275
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2024
275 points (91.5% liked)
PC Gaming
8762 readers
569 users here now
For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki
Rules:
- Be Respectful.
- No Spam or Porn.
- No Advertising.
- No Memes.
- No Tech Support.
- No questions about buying/building computers.
- No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
- No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
- No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
- Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Yes, they're privately traded, so all the profit goes to the owners. I don't know why that matters. They're still trying to maximize profit, which is at the expense of the consumer.
You could have a worker owned collective or many other things. They'd still be capitalist under capitalism, yeah. It wouldn't be beholden to the ideals of capitalist individualism though.
Regardless, the point was that they aren't special. You shouldn't hold them above other companies. They're going to exploit you and developers. They aren't working for you.
It matters because they are not forced by law to maximize profit. They can and do make decisions that are good for the future health of the company, such as making sure developers and customers are happy, and unlike other companies they put that 30% cut toward at least some things.
Regarding worker coöps, I wanted to respond to the other commenter and didn't know how to phrase it. I'm currently leaning towards describing myself as an anarcho-communist, though I'm not well-read at all. However I question a coöp could grow to a size comparable to Valve. From some things I've read about the company, their internal structure might not even be THAT far off from that, allowing employees to choose what to work on and such, even if it's far from ideal.
Finally, Valve has done much more than any other company considering they push gaming on Linux. Also their handheld is dope.
It's a myth that publicly traded companies must maximize profits.
For now, you (and I) like the product, but it won't last forever. The developers should fight as much as possible to do what's best for them to allow them to invest in themselves just as you praise Valve for doing. They are providing more than 70% of the labor. If Valve wasn't making money off their labor they wouldn't even have a product to sell.
I'd also consider myself somewhere in the anarchist side.
Publix is a worker-owned company. They operate nationally and are doing very well for themselves. It can be done just fine.
I have said multiple times in this thread that I appreciate what Valve has created. I don't deny that. However, just as my landlord fixing my plumbing, I recognize that they aren't doing it out of a desire to help me. They're doing it to help themselves. They've made a very good product, so good that people rush to defend them from developers who want to be exploited less. This is to dominate the market and increase sales though, which they get 30% of. They done a lot for Linux, but they did so to make a product using Linux that they sell, and also allows them to sell more games to Linux users. It's all self-serving. They aren't doing it out of a desire to help us.
I find it frustrating people can't separate themselves from liking a product and criticizing the company that makes it. You don't have to defend them just because they make something you enjoy. In fact I'd say it's important not to. If they know their users are going to fight any criticism, they know they can exploit you more and you'll get a worse product that asks even more from you.
I don't think I disagree with you, I just think Valve should be the last company that should be under fire for the 30% cut. As in, it should come after plenty of other companies, because they actually do offer many valuable services in return. I'm all for lowering the cut Valve takes, just make sure every other storefront that does objectively less is required to do the same.
It also feels like complaining about the food from one store being expensive, while you get larger potion sizes than other places for the same price. Yes, food should be affordable. Shouldn't the complaint be made towards the industry as a whole rather than the store that is (for now) objectively better than the alternatives?
I never agree with the idea that one thing being worse means we can't improve elsewhere. That only works to protect things doing worse than they could be.
Steam is the market leader, so it makes sense to start there.
I'd say start with Apple's and Google's app stores.