What if Steam never existed? Would PC gaming be better that way?

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No. It saved PC gaming.

A platform to sell pc games needed.to exist. Steam filled that good early, but but would have happened anyways. It legitimately saved pc gaming. I remember the tiny selection of pc games in stores and it was dire

>>380631215
>Everything becomes Games for Windows Live

MONKEY'S PAAAAAAAWWW!!!

>>380631215
For the first few years, Steam was a massive blessing on the PC community. It has gotten progressively shittier with needless policies and bullshit, but it's not detrimental yet excluding the fact Valve still advocates for paid mods and have openly admitted they'll try again.

Steam's fine, it just needs better filters to get rid of all the trash.
Or better moderation so that everyone that makes a box in Unity doesn't get to upload it and sell it.

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>>380631215
>tfw I'm having sexual thoughs towards that character drawing

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>>380633474
>tfw I'm having sexual thoughs towards that cat

>>380633884
Catfucker Anon pls go and stay go.

>>380632529
Paid mods would produce better content. There is no denying that monetization incentivizes people to create good products. That's a reason the age of capitalism has seen more evolution in basic living than the few thousand years before it.

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>>380631215

there have been online platforms before steam that sold games and built a community. I used this one called Mplayer back in the day. Sorry for the tiny pic, its all wikipedia had. Someone would have tapped the market if valve didnt. yes im a grandpa

>>380631215
Someone else would have done the digital distribution thing eventually. Could have been better, might have been worse.

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>>380633474

>>380634089
not OP but , I'm almost 31 now and played mplayer back in the day! There's actually a group of people trying to resurrect it! https://mplayer.co/

Poker, Y.A.R.N , good times!

>>380633976
>paid mods would make better mods!
How? Because of the fact that there's money involved? This would only invite a bunch of lazy faggots and dumbass children to create fast and simple mods to pump out onto the market in hopes to make a quick buck. It would've become quantity over quality.

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>>380634640

goddamn its good to see someone else on here that remembers it. I played quake and s.c.a.r.a.b.

>>380634416
more

>>380633976
Paid mods encourages modders to make hats, not improvements or fresh ideas.

>>380635065
Yeah Quake1 played that too.

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>>380635104

>>380635104
>>378941236
https://yuki.la/v/379005864

>>380631215
steam is the reason people even bother with PC.

>>380633976
While I cannot speak for all industries, the vidya market is the other way around. Some of the best games are labors of love that ask for little to no money back, usually just having a Paypal donation button. While it's not a fact that can apply to all games, many indie games and ones tied to small publishers are consistently better than the latest AAA piece of piss. Mods have produced amazing content for years without a price tag. Why fix something that isn't broke?
Answer: Because greedy people want a cut of the potential pie. Valve's Paid Mods system gave something like 90% of the purchase price to Bethesda and Valve.

>>380637296
Yep this is how Minecraft started, in alpha it was just a simple paypal purchase button to support a new up and coming studio, now it's big as fuck and got purchased by Microsoft. Humble beginnings.

>>380637872
>Paypal purchase
Prior to Alpha, it was just a sandbox building block game for free with a "Premium" option which let you put a skin on your person and guaranteed access to the future "Survival" mode. And even back then, people were making mods for it.
>The Portalcraft original server which was able to make working portals and shit required an ass-backwards method of installing a skin-pack on the game to make it look right

>>380633976
>monetization incentivizes people to create good products
this is one of the most naive things i've ever read

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This is a /v/ draws thread now

I dont care. Just give me memedot!