Why do I play all these games? Because it’s important that they’re played.

Because every game is a story, a world, a moment in time crafted by someone who cared enough to create it.

Because each one teaches me something new—about design, about culture, about myself.

Because in a sea of pixels, there’s magic waiting to be found.

And because, honestly? Sometimes I just want to escape, explore, and lose myself in different worlds.

So yeah. I own thousands of games, and I’ll keep playing them.

    • atomicpoet@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      Say what you will, every game I’ve bought—I can still play. And I’ve been buying Steam games for over a decade.

      Meanwhile, none of my GameCube discs work on my Switch.

      • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        You can still play it but increasingly games are becoming very different from what you bought.

        I’ve started noticing a disturbing trend. More and more games that are older being sold at steep discounts or “free to play” and simultaneously jampacked with invasive telemetry and/or ads/microtransactions. And since Steam won’t let you play older versions, those games are effectively dead.

          • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
            0·
            10 months ago

            That is what firewalls and sinkholes are for. Stupid telemetry.

            That shouldn’t be necessary and is beside the point.

            The whole industry goes to shit, but it’s not steam’s fault.

            1. Steam has the clout to fight back against this
            2. As I already mentioned, it is partially because they don’t allow you to run older versions of games.
              • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
                0·
                10 months ago

                Firewalls and especially sinkholes are VERY necessary

                You misread my comment. I didn’t say they weren’t necessary.

                Imagine 1 million clueless gamers running an older version of their game because they’re too lazy too update.

                1. GOG already does this and it’s not a problem.
                2. It updates automatically but you can choose to roll it back at any time.

                how should online games work if every Joe and Jane got their “own” favorite version?

                Not talking about online games. Besides, the how or why do not matter, the point is the games are gone.

                Also, you can install an older version. Just with more hassles.

                I pay Steam to deal with the hassles. I am not a software engineer.

                But, of course, only indie devs do that.

                Valve has the power to enforce this system-wide.

                  • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
                    0·
                    10 months ago

                    Gog does it, but Gog only offers a mere fraction of what Steam has.

                    And that matters for the purposes of this conversation why?

                    Sure, Valve could enforce that, but…as said…why?

                    I explained why in my first comment. It’s why we’re talking in the first place.

                    Fragmentation and the resulting nightmare of customer-support. On steam’s AND the dev’s side.

                    I don’t see it. Neither of them have to support old versions.

                    But the vast majority of people are clueless (and still use those devices) and need to be “guided”.

                    No they don’t. If people are clueless, they don’t need to utilize this feature. It’s call an “option”.

              • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
                0·
                10 months ago

                The most recent ones I’ve noticed are Riders Republic and Borderlands 2. Helldivers also introduced a bunch of new microtransactions years after it’s launch.