May PC Gamer Article Discussion

[ZedClampet]

It would be. Having the Steam PW means whoever-it-is could also post as that user. They suddenly have possession all the guides, mods, and other community content the user made.

The games would be largely pointless. The vast majority of a games in any account are going to be old. If the person getting the account really wanted those games, they likely would have bought them already. There might be one or two, if the user was buying games right up until death. In most cases, though, I expect the set of games is going to be about as popular as grandma's fine china.

The only real value would be in the inventory items that could be re-sold on the Steam Market. For somebody like me, you would make far more money mowing somebody's lawn than transferring a bunch of cards worth no more than 5 cents each, but other people have things that are worth the time to log in.

P.S. @ZedClampet - so, when you're gone, we should ask Guido to update your mods?

Yes. I don't update them. You'd have a better chance with Guido. He's got a double major, one of which is Computer Science. He worked all day on mods for Bannerlord II the other day.

 

[Hveðrungr]

The games would be largely pointless. The vast majority of a games in any account are going to be old. … There might be one or two, if the user was buying games right up until death. In most cases, though, I expect the set of games is going to be about as popular as grandma's fine china.

I'm not sure this is the case. Games seem to have settled in to an equilibrium whereby 3D games released even ten to fifteen years ago are still very playable. And older games are often timeless in their style and approachability, so much that there are still modern games released that mimic classics in many genres. We might even expect this forward compatibility to increase as AI upscaling becomes more common.

If the person getting the account really wanted those games, they likely would have bought them already.

I agree with this, and so I actually think the main monetary value of inheriting a Steam account in most cases will be to gift it to a grandchild, not a child. The grandchild will not have had decades to accumulate old games for free. And of course there is the emotional value of playing your grandparent's games and seeing what they were interested in (hopefully not too many hentai VNs).

 

[Brian Boru]

In most cases, though, I expect the set of games is going to be about as popular as grandma's fine china

Sadly, you are prob right. But there are some players who like older games. Oldest I play regularly or occasionally:
2003 C&C Generals Zero Hour
2005 Civ 4
2007 Crysis
2007 Portal
2011 Royal Envoy
2012 Far Cry 3

However, this doesn't mean the shop can take back grandma's china

expect this forward compatibility to increase as AI upscaling becomes more common.

Yes, this. I've already had old photos enhanced via the first raft of not-there-yet AI photo manipulators, so I expect next decade should nail the enhancement of more complex digital items.

emotional value of playing your grandparent's games and seeing what they were interested in

While chatting with them via their chatbot hologram—also happening already.

 

[ZedClampet]

Yes, this. I've already had old photos enhanced via the first raft of not-there-yet AI photo manipulators, so I expect next decade should nail the enhancement of more complex digital items.

Photoshop's AI enhancer is fairly good. Some of my wife's old photos are too crap for it. A couple of them are so bad that there are things in the pictures none of us can identify. Needless to say, neither can Photoshop, so it just gives an error message. If the pictures are out of focus, fading and the original lighting was poor, it does an amazing job. I've really only seen it mess up once when it made my sister-in-law's nose incorrectly.

***

Old games will go over well, I think. The games of the last 15 years should be enjoyable. The graphics are good and the games are user friendly. It's not like trying to go back and play games from the 80's where taking copious notes is required , and the games were just brutally unforgiving. You could lock yourself out of being able to finish the game in the first 15 minutes and not even realize it until 40 hours later.

 

[Brian Boru]

Aw, that's a shame—my first IM app finally shutting down next month. I got on it in '97 soon after getting online and it was a great little trooper. I briefly revived it some years later with Trillian, but that was it—tbh I'd completely forgotten about it until now, and am surprised it's still around.

So long ICQ.

We'll Miss You: Pioneering instant messaging program ICQ is finally shutting down after nearly 30 years

ICQ will stop working on June 26.

www.pcgamer.com

 

[Colif]

i used that long ago... would have been after 1999 as I didn't really do anything on internet (outside of work) until I got a PC myself.
I think I used trillian as well (not to be confused with the HHGTG character it was named after)

Trillian (software) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I later found it easier to track people I wanted to talk to on IRC using a different client with add ons that made managing channels easier, and then later still on Discord.

Surprised they both were still around.

 

[Zloth]

Old games will go over well, I think. The games of the last 15 years should be enjoyable.

They could, but I'm not so sure they would unless something stops new games from coming out. We've been able to make high quality recordings of music for a long time now and can 'clean up' older not-so-good recordings. There are certainly some folks that like them (especially if one shows up in a movie or video game), but not all that many.

It just seems to me like the hassle of taking over an identity is going to outweigh the joy gained from your library - unless there's a juicy Steam inventory to sell off.

 

[ZedClampet]

They could, but I'm not so sure they would unless something stops new games from coming out. We've been able to make high quality recordings of music for a long time now and can 'clean up' older not-so-good recordings. There are certainly some folks that like them (especially if one shows up in a movie or video game), but not all that many.

It just seems to me like the hassle of taking over an identity is going to outweigh the joy gained from your library - unless there's a juicy Steam inventory to sell off.

To this day people are still playing pixilated 2D games.

Well, in our case there would be no hassle. Nothing would change. They would just continue to have access to my games. Also, I think 1500 games have value. Lots of things like BG3 should hold up. Most of the games will. My kids and I play lots of games with bad graphics, AND graphics are not going to get much better than they are now.

 

[Zloth]

Well, in our case there would be no hassle. Nothing would change. They would just continue to have access to my games.

I was wondering what happens with friends & family. Do Steam accounts close if nobody logs in for some number of years?

 

[ZedClampet]

I was wondering what happens with friends & family. Do Steam accounts close if nobody logs in for some number of years?

No, they do not. I can't think of anyone who does that if you've purchased digital products from them. Ubisoft closed a bunch of empty accounts is the closest to that I've heard.

 

[Hveðrungr]

We've been able to make high quality recordings of music for a long time now and can 'clean up' older not-so-good recordings. There are certainly some folks that like them (especially if one shows up in a movie or video game), but not all that many.

I'm not sure what you mean by this. There are lots of younger people who listen to great music from before they were born. Classical, jazz, swing, classic rock, musicals, RnB, etc. We also read great books from before we were born, watch great films from before we were born. I don't see why the same wouldn't be true of great games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

In Frostpunk 2's post-post-apocalypse 'it's not nature that's your worst enemy, it's human nature,' and nothing proves that like my doomed attempt at turbo-communism

You've got nothing to lose but your chains. Oh, and the coal. You could definitely also lose the coal.

www.pcgamer.com

I knew just from the headline (in fact just from the last word of the headline) that this would be by Joshua Wolens.

 

[Pifanjr]

'Banana', a game where you rapidly click on a jpeg of a banana and nothing else, has an all-time peak of 31,124 players on Steam—here's why

The egglike genre cometh.

www.pcgamer.com

I don't think I'll ever fully grasp why people decide to start spending money on this kind of stuff.

 

[ZedClampet]

'Banana', a game where you rapidly click on a jpeg of a banana and nothing else, has an all-time peak of 31,124 players on Steam—here's why

The egglike genre cometh.

www.pcgamer.com

I don't think I'll ever fully grasp why people decide to start spending money on this kind of stuff.

Is it any wonder that a population that buys a game where you just click on a picture of a banana has moved away from strategy games?

 

[red_5ive]

'Banana', a game where you rapidly click on a jpeg of a banana and nothing else, has an all-time peak of 31,124 players on Steam—here's why

The egglike genre cometh.

www.pcgamer.com

I don't think I'll ever fully grasp why people decide to start spending money on this kind of stuff.

It's bananas, isn't it?

Speaking of bananas, makes me think of the Gorillas QBasic game that came with MS-DOS (5.0 I think initially ) way back when. Fortunately that one was included with the O.S.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyBD0X81tjk

 

[ZedClampet]

Helldivers 2 may have triggered a wave of bans for 20,000 Russian and Belarusian Steam accounts

And it's not just regional restrictions that have been causing the banhammer to swing.

www.pcgamer.com

It's not just Russian and Belarusion players getting banned for VPN usage. It's anyone. People everywhere are also losing their Steam accounts for accepting/giving gifts from low cost regions and for buying certain types of game keys from keyseller sites. If you are a creative game acquirer, you may want to reconsider your strategies.

Sony's Senior Vice President says the company's live service games will release 'simultaneously' with PC, but single-player launches are designed to 'bring new players' onto PS5

They could be in for an Epic wait.

www.pcgamer.com

Live service, day one. Single-player games, delay. Yep. Makes sense.

If you love how Balatro mutates the game of poker, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is doing something similar to blackjack, and there's a demo you can try now

Poker roguelike, meet Blackjack roguelike.

www.pcgamer.com

A Balatro-like

 

[neogunhero]

'One foot in the grave, one foot in the rave': Redfall gets offline mode and some big gameplay changes in a beefy final update ahead of Arkane Austin's closure

Arkane pulled out all the stops to ensure Redfall's final farewell is a big one.

www.pcgamer.com

I’ve always liked the concept of Redfall but the bugs and issues stopped me from trying it. I did play for many 10 minutes via Cloud gaming but didn’t really do anything. I may give it a shot, I do really like single player open world FPS games.

 

[Hveðrungr]

A Balatro-like

If you're on the lookout for Balatro-likes, this Balatro-meets-Scrabble game has a demo on Steam:

OMG Words on Steam

Bringing roguelike mechanics to classic word games. Use relics to create powerful combos, play boons to craft your tiles and board, use your powers to defeat a host of tricky opponents.

store.steampowered.com

 

[neogunhero]

If you're on the lookout for Balatro-likes, this Balatro-meets-Scrabble game has a demo on Steam:

OMG Words on Steam

Bringing roguelike mechanics to classic word games. Use relics to create powerful combos, play boons to craft your tiles and board, use your powers to defeat a host of tricky opponents.

store.steampowered.com

That Steam page made me chuckle.
“Developer: Dave
Publisher: Dave”

 

[Hveðrungr]

That Steam page made me chuckle.
“Developer: Dave
Publisher: Dave”

It's like Fallout 3's Gary Vault!

 

[Brian Boru]

Redfall … I may give it a shot, I do really like single player open world FPS games

This was billed as Far Cry with vampires, right? Yep, I played some but dropped it… my notes:
Play as Remi
Too much Dark w flashlight
Multiplay-focused
Lot of melee, some fantasy opponents
Cut scenes Ppt BAD

If you try the new update, I'll be interested to read what you think

Balatro-meets-Scrabble game has a demo

Ah thanks, will have a dekko at the demo—played a lot of Scrabble back in the fog of time

 

[Hveðrungr]

Ah thanks, will have a dekko at the demo—played a lot of Scrabble back in the fog of time

Cool, remember to check out its Discord if you have any feedback

 

[Brian Boru]

check out its Discord if you have any feedback

My feedback is I avoid Discord

I'll post as usual in our Demo thread, whenever…