Zykino comments on Valve "played capitalism so well they broke it" and now Steam can never be replaced, former Epic dev says: "I don't think this is fixable"

[–] Zykino@programming.dev 2 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Do you keep an up to date copy of all your games installers?

I have some games on GoG. But when I wanted to install games, I got their launcher installer. You need to go through some dark path to find the true installer. At least it was the case a couple years back.

Also a few month ago they putted an announce to hire someone to lead the Galaxy launcher. They explicitly asked for someone that would push the use of AI in their team.

I fear the moment they gain enough traction, the game won't be as easy to install DRM free. Their launcher will be the DRM, just like steam.

So yeah, they provide an escape hatch for now, but sadly other than that it looks to me they are more like Epic than Valve. I have not much trust for them.

(Maybe Humble Bundle stopping to provide DRM free download of the game + the steam key eaeliy on made me very skeptical of this?)

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[–] loreng@beehaw.org 1 point 1 week ago (2 children)

You need to go through some dark path to find the true installer. At least it was the case a couple years back.

No? Literally just go to your games page on the website, click the game, and "Download Offline Backup Game Installers" is right where it's been for as long as I can remember.

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[–] Zykino@programming.dev 1 point 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 child)

When you know you have DRM free installers on this store, and you "just" want to download them. Where do you click?

Screenshot of the GoG "Download and install now" popup.

The big blue button or the little > line that look like it is a title? It is exactly like the cookies popup that show front and center the "accept all" button, but hide in text at the top somewhere the "Continue without accepting cookies" link.

For me to not call that a dark pattern you need to have the same visual language for both download:

Both a big blue button ✅
Both a link ✅
One is a big blue button, the other is hidden behind some sort of title that don't look clickable? ❌

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[–] loreng@beehaw.org 1 point 2 days ago*

I mean, I feel like they put the client download front and center because the vast majority of people don't actually want to manually download their game installers. The option is still very much there for those who do and collapsible sections like that are very common in interface design, though I am not sure why yours even looks like that when mine doesn't. Either way, that is not something I'd call a dark pattern. You still get the DRM free game installed either way, so I find what you're complaining about to be such a non-issue.

Edit: Actually, upon further inspection, Hollow Knight is collapsed for me by default but none of my other games are. Who knows why, I still think it's a non-issue though and not as nefarious as you are implying.

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