I can’t read the link but if we just gauge the health of the indie game portion of the industry by how many games are released, I think the only conclusion you can make is that it’s quite healthy. In no small part due to steam which provides discoverability for smaller titles and handles a lot of the technical stuff (downloads, multi-player, even drm) so indie devs don’t have to.

You just seem to have a chip on your shoulder in this department and it’s not clear why other than “billionaires are bad”.

Well, that sure took a turn I wasn’t expecting.

Provide one example if it’s so ubiquitous. I have been following the EGS discourse for years and never seen anyone complain about the free games.

Maybe complaints about how the games aren’t worth it because you have to use EGS, sure. I’ve made that joke myself. That’s a different complaint though.

Go ask any indie developer if they think the 30% cut valve takes from sales through steam means they’re “getting fucked”. I can assure you, the vast majority do not.

Serving files, absorbing the costs of credit card payments and charge backs, and maintaining community forums is worth the 30% alone. Hell, just being able to list your product on the most popular store is worth it for some people.

In my industry, physical stores won’t even consider stocking your product for less than 40pts of margin and the big guys expect you to absorb the freight costs as well.

30% on storefront sales and you can sell your own keys for 100% profit on your own site is more than fair.

I’m sure you came up with that 5% number after careful research and didn’t just pull some low round number out of your ass.

/s

Nobody shit on epic for giving away free games. You can’t just make a completely false statement like that.

People don’t like epic because they bought games and made them exclusive to their store.

The Democrat party has had an influx of never Trump centrists and even milquetoast conservatives. The dems will be moving right ward to accommodate those new pick ups until the Maga crowd fizzles out and conservatives go back to the GOP.

Or we have a complete realignment and the parties flip. It’s happened before.

We are dangerously close to an emperor has no clothes moment in regards to the rule of law. When people digest that the law is whatever it needs to be to suit the needs of the moment, they’ll operate as if there is no law and they’ll be right. I fear we are already past the point of no return.

All for Donald fucking Trump.

People are picking sides. If you believe trump will win, and you’re a coward, and you know that he will go on a reign of terror after inauguration then it makes sense to get in line as soon as possible. Last in line are first against the wall after all. And there will be people against the wall. Mark my words.

Pelosi, Obama, Biden and his family, shumer, aoc, and Cohen will be arrested for treason within weeks and executed. I know it sounds crazy but… ::gestures vaguely at everything::

Polling doesn’t matter at this point. I am a vehement “anyone but trump” voter and I have serious doubts that Biden can be president today. Doubts I never had before the debate. My eyes and my ears work perfectly fine and pretending Biden isn’t running on fumee is the actually disingenuous position.

Turns out you’re correct. I appreciate the correction.

Vegas is almost entirely powered by the hoover dam. It’s already pretty green as far as energy goes. The question will be where do they get their power from in a few years when lake mead dries up.

I don’t like Kevin Costner.

Oof.

Was Biden looking like warmed over death a week ago Russia disinformation too? Or should I not trust my lying eyes?

Whitmer.

Running an 84 year old incumbent is the dumbest idea. Switching him out four months before the election when it’s clear to everyone he’s not up to the task is the second dumbest idea.

I’m not passing blame. Just giving an example.

The “who do you want to be in the white house when the phone rings at 3 in the morning?” write themselves.

Jesus fucking christ.

I can kind of feel the author on this. I’m in charge of a lot of “special projects” at work that basically come down to, “figure out a way to replicate this extremely expensive technology or software using low cost or free alternatives”. It ends up being an unholy mix of programs and hardware that is held together with duct tape and super glue and any minor perturbation means something breaks.