I understand that Valve has also made Linux gaming a lot more viable in the last few years.

Prez wrote on Mar 5, 2021, 16:44:
Wow Valve has taken a nosedive in recent years like so many others. I'm starting to think it's always better to remain a plucky start-up barely scraping by rather than making to the big leagues and losing every shred of creativity and soul you had.

They've actually done a lot--when it comes to VR. First, they are the only reason that PC gamers' options for VR aren't limited to "Facebook VR" and ... well just Facebook. In other words, they've successfully fended off FB's multi-billion dollar attempt to control the PCVR medium with their walled garden that's forcibly linked to a toxic social media platform.

On the hardware end they designed lighthouse tracking (enabling a ton of things in VR that aren't possible with any other solution), the HTC Vive (and in doing so successfully shifted the medium away from front facing gamepad experiences to fully tracked experiences with motion controllers--really the most interesting aspect of VR), helped design the Reverb G2, gave away technology to others (tracking, lens technologies, audio solutions), and released the Valve Index themselves. And they are, if we're to believe their public statements, continuing to work on high end VR hardware because they understand the quality of the experience isn't quite there yet.

On the platform and software end, they are the only platform doing the drudgework of supporting all VR systems and are doing it in a way that allows for a ton of interesting forms of extensibility in true PC fashion. And of course they've released Half-Life: Alyx (the game that basically sets a standard baseline for good VR design--something that devs will emulate for many years), a variety of other small projects to inspire developers, and they are continuing to work on VR titles (at the very least there's something called Citadel and another project that hasn't been leaked).

Some might say "but Facebook still controls the majority of PCVR hardware". This is true, but it's not really what matters. What matters is that PCVR gamers don't buy their games on the Oculus Store and thus aren't locked into Facebook's walled garden. That Facebook is using their billions to sell PCVR hardware at a loss to gain hardware dominance is unfortunate (other PC vendors need to not just break even but make a profit), but what's ultimately important is who controls the dominant platform (and, for us gamers, how well that platform "behaves"). So long as a decent percentage of users continue to use non-FB hardware it won't be an issue (and now FB has largely shifted focus to mobile VR gaming anyway).

If I had to criticize their efforts it's that they haven't supported indie VR devs directly (only indirectly) and they haven't acquired any promising projects and given them the Valve boost (like they did with TF, Portal, L4D, etc etc).

But you should really watch Half-Life: Alyx - The Final Hours. They go into how creating HLA was not just a matter of making an amazing VR game but also "fixing Valve". COVID is slowing them down but if we're to believe the story presented in HLA: TFH we'll be seeing much more from Valve.

deleted: hit quote instead of edit I guess

Yeah that does look to be the case. The store page has two separate "Install" buttons but once you pick one the other also turns to "Play". Not sure how you install both.

edit: People are saying you can restart Steam to fix it... or visit this link and get to the right AppID through there.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1269260/Artifact_Foundry/

I installed Artifact Classic, played through the tutorials... it's seemingly worse than regular Magic the Gathering online, at least in my opinion. Definite weird influence from DotA style games with lanes, towers, etc.

Uninstalled to make space for other stuff, but there is some very nice artwork and it seems pretty solid mechanically. I'd have probably played more of it, if it hadn't been a monetization/cash grab nightmare on release, and had a good playerbase. Scrolls was better, Magic Workshop multiplayer was better, MtG:Online(several versions ago) is better. (My opinions of course)

Good for them for releasing it for free though. I will note, when given the option to install, and I chose "Classic," it seems you cannot go back and choose Foundry mode instead? Minor issue, maybe.

Prez wrote on Mar 5, 2021, 16:44:
Wow Valve has taken a nosedive in recent years like so many others. I'm starting to think it's always better to remain a plucky start-up barely scraping by rather than making to the big leagues and losing every shred of creativity and soul you had.

Recent years?
They just released Alyx...
That's a huge improvement on the past 7 years that preceded that lol

Wow Valve has taken a nosedive in recent years like so many others. I'm starting to think it's always better to remain a plucky start-up barely scraping by rather than making to the big leagues and losing every shred of creativity and soul you had.

...That was a game?
Jeez. Never even heard anything about it, till yesterday...

It will return as...

VRtifact!

Should have just called it - " TF2 hats & artifacts " ...... woulda sold like gold

I miss Scrolls

Speaking for myself, and I bet others... part of it's lack of success has to do with the damn hype they gave it and a lot us "hoping" it was an Ep 3 announcement. Reminded me of the new Diablo on mobile debacle.

I do like collectable card games, but I've never played this. Does it have any kind of single player aspect like Slay the Spire or some campaign mode? I looked on the official page, but it doesn't seem to mention much about gameplay options.

jdreyer wrote on Mar 4, 2021, 20:07:
When you overly monetize something, it ceases to be a "game" and becomes a "product." Then you truly must offer something of value for people to be willing to pay for it.

All that steam touches does not turn to gold.

Could they release the source code and assets?

When you overly monetize something, it ceases to be a "game" and becomes a "product." Then you truly must offer something of value for people to be willing to pay for it.

The versions still have players? All 30 of em eh?