Hilarious!

[ProxyAmenRa]

This image has been making me giggle for hours:

 

[The Gopher]

Would probably work better in the images thread :P

 

[intpz]

Didn't have any effect on me... Oh well.

 

[Hadoblado]

The part I enjoy most is the graph axes.

I hope for my sake I never find myself uttering that sentence again.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Didn't have any effect on me... Oh well.

Same here, but it's probably because I'm not into Valve/Steam culture.

 

[intpz]

Same here, but it's probably because I'm not into Valve/Steam culture.

Same here... I just know that TF2 people love hats for some idiotic reason, that's all.

 

[HiddenScholar]

sorry brah it appears to not be so hilarious

 

[Stoic Beverage]

Perhaps I'll chuckle once they finish porting steam to linux?

 

[Paranoid Android]

I think it's really funny even if you're not into Valve culture.

But people say I have a really f*cked up type of humor.

 

[Dapper Dan]

It's got the "funny because it's true" vibe going for me. A few notable game companies are trying oh so hard to figure out how to stay on top of this industry. They try and they try, but they fail because they treat their customers like the enemy.

Meanwhile, Valve's entire business model is essentially "make good games, don't be dicks". It's not exactly complicated.

Also, a Hats vs Hats graph with spikes in it is amusing to me.

 

[Roran]

The lulz were.... minimal.

 

[nexion]

Same here... I just know that TF2 people love hats for some idiotic reason, that's all.

TF2 is the best (and arguably only) hat simulator which also happens to be an first person shooter... or so it goes.

Even though this picture is slightly exaggerated, there is clearly something that Steam is doing which makes it so great. The answer is, that while other game manufacturers keep cranking up the DRM more and more with each release (which is really only a deterrent for piracy, not a permanent solution, as there is no way the game developers really don't think their systems can/will be cracked), Steam is giving positive reinforcement to not pirate, such as (though the appeal is entirely foreign to me) TF2 hats, and also free cloud storage for one's entire library so that it can be easily downloaded from any computer.

To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what makes Steam's market plan so mind-blowingly amazing, but it is and it is not going anywhere anytime soon. It is the revitalization of PC gaming and it will soon enough leave console gaming with a black eye and bloody nose, I think.

 

[Oblivious]

I love this picture.

However I must disabuse of the belief that Steam has little/no DRM. Steam online IS DRM, just not very intrusive.

Valve has simply found a DRM solution that works, not that they don't care about piracy.

 

[nexion]

I love this picture.

However I must disabuse of the belief that Steam has little/no DRM. Steam online IS DRM, just not very intrusive.

Valve has simply found a DRM solution that works, not that they don't care about piracy.

As RadicalDreamer posted on the piracy thread:

"In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the U.S. release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty." -Gabe Newell, some Value dude.

You're right, the very fact that the games must be purchased before the files can be downloaded is their own unique form of DRM. But in having this form of DRM, they can completely circumvent other methods which involve bogging games down with stuff that does nothing but annoy those who actually buy the games (just look at EA and Origin, a perfect example of PC gaming done terribly, which, last I heard, required internet access to play the single player in their latest FPS).

That is, Valve's DRM works, and that's what makes them so successful.

 

[Oblivious]

Steam Online is a case example of how piracy can be outcompeted. It's a model to be restated again and again in any piracy discussion.

 

[Cogwulf]

Steams DRM works entirely on the basis that pirates don't get hats.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

It's got the "funny because it's true" vibe going for me. A few notable game companies are trying oh so hard to figure out how to stay on top of this industry. They try and they try, but they fail because they treat their customers like the enemy.

Meanwhile, Valve's entire business model is essentially "make good games, don't be dicks". It's not exactly complicated.

Alright I get the joke now.

required internet access to play the single player in their latest FPS).

BF3? Not sure what you mean. Though it is one of the games among others part of the movement towards forcing unique purchases of game discs through verification codes.