They already do that by requiring you use an Ubisoft account, even when you buy it on Steam. You shouldn’t be buying from them anyway just because of that. Doesn’t surprise me they made another anti-consumer decision.

Yes, we do. Valve themselves have said it.

https://tech.yahoo.com/gaming/articles/valves-decision-not-sell-steam-171635100.html

The purpose of the Steam Deck is not to take over PC gaming or lock people into a store. It is to further Valve’s goal of enabling Linux for gaming and reduce dependency on Windows.

See also: Valve putting SteamOS on other hardware and allowing self-installs on any commodity hardware rig. Can I install XboxOS or PlayStationOS on my PC today?

Steam doesn’t need a lock-in. It is the de facto store for PC gaming already. Even Epic giving away free AAA games for years hasn’t made a meaningful dent in Steam’s dominance.

Valve doesn’t sell hardware at a loss. $1k is pretty normal for a phone or laptop these days, and in line with what I would expect from a device like this.

Now, that may be more than you’re willing to pay for it, but I don’t think the price is exorbitant.

Steam Machine looks quite intriguing, as well as the VR set. Depending on the pricing and specs, I could see myself using these.

Yep. Rejoin and the British Pound dies. No special deals this time.

Hey did you guys know that China sells to other countries than the United States?

<suprised pikachu.gif>

That was the striking thing to me as well. One cable with no backup safety mechanisms. Unbelievable.

To a certain extent, I agree with you. It is even in their own book— turning the other cheek. And despite everything, I think kindness always counts.

That said, there comes a point where I feel I need to see if I can drag the horse to the water rather than hoping it will follow me there. If it doesn’t, perhaps it is a lost cause and I should go find another horse. Know what I mean?

It’s just hard to find where that moment is, especially if it is family.

Something something Four Seasons.

We saw what happened with toilet paper in 2020 and said “wouldn’t it be great if everything could be like this? At least we wouldn’t have a black lady as President!”.

So long as they’re not moving on to a new one, good. Religion is a plague on human society. We don’t need it holding us back.

But at least they were born, and isn’t that all that counts?

/s++

If history has taught us anything, it is that the Ukrainian people are smart, creative, inventive, tenacious, and determined. I have no doubt they will excel in this and in everything else thereafter.

“What financial advantage can we gain while hurting the most amount of people we have deemed beneath us?” - White House talks, probably

Posted this in the other thread; adding it here:

Joke’s on them; I already started. I’d rather spend more with a company that has a backbone and supports its employees and the community with more than just platitudes when it suits them financially.

And even more importantly, just bringing back the old policy isn’t enough to get me to return. I want consistent demonstration of their commitment first. For years.

But you know they save some money on DEI training, so win?

Target can go fuck themselves.

Joke’s on them; I already started. I’d rather spend more with a company that has a backbone and supports its employees and the community with more than just platitudes when it suits them financially.

And even more importantly, just bringing back the old policy isn’t enough to get me to return. I want consistent demonstration of their commitment first. For years.

But you know they save some money on DEI training, so win?

Target can go fuck themselves.

Are you just trying to bait me or are you actually interested in a conversation? I’m happy to discuss further, but right now I feel like your goal is just to rile me up for internet points.

Literally almost every technological advancement we have today is because someone was trying to figure out how to kill someone more efficiently. From the slingshot and bronze sword all the way up to nuclear weapons and stealth planes. It’s not a boomer concept at all (nor am I one), and it surely will not be limited to that generation. See also: drone warfare, using aviation tactics very similar to WW1. What is old is new again.

You say “we live in modern times” like that somehow precludes our primitive tendencies, but that’s just ignorance, in my opinion. It’s like a beauty pageant contestant wanting world peace. It is a wonderful aspirational goal, but it’s not exactly realistic, either.

Sadly, war fuels a lot of innovation, and it’s been that way for thousands of years. While I don’t like war and wish people could just live and let live, yes, we will need people to run the manufacturing lines, companies to mine and refine the raw materials, etc. Many of those lines were running minimally, if at all, because we already had the warehouse of old stuff. Now that we don’t (or at least have less), there’s room for more. And that in turn will provide the money for those companies to develop better weapons. Again, nothing really new. It’s a tale as old as time.

“Completely humiliate Russia by giving Ukraine our old stuff sitting on shelves that costs us basically nothing but the shipping to Europe; not risking any of our soldiers; restarting munitions production lines to refill our stock with new, even better weapons that fuels US job growth and innovation” should be enough already. The amount we’ve given Ukraine is less than just a few days cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. It’s like the deal of the millennium. We should be sending Ukraine everything we can.