Share a random fact about yourself

[seed]

21 minutes ago, KVELLER said:

(also fuck Epic, they've descended into a new low)

 

Enlighten me, haven't heard anything recently.

[Dark Pulse]

1 hour ago, seed said:

 

Enlighten me, haven't heard anything recently.

The supposed "spies on your Steam list" bullshit that far too many people blew out of proportion.

[KVELLER]

20 hours ago, seed said:

Enlighten me, haven't heard anything recently.

 

Aside from their launcher spying on your computer (which isn't that surprising considering several companies do similar things), they've been buying timed exclusivity for games. The Division 2, Metro Exodus, The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3 are some of the games that will not be on any other platform for at least a year after launch.

[seed]

2 hours ago, KVELLER said:

Aside from their launcher spying on your computer (which isn't that surprising considering several companies do similar things), they've been buying timed exclusivity for games. The Division 2, Metro Exodus, The Outer Worlds and Borderlands 3 are some of the games that will not be on any other platform for at least a year after launch.

 

Way to force people to use your launcher.

[Dark Pulse]

2 hours ago, seed said:

 

Way to force people to use your launcher.

Congratulations! You fell for the trap everyone else fell into.

 

You can have one of the following:

1. A monopoly that keeps things all nice, centralized, and convenient for the consumer at the cost of utterly crushing competition and dooming most games that aren't on it to obscurity and financial inability to recoup costs, or
2. A competitor who will force the big dog to adapt, change, and adjust, but in exchange, will land deals themselves and mean the end-user must install another piece of software or wait for the exclusivity to end (assuming it ever does - see any EA titles since Origin's launch).

You can't have both. Choose one.

 

As much as I love Steam, the ship sailed to complain about exclusivity years ago. See Origin, UPlay, etc. Inaction led to companies deciding that is fine for their business. Funny how nobody complains about the games they don't want being exclusive to another launcher, but as soon as one they want is, they foam at the mouth and begin acting like it's some new, vile, and repugnant behavior.

 

It's none of those, and if you, in fact, support competition in the digital game storefront market, you'll not complain a peep about this. You might complain about having to wait or whatever, but you won't act like Epic are being bullies. Something like this right now is literally the only way their storefront will survive.

 

And I say this having amassed a Steam Library of thousands of titles. I even own a Steam Controller AND a Steam Link. This isn't me talking out my ass, this is me saying you got a choice of an effective monopoly, or a slightly inconvenient thing called "competition."

[seed]

14 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

Congratulations! You fell for the trap everyone else fell into.

 

You can have one of the following:

1. A monopoly that keeps things all nice, centralized, and convenient for the consumer at the cost of utterly crushing competition and dooming most games that aren't on it to obscurity and financial inability to recoup costs, or
2. A competitor who will force the big dog to adapt, change, and adjust, but in exchange, will land deals themselves and mean the end-user must install another piece of software or wait for the exclusivity to end (assuming it ever does - see any EA titles since Origin's launch).

You can't have both. Choose one.

 

As much as I love Steam, the ship sailed to complain about exclusivity years ago. See Origin, UPlay, etc. Inaction led to companies deciding that is fine for their business. Funny how nobody complains about the games they don't want being exclusive to another launcher, but as soon as one they want is, they foam at the mouth and begin acting like it's some new, vile, and repugnant behavior.

 

It's none of those, and if you, in fact, support competition in the digital game storefront market, you'll not complain a peep about this. You might complain about having to wait or whatever, but you won't act like Epic are being bullies. Something like this right now is literally the only way their storefront will survive.

 

And I say this having amassed a Steam Library of thousands of titles. I even own a Steam Controller AND a Steam Link. This isn't me talking out my ass, this is me saying you got a choice of an effective monopoly, or a slightly inconvenient thing called "competition."

 

I never said that I wanted a monopoly, just that it is inconvenient to use a million launchers for just a few games, for me anyway, and this timed exclusivity thing... honestly I can't see the logic behind it.

[Dark Pulse]

22 minutes ago, seed said:

I never said that I wanted a monopoly, just that it is inconvenient to use a million launchers for just a few games, for me anyway, and this timed exclusivity thing... honestly I can't see the logic behind it.

Like I said, that ship sailed years ago. It's inconvenient, but it's necessary for competition. Steam gets a cut of every title sold, so the only way to avoid giving Steam a cut is to not be on Steam at all. That's a death knell for all but the biggest publishers.

 

Timed exclusivity is simple. Publisher works out deal with storefront. Storefront gives publisher money in exchange for exclusive access. Storefront then gets to crow about how hot new game is only available on their store. Storefront collects the windfall because it's either you buy from them or you don't legally buy the game until exclusivity ends.

 

Storefront thus gains a base of customers who will use their launcher to play that game. This means more opportunities to show them more ads for more games, which the player might then buy.

 

All for a relatively low sum of money paid to the publisher.

 

Steam now has to compete for these exclusives, rather than be the default. This means Steam will have to give the publishers a sweeter deal, because Epic is being especially aggressive with their cut.

 

This means publishers, too, get more money - they either go with Epic's low rates, or Steam is forced to match or beat it, something that will only get harder if Epic's userbase grows, as it's about the only leverage Valve has left.

[Chezza]

I don't like monopolies at all and steam needs to be taken down a pegg but I'm also not a fan of taking games hostage instead of providing more value than what your competitors are offering.

 

But I also understand steam had years to provide the features as they do. I don't have answers but I don't have to approve of Epics strategies either.

[KVELLER]

7 hours ago, Dark Pulse said:

You can have one of the following:

1. A monopoly that keeps things all nice, centralized, and convenient for the consumer at the cost of utterly crushing competition and dooming most games that aren't on it to obscurity and financial inability to recoup costs, or
2. A competitor who will force the big dog to adapt, change, and adjust, but in exchange, will land deals themselves and mean the end-user must install another piece of software or wait for the exclusivity to end (assuming it ever does - see any EA titles since Origin's launch).

You can't have both. Choose one.

 

You know, it's funny because GOG exists as a competition to Steam and they are seemingly breaking your rules. They didn't act like assholes to get to where they are now, quite the opposite in fact; they have a service that's more consumer-friendly than Steam (although it's clear that it wasn't enough to take Steam's throne). Besides, this kind of competition doesn't benefit the end user at all, at most Steam will reduce their cut from game sales, but that's it.

 

7 hours ago, Dark Pulse said:

As much as I love Steam, the ship sailed to complain about exclusivity years ago. See Origin, UPlay, etc. Inaction led to companies deciding that is fine for their business. Funny how nobody complains about the games they don't want being exclusive to another launcher, but as soon as one they want is, they foam at the mouth and begin acting like it's some new, vile, and repugnant behavior.

 

But this was limited to first-party games. AFAIK no game company had actually paid publishers for exclusivity.

[Dark Pulse]

1 hour ago, KVELLER said:

 

You know, it's funny because GOG exists as a competition to Steam and they are seemingly breaking your rules. They didn't act like assholes to get to where they are now, quite the opposite in fact; they have a service that's more consumer-friendly than Steam (although it's clear that it wasn't enough to take Steam's throne). Besides, this kind of competition doesn't benefit the end user at all, at most Steam will reduce their cut from game sales, but that's it.

But let's be honest. Do you really think of GOG as a go-to store for the new stuff?

 

No, you think of it for the old stuff, which was their original focus. Good Old Games, after all.

 

GOG's problem is simple. Lots of gamers have a sizable Steam library. Therefore, they will stick with Steam. GOG doesn't offer anything modern that you really can't get on Steam for the most part, it's not chasing publishers for exclusivity, and it's not really offering lucrative enough percentages to make up for the lower visibility a GOG exclusive would net a publisher.

 

So while it's competition, it's not real competition. Nobody is going to pick GOG over Steam unless it's the older stuff that Valve mostly doesn't care about. And while they're trying to get newer stuff on there, this means they have to compete with a highly entrenched and efficient platform, with no real reason (for users or publishers) to pick them over the juggernaut.

 

Epic's tactics force Steam's hand in a way GOG never has.

 

1 hour ago, KVELLER said:

But this was limited to first-party games. AFAIK no game company had actually paid publishers for exclusivity.

Clearly you have already forgotten about games like Destiny 2 then. But you're mixing things up - it's the storefronts that pay the publishers.

 

It's hardly new, it's just not something done on PC too much. It's done much more on consoles, where Sony will pay Activision to get a Call of Duty DLC pack as Playstation-exclusive for awhile. The aforementioned Destiny 2 also has items that aren't supposed to drop unless it's the Playstation version... for a little while, anyway.

 

Simply put, Epic knows that fighting Steam is going to take more than reducing percentages. All Valve would need to do would be to cut Sweetheart deals with the big names, while having everyone else still be the high rates. Voila - Steam is more "publisher friendly" and Epic's percentages now becomes nullified. Steam keeps its monopoly, Epic becomes just another store.

 

Epic, though, by hitting Steam in a place they can't retaliate easily - exclusivity - is going right after their weak point. To retaliate, Steam now has to out-deal Epic - a tough call when Epic is already giving very generous cuts, and so Valve must dig much deeper into their pockets to make a competitive offer.

 

That said, Epic too has its weaknesses. Being a "more curated" store may well cut out the riffraff Steam had, but it also means Epic will almost certainly never give rise to a "big indie hit." There's definitely also questions about how it's social stuff will look once that is all implemented.

 

But the long and short of it is you're not going to compete with Valve if you play by Valve's rules. You will lose. To be a competitor to Valve, you must be willing to play a little dirty - because Valve is certainly not going to play clean themselves. It's a dog-eat-dog business, and Valve is very, very good at it.

 

So you leverage your strengths and hit them somewhere they can't easily counterpunch, as that's the only way to stand up and not be instantly crushed.

[CyberDreams]

I used to hate GOG but i like them now. From what i've heard, GOG used to just repack old games into dosbox and sell them. It was nothing new. Then they eventually started to sell games with more "work" put into them, including making them work on modern OS's and including goodies as well (as well as rescuing old franchises that were in limbo). I didn't even know that they weren't known as "Good Old Games" anymore until a few years ago. It's just GOG now (it has no meaning). They to had to resort to selling some newer games (as well as the classics) to compete with Steam and others.

 

I've always hated Uplay (Ubisofts thing). I used it a few times a few years ago for some free game and the launcher was horrid. Same thing with EA's Origin. Origin is so unsafe it's not even funny. My account got hacked by some russian (luckily i got it back). I only have it for the free games that were being handed out as well as a copy of Battlefield 4 that a buddy bought me (they stopped giving away monthly games btw). I've read tons of forum posts about Origin accounts being hacked so i guess it's very common.

 

I recently installed the Epic and Bethesda ones to get the monthly free games but i haven't even played any of them tbh. I didn't have a copy of Morrowind so i got that (i only have the Xbox version and it's not even the GOTY one). I doubt i'll use them much, but so far i don't mind more launchers i guess although i do hate having to have all of these different launchers for certain games though (so in a way i guess i do hate them xD).

 

I do prefer Steam as i've never had any issues with it, even after not logging in for a long period of time, my account was still there and safe (GOG is fine too). But let's all be honest here, nothing will ever beat owning a real physical copy of a game. It's too bad those days are pretty much gone unless it's some special edition that costs an arm + leg.

 

 

[seed]

40 minutes ago, CyberDreams said:

Same thing with EA's Origin. Origin is so unsafe it's not even funny. My account got hacked by some russian (luckily i got it back). I only have it for the free games that were being handed out as well as a copy of Battlefield 4 that a buddy bought me (they stopped giving away monthly games btw). I've read tons of forum posts about Origin accounts being hacked so i guess it's very common.

 

All clients suffer from this, it's not specific to Origin, and it can virtually happen to any kind of account. Steam used to have real struggles with this for instance, I remember reading a News article on the store saying that Support returned thousands, if not more accounts back to their owners each month, not to mention that Steam supported OSes which reached EOL years ago, and that might have very well played a role in how (in)secure was the client.

 

They dropped support for XP only this year, an OS that reached EOL way back in 2014.

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=1558-AFCM-4577

[CyberDreams]

@seedI do remember when XP/Vista reached EOL support in 2014 but i heard that it had a few workarounds to keep it going a bit longer (not that i would personally use Steam or modern programs with it though). I mean it was a great OS, so in a way i don't blame some people for not wanting to let go, especially if all you had was really old hardware. I have problems letting go of things, as i'm still using Win 7 ;) I was late to Win 7 though and i completely skipped out on Vista although i have used it before.

 

Anyways, i think the Origin thing i was referring to was a problem specific with Russian hackers. Also something to do the with the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection that was only given away for a limited time back in 2015 or so. It had every DLC + Stuff pack in it and it ran natively on Win 7 and above. After the limited time that it was free, it was impossible to get so people who had it were either selling there accounts on Ebay for high prices or getting there accounts hacked so others could play the game/sell it. Sort of like how the Steam Keys for the Duke Nuken Megaton Edition sell for high prices (except without the account hacking part).

 

TBH, at first i didn't give a shit about the account because i never used it, nor played the Sims 2 on PC before, but a buddy of mine liked the Sims games and i remembered that i used to play the first one when i was younger a lot so i decided to try to get my account back and i managed to do so.

 

But in the end you are right. Any client and/or account is vulnerable. I wasn't using an outdated OS though (luckily) as i think that Win 10 was still newer at that time, but if i was it definitely would of been more vulnerable then a frequently updated modern one.

[seed]

3 hours ago, CyberDreams said:

@seedI do remember when XP/Vista reached EOL support in 2014 but i heard that it had a few workarounds to keep it going a bit longer (not that i would personally use Steam or modern programs with it though). I mean it was a great OS, so in a way i don't blame some people for not wanting to let go, especially if all you had was really old hardware. I have problems letting go of things, as i'm still using Win 7 ;) I was late to Win 7 though and i completely skipped out on Vista although i have used it before.

 

Vista reached EOL in 2017, 2014 was the year for XP.

 

XP had become my favorite Windows, so I do miss it as well, but after support ended there was no reason to stick to it, not to mention that security was never its strong point. As someone who basically used Vista from day 1, you didn't miss anything, it was dead on arrival. Sure, it got better with Service Packs and monthly patches, but it was so flawed at a fundamental level there was nothing MS could do to save it, so it ended up as an OS no one misses, and a lot of people chose to stick to XP due to how bad it was at release, or jumped to 7. Vista was slow, unstable, and at release, had an almost absurd number of compatibility issues.

 

But I think some people also hate change. XP became a beloved Windows for many people over time, but surprise surprise, supposedly people hated it at release as well. Now 10 also gets a lot of hate, which is, from my POV, the result of MS releasing poorly tested updates and forcing upgrades rather than the OS being rotten and broken to the core. I've been using it since version 1607 and although I did run into stupid bugs introduced in monthly updates, I have not run into critical issues. It's without a doubt vastly superior to 8.1 from my experience (which I've had many problems with), and I don't feel the need to return to 7, even if I could. I was definitely afraid to use it at first given the fact that some problems were blown out of proportion though.

Edited April 18, 2019 by seed

[Chow Yun Thin]

5 hours ago, seed said:

XP became a beloved Windows for many people over time, but surprise surprise, supposedly people hated it at release as well.

The hate was very real for XP then. I think a part of that was because there were no XP-compatible drivers available for older hardware and people got mad at the thought of having to upgrade just for a new OS. Some stuck with Win98 for DOS compatibility. There was also wariness about Windows after the shitshow that was WinME. The Luna interface was likened to Fischer-Price toys and I'll admit that I turned it off because "muh memorys" and because I was used to the Win98 interface. But man, that Royale Noir skin that came out later was sleek, dark, and alluring enough to use it.

[TwinBeast]

A doctor wrote about me that my behaviour is inhibited, but I'm open and receptive. A psychologist told me I should be more open, but probably meant that inhibition stuff. I answered them openly everything they asked, but I don't really tell anyone anything spontaneously. Or if I tell something spontaneously, then it's something mostly meaningless like... I like burritos.

[nrofl]

I know the entire declaration of independence

 

My friends and I dug a 14 1/2 foot deep trench once

 

I am born on International Canada Day (July 1)

 

I have wayyyyyy too much free time

 

Of all the times I've counted. Ive had 4 near death experiences. Most of them where completely uncalled for.

 

I do urban exploration quite a bit

 

Thats all I can think of :P

[KVELLER]

On 5/6/2019 at 10:39 AM, Rhebiz said:

Of all the times I've counted. Ive had 4 near death experiences. Most of them where completely uncalled for.

 

Jesus, four?! What happened in those instances, exactly (if you're ok with talking about them)?

[[McD] James]

I used to play guitar for a punk rock group 'Overdose Movie Star' back in high school. We weren't very good and spent most of our time smoking pot. 

[seed]

I sometimes listen to compilations of Caleb's one-liners when I'm in the mood. I don't do this with any other characterbfrom the Build squad.

[dybbuk81]

I was in a band called noose. We did some practices a lot but also like this man above said, smoked quite a bit of pot.









































 

 

[nrofl]

On 5/7/2019 at 3:08 PM, KVELLER said:

 

Jesus, four?! What happened in those instances, exactly (if you're ok with talking about them)?

Fell in a ravine, almost fell a couple yards into a bunch of sharp rocks, ran into a man who was not very nice while taking a walk and bashed my head open while playing tag in my house. All in the span of 8 or so years.

[Doom_Dude]

On 5/10/2019 at 12:28 PM, Ajora said:

I used to play guitar for a punk rock group 'Overdose Movie Star' back in high school. We weren't very good and spent most of our time smoking pot. 

 

I used to play drums and when the band my brother was in practised in our garage I played with those guys sometimes. My friend asked me if I wanted to be in his band but I didn't like the idea of dragging all that drum stuff around.

[Kills Alone]

Aw shoots, many of my life experiences are hard to believe and might sound ridiculous. Not trying to impress anyone, some of these are still hard to think about.

 

I've survived many attempts on my life (both natural & man-made): lymes disease, a snowmobile flipped over and dropped on me by my POS father, living on the streets and dreaming of food/shelter, abusive step-father with a gun, multiple car crashes in the ice (I wasn't driving), wild fires, house fires, many floods & hurricanes, tsunami, one white squall that forced me to cut my lines or flip, a massive carport flying through the air that almost impaled me, too many bullets, aggressive dogs, an insane and territorial wolverine, a stampede of cattle on my property and a mule (turned both around with strategic shots to the balls [wrist rocket with Chinese ball-bearings]), real gangsters & wannabes (32" SD-TV to the head sends a message), drunk ass racist hicks/locals with trucks, guns & bats ... Caribbean pirates with knives that come at night (me with a machete & two flare guns), two tiger shark circling in bloody water (in the middle of the ocean with no help in sight), an electric ray shocking me through my spear-pole ~3.3 fathoms down, thousands of barracuda with teeth that look like long icicles darting at me for nibbles during a storm while I'm trying to replace my propeller (Pro-tip: Don't wear anything shiny in the ocean), Florida gators in the murky & electrified ICW, multiple rattlers on cliffs and waiting in sheds, multiple bear (which killed my first dog Moon), one giant ass crab that I should not have messed with (they can swim really fast, and look like a massive spider on PCP), a murderous house invasion (when I was five) that killed a baby and then returned for me and my unborn sister, old burning coal mines, nearly drowning, nearly getting crushed between two boats when I didn't know better, high-speed chases both driving and in the backseat, drive-bys, robberies, school shootings that resulted in my friend being set on fire on the school bus, a fuckin' nuclear submarine that almost split my sailboat in half (thought it was a whale on my fish finder), getting so drunk on Y2K that I fell off a bowling alley and was almost impaled on rebar, attacked by a racist Hawaiian who wielded a wrench bigger than I've seen before or since, the time my dumbass dad convinced me crossing a train bridge would be safe then we had to outrun a train and jump in a river, more drugs than ever thought possible when I was a teen (understandable if you made it this far), a giant boar latched onto my hand who I later befriended (typically I like animals more than people) BTW a boar is pure muscle, you cannot stop them ... the list goes on, after awhile you stop counting because theres not much point. All that yet I've never broken a bone, only cracked a tooth; knock on wood. Never been attacked by a wild cat so thats something ...

I don't fear death, I fear pain and leaving my loved ones without ample protection. I deal with depression but still consider myself a pretty happy person. Someday I'll write a book or make a video about it, I try to incorporate my experiences into my art and keep the perspective that things can always be better or worse.

So to summarize, I am a survivor and while it might sound contrary, I believe in peace and diplomacy first. Of course I've had many good experiences as well, but thats for another day.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Kills Alone : dyslexia's a bitch

[TwinBeast]

Visited a phoniatrist today. He put a camera into my mouth to look at my vocal chords. Then I had to make a "Hiiii!" sound, but it sounded more like "Haaaa!" and felt like throwing up. The left vocal chord is a little smaller than the right one. This leaves a gap between them, because they're not same size. Is this why I speak so quiet? If I talk louder, my voice gets tired really fast. I'll get voice therapy later and maybe surgery if the therapy isn't enough help. I got few times of voice therapy years ago, but then they didn't check my vocal chords at all.

[GamingMarine]

I actually kinda unironically like 32X Doom's soundtrack. I think it's interesting to see how simplistic Doom's music can get on a Yamaha soundchip.

[RichardDS90]

I suffer from PTSD.

[Koko Ricky]

I recently played an Italian mobster in an Amazon original comedy series.

[seed]

30 minutes ago, GoatLord said:

I recently played an Italian mobster in an Amazon original comedy series.

 

What series?

[Officer D]

I'm currently on a tropical island south from spain.