Quoting: ixnariI applaud the Lutris team for their efforts. However, this is a feature I will not be using for the foreseeable future. The Epic Game Store is so blatantly anti-consumer, it sickens me. I get what they're trying to do: they're trying to make a competitor to Steam and break up Valve's market share. But they are doing this by stepping on every single toe they can see by buying up games and making them exclusive to their store when they weren't before (Metro: Exodus, Satisfactory, etc.).

As a consumer, this irritates me greatly. I want choice, not forced exclusivity. Mr. Sweeney doesn't seem to mind, though. EGS is a very developer-oriented store as this article [External Link] points out. The consumers are very much second-class citizens at Epic, which quite frankly, would be reason enough for me to ignore EGS completely, even if I weren't using Linux. Articles like this one [External Link] don't help either. In this one Tim seems to suggest that gamers are ignorant, because we "don't understand" what Epic is doing, which is as we all know, a great way to win over customers.

tl;dr: Epic bad.

I completely agree! Epic tells us Valve is greedy. But the 18% is not enough for Epic either! To increase their income, it seems that they market user data. At least this is what you cand find in EGSs privacy policy.
From data like that, corporations like Epic learned they can treat consumers badly up to a certain point. Consumers simply keep consuming, maybe sometimes even after a short period of shitstorm. That's what Microsoft does with every new Windows version.
I also won't support exclusive deals for the same reason!

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The turn based tactics system is what makes it special in my eyes. I don't know many games for native Linux with WEGO turn based tactics, where both sides plan their turn, and then watch the combined outcome of it all. I can actually only remember two games... Frozen Synapse and Frozen Cortex, both from Mode 7. Which games am I missing?

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Me too! But it has stuck in my memory. :)

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Quoting: Eike"subterfuge"!?! This is an English lesson, today. :)

Anybody remember Balance of Power?
"You have ignited a nuclear war. And no, there is no animated display of a mushroom cloud with parts of bodies flying through the air. We do not reward failure."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_of_Power_(video_game) [External Link] )

That was one of my very first Amiga games! I immediately thought of it when I read this article!

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Voted too. The game sits on my wishlist. I was still a bit undecided, but your review made a purchase very likely now!

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Quoting: ShabbyXYou are still their product and you get ads, but can choose not to be a subject of machine learning.

Could you please explain what you mean by not beeing subject of machine learning?

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Quoting: x_wingAny info regarding the console tab that is shown in the screen capture?

If you start Steam with -console parameter you'll have it too. :-)

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: ShabbyXTo be clear, I'm not pro-DRM. Some points in your argument are valid, but did you watch the presentation? I think the point you missed when answering my question is that Stadia, being server-based has capabilities you *can't* get on your PC. If you have a squad of 6 people, there will be a huge strain on your network to stream their views while playing. Very-large-scale multiplayer will also have issues. It's not the GPU they use that makes Stadia special (not at all). It's the fact that instances of a multiplayer game talk through Google's internet backbone.

Sure, having a massive backend has its benefits. I think Stadia can be useful for some multiplayer games specifically (isn't it hinted in the name Stadia itself?), like MMORPGs and the like where server backend is essential. For such games to be fully preservable, it's not enough to just buy the game anyway, the server code must be open source, so it could be run independently. That's not so often found in MMORPGs. I.e. most of them are closed anyway, so service like Stadia doesn't really change things much for them in this regard.

Quoting: ShabbyXAnd your idea that you can buy a game, and have the option to stream it at a cost would be nice. Feel free to suggest it, who knows maybe it gets implemented at some point.

Any recommendation to whom send such proposal? Google isn't exactly known to be very open to external communication. I don't mind sending a suggestion, as long as it won't go to some usual stone wall of support.

That is something that could be picked up by Valve one day! Ok.. at second thought, maybe not DRM free most of the time I guess...

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: NeverthelessThere won't be any games to buy there. And if those games are not availlable anywhere else that's either bad luck or they are exclusive deals, which are bad for another reason...

Exactly the points why this is not a good thing from DRM-free availability standpoint, and it's a trend in the wrong direction.

Only that I don't see streaming as evil. Not that I prefer it over owning, but there are quite some positive effects for Linux, and I probably would use it in rare cases, if it weren't for the datamining, and if the game in question was not part of an exclusive deal. That's more an evil to me.

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Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: MohandevirAnd I'm pretty fine with the concept.

I'm not saying the concept itself is useless. It's a problem when it's the only way the store offers access and there is no alternative to buy something in that store (DRM-free), which essentially makes this store totally DRMed.

Quoting: MohandevirIf I want to replay it again, I get it at Steam after that. :)

And that's the catch. You'd need to find such game in another store, and nothing guarantees it will be there. Didn't Google want to make their own studio just for Stadia? What if their games will be Stadia exclusives? Which shows that Stadia itself already has a flaw, in contrast to offering a DRM-free purchase option alongside renting one.

There won't be any games to buy there. And if those games are not availlable anywhere else that's either bad luck or they are exclusive deals, which are bad for another reason...

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