GAMING: Don't Get Taken Advantage of!

Image from vecteezy¹.

In the age of cancel culture and rage bait economics, so many content creators (I am definitely not excluding myself in this regard.) are milking and exaggerating the PS5 and XBOX fallout with customers. Generally speaking, in many instances content that is out there now are all cortisol and dopamine rush tactics in an effort to get someone to click and pay attention to it. There is no difference of whether the content echoes your sentiment or detracts you from it. The outcome is the same, it will solicit a reaction... Any reaction is a good reaction, right?

Like all of you, I am a victim of this toxic loop that has permeated society and in a lot of ways can be justified when the world feels like it is against us. Rather than wallow in the malaise, solutions are available to and for us so that we can bask in the enlightenment by avoiding the traps often associated with situations such as the ps5 unwelcome decision to move towards more digital downloads of games and removing purchased tv shows and movies from a users library.

This is one of my core missions with my blog, is to build awareness of these situations and also, establish potential solutions that people can undertake should they decide that enough is enough or you are just generally curious. There are trade-offs, obviously, migrating away from established routines that we have. Moreover I believe the long-term general outcome of exploring alternatives outweighs the forces that want to restrict us. It isn't a one size fits all, however these are situations that could affect us both personally and professionally; consequently letting you know about these alternatives provides insight about a solution that works for you. "Better Years Too Early than A Day Too Late".

The good thing is that you have options. You don't have to feel trapped. Solutions are available to you and you can always decide when to dip your toes into the next chapter of knowing that you can overcome the obstacles...

DISCLAIMER

All opinions are my own this is not a sponsored post. Take this information with a grain of salt and maybe a shot of penicillin. Trigger warning advised. Stay clear if you are a softy. In some regards these thoughts are in jest. Get ready for the philosophical tirade...

THE PROBLEM

Why are you crying about PS5 and XBOX but give STEAM a hard pass for selling digital games?

I get it you are a hardcore fan of Master Chief from the Halo series and the Resident Evil franchises. These were both part of your formative years of your youth and maybe adult life. I am sorry to tell you my good friend, despite these things being part of your life, these things you consume are NOT YOU. These are only aspects of your life that you participated in from different moments of time. They do not have a monopoly on your attention let alone how you identify yourself. These things are little specks of the macrocosm of who you are and your existence.

It is not a dismissal of how these experiences benefited your life, or may have even helped you through hard times. Times change. You should too. Relish that these moments in time were part of your life, but there is absolutely NO POINT to staying in a relationship that you know abuses you.

Yes, be grateful of the good times. Be grateful of where you are. But unless you are a masochist, where you already know where the abuse is coming from, it's time to take a good hard look at the past, present, and future. "Making the same decision, getting the same result, and expecting a different outcomes is the definition of going crazy."

What you know and understand about relationships from the past should give you insight of WHEN IT WAS HEALTHY. If you've been a loyal and dedicated fan of any franchise, brand, etc, you can very well parse and observe how these things evolved or devolved over time. For the most part, the relationship stayed symbiotic. However, you probably noticed at some point when the relationship soured, became parasitic, and eventually took advantage of your good graces.

You are not alone. Somewhere along the way, we are now becoming more aware. Even if you have fond memories, the feeling is a one way street, and they just don't care about us. Frankly, returning the favor is not out of the question.

Often times we don't consider the entertainment we consume as a relationship but the reality is that we have a relationship to everything we come in contact with because it occupies a portion of time in our lives. It doesn't matter if it is air we breath, to the people we communicate with, we have a relationship to anything we come in contact with, directly or indirectly. Entertainment, more specifically video games, occupy the space we use for leisure. We often don't want to experience our form of entertainment with barriers or difficulty as aforementioned, it is our relationship with leisure.

Somewhere, somehow, companies want to make it their mission to create barriers, poison the wells, against the very customers they've established a relationship with, only to put profits and self interest over quality and most importantly, goodwill. The relationship tarnishes because self interest and profits supersedes the value that mutual benefit provides in a healthy relationship. If the release of titles like HighGuard and Concord are any indication of consumer sentiment, there is a good chance that these types of movements can reach further up to shake the tree, in a market where many customers are not ready to open their wallets as easily as they once did. Even more so customers can quite easily draw their attention to something else to get their entertainment without feeling like we are being cheated.

So, why does Steam not get lumped into this category vitriol that either XBOX or PS5 receives?

Valve, the owner of Steam, is recognized for being customer friendly on top of having an ecosystem that caters deeply to the hardcore gamers. Over the years since its inception, starting with making games that people want to play to developing a hub to play games, Valve continues to demonstrate the "customer first approach". A good example of this is Valve's marketing that emphasize ownership of the hardware you purchase, opposite of what other companies are doing, communicating to customers that you are relinquishing your right to ownership that is associated with the tagline "You will own nothing and be happy". Valve further demonstrates the "customer first approach" by directly participating and funding the projects that allow gamers to play their games on Linux, the free and open operating system. Some of these projects include Proton, the compatibility layer to allow software made for Windows to run on Linux (and Unix based) operating systems but also run the Windows specific applications on a completely different CPU architecture through a technology called FEX.

Valve overcomes the negativity that surrounds the digitization of software that PS5 received so much backlash for. To further emphasize, communities within the Steam ecosystem have also shared ways to preserve their purchased games to a physical medium like DVD or CD. Valve definitely proves out that having an open ecosystem can still be a profitable business model even when at face value, even though it may appear that it is an endeavor that goes against the conventions of making profit.

I also want to stress that I don't entirely believe any sort of actions that Valve participates in is an act of shear benevolence. It is more nuanced than that and it is also important to acknowledge these are general business strategies that consequently is widely well received by the communities it serves. On top of being well received by the community, has also mutually benefited Valve and the community. As an advocate of free and open source, I would naturally gravitate to this philosophy and promote this sort of mission to the broader public.

"Nobody, puts baby in the corner."²

Listen. Relationships change. Situations and people come and go. If PS5 and XBOX are the toxic girl/boyfriend/husband/wife/etc, maybe consider trying out Steam, GOG, and/or Epic Games, etc. Heck! Why aren't you claiming your free Epic Games?³. If you start an account with any of these services, it can stop there if you want. Let go of some of those hangups that you have. As far as I am concerned, these are low risk solutions to break from the shackles of abuse.

Linux is not for everyone; I get it, but dedicating a little effort for some peace of mind goes a long way. You would be surprised that it's not all that different from what you know with Apple Mac and Windows. In a world that wants to take control away from you, I am trying to encourage that you take your control back, both literally and figuratively.

These are not solutions that you have participate in immediately or all at once. Nibble at it. Pick it up every now and then. Build the relationship that fosters encouragement and getting out of own our way by getting out of you comfort zone. Relationships are just that. It is not always going to be roses and peaches or even frolicking through hills and fields. Once you escape the walls of familiarity there is a world out there just for you and you can claim every bit of it. Familiarity is a safeguard and sometimes those safeguards rots from the inside because we allowed the PS5, the XBOX, or whatever through our trusted walls. The PS5 and XBOX are not inherently evil, nor is the desire for profitability, but when these shifts start to negatively affect our experience if those are the absolute focus, than it is not out of the question to consider alternatives that ultimately leads to positive outcomes. The premise here is that you are not letting something in, but rather you are going out and exploring something new.

It doesn't matter what stage you are in learning about alternatives to the things you are comfortable with. That's okay. This is not a race. This is not the only path. It is one of many. Discovery belongs to you. You can go at the pace and depth that you so desire. The only compromise is to allow yourself to be adventurous. Allow yourself to be curious.

If you made it this far, thank you. You are not alone. 😉

Here are some ideas and alternatives to alleviate some of your woes (Some are in jest btw):

CONLUSION

• Touch grass.
• Take on different hobbies.
• Go to the library.
• Unsubscribe to services that you don't need or want but definitely stay with A VR STORY.
• Exercise.
• Explore different ecosystems and platform (Steam, Epic Games, GOG).
• Stop worrying about stuff you can't control and start taking control of the things you can.
• Buy a used PC.
• Discover new solutions with us at A VR STORY Blog categories.

VERSIONS

2026v.0.1.0: init⁴

REFERENCES

1. Vecteezy: Angry Gamer image ↩

2. From "Dirty Dancing" ↩

3. Free AAA PC GAME! Claim before it is too LATE (at Epic Games)!!! ↩

4. blog.avrstory.net's development release page. ↩