Steam is a prime example. I don’t want to pirate, because I like the services they provide.
Make that, but for movies. I suppose that’s what Netflix was at some point.
At one point Netflix was better than pirating. It had a catalog of nearly everything in existence and I could impulse watch something without any preparation… while with pirating I had to wait for the download to finish and, occasionally, fish around for a decent copy of what I wanted.
Then they cut off VPN use… Then their catalog got thinner… Then they raised the price… And then, the line I hated most of all, they became advertising subsidized for some tiers.
There’s a reason I’m happy to tell Bezos to go fuck himself… and that reason is ads of Amazon prime. (I mean, there are lots of other reasons, too).
Steam is a prime example. I don’t want to pirate, because I like the services they provide.
Make that, but for movies. I suppose that’s what Netflix was at some point.
At one point Netflix was better than pirating. It had a catalog of nearly everything in existence and I could impulse watch something without any preparation… while with pirating I had to wait for the download to finish and, occasionally, fish around for a decent copy of what I wanted.
Then they cut off VPN use… Then their catalog got thinner… Then they raised the price… And then, the line I hated most of all, they became advertising subsidized for some tiers.
There’s a reason I’m happy to tell Bezos to go fuck himself… and that reason is ads of Amazon prime. (I mean, there are lots of other reasons, too).
The thing that keeps Stream good is Valve isn’t publicly traded.
Also, Gabe Newell gives a fuck. He wants steam to be the best platform - he isn’t hyper focused on profits.
Steam still isn’t perfect though… it’s just the least awful centralized platform.