty and rather just goes "lalala I can't hear you" when being called out on how wrong they are.

Let's be honest here, you aren't engaging with any arguments because you know you've already lost them, and the cool-aid snip gave you a good exit strategy.

Quoting: CaldathrasIt means blindly accepting direction and/or the status quo without giving it any consideration of your own. From what I've read, this does not seem to apply to you.

Oh, but it does.
Everyone who would actually give these things consideration would realize that the publisher's talking points are entirely wrong, with no basis in reality - because they are almost entirely strawmen.
Opinions are not equal - they can be right, and they can be wrong, and they can be in-between.

At least if they are capable of reason, and I very much believe Mountain Man is, he just doesn't want to admit how wrong he is here.

He might still be very right regarding the outcome, though.
It all depends on how well the initiative can prepare for and counter these strawmen in actual parliament.
This is somewhat out of non-European hands, but once the process for that opens and there are some centralized calls to action, I very much intend to contact whatever MPs would be "responsible for me" about this.

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