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[–] 169 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A few takeaways from the move:

  • Any modifications must be released as mods
  • Players downloading the mods must own the base game
  • The mods must be free and no aspect of the mod can be monetized.
  • The mods can now access TF2 steam inventory for cosmetics and weapons (but cannot modify the inventory)
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  • [–] 133 points 1 year ago* (11 children)

    Ugh, greedy Valve making you spend $0 to buy the base game

    [Edit] ok I read the article after making that joke and I see that it applies to several other valve games, not all of which are free to play

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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Lol. It's so greedy of them!

    Jokes aside. It's an interesting distinction to make. Even though the source code is freely available, it doesn't mean developers have free reign to do anything they want like they could with open source software. Apart from special circumstances, everything made with the source code will still be mods.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    You can't do whatever you want with open source either. One big stipulation of copyleft licenses is the share-alike clause, which means you can't make modifications and then decide your program is now closed-source, so it protects the code from being enclosed again.

    I mean yes you can make whatever modifications you want, generally, but it's not totally unrestricted.

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  • [–] 145 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Valve has made an emasculatingly large amount of money this way. Following in the footsteps of Id Software, Valve has been very open with their development tools. I don't know about the very earliest copies but the ZOMG GOTY edition of the original Half Life included its SDK on the disc. Counter Strike and Team Fortress started out as mods that Valve just...hired.

    Releasing the tools to their customer base and then hiring the cream that rises to the top is a strategy I struggle to get mad at.

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  • [–] 48 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Thinking back, HL had a ridiculous quantity of high quality mods and TCs back in the day. Hell, Valve have even allowed HL to be remade and sold on steam.

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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    "We'd prefer you didn't use the word "Source" in the game title. You wanna sell Black Mesa on Steam?"

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    Only a corporate officer that is fully enslaved by the lawyers of that corpo will not see how it's good business when humans engage with your product. When gamers play and interact with your code. It's pure folly to cite some trade war or corporate war with another corpo. No dude. Share with also other devs. Be a fucking human. You are not a corpo slave droid. I am so glad that valve is not publicly traded. Holy shit it must take a lot to be the leading company in this market and not bend to capitalist pressures

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  • [–] 97 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Wow, this is an awesome move! We are honestly so lucky that Valve hasn't enshittified like so many other gaming companies out there.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I would say the marketplace is a form of enshittification. They're not burrowing headfirst into the shit like some platforms, but it's an inevitable trend regardless.

    Plus who knows what happens when gabe isn't around any more. Best case scenario is he leaves the company to the workers as a co-op and then it has a chance to be a lasting legacy, but maybe it goes to someone who puts it up to be publicly traded and that's game over.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, or what enshittification is, but how is the steam marketplace an example of it?

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    The steam marketplace is an attempt to monetise the user base by creating a bunch of microtransactions and taking a cut for the store. They have created a speculative market, which is essentially gambling, and made it available to minors. This market is designed to exploit people's psychological weaknesses.

    Yes, users and devs get a cut too, and that's better than some sites will do to you, but creating a market also has a bunch of externalities - extra problems that are offloaded onto other people and not borne by valve.

    So suddenly we've got a bunch of scammers creating accounts to make money, which obviously can scam users, plus it generats spam, and it creates a need for user-hostile security. Now I can't friend my kid's account without spending money on it for instance,

    Also there's the item spam. Now when I get a notification I don't know if it's a community forum reply, or just more worthless junk in my inventory. The inventory could have just been a way to store game gifts and other things of actual value, now I never look at it because it's just full of trash.

    Some of these are minor inconveniences, but that's how enshittification happens. It's little, creeping annoyances that get worse and worse until it starts to make people look for alternatives.

    And like I said, it's not as bad as other places. Steam is still the best distribution platform out there, but it has enshittified a little bit. It has to, because the interests of the owners and the interests of the users are fundamentally at odds - more money spent means more money for the owners.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 year ago (12 children)

    Some of these are minor inconveniences, but that's how enshittification happens. It's little, creeping annoyances that get worse and worse until it starts to make people look for alternatives.

    Ok, maybe my definition of enshittification is off then. I thought it was when some company offers some product/service for a certain price (or free), then gradually removes features from that product/service while increasing the price. Am I off?

    If that definition is right, I don't understand how the steam marketplace, a completely optional (borderline tangential) part of the steam platform, qualifies as enshittification.

    And I'm not trying to defend the steam marketplace, I think it's stupid and terrible and at minimum needs age restrictions. But like, you can absolutely just not use it and your experience using the steam platform is totally unaffected.

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  • [+] 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
    [–] 17 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Aside from TF Classic and Pre Fortress, Pass Time 4v4 community is also planning for a mod release.

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 child)

    Goddamn, I miss those days! Got a real graphics card for TF2 (edit: I meant TF Classic) so I could see through water. Rocket jumping and cluster bombs, ahhhh. There was a mod with a grappling hook that was amazing.

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  • [–] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    3dfx cards were cheating! I can't see through water with my 1998 Packard Bell!

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    You're a good doctor!

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago

    What a boss move by Valve

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago*

    Source mod tools not to be confused with Sourcemod tools.

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