Verno wrote on Aug 1, 2012, 12:54:
On Kotaku today I read a comment about this story where someone said "I just... trust Valve more." That's the personification of the idea I dislike... Valve should not be trusted more than any other company out to get your money. Appreciated? Sure. Trusted? No. As today's news should hopefully make clear, they will screw you as soon as they think they can and should, and do it with a snarky smile.
If you have to qualify everything with "I like Steam" you're really sending the opposite signal IMO but that's besides the point. No company should technically be trusted but people are human beings and that kind of emotional response is understandable. People shouldn't just ignore the history of a company, whether its positive or negative as that information is important to a consumer. You also ignore reality, people "trust" Valve because they built that relationship with the customer through goodwill and community positive decisions. It's a self-correcting market, if Valve makes a series of anti-consumer decisions then the community opinion will shift accordingly. The PC industry is especially fickle and people don't love Steam so much that they will ignore problems that affect their consumer experience.
I'm not sure how other people "feel" about Valve really affects you, especially since the results are the same regardless. Some people might not get as worked up as you over something like this because it ultimately doesn't affect them, that's life. Charging into every Valve topic with "HURRR SEE VALVE IS DA BADDIE I TOLD U SO!" just automatically puts people on the defensive and actually furthers them from seeing the issue. Valve earned their status with consumers. They built a relationship with the customer, that is a pretty basic thing in many successful businesses and something that many other gaming companies have utterly failed at. If they destroy that through a series of poor decisions then that will be earned too but until then you should stop acting like they did a dog and pony show to trick millions of people into liking them because no one will take that seriously.
Exactly, but it's a struggle these days. I'm guilty of it myself. I don't approve of what these companies are doing one bit, I still have Facebook because it makes it simple and easy to keep in touch with old friends that I no longer live near. I own a Galaxy Nexus made by Samsung, sponsored by Google, running stock Android 4.0. that I pay Verizon $80 a month for. I still use both Steam and Origin. I own an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and play on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. I don't like a lot of their business practices, but you know what, Facebook, Google, Valve, Microsoft, Sony, and EA haven't done anything that hurts me personally yet, so I trust them and continue using their products on a daily basis.
I'm such a fucking hypocrite and I hate myself.